Sunday 9th November 2014

A perfect way on a perfect day to celebrate 50 years of life. 32 girl friends joined me in my favorite place, my garden where we indulged with bubbles and sweet & savory patisserie treats, hand made by my wonderful daughter, Aly. Not wanting to leave the guys who mean so much to me out of the mix, hubby Rod and son Alex dressed in black and waited on all us girls. My daddy Neil joined us later in the day and good friend David came and took photos of me with each of the groups of girls who mean so much to me.
Self guided garden tours were the order of the day, let me take you the reader on a tour now.

The Maples are coming

Planting 5 Japanese Maples in the south west garden was one of my best gardening choices to date. Every season brings delight. As spring unfolds so to do the fresh new leaves. A combination of red and green  with flowers too on closer inspection.  In the heat of summer, lush foliage has a cooling effect. Bare stems in winter display the jewels of rain drops. Finally but not least, the turning of leaves to dramatic reds in Autumn warms me right through.

Spring Showcase Continued

Prostanthera  

Spring Showcase

My favourite little violets that pop up quite profusely in the native garden and in the paving near the front door.

Annual Barking

Another trailer load of shredded bark, a gift from the gum trees. 

This year trialing bark mulch as a topping for paths in the partare garden as the previous gravel was always covered in bark and leaves anyway.

Also turning an existing area dotted with a few plants into a garden.

Farewell Autumn

 These beautiful autumn leaves from two flowering cherry trees will now become beautiful compost. Compost is indeed beautiful when you make it yourself, it's putting back into the garden.

The start of camellia season.

Two beautiful camellias, the bushes were transplanted from, Phyllis's garden just before moving to Mannum. The tassels are Garrya elliptica a plant from my childhood.,