A Splash of Colour

Our backyard is bare. Barren. An empty wasteland.

Okay, it's not quite that bad. The house that Hubby's work has rented for us is on a small suburban-type block with a small rather bare yard. It has some, very patchy, lawn, one bottle brush, one nice big tree (unusual for up here and very much appreciated), a clothesline and a couple of sparse shrub type things along the back fence. Nothing will grow under the nice big tree so that is just bare red dirt that the kids think is their sandpit. The harder they play, the more the 'sandpit' encroaches on the patchy lawn. Now that we live here the yard has a trampoline, a swing set, assorted bikes and cars to ride in/on along with a multitude of balls, toy lawnmowers and general outdoor toys.

The fence itself is interesting. It is made of wire, interlocked, very strong and sturdy. To afford the occupants some privacy there are lengths of timber woven into the wire (hmmm, probably the wire is woven around the timber... dunno!) . If the timber was in good condition it would be semi-private as there are gaps of about an inch between each board. As is our case, the timber is rotting and falling down so there are great bigs gaps where you can see straight into the neighbours yard.

But... with time, patience and little coaxing we are getting somewhere. I have potted up some herbs - cannot live without my herb garden! I have basil, mint, rosemary, dill, coriander (not doing too well), oregano, chives, garlic and marjoram. They are coming along nicely and I should be able to start using them in another month or so. The lawn is getting a regular watering and fertiliser and when we haven't mowed it, it almost looks decent. When it is mowed it still looks patchy and pretty horrible. The showpiece at the moment is the splash of colour along the back fence. I didn't really notice the shrub-type plant initially but as my pots of herbs sit along the back fence I started giving this plant a drink when I watered my herbs. What a difference a bit of water makes.

Apparently it is a native bouganvillea (according to those in the know up here). It certainly has the bouganvillea-type flower but doesn't appear to creep and take over like all the bouganvillea bushes I have seen. Here is a close up of the flower cluster.

I am going to chop off some of the dead-looking bits towards the ends of the branches and see if we can get the whole thing to green up a bit and produce some more colour.