June Garden Update

Autumn and winter at Biandar

In May, there may have been fewer blooms in the garden, but there was still much of interest.

The fallen branches that produced such spectacular fungus last year are doing it again this year. So far the plates are not very large, but they are growing steadily.

Green leaves remained on the big oak until late autumn. The oak hosts the swing, which is very popular with the grandchildren. You can see the platform of the tree house close to the trunk.

Earlier this month, the oak was in full colour. This is how it appeared from the deck, towering over the big poinciana

The Tung, as always, also coloured well this year. Its butter yellow leaves made a glowing contrast with the darker foliage around the pool.

From the deck can be seen other contrasting foliage - the bronze of the lorapetalum the yellow of the ambarellas, the gold/green of clerodendrum "Crikey" and the cream of the grevillia, "Honey Wonder".

As expected, the mystery digger in the rainforest turned out to be a bandicoot. Once we had confirmed this, we released her to return to her own concerns.

Biandar is for sale

Contact: biandar@gmail.com

Biandar Update

Biandar is for sale.

It's a while since photos of the house were added, so here are some current ones.

This shows the main house on the right and the granny flat, "The Retreat", on the left. It is joined to the main house by a breezeway (great for drying washing under cover!)

The front door is off the breezeway. This is accessed via a landbridge over the courtyard between the hut and the house.

This is the entrance. Notice the large birdsnest ferns, and the hanging loop of a native wisteria vine. You come through the picket gate onto the landbridge and up to the front door.

This is looking back the other way, and shows the beginning of the drive through the rainforest visible beyond the same arched picket gate.

Coming through the picket gate, you can see the drive up through the rainforest to the road. This photo shows some of the scores of bromeliads that line the drive on either side. The tree on the left with the scaly bark is a red cedar, and the one to the right of the drive is a foambark. In between is a tamarind sporting a large elkhorn fern. At the base of the cedar is another large birdsnest fern.

With all the rain, the garden has just leapt ahead this summer. Much trimming and cutting back is now needed. The problem is that cutting back results in lots of bits that just cry out to be used for propagating - so the number of pots in the nursery keeps increasing.