Winmalee

A walk around my Spring garden

We have not been for any walks lately, so I thought I would take you on a walk around our Spring garden at our home in Winmalee.  We live in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales at an altitude of 370 metres and are 80 kilometres west of Sydney.  Winmalee is an Aboriginal word with the debatable meaning "in a northerly direction" and was officially named in 1972,  being previously known as North Springwood.  Residents at the time objected to the new name, but now it is loved and accepted by everyone.  It is in Dharug native country.

Here is the May bush blooming in a corner at the front of our house.  It has flowered well this year, thanks to our neighbour Ben, giving it a good prune with his electric saw a few months ago.  I like to keep it this height as, if it gets too tall, it blocks the view from the window.

Here is a close-up of the May flowers, with droplets of water on them after an early morning shower of rain.
Spiraea cantoniensis double white May bush, native to China and in the family Rosaceae.

The side Photinia hedge, now in full bloom and with red tips starting to shoot up the top.  This also has to be kept in check and pruned regularly.  Mike came and did it last April.
Photinia Red Robin has fiery red foliage and cream coloured flowers, very attractive to the bees!

Here is one side of the house with a little gate, looking down to the rainwater tank, which I use to water some of the garden.  Paul came recently and pruned back the Azalea bush underneath the bathroom window and also chopped down the Oleander bush outside the third bedroom window as it was getting too big and straggly.

The Diosma bushes in full bloom at the back of the house.  They are getting pruned by Terry tomorrow as they are getting too big and blocking my view of the back garden from my desk under the window.  He is also going to clear this garden.
Coleonema - pink diosma is native to South Africa.

The Leptospermum  "Cardwell" and white Azalea flowering on the left side fence.  

I planted the Leptospermum in March last year.  It is a rounded shrub with slender, slightly weeping branches, densely clothed in small narrow, grey-green scented leaves that smother the plant in Spring creating an outstanding display.

The Azaleas are all blooming magnificently.  The lawn was mowed by Mike two days ago and he is coming next week to poison the weeds that you can see in the foreground.  They got out of control during our wet winter and have popped up everywhere.

Another view of the Azaleas and behind them the Robyn Gordon Grevilleas which have been flowering all winter and frequented regularly by the Honeyeater birds.  I have seen Wattlebirds, Eastern Spinebills, Rainbow Lorikeets and Noisy Miners in there.  The bare branched tree is a Liquidambar, starting to sprout its new leaves.

 A close-up of one of our flowering Azalea bushes.  Unfortunately I did not keep a record of the names of the varieties of Azaleas we planted, so have no idea what they are.    I know we have Rose King out the front and that is ready to burst into flower very soon.  We also had Rose King at Auburn and it is one of my favourites.

Looking down the backyard.  There is a birdbath between two Magnolia bushes.  We have many birds that visit our birdbath and I love to photograph them, zooming in on them, with my camera, from the back deck.  There are white Azalea bushes in a garden around the Tibouchina tree.


Well I hope you have enjoyed our little walk around some of our garden.  We also have another Photinia hedge facing the street, but this and surrounding gardens, are in the process of being rejuvenated by Ky, so I have not shown a photo of this.  He is doing a good job, but at the moment he is busy with school work as he is preparing to sit for his final HSC exams so he's rather busy!

There is also a lot more to see down the back, but I will leave that for another occasion!