Spring plantings

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Oct 082011
Photo of pink boronia by mrpbps, published on Flickr.com with a Creative Commons licence - click to see original

Photo of pink boronia by mrpbps, published on Flickr.com with a Creative Commons licence - click image to see original

You can tell it’s spring by the madding crowd at the local bulk-buy plant nursery. Also daylight savings started this week.

Monday:  filled a terracotta urn with potting mix and poked four varieties of strawberry into its exterior pockets. A couple of the seedlings already have flowers and small, unripe fruits.

Tuesday: dug a trench between the olive tree (sapling, really) and the driveway, into which I dropped three Boronia heterophylla — two “Moonglow” (white) and one “Blue Waves” (pale mauve-blue).

I bought these just last weekend from a reputable nursery (not the aforementioned bulk-buy place) but their roots turned out to be terribly pot-bound and one of the Moonglows developed something like dieback the day after I brought it home.

Hoping they’ll recover, settle in and form a nice hedgelet in front of the olive tree (sapling).

Posted by flipsockgrrl at 6:38 am Tagged with: ,

A good day in the maternity ward

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Aug 272011
Masked lapwing (plover) with hatchling in nest. Photo by me, CC licensed.

Masked lapwing (plover) with hatchling in nest. Photo by me, CC licensed. Click to embiggenate.

The masked lapwings have been even more intensely vigilant than ususal in the last few days, and this morning the reason became clear — three chicks hatched just after dawn.

Parent lapwing protects the youngest chick in the next, while keeping an eye on an older chick that's wandered off

Parent lapwing protects the youngest chick in the next, while keeping an eye on an older chick that's wandered off. Photo by me, CC licensed. Click to embiggenate.

Two chicks were born quite early and a third appeared later in the morning. By the time baby sis (or bro) was born, the other two were already waddling around the lawn, pecking at the odd worm — all under the watchful eyes of both parents.

This final photo shows the whole family.

A family of masked lapwings (plovers) - two parents, three chicks.

A family of masked lapwings (plovers) - two parents, three chicks. Photo by me, CC licensed. Click to embiggenate.

I’ve read that plovers have a language of six to eight phrases that they use to manage their families — alert, alarm, go over there, come back to the nest etc. It will be interesting to see whether I can distinguish any of these phrases over the next couple of months as the chicks mature.

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Update Tue 30 August: Back garden has persisted in being  completely ploverless for two days now. I was ill over the weekend, didn’t see what happened. I wonder whether plovers feel grief or regret — and whether they’ll try breeding here again next winter. It might be a good idea to plant some more shrubbery, to persuade them to nest somewhere less cat-ridden.

Posted by flipsockgrrl at 1:49 pm

Terror in the ‘burbs

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Jul 312011
Masked lapwing (Vanellus miles, or plover) nesting in my back lawn

Masked lapwing (Vanellis Miles, or plover) nesting in my back lawn. Photo by me, CC licensed. Click to embiggen.

A masked lapwing (plover) family has taken up residence in the back garden.

These birds are insanely protective of their nests. They doze but don’t sleep, so the slightest movement — day or night — provokes an ear-splitting shriek of alarm (MP3).

It’s also a shriek of warning. Approach too close and these fearless basket-cases will swoop and attack with claws, beak and spurs.

Winter pruning and planting will have to wait a few weeks.

Posted by flipsockgrrl at 6:03 am

A grand day out at Bolobek

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Mar 102011
Inside the walled garden at Bolobek - photo by me, CC-licensed. Click for a larger image.

Inside the walled rose garden at Bolobek - photo by me, CC-licensed. Click for a larger image.

The Open Gardens organisation in Victoria hosted a plant fair at Bolobek, a property at Mt Macedon, on 5-6 March 2011.

Oswald Syme, son of The Age editor David Syme, bought the property in 1911 and established its first garden. Many trees and much of the original garden design still survive.

The property has changed hands several times in the last century and for some years fell into disrepair. The current owners, Brigid and Hugh Robertson, are gradually restoring and adding to the 3.6 ha garden.

Helen and I visited on Saturday, spent several hours wandering around and chatting with random strangers, and came away with quite a swag of interesting bits and pieces for our respective gardens.

An eclectic haul - plants we bought at Bolobek. Photo by me, CC-licensed

An eclectic haul - plants we bought at Bolobek. Photo by me, CC-licensed

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Posted by flipsockgrrl at 6:27 am Tagged with: ,
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