This Month In The Garden - March

It's been a while since I've posted about my garden, simply because a) it can be a bit repetitive and b) there's been a few disasters which are repetitive (read possums, birds, antichinus, and who knows what else eating the fruits of my labour).

But here's a little surprise...somethings I've grown for the first time and have had some success with.

 The above is the flower of the galangal plant, which is I think related to the gingers and has the most exotic scent. I literally watched this bloom open before my very eyes.  The flowers I must say, are short lived but their fragrance can be experienced from metres away. 

My other success has been the curry leaf tree.

It too flowered and I'm waiting to harvest the seeds so I can propagate them. 

These plants can become weedy so the flowers or seeds need to be removed and disposed of before the birds spread the pods far and wide.

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We've had a pretty wet and at times cold summer, and it wasn't until last week that I spotted dragonflies in our garden.

This male, I'm pretty sure he's a Male Common Glider Dragonfly - Tramea loewii, stayed still long enough for me to take a 'point-and-shoot' shoot.

It looks like he may have tangled with a spider's web.

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Here in the southern hemisphere we're gearing up for the Autumn Equinox! And an early Easter.

Autumn Equinox Down Under.

In the southern hemisphere the Autumn Equinox (Mabon, Alban Elued or Winter Finding, Mean Fomhair) occurs around the 20th -22nd March. This year, in the Blue Mountains, Autumn Equinox happens on the 21st March, at 9.21 a.m. to be exact.
Nevertheless, worldwide, night and day are of equal length at the equinox.
Australians do not normally celebrate the Autumn Equinox. 
The closest celebration to this event is Saint Patrick's Day which is celebrated, on the east coast, with a parade through the streets of Sydney.
The switch from summer to autumn, in the southern hemisphere, is much more subtle than in the northern hemisphere.
In Australia the majority of trees do not change colour nor loose their leaves in autumn.
There are not many Australian deciduous native trees; Silky Oak, White and Red Cedars and the Boab Tree, are a few.
Some small towns, for example, Mount Wilson, or small cities, like Bathurst, have streets lined with deciduous trees or parks and gardens filled with them.  Their autumnal colours are such a novelty that during the season a pilgrimage to such places as the Southern Highlands and Mount Wilson is not unusual.  These stands of mostly European trees are a part of Australia's British past, when, during the first settlement, newcomers, sickening for reminders of home filled their gardens with plants from their homeland to console themselves.

Moonrise at sunset over Napier Range and Boab Tree.
The Boab Tree looses its leaves during the dry winter season.

Total Fire Ban

Autumn is by far my most favourite season.
Today is officially the first day of Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere.
I slept in this morning, I mean really slept in.  Usually I'm awake at some ungodly hour, and then drift off to sleep again to "oversleep", and I hate it when this happens.
But not this morning.  I genuinely slept in until about eight.  I heard nothing...no showers running, no grand child calling out to mum, and no bowerbirds calling.  A stiff breeze was billowing up the sliding door curtain.
The temperature in our room was quite cool, yet still comfortable.  Confusion is what hit me as I walked out through the bedroom door because I expected  the temperature to be cool in the hallway too.  It wasn't and I had to ask my daughter if that wind was hot or cold.
"Hot", she said, "I've had to close all the windows because it's so hot."
At 9.30 a.m. the temperature had reached 26oC.
As the morning worn on, I began to wonder why the bowerbirds hadn't woken me.  The offerings I'd left them yesterday are all still there, perhaps they hadn't visited this morning.  Nor have the lorikeets.  Perhaps the birds know something I don't.
A check of the weather forecast, on Google revealed a most unusual start to Autumn.  You can read about it  here.