Supporting acts

After our week in Brisbane admiring the amazing gardens everywhere, I came back with lots of ideas.  Gardening, crafts, food, my gosh I am going to be busy :)
On Sunday I started out in the back, weeding and once again cutting back the mandevilla. I love that plant - it never seems to stop flowering, but it is very big and the branches can get quite heavy.  I dragged out some of the remains of our gazebo frame and managed to create quite a nice sturdy support.

I have moved the orchids over here as well - they really don't get noticed over in the other corner behind the gate.  I have two branches of flowers on the white one, an orange orchid and then another one is in bud that I don't know what it is going to be.  This white one flowered a couple of months ago.  :)

 

My franzipani has not flowered for some reason - it looks rather healthy, but I think the mandevilla might have been shading it too much.  It was flopping right over onto the herb spiral but is now better supported, and allowing full sun onto the herb spiral. Anyway I quite like this little area now, my perrenial herbs are doing fine - I will let the variegated mother of herbs act as a groundcover underneath the franzipani.  The basil is coming up again, and the mints are doing fine.  In a couple of weeks I will plant out the parsley and dill. That might hide the galvanised fence....  I had comfrey there at one stage, but don't know if they like that much shade. 

I do want to grow some basil in little pots to have on the table when I make pizzas.  We had that at a restaurant in Brisbane and I loved the idea of picking fresh leaves of basil to put onto your own pizza.

I moved the lime tree from against the fence behind the birdbath because I felt it needed full sun as well.  there are a few yellow leaves, and hopefully it cheers up a bit in the sun.

So the area around the birth bath and against the fence is nicely trimmed and weeded. 

My little maidenhair fern is doing so well - way down submerged underneath all the overgrown plants, but I want it to be seen a bit more :)  The rex begonias are the same - I almost forgot they were there!  

There are lots of Ulysses butterflies hanging around so I will have to keep an eye out for caterpillars  and maybe we can once again witness the transformation from chrysalis to butterfly.

I found that the rhoeo that I cut back has grown into lots of lovely little tightly packed manageable leaves, so I clipped the other side, hoping to keep it as a more manageable "hedge edging"  This shows off the ground orchid plants better as well.  I like to have something tall enough for them to gently fall over, but not lie in the pathway.  There is a fine line between letting the plants have their way, with the stronger plants eventually strangling the weaker ones, and giving each plant the room to breathe and show their full potential.

It was wonderful to be away, but also wonderful to return to my own little garden of eden with all sorts of fresh ideas.