Garden Diary 'Color' Challenge: Winter Brightness in the Cold & Wet Garden!

This weeks @gardendiary challenge (which comes out every Monday) has the theme of 'color' - too easy! It's late Autumn here and things are getting super cold and wet, and whilst the leaves are still on the gum trees (we have green all year around) the elder, maple and beech, the poplar and ornamental apple in our garden are losing their leaves - it's breath takingly beautiful to have such yellow and orange brightness in the winter gloom. I've been scooping up all the leaves to put in the compost (leaving some under the tree of course). All those bugs and microorganisms will do their job of fertilising the soil - yay!

But the amazing thing about Australia is that even in the cold of winter, there's native flowers about to feed the birds - the very alien grevilliea is a favourite with the honey eaters. They come in all colours from bright red to a variety called 'peaches and cream'.

The banksia too is a favourite. I always wonder what the first European migrants thought of these strange flowers. I mean, there's a lot of things they would have thought strange about Australia - the bark hanging from the trees, the kangaroos, the screech of a koala or the laugh of a kookaburra - nothing would have been familiar in this strange land. But for us, native flowers and birds are part of the landscape.

Joseph Banks, for which they are named for, was the botanist famously on Captain Cook's voyage that 'discovered' Australia, and introduced these plants, and eucalyptus, to the world. He was a bit of a god at that time, and had a huge influence on British science. He was also meant to be the first person to record, in written words, surfing. This was in the 1700's in Tahiti. He also named the kangaroo (well, dubiously - he stole the word from the Aboriginals, like many things were stolen), the quoll, and was the first person to describe the dingo and flying fox.

He was also the guy who shaped the world's understanding of Australia and the people there, saying that the indigenous people were uncivilised and nomadic, both entirely untrue. On that trip with Cook he was a hero, discovering over 1,400 new plants and over 1,000 new animals. He was also a bit of a playboy all told, and in later life, a grumpy old man with big eyebrows.

Calendula also graces my garden with colour in the Winter - it self seeds everywhere and is so sunny even when it's freezing and grey. I make a calendula salve out of it too to gift to people. Soon the community is going to start up some kind of Grow Swap Sell weekly meet and I'm going to try to sell some of my garden salves and vinegars. That'll help fund more garden things, right?

What colour is taking over your garden? Do you plant for colour? What's your favourite colour in the garden?

There's still time to join in the challenge - check it out here. There's also a couple of other themes you could join in with if you don't like the colour challenge.

#gardendiary #blurtgardens #gardening

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