So much of Magic Garden's beauty pre-dates me entirely; each season I feel like I am reacquainting myself with each element and this process of rediscovery thrills me. The collection above represents just some of the camellia varieties that Mrs Batty was so enchanted with. I would love to set myself the challenge of learning the name of each but really, looking through the pages of my trusty, doorstop-sized Gardening Australia Flora's Trees and Shrubs, there really are just so many different cultivars that it's quite overwhelming and I can't make any assertions with any confidence. Plus, the light in my study isn't the greatest!

the white varieties are a bright spot on a misty mountains

morning...but must they brown up so badly?

Suffice to say, the majority of my camellias flowering at the moment are japonica with a few reticulata, the difference being that the latter's leaves are darker and narrower in comparison to the japonica and their rose pink flowers have a larger and open form. According to my Gardening Australia doorstop, there are over 2000 cultivars of japonica which makes me feel better about not becoming an instant identification guru. One of these, 'Anita,' is especially sweet, narrow pale pink petals, streaked with maroon. She's a more magnolia type of bloom and kind of reminds me of painting on silk, whereas other deviations from block colour seems to be more of tint that bleeds to the edges. Does that make any sense to anyone but me? God knows, I'm hardly an expert in the field of painting on silk either...

A big thank-you to lovely Mimi, who kindly put all these images together in these very professional looking grids. Have I told you lately that YOU are AWESOME?

On Sunday, before the rain began in earnest, I spent a very happy time pottering about Magic Garden, sprinkling blood and bone like fairy dust and deheading the last of the roses. Miss C helped me plant the first of the broad beans and in the space where most of my echium had been, we made a bed of leeks. During some harsh winds last week, the echium I'd bought at the last Bilpin Rare Plant Fair had had its central stem blown clear away. It had been no bigger than my hand and I'd congratulated myself regularly on how wonderful it was looking. Well over a metre high and a good two wide. Pride goes before a fall, they say...only three lateral branches remain and I'm hoping to encourage them to set root. Who knows if it'll work, I've gone for the layering technique as they were all but on the soil anyway and have heaped some lovely, potent vegie patch mix from Tunks over each. I've a feeling they might be too woody to take, we shall see.

Whilst I was admiring these sasanqua camellias out the front, I was stopped by a gentleman who had known Magic Garden's original owner, Mrs Batty. I often think of her and it tickles me that this happens, people who knew Mrs Batty are so keen to let me know how thrilled she'd be to know her garden was being restored with love and mindfulness. Positive reinforcement makes a world of difference, particularly when it sometimes feels that progress is slow. It's nice to know that others can see the improvement and that the person who had gardened so lavishly and passionately would approve. Well into her nineties, Mrs Batty could be seen working away in the gloaming and I can only hope that I might be just as spry.

The distance between 2 points...

Spring is making its way up the hill and our Magic Garden is just starting to put on a show - I promise my next entry will be all blossom shots, total garden porn in this part of the world. My right-hand-next-door-neighbour told me yesterday that she considers one of my trees to be the finest blossom tree in the neighbourhood and although all I did was buy the house that had the tree, I am still hugging these words close to my chest!

On both sides, we have the most lovely neighbours who are in different ways, rather expert gardeners. This is honestly rather intimidating, which explains I guess why the comment above has gone straight to the pool room. The shot above however, is on the left-hand-next-door neighbours side and it shows the one gaping hole in a fairly private boundary. On the right, there is the amazing white Camellia you can see from the kitchen window and on the left, a jumble of Rhodo, Camellia and some other horribly invasive green thing which shan't last the summer. The hammock you can see behind the Cotoneastor highlights the problem; it looks like such a delighful place to relax but it looks right into the main area off the back of our house. And to be honest, whilst I am thrilled with both sets of neighbours, I don't want to feel like we have to constantly acknowledge each other, or worse, not use the space when the other is enjoying their own backyard. After much deliberation, it was concluded that a hedge is the only solution...

Happily, this necessitated a trip to one of my favourite places, Windy Hill Nursery on the outskirts of Bathurst. I'm not sure whether I am kidding myself or not but for buying in bulk, I feel sure that Windy Hill is the most reasonably priced nursery in the area. Hopefully, their prices do actually offset the amount of petrol used to get there! My main criteria for the hedging plants was that they should be fast growing and not be Photinas or Pittosporum. I would have loved to go with a row of Gardenia but there are temperamental little darlings and I really need more vigour in this instance. So I have chosen, the Escallonia Macrantha Rubra, chiefly because it states it is "fast growing" and is "frost tolerant". Also, I like the fact that the scale of the foliage and flower heads are quite different to the plants on other side.

Apparently, the Escallonia should reach heights between 3 and 4 metres. This seems laughable now, considering just how tiny they are. But at $12 bucks a pop, more instant gratification would have been vastly more expensive and when I do break the buying embargo, I need to be on my best behaviour. Plus, if I am going to lash out, I want it to be on a statement piece that I really can't live without...whether it's plants or fashion, the same principles of investment buying apply!

We have a long way to go...

Views from my kitchen...

Our Magic Garden is a riot of rhododendrons, azaleas and all 3 species of camellia. Just outside my kitchen window, I have been watching some sasanquas and eagerly awaiting the buds to pop into bloom. Here is the very first! A lovely cream with rippling, blushes of pink. Its bush is somewhat straggly and though my probation continues, I am itching for all danger of frost to clear so I can get into shaping it better. These plants are right on the fence line and have the potential to be rather magnificent screening elements. However, the bush behind the letter F is in fabulous shape and it amazes how different 2 plants in such close proximity can be... why is it so?