February has become an endurance test for gardens and gardeners alike in the Central Tablelands of New South Wales. What’s left of lawns is crackling underfoot and the rolling countryside is as brown and crisp as newly baked loaves of bread. The hills around the town are grey-blue with exhausted eucalypts and we all wait…
Month: February 2018
Olives
The olives are looking good. Large green drupes are hanging from the branches of our Manzanillo tree which has been in the ground three years and has grown rapidly. Last October it was almost white with flowers, but a not uncommon hot westerly wind blew angrily through and scorched those blossoms so we are left…
An Iceberg
Iceberg roses are found all around Australia, often in their standard form, gracing front gardens. I have inherited two in my front garden on each side of the door, standing sentinel like Hans Christian Andersen’s Steadfast Tin Soldier. And constant they are, flowering for many months of the year, and requiring not much more than…
Thanks for the Memories
Hibiscus Syriacus Some years ago, when we lived on our olive farm beside the Cudgegong River, we spent many pleasant evenings with neighbours further along the river, often sitting around a campfire, talking well into the night, solving the world’s problems, or not, as the case may be. It was a particularly agreeable place to…