First tentative steps ...

After looking in on this site a number of times I decided to join, so here I am. My property is in the rural area of Noonamah in the Northern Territory of Australia. Gardening is one of a number of outdoor activities that I like to get involved in. Unfortunately my day job keeps me out of the garden all too often. But hey, it pays the bills. So what can I do?

Having a large garden has its advantages, and also drawbacks. It's always a bit of a battle but I'm persistent if nothing else. The photo is part of my garden. Over time I'll hopefully put up some more.

Welcome tropicbreeze and thanks for sharing your garden with us.

Welcome tropicbreeze. The picture that you sent us reminds me of Costa Rica, from where I live. My family and I went to visit Australia, Our journey began in Cairns down to Melbourne. And definite Cairns reminded me my country (very tropical). Something that definite I would like to have here in my garden is a climbing palm (rare palm). As same as Costa Rica Australia have a lot of mangroves, palms and tree ferns. Do you have this palm in your collection? I will appreciate some pictures. Bienvenido!

Welcome tropicbreeze!!

Aloha, and welcome tropicbreeze - so glad you decided to join us!! We would love to know all about your garden and the things you grow - and we always love pictures!

Jenn

Hows'it Tropicbreeze!

E komo mai! Please show us your plants. We want to see the native plants of your neighborhood, as well as your garden.

Aloha, Dave

Thanks for the welcome. You want to see photos? Boy, can I show you photos! I've never been backward in taking photos. And my garden has often featured in the viewfinder.

This one is of my garden path made with pavers. It has both practical and aesthetic aspects. During the wet season the former earthen pathway tended to get too muddy.

Bignonia, I think the palm you're talking about is Calamus caryotoides. They don't grow around my area. I think they prefer a cooler and wetter climate. I brought a little one back with me that I found a couple of years ago but it didn't survive. I'd still like to sucessfully grow one.

This is a photo of my dam which is the centre of my garden. By the end of the dry season it's dry and looks very different. About 5 metres deep at its deepest point, and about 35 metres long, a little less wide.

I've got big plans for my dam, but unfortunately not a big enough wallet to implement those plans. It's my wet season swimming pool. Having grown up in the country, the thought of swimming in a dam with muddy bottom, leaves, fish and whatever else doesn't phase me. I'm quite used to it.

This is beside the dam, the tree in the distance is a Ficus benjamini. Behind it and barely visible is a Swamp Mahogany (actually a couple of them). The palms to the right are Carpentaria acuminata (native to this area). Behind the palms are Pandanus pacifica.

For a number of years when I first bought this place it was regularly raided by herds of feral pigs. Following weeks or months of hard work the pigs would return and plough everything in - gardens, lawns, everything. The area to the right in this photo was a major target. It was constantly filled with deep mulch and a became a worm metropolis. Pigs love worms.

The Carpentaria accuminata palms have a climbing bamboo growing up them. The short palm on the left is a Dwarf Red Neck. Hard to see in the middle of the picture is my latest "baby", an Arenga hookeriana still in its pot (but planted in that spot last weekend). Next to it on the right are a couple of Panama Hat Palms (which aren't palms though). A few bromeliads just for good measure.

Wow, can you say 'Tropical Paradise'?? Love it!!

A lot of work! How about tree ferns?
The governent is discouring people to have bromeliads in their gardens because they are a mosquitoes "metropolis". We have problems with the disease call dengue transmitted by a mosquitoe.
When you are gardening, have you found any snakes? Your garden has a lot of possibilities!! I keep the lawn very short just in case and my 9 dogs will let me know if an intruder is in the neighborhood.

Thanks Dutchlady. We all have our dreams and strive to make them reality.

This photo is where surface water runs through to the dam. Still haven't finished landscaping it - another of the many jobs for later on.

Definitely a lot of work Bignonia. Keeps me off the streets. Probably just as well.

I tried a tree fern but we have an ant here (Big Headed Ant, or sometimes called Brown Coastal Ant) which likes them. The ants eat the roots of those and some other ferns. Tree ferns aren't native to here, too hot.

Having bromeliads here doesn't make any difference. I have hundreds of pandanus (P. spiralis) on my property, as well as hundreds of thousands in the area, and they hold water during the wet season like broms. We don't have Dengue Fever here fortunately, but Ross River and Murray Valley Encephalitis are carried by mosquitoes here.

There are quite a few snakes around here but I never worry about them. They move out of the way. I've grown up with lots of snakes around so am used to them. Even the most deadly ones prefer to go about their own business rather than have anything to do with people.

Photo of one of my heliconias.

Great photos Tropicbreeze!

What plants are native to your area?

Great pictures Tropicbreeze! It's definately tropical! Thanks for sharing!

Jeanne

What a lovely garden you have Tropicbreeze, no wonder it "keeps you off the streets, and out of the bars" (an English saying - perhaps Australian too?)

I only have one brom, and not too much of a problem with mozzies unless it rains, but a little piece of mosquito dunk in the cup seems to solve the problem for me - anyone else do that?

