Autumn

So, here's a photo of the backyard taken around April 2008, on a warm and sunny autumn day. There's plenty of food plants growing, plus succulents galore, hedges, flowers and other things, but it's constantly changing.

Front right is an old black recycling bin planted out with water spinach (kang kong). It's no longer there, as it was a summer crop grown from seed I came across in an Asian supermarket. Behind the kang kong there's mint in pots, a parsley patch, sage bush and rosemary on the far right, plus, just barely visible on the right, a potted curry tree (Murraya koenigii), whose leaves are used to flavour curries.

To the front of the rosemary, near the path, is an ever-growing succulent collection in pots. Beyond the succulents is an oregano patch, a thyme patch, and beyond that a zucchini patch. A new Eureka lemon tree, planted last spring, is rapidly make progress in the far right background.

On the left side of the photo, in the foreground is Gardenia radicans; beyond that a parsley and lettuce patch, with calendulas to one side. Very far left is an espaliered Tahitian lime, with a potted cumquat in front (and a pot of basil nearby, next to the Agave attenuata). The bare plots of earth are the winter vegie patches, which contain seedlings of womboks (Chinese cabbage), snow peas, broad beans. Unsprouted rows of seed sown include mustard spinach, English spinach, turnips, green onions and baby beetroot. The snow peas and broad beans will climb up the bamboo trellis.

Behind the bamboo trellis is a lime-leafed pelargonium, a 'Bengal Tiger' canna lily, cardamom, ginger and, at the very back, a Murraya paniculata hedge (which hides the compost bins, etc).

In the very back left corner is an olive tree, a companion to the olive tree just out of the photo in the right front. Just barely visible in the left front is a new Grevillea 'Peaches and Cream' that was showing signs of an iron deficiency at the time of the photo (it's recovered nicely since then). And at the back right corner is a red-flowering Grevillea 'Superb', which is a never-ending source of nectar for local native honeyeater birds. It's in flower virtually all-year-round, and when the Peaches and Cream recovers its health, it should perform the same bird-feeding duty for many months, too.

Much has changed since this photo was taken, so I guess another midwinter photo is in order, just to ring the constant changes here.