Summer is a coming in—Tricia McGill

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At least it is in my part of the world, being Victoria, Australia. Melbourne and South Victoria have the dubious reputation of often having four seasons in one day. This is no lie, for it can be teeming with rain in the early part of the day, brighten up around tennish, be beautiful until teatime and then the temperature can dive within half an hour and then often be followed by a storm. This can be annoying if you left washing drying on the line while you were out and just before you arrive home, it pours. I love these changes to be honest and could not live with the temperature, let’s say in Darwin up north, where it can be what I call uncomfortably high most of the year. 

Anyway, this is not about the changing of the seasons but more about our plant life. I inherited a nice, smallish garden when I moved here about 15 months ago—just enough to keep my doggies and me happy. I have no lawn, a bonus as therefore we do not need a gardener periodically invading our serenity with his smelly mower. The saddest part about leaving my previous home of 26 years was leaving my beautiful garden behind. I do hope the new owners are taking care of it. I brought along about 6 or 8 plant tubs with me and have since purchased a few more. I now have a dwarf nectarine tree

which last season produced about 6 fruit—I am hoping for more this year. I also have a miniature pear tree, and cannot wait to see if it bears fruit. I worried at first that no bees were visiting to pollinate, but since the sun began to shine brightly each day, they are there, and seem to favour my lavender bush. I curse the councils who have no concern for bees and merrily continue with their pesticide spraying.

One of my favourite bushes is the hydrangea. I was not successful with them at the old place as the soil was not right for them, and to my delight I now have about 6 of them and since feeding them am hoping to get really nice blossoms before Christmas. One lovely bush that I have inherited is a Snowball bush (Viburnum). It currently has about 6 or 8 flowers but within a week or two will be covered in all its glory. Unfortunately, the blossoms do not last long and soon the ground below them looks just as if it has snowed recently (Something snow never does in this part of the world).

After moving in, a neighbour gave me small clusters of a ground covering plant called Grannie’s Bonnet. The ground where I planted this gets hard as rock in summer, but this hasn’t deterred this sturdy little plant as it flourishes.

I think I should say that in no way am I a gardener, more a potterer. I have a couple of plants that I have no idea what their names are, but they are currently flowering. The nearest guess I can take at this one is some sort of Myrtle. My roses of all colours are now budding. Whoever planted this garden originally must have loved roses and hydrangeas, bless them. A while back, I asked one of our village gardeners to get rid of an oleander for, as beautiful as they are, they are also toxic and I care more for my dogs than one colourful plant. I just realised that currently my plants all have white blossoms, but wait a few weeks until all my rose bushes are flowering and my garden will be a mass of colour.

 

Today as I write this it is 20c (68f) but within a few weeks the temperature will be rising drastically and can be anything up to 36c to 40c (100f) plus so for now I am relishing the lovely sunshine. My point is, no matter that in my part of the world we are still in lockdown, that I had to cancel my long awaited holiday in May, that I am forced to shop online or go without, Mother Nature still goes her merry way and brings pleasure into this strange world where we currently live.