I want to know more about your visions for your garden !!!

Aloha,

Jenn

You're a hard task master Metrosideros. I've spent ages going through my old photos pulling out the natives. Still got thousands of photos to go. Will start them on another thread. Trouble is many I don't have names for.

Thanks Jeanne. Being only just over 12 degrees off the equator helps keep things pretty tropical around here, heat-wise. Dry season is a bit dry though.

Photo of my Boab tree (jr) Adansonia gregorii. They're native to the region adjoining mine but grow well here. This was taken 20 December 2008. By the year 2706 it should have reached maturity.

Thanks Jenn, if it wasn't for having to go to work I wouldn't know what a street is. ;O) "... out of the bars"? No, I've got a few. Use them for breaking up the soil in holes.

So you're putting a squashed mozzie into the brom? Hadn't heard of that, but know that some people swear by putting insect pests through a blender and spraying that as a deterent.

I have an unorthodox method of dealing with mozzies. I leave containers with water in different parts of the garden. The mozzies are going to lay their eggs somewhere, they'll always find a place. So I make it easier for them. And they're happy. After a week when the little ones are wriggling around and wanting a bit more room, to keep them happy I put them into a bigger pond. And that makes the fish happy. And when the fish are happy I'm happy. A win win situation all round. :O)

But joking aside, I don't have as big a mozzie problem as I used to, and get around in just shorts. But there'll always be the odd one around.

My "vision"? When I start telling people it scares them, they think I'm stark raving mad. Well, I don't think I am. I know I am, so I'll keep on with my plans. In short, however, I want a rain/monsoon forest. My 100 metre driveway will be lined with rainforest trees and understorey plants.

The dam will be (actually already is) the centre of my garden. The dam will be enlarged into a horse shoe shape and have 3 deeper parts sealed to hold water all year. During the dry season those will be joined by channels but the rest will dry out as normally happens here.

The photo is my Cannonball Tree (Couroupita guianensis). Still a little small, wouldn't even be capable of having marbles yet let alone cannonballs. Only planted it a couple of weeks ago.

Hey Tropicbreeze, I would enjoy seeing any plants you don't have identified; might be able to help with the names.

Geckos, Skinks, and Anoles remove bug from my Bromeliads. The Anoles tend to guard them as their territory.

Nice garden, and great pathway!
The dam, and water area is lovely. Where are the rest of the pictures!?
Looks like my weeping bottle brush tree is about to bloom here. My garden has a few Australian favorites of mine here and there.

I was busy getting out photos to show Metrosideros some of our natives (which I've started putting on another thread).

Another garden photo, Carpentaria acuminata palms on the left, Pandanus pacificus, and a coconut to the right. The trees in the background are Swamp Mahogany and Ficus benjamini, although not easy to tell but I know them.

What wonderful plans you have for your garden! It is going to be (well, already is) beautiful!
I just checked out your thread on the different plants in your area - how very beautiful and unusual they are! I am sure that Dave will be very interested, as we all are - although I am not sure how he can have room in his head for as much info on plants as he has, he is truely amazing!

Aloha,

Jenn

Well Jenn, if you're a fan of the TV show "Dr Who" you'd understand his head is probably like the Tardis, looks small on the outside, but inside has huge capacity (local joke).

Another of the garden. Bottom right is a Golden Cane. Cut off on the left and right are a species I haven't been able to identify - look like Foxtails but no where near as "bushy". Distant mid-ground is a Dypsis I think but don't know which one, lots of juveniles at the base. Large tree to the left is African mahogany (Khaya senegalensis). Background foliage is Mahogany as well.

LOL, a Tardis garden!

What a lovely area of your garden that is - it must be wonderful to walk down that path....I wish it were mine!

Oh, Jenn, how could yours be any better?

PK

LOL Christi, thank you! The garden feeds us well, but it can never be the "rain forest" here in Kihei. I somehow have got to persuade Frank to leave the ocean, beaches and the dolphins and move - I am not going to win that one am I? ^_^

Oh, Tropicbreeze, what a wonderful long-term project you have on your hands. I admire you. I am at a point when seeds, seedlings don't have so much attraction for me. I like things almost full-grown where I only need to dig a hole and transplant. I was never any good at propagating and even worse with seeds. Keep up the good work and keep us appraised of the goings-on in your part of the world.

Take care.
Sylvain.

Yokwe Tropicbreeze! I'm sorry to be so late in welcoming you to our wonderful, crazy, informative and very hospitable forum. I'm on a very tiny island - and we have lots of computer problems. But whenever I am able, I am on with all the wonderful friends I have made here in the Tropical Zone Gardening forum of DG. I am so glad that you have decided to join us! We usually have a few Aussies here and there, which is always a thrill for me since I dearly adore Australia. So welcome, keep posting those pics, and I will see you around the garden.

Yokwe,
Shari

Tropicbreeze, I just LOVE your garden! It is fabulous!

Shari we've really missed you dearone! Good to see you back!

Jeanne