The barbeque bed

Chris Calverley had suggested we go to Habitat Nursery at Liffey to seek out more Tasmanian native plants. Today was warm and clear, a great day to roam the gardens there under Drys Bluff. Sally, the owner, was really friendly and helpful. What a beautiful nursery they have created out there. They only have Tassie natives and all the plants are displayed in a natural bush setting. We could have spent the whole day poking about there - both of us were as excited as kids in a candy shop. All the plants are tagged and they have many mature specimens both in the ground and in pots.

We set our budget at $100 and I reckon we blew that even before we made it out of the ground cover section. Some of the highlights of our shopping spree were picking up a King Billy Pine, two Pencil Pines, two Xanthorreas.

They had lovely water plants and information about setting up a frog pond. Frogs are my favourite animals so a frog pond was added to our plans. We figure the girls can help us set it up and catch the taddies to go in it! Watch this space.

After our shopping spree we drove another 10ks up the road to the Liffey campground where we had a picnic lunch and Jack went all crazy running around like a puppy. There must be something in the air there. It's an idyllic camping spot on the banks of the meandering Liffey River. We'd like to bring the girls back there to camp in our new "resort tent".

We couldn't wait to get the plants in the ground back home. Damien arranged the planting scheme and we now have a new rockery garden bed above the barbeque.

OTHER UPDATES

The car park garden bed that we planted out in July with the natives that Chris selected for us is growing vigourously. The lilies, running postman, richea drachophilia and richea pandanii are performing exceptionally well. I'd like to propogate more plants for other beds from the seed or cuttings out of this garden.

Back in early January I scattered some seeds from the yellow lily. Wonder if they'll grow into new plants?

One plant I'm having good success with propogating from cuttings is the one that looks like a baby pigface. I need to identify what it is because I really like it. I hope it's a native but if not nevermind.

Here are some photos of the car park bed back when it was first planted (July 10) and six months later (Jan 11).

Poppa Kerry's herb garden has taken off! The tomatoes, parsley and basil have grown so quickly over the past couple of weeks. Last night we ate our first tomato off the bush with some bocconcini, olives and fresh picked basil. It was full of flavour!