The Garden

I have a front yard which is enclosed with a dwarf Japanese Maple, a young Magnolia, various random bulbs poking out here and there, a half hedge running along half the fence and other bits and bobs I can't be bothered describing. In the corner is my falling down gazebo and it's all under a towering Oak that gives excellent shade and heat protection in the summer.

I haven't done much because we are in a drought (you wouldn't know it today though), and I wanted to see what could survive with little to no water. Most of it has though. During summer I do lug buckets of water from the bath and kitchen sink because its better that wasting the precious stuff down the drain.

The soil isn't bad, just rock hard in most areas. I have a compost box and plenty of leaf matter that I spread out for mulch. I'll be adding this to the vegie garden soon, so tune in for the full vegetable patch regeneration story - I do it for little or no $$$ at all, which is the way it should be.

Anyhoo, for a great drought tolerant, hardy and pretty bush - try Convovulus. This is mine here. It's the plant I couldn't remember in my other garden post. It's in full sun, I might throw a bucket of water over it on a summer morning but apart from that I do nothing and this is what it gives me in return.

There are bunches of french lavender in between, for the first few months the lavender outshone the Convovulus, but it's caught up and is taking over. Sometimes known as Bindweed, Australian Bindweed or Silverbush, you usually see it in lilac but also comes in pink. The foliage is silvery and pretty enough for you to excuse it when there are no flowers.

This can be propagated from cuttings too, so if you see your neighbour with some, ask nicely for a cutting and you can have some for your garden for nothing.

I think you can have a spectacular garden without needing to buy the plants yourself, a little exchange between friends and neighbours is all you need We should probably have a chat about propagation and seeds someday shouldn't we?