To see any beauty at all in our front yard you either need a really good imagination or the ability to visually crop and isolate tiny little bits and pieces of it. The combination of it's size and the relatively short amount of time we've had to make our mark on it means it is still far from what we envision.
No matter how clear your vision, or beautiful your garden design drawings, plants grow slowly - it's what makes gardening so rewarding yet frustrating at the same time.
We've poured over books, magazines and television programs and selected trees and mentally set aside space for a driveway, lawn, and a big central feature tree. The Sugar Maple has my vote (can you even imagine the satisfaction of growing your own maple syrup?) but we are still yet to decide.
And while it is good to think towards the future, sometimes I need to step back and appreciate the beauty that is the here and now.
Here is some beauty that I found in my afternoon wander around our front yard...
Marguerite Daisy: I love classic daisies, the simple white and yellow ones. This daisy was grown from a cutting my Mum pulled on a neighbourhood walk. It grew to about 60cm high in only 12 months. I have since propagated it with great success and plan on propagating it on mass in the future because there's no such thing as too much when it comes to these sweet things.
African Daisy 'Hawaii': Seeing that it grows a little wild in nearby bushland my initial thoughts were - weed! But anything that gives this much colour in the midst of winter right through to almost mid Spring has my heart.
'Cleveland Select' Ornamental Pear: We LOVE-LOVE-LOVE flowering trees, and like a giant stick of fairy-floss ornamental pears burst with big puffs of white blossoms in Spring. We HAD to have one, so we decided we would treat ourselves to a fairly advanced one last Christmas. And oohhhh, what a wait it has been to see its first flowers. And ooohhhh, how delicate and delicious are they!
May Bush: This May Bush was here when we moved in. I gave it a pretty hard prune around 18 months ago, it was looking a little gangly, and now it is loving life again.
Weeping Callistemon: Ok, this tree's trunk was definitely on the chopping block when we moved in. I hate bottlebrushes, something about their bark, they just look like they need to do some serious exfoliating. They're so crunchy, dry and drab looking. This tree was one of two when we moved in, the second one is long gone, and this one was (in my mind) next to go. But it stayed, and I'm glad it's here. Still not my favourite tree, but the bees and the birds love it, and I can now see its place in our garden.
'Indian Summer' Crepe Myrtle: Watching a deciduous tree like this crepe myrtle wake up for the first time is quite exciting. Over winter it looked as dead as kindling, so there was always that question in the back of my mind as to whether it was actually dead or alive. Well, it was very alive - just snoozing, and I'm so looking forward to the fluffy clusters of magenta flowers come summer.
