Nativising the garden at last

So, yesterday i spent a few hours scouring my native gardening books trying to learn more about plants that would work in my garden. by "work", i mean i don't want the to need much water to thrive, i want them to grow quickly, i want them to be native to this area, and of course, i want them to look pretty!

i've been getting into permaculture. now, this possibly sounds wanky, but is actually just about a way of being with the garden, learning by doing and working with the garden, minimising the amount of effort that me or the garden needs to make to produce abundance (e.g. planting things that need to be watered heaps closest to the house). It suits me cos i'm a big nerd, and it is a lot about understanding stuff like soil structure, root depth and ecosystems (e.g. what encourages what, what eats what), rather than just buying heaps of shit and nuking the pests. Well, actually i have been buying a lot - this is definitely my most expensive habit - but i'm learning what needs what.

the garden is a beautiful, lush haven of serenity. there are so many butterflies at the moment, mainly enjoying the calendula that grows on the edges of everything, just outside the vegie patches. and the birds!! the rainbow lorikeet i found the other day was not an unusual visitor, she seemed totally appropriate.

anyway, i'm compiling a couple of lists of "possible" plants for each area of the garden that still has room (ie not the vegie patches). to be considered "possible", a plant has to be native, have low-water requirements, be happy with the amount of sun the area gets, be fast-growing and attractive. then, once i have a list of all the "possibles", then i'll start matching colours, flowering seasons, etc. it's a really nerdy way to garden - i used to just go to the nursery and pick the pretty ones and hope for the best - but this is teaching me so much and it's amazing how much pleasure you can get from a garden when you know more stuff about it. i mean i get so excited when plants do what i predict, like flourish when i water them the way they need (e.g. big drinks instead of surface watering) or grow from tiny seeds into being a proper pumpkin or carrot.

will keep updating on the garden's progress :>