Last weekend we enjoyed a gorgeous picnic in the Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens. Mt Lofty is our highest "mountain" in our state and really the only place that receives more than a very rare sprinkling of snow sometimes in winter. So it's cooler up there than elsewhere around and more suited to the growth of European gardens. The Gardens include beautiful eucalypts but there is also a rose garden, conifer garden, camelia garden and other areas.
We set our picnic rug up in the conifers area. The ground was cool and despite the heat of the day the air was cool there too.
We unpacked our curried egg and lettuce sandwiches made with homemade bread. It didn't take long for the local Bandicoots to scurry into the scene. These little creatures are native animals but they like living there under the bushes. They move a bit like a rabbit...
This was a small family picnic. I've had many picnics there before. Picnics alone and also romantic champagne picnics. The sweet Bandicoots are always there to keep us company.
Lovely little creature.
ReplyDeleteAre there any sites with pictures of typical Australian gardens? Would be good to visit.
Thanks for asking Deborah. Australia is a vaste country..continent. We have a huge variety of landscapes, climates and rainfall. Tropical where there are only two seasons..the wet and dry..and desert, snowy mountains, temperate forests, grasslands, mediterranean type climates..and more. Colonisers brought plants with them and a tradition of growing English and European plants developed. In recent decades there has been a massive shift away from that towards growing sustainable gardens using native plants that are adapted to the landscape.
ReplyDeleteNative gardens attract and support native birds, animals, reptiles and insects and in general use a lot less water.
Water is a big factor in life here, including in growing gardens. Mostly we don't have enough of it! But occasionally in some places there is suddently too much but temporarily. Water awareness and conservation is a daily thing.
So, there is no typical garden! There are tropical gardens in the tropics, desert gardens in the deserts, and so on! Within that there are introduced plants and rose gardens etc..even Chinese and Japanese gardens.
Here's a link that might be interesting
http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/factsheets/native.htm