STROLL THE PATHS OF THE FRONT GARDEN
When I first sighted the cypress pine cottage that was to become our future home I was delighted by the honey stained timber which blended naturally amongst several tall eucalyptus trees. While constructing the garden I maintained the natural ambiance by creating rock edged sand paths.
As I lead my tour group towards the southern portion of our front garden I offer them a choice or direction where the path divides around a large bed containing an ivy covered stump, a popular spot for my cat, Patches, to supervise garden activities.
Patches on Ivy
The area fronting our house contained five large eucalyptus trees, the variety known as Peppermint gums, which grow in the cool mountain districts along the Great Dividing Range from Melbourne to the Granite Belt of southern Queensland. Most farmers curse eucalyptus trees because they survive the droughts of Australia due to their capacity to spread roots to match the height of their growth. They are capable of taking every last bit of moisture from the ground. They drop eucalyptus leaves as a mulch containing a chemical which acts as a growth retardant for grass and other plants within their drip zone.
When he sighted those five trees my father warned, “They’ll rob your garden of all its goodness.”
Other people worried, “What about storms? Aren’t you worried they’ll fall and damage your house?”
Reluctant to remove the trees until I had other plants established I allowed them to remain. Sure, I was forever raking leaves, adding rich composts and pouring on the water, but those trees provided cooling shade in the summer and a degree of frost protection in the winter.
Then disaster struck!
I knew the weather patterns of the Granite Belt and recognised that most storm winds blew from the west, thus had removed all trees from the rear of our house. Our mountain region is notorious for sharp changes in the weather creating violent tornado type storms. These rip through the country in narrow destructive bands. Such a storm touched down over our house and garden like a bouncing ball and in less than a minute broke up those five trees within the garden, throwing them across our garden fence and destroyed another five in close proximity. Then, instead of cutting a band of devastation it bounced off to touch down at Glen Aplin, a kilometre away and ripped the roof off the BP Service Station.
What a confronting sight! A garden I had worked eight years to construct was damaged beyond repair. Insurance paid for heavy equipment to cut up the broken trees, remove them from the garden and rebuild the fence. I not only had to clean up the resultant mess, I had to replant the garden at my cost.
Friends tried to console me by suggesting I see this as a great challenge to build a new garden at a time when all I wanted to do was grieve for the garden I had lost.
Without the shelter of those trees my garden beds were totally exposed to the elements of sun, wind, pelting rain and frost. I knew I must adapt for this harsh environment and chose to replant with hardy shrubs and perennials suited to a Mediterranean climate. I allowed two central stumps to remain, planting ivy to cover the one in the southern half and Star Jasmine to hide the one outside my office.
Establishing new shrubs
Seven years later there is no evident damage. When Bed and Breakfast guests enter our garden gate at Das Helwig Haus B&B they are greeted by a lavender edged path as they approach the office.
Lavender and Apple Blossom hawthorn
These sights are all ahead of my tour group as we enter the southern portion of the garden. Their attention will be immediately caught by the Gold Bunny climbing rose.
Gold Bunny climbing rose
A few steps further and it will be magnificent snowball bush that makes them gasp with awe and ask me the name.
“Its latin name is Viburnum opulus roseum but many English people know it at the Guelder rose. It is a deciduous shrub with bright autumn foliage.”
Snowball bush - Viburnum opulus roseum
“Lets move on,” I call, “Down the path and out through the iron gate.”
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Technorati Tags: cool mountain district, das helwig haus, Glen Aplin, granite belt, Guelder rose, lavender, Mediterranean, Patches, perennial
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