So, there we were, standing in the garden section of Bunnings and wondering what to do because the plants on our list were unavailable! That was our first lesson.
Lesson 1: Have a plan B when the local nursery doesn't stock the plant you want.
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| Lilly Pilly |
Anyway, there were enough knowledgeable people around who could help us pick out something else. We came home with a native tree called
Lilly Pilly. It was to be our screening plant (or neighbours-be-gone as called in Australia!). It was already 3 feet tall and expected to grow by a foot every year.We ended up buying a native plant specific fertilizer and a Lilly Pilly disease resistant tablet and also learnt our second lesson in the process.
Lesson 2: The nursery will sell you all sorts of paraphernalia that you don't need.
The Lilly Pilly was so big that it took us novices the better part of the evening to plant it. It took us a couple of hours to get it out of the pot itself! We were trying to beat the sunset but could not finish the mammoth task before it became dark. After struggling to plant such a big (and extremely expensive) tree, we decided to never buy a mature plant.
Lesson 3: Better to grow a plant from seed or a cutting, than to waste money on a mature plant.
Having learnt some new lessons in life, our second purchase was much more practical. We bought young plants of
African Daisy, Myoporum and a different kind of Lilly Pilly. These were intended to flank the Lilly Pilly tree. The Myoporum is an Australian native ground cover, we wanted to use it as a garden bed edging. The African daisy was going to give some cheer all year round with random flowering. We were very pleased with the final result.
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| Our loot! |
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| African Daisy |
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| Before mulch |
There was one last thing to do which is a typical garden addition in Australia - mulch. Mulch is widely used in the garden beds and serves a dual purpose of preventing evaporation and preventing weeds from growing. It gave a very nice finish to the garden bed.
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| After mulch |
