Garden retreat

The disadvantage of our plot location is that we are lower than our neighbours, which makes our garden very visible. There are naturally several trees that grow fast enough to be used for screening, but they are very common. We wanted to have variety as well as functionality. At the start of the new season, we had grand plans for spending more time outdoors in our garden.

By now Morrison nursery and BAAG had become our favorite haunts for uncommon plants. An episode of Better Homes and Gardens introduced us to a plant called Tibouchina, which is an evergreen shrub with beautiful flowers all year round. We got two of those to brighten up our garden.

Tibouchina

Our next purchase was a more functional one. We wanted a fast growing tree to block out the view from our neighbour's newly built deck! The best option was an Australian native called Hakea Salicifolia. It is an evergreen tree and really bushy.

Hakea Salicifolia

And finally, Anshuman wanted a maple because of it's beautiful leaves and bark. Maples are deciduous, so we had to pick a location where the view to our garden was not so direct. But the tree was just beautiful and worth it!

Maple

I did say finally, but on the way to the cashier our eye was caught by another tree called Crepe Myrtle. These are also deciduous but have beautiful paper-y flowers for a short time in spring. We picked up one from the Indian summer collection.

Crepe Myrtle

Fruition of our ideas

Gardening is almost Australia's national pastime! I discovered that only when we started working in our garden and discussed it at work. A colleague told me about Morrison's nursery which was very popular. Another colleague told me about Bulleen Art & Garden nursery, whose abbreviation is coincidentally BAAG, which means 'garden' in Hindi. We decided to visit both and expand our plant collection.

Morrison's nursery was owned by two brothers who grew up on an orchard farm on that land. The farm had been in their family since 1944 and they started the nursery in 1979. The speciality of the nursery were the fruit trees owing to their upbringing and this is what we set our sights on. We did not have any particular fruit trees in mind, we just wanted to have a look. Their collection really surprised us though! They had the expected citrus family trees like lemon, lime, oranges, etc. But they also had guava and pomegranate, two fruits that are rarely seen in Melbourne. Along with an orange tree, we bought one of each of the pomegranate and guava!

Guava

Pomegranate

Orange

Our next stop was at BAAG. They are more than just a nursery, they have a lot of sculptures and other things that can be used in a garden. We set our sights on their native plant collection though and bought a plant called Kangaroo paw. It is a native plant and has velvety flowers that resemble a kangaroo's paw. It attracts birds to the garden. We also bought a couple of native shrubs from a species called Hebe. Pictured below are Emerald Green and Pretty N Pink.

Emerald Green - Hebe

Kangaroo Paw

Pretty N Pink - Hebe

By this time, our vegetables had begun to take shape! We could harvest the first lot of methi leaves and were beginning to see the potatoes taking root. It was the start of summer and we were looking forward to more harvests!

Methi