"Open Garden Visiting and a Birthday."

Hello,

Last Sunday Ian and I had a great day out. We visited several Markets and two gardens that were open under the Australian Open Garden Scheme.

The first one we visited was open for the first time. This was in Gooseberry Hill. We were amazed at the terrain of the property. Very steep in places. You could get lost. I had awful thoughts of the lady owner falling and no-one finding her for ages. It was a lovely garden filled with lots of native plants. Paths were twisting and turning, very narrow in some places. There was a plentiful supply of water with a creek running through the property. The highlight for both of us was the pool area.

With views across the the Perth city. There were lots of people just sitting and relaxing enjoying the view.

Not far from the old home was a rock. They called it "Bold Rock"

Of course I had to have my picture on the rock!!!.

The next garden we visited was in Kalamunda. This garden has won awards for the best large garden. It was amazing, we both loved this garden more. I think because it was more accessible and the garden had some amazing plants and there was so many of them.This garden also had a wonderful water supply. With the garden being watered from a well and rainwater. No scheme water was used at all. Oh to live somewhere like this!!!

The lady owner made her own pottery as well. Sculptures and cast offs were dotted around the garden. The chook yard up the back had the biggest Rooster we have ever seen. It was battling to walk but found out it wasn't that old. I think it needs to go to a weight loss centre.
We purchased lots of plants from this place, all cuttings grown from the garden.

Visiting gardens like these just inspires us to keep on gardening. I have come to the following conclusions though. First I won't be using any more horse manure or free manure on our garden, far too many weeds have come up this year. The garden owner of the second garden also had this written on her blurb about her garden. The second one is that it takes about 30 years for a garden to really take shape. Only another 20 to go!!!

Here is Ian having a rest in the first garden. He must have known it was going to be a busy day!!! Ian celebrated his Birthday on Wednesday. He was suitably supplied with presents and Bonnie cooked him a nice Scotch Fillet Steak for tea with fresh Peas and Potato from the garden.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Happy days.
Bev C