Our front garden has a mind of its own

Well here we are, almost one year after our great Front Garden Makeover of 2023, and my brilliant plans have not quite worked out how I planned, but I'm fascinated to see what happens next anyway.

You see, the problem is that our front garden has a mind of its own. It is doing what it wants to do, not what I want it to do, and it's looking pretty interesting anyway. Let me explain ...

This is the scene this morning, late August 2024. The main star of the show, the Corymbia 'Dwarf Orange' is growing rapidly and happily. And the easy-care green groundcover has spread to all corners of the space. So what's the problem? It's the wrong groundcover!

A wider angle view shows the carpet of green in context, but instead of being the creeping thyme that I searched for, bought and planted, it is almost entirely made of the native violets which I thought I had eradicated prior to the whole makeover starting. This area was once all bare dirt. Click on this link to get see the naively hopeful beginnings of my 2023 planting plan. It seemed like such a good plan, too!  

But I must not dwell on life's minor disappointments too much, as the great news is that the Corymbia 'Dwarf Orange' tree is going gangbusters and feels and looks like it's growing every day. That red new growth is such a cheerful sight; fills me with hope.

This is what I am hoping for (this is a late 2023 photo, not a 2024 one). Lots of dazzling orange blooms set against that darkish green eucalyptus style foliage. (Eucalyptus? you ask? Yes, many Eucalypts have been renamed Corymbia for some reason known only to botanists with PhDs.)

So, my big unanswered question at this stage is ... what happens next? All of the creeping thyme I planted is still there, still alive, with little bits of creeping thyme foliage poking through the carpet of native violets. So will the creeping thyme flower this spring? I don't know. I hope so.

Down by the front gate is the best chance of creeping thyme flowers bursting into bloom. This is a variety called 'Bergamot' and it has mauve-purple flowers. The native violets haven't swamped the bergamot like they have in most other areas.

It would be great to have splashes of purple-mauve, purpley-red and crimson flowers jazzing up the white-and-purple flowers of the native violets. At best it could be riotous, but more likely it will look like a messy painter's palette.

In the meantime, there is one more flower show that passers by in the street can enjoy as they walk past. The New Zealand Christmas Bush (Metrosideros) that occupies a pot beside the low front verandah wall is blooming better than ever before. 

I know why this has happened. I'm paying more attention to this plant, because I'm visiting our front garden more often to check on progress on the makeover, and while I'm there I water this pot, clip off dodgy looking bits and scatter around some slow-release fertiliser.
 

It's shameful to admit that I have neglected this lovely shrub over previous years, but it's true. My main focus is on our back garden, so "out of sight out of mind" played a part in its neglect, as I simply forgot to water it often enough. But not any more. 

The pot is in a spot that gets morning sun only, just a few hours. Also, the side passage cops a whole winter full of chilly southerly breezes, so it's by far the coldest part of the property, but this tough little shrub doesn't mind wintry winds. Its varietal name is 'Fiji Fire' and that reflects the fact that Metrosideros can be found on many Pacific islands, not just lovely, often cool New Zealand.

As for the front garden having a mind of its own, it reminds me of a great song called "My Mind's Got a Mind of its Own", written by Butch Hancock and performed by Jimmie Dale Gilmore, who along with Butch and Joe Ely formed the legendary Flatlanders band from Lubbock, Texas ...

"My mind's got a mind of its own
It takes me out a-walkin' when I'd rather stay at home
Takes me out to parties when I'd rather be alone
My mind's got a mind of its own."

So, my garden has a mind of its own, or at least the native violets do. They're in charge of this makeover, not me! So, once the riddle of what happens when it's time for the surviving bits of creeping thyme to bloom through the native violets is solved, I'll post an update of my update here. Stay tuned!

Front garden makeover update

 

There's a lot to be said for rainy mornings. For one thing it means the gardener gets the morning off from hose-pointing duties, as Huey the rain god turns on the heavenly sprinklers for a few minutes.

And so it was this morning, but in addition to thanking Huey for the favour, I was reminded yet again that the best thing about rainy mornings is how nice gardens look when they are wet. 

This November morning I enjoyed the perfect type of rainy morning: showers. So it rains for a few minutes then it stops raining. That means you can go outside and not get wet but you can enjoy the garden, maybe even take a few photos of something that catches your eye. 

So here we are in Garden Amateur blog land, checking out the latest photos of our front garden makeover. Lots of unexpected flowers, lots of colour and lots of pleasing progress. 

In the foreground, the creeping thyme plants are spreading rapidly and joining up. It's hard to know how far apart to plant them, as "online research" only confuses you with all the options. Some say 60cm apart, others 80cm, a few say 100cm, the full metre. I chose 80cm, and as the plants are already joining up, I should have gone for the metre!

There are three varieties of creeping thyme in the garden. Of them, the "common" creeping thyme (8 plants) is flowering its head off very nicely, while the other two varieties are growing well but showing no signs of flowers. I'm happy to let the mystery be on that one.

By far the star of the show at the moment is the Australian native violets, Viola hederacea. These are remnants of the old front garden, where they thrived in the shade of the wattles and ferns. Impossible to dig out or control, they have merrily spread themselves throughout the new garden and are flowering so prettily. A very unscientific straw poll of comments by neighbours passing by agrees that the native violets look wonderfully pretty, and that the mauve creeping thyme flowers are the perfect complement to the native violets' white & purple blooms. I didn't plan it that way, honest. Just a happy accident.

Wait till the neighbours see the orange-blossomed dwarf gum tree spring into bloom this summer! The healthy little thing is covered in several of these missile clusters ready for launch. This is one of "Pam's plants" that are highlights in our garden. With certain plants she makes "I want one" style comments and I am happy to oblige. In the back garden Pam's plants include frangipanis, flannel flowers, Spanish moss galore and a white hydrangea – happily all doing well – and now out the front there's a dazzling dwarf gum tree to entertain passers-by. 

So that's it, the front garden makeover is looking great right now. The harsh reality of a hot and humid Sydney summer lies ahead, but right now in a warm, moist yet sunny spring in this lovely climate, gardening seems, dare I say it, almost easy.