1,2....miss a few...99, 100!

Well I have been putting off this blog, waiting for a cold blustery day. I was going to don my Ernest Hemmingway persona (or maybe Barbara Cartland), snuggle down in front of the fire and write.

It hasn't happened. So here I am, in the last days of Autumn, sitting in the sun, on the daybed, writing this. Sure, I'm wearing a beanie and a thick jumper, but it is still beautiful gardening weather.

As the garden needs less and less maintainance during these dormant months, our attention turns to controlling the bracken in the outback. When we first moved here we were, " we're going to leave this natural, pristine, and frolic in this bushland as mother nature intended."

It was full of bracken, tall trees and insignificant shrubs. As our attention turned to an overgrown potential fire hazard, we noticed that the insignificant plants were struggling to be significant. So we plucked up our courage and attacked the bracken. We realised just how far it had got out of hand when we pulling bracken taller than Ruprecht and were discovering beautiful natural grasses gasping for air.

It took us 3 months, 24 trailer loads, 6 bonfires, 4 blistered hands and 2 aching backs but we got there. We made paths through the plants so we can gently stroll through the garden without carrying our machetes. The woolly mammoth (Saxon) loves the new smells and the abundance of rabbit warrens and now she doesn't disappear into the bracken (just the neighbours' gardens.)

So back to now. Every couple of years we cull the bracken. Small copses of little bracken look delightful, fern like. Large copses of tall bracken look like the hunting ground for dinosaurs. This is the year to cull. I have a rule - 100 a day. Ruprecht attacks them with gusto and does 2 to my 1. I've been doing it on my own lately as he is on a mission to beautify the carport, but that's another story.

As I work through the thick bracken, I find new plants growing and native grasses flourishing. And another benefit is the red wine kick back at the bonfire at the end of the culls.

So this is my focus for probably the next few weeks. Randoms are still scheduled but there is little to do in the other areas of the garden. We just get to sit and enjoy the view, sigh.

And a post script (becoming a habit!) Our beautiful weeping gum only flowers every two to three years. This year is having a turn. Magnificent flowers that attract magnificent birds.