Kambarang

Kambarang is the Nyoongar (local indigenous people) second spring from October-November.  Nyoongar calendar includes six seasons.  Kambarang is known as a season of birth, a time of the year when the countryside is transformed with an abundance of coloured flowers exploding across the land.  As we head towards summer, longer dry periods accompany a definite warming trend. That’s certainly what we have been experiencing this October, with warmer dryer days.

It’s also a great time to get out into the garden. I rearranged all the pot plants and returned those belonging to my kitchen window sill, which I’d put under the shade of the citrus while I was away.  I re-potted those I hadn’t gotten around to before I left, plus my neighbour gave me another hanging frame with pots.  I cleaned them out, bought some succulent potting mix and planted a variety of succulents plus other small flowering plants, ready to be hung on the frames that are attached to my retaining wall.  I also drilled holes in several of Mum’s pots so I could use them in the garden.  One was a pot I had been tackling for several weeks now; I had been trying to drill a drainage hole in the bottom, but with no success.  It was a tall pot, so I couldn’t get the drill inside it.  Instead I turned it upside down and tried from the bottom, resting the pot on a long wooden beam, which I lent against my raised garden bed and supported it with my toes. I tried many times, even buying a new drill bit but with no success.  With builders working across the road I thought I might ask them.  They were very obliging but I forgot to tell them not to use a hammer drill.  Too late!  It smashed the bottom of the pot. Oh well, that is what quick drying glue is for.  At least now there were some missing pieces which meant I had the drainage holes I needed!!

One of my neighbours from across Sorrento St, was throwing out a magnolia ‘Teddy Bear’ which grows to about 4m high by 2m wide; a compact upright conical shaped tree with a lovely large fragrant white flower.  I couldn’t bear to see it thrown out and had to rescue it.  I decided I would also try to bonsai it, keeping it about a meter high.  I took it out of the big pot it was in, removing much of the dead root system and trimmed the branches which were struggling to produce new spring growth. I then re-potted it with lovely new potting mix and worm castings and watered it in with Seasol.  The trimmed branches I then stuck into potting mix to see if they would sprout.   While in the garden, I planted the Jalapeno chilli Janice had given me when I left Newman.  I moved the shade cloth on the top of the pergola, making room for the grapevine which had taken off in my absence.  It was higher than the pergola now so I tied it along the top beam, hoping I could start training it along the top of the pergola.  The wisteria was now covered with leaf growth, shedding its remaining flower stalk.  It too will start reaching skyward, so I also hope to train it across the top of the pergola towards the back.

I visited another neighbour across the road to see if she had some cuttings from her succulents, and came home with so many different varieties, plus another passion fruit vine which she grows from seed.  This one I’ve decided will go on the top wall and as it is an evergreen, I will try to train it to grow just on the north side of the pergola, as this is in full shade in the winter so will not take away from my winter sunshine.  God willing, it will survive the winds this time.

One morning after my jog I thought I saw a baby snake wriggling across my garden path!  Later that day when rearranging pots, there under one of them was a little lizard the same colour as the snake I’d seen, so I presume it wasn’t a snake after all.  What a relief!  My bobtail family is constantly seen around the complex, either across the driveway or in and around someone’s garden.  I have enticed them back to mine with treats which they have enjoyed.  I’m sure they missed them when I was away.

My garden has been full of beneficial bugs this Kambarang season, including of course bees but also hover flies which seem to be in abundance this year and a new nest of paper wasps.  Wasps are great for eating caterpillars and if left alone will not sting you.  There have been so many white cabbage butterflies about that normally my garden would be overrun with little green caterpillars.  Thanks to the beneficial bugs I haven’t seen many.

One Friday, Glenda and I drove up to Middle Swan to a nursery to collect a Zante Currant grape I had ordered.  I had been looking for this grape for many years, in fact since trying it in my teens. It has small bunches of tiny sweet black grapes, which can also be dried, resembling currants. Now with my plans for another pergola, I needed something to grow over it to provide shade.

Glenda had had a terrible two days since her fridge had died on her, so she appreciated the distraction. We both enjoyed wandering around inspecting the plants.  She bought a few, including one she had been humming and harring over for some time.  I also found another small bush I had also been looking for since the last one which had been given to me as a house warming gift had died.  Eriostemon or Cascade of Stars.  It’s such a beautiful plant covered with small pink and white flowers.  The label says a hardy water wise plant so I’m not sure why the previous one had died after flowering beautifully two years!

The following day I planned to tackle a mammoth job. I have wanted to repot Mum’s bay tree since it arrived from her place over a year ago. I say ‘mammoth’, because it’s in quite a big pot and so it required two people to do the job. I sent out an SOS to the young lady, Sarah, who is my barista buddy on Tuesday, (making coffees for teachers at the primary school). I needed someone young with no back problems.  I was thinking of asking a male to help, but as Sarah and I later discussed, a guy would probably want to call the shots, and many don’t have the common sense or flexibility that women do when working together, or so I have experienced.  I don’t mean to offend my male friends or to be sexist, sometimes I just feel that’s how God has made us, different.  Anyway Sarah was a great help.  Unfortunately the night before I didn’t sleep very well, being awake for over three hours and finally falling asleep just before four am and waking feeling wrung out at six am.  I still needed to get stuff ready and while setting things up around 8 am, Sarah arrived around. I hadn’t even had breakfast so while I made my breaky, Sarah frothed the milk for her coffee.

It took an enormous effort to finish our task.  First we lifted the pot out from amongst other precious garden plants, then with much difficulty, removed the tree from the pot, which was severely root bound. We had to dig around the inside of the pot, then holding it all upside down, bump the pot on the top of the retaining wall and pull on the tree to knock it out.  After many tries it finally came loose, and we caught it as it slipped free. What an effort!  We cut through the outer roots with secateurs, removed as much of the dead growth as we could including the spider plant which had its jelly like root system intertwined with the tree roots.  Using little gardening forks we scraped away at the knotted roots, trying to loosen the root ball, but we still couldn’t get the core free.  Eventually giving up, we put a combined mixture of potting mix, cow manure and worm castings into the pot before returning the bay tree, praying that we hadn’t done too much damage by putting the tree into transplant shock.  I was so grateful for Sarah’s help.  I couldn’t have done it on my own.  As a thank you to Sarah, I put a succulent into a coffee mug.  A reminder of her helping in my garden and our work as baristas on Tuesdays.

The rest of the morning and some of the evening I planted all the seeds I had soaked overnight into seed trays.  I had been collecting seeds from various native plants, hoping one day to try to grow them, but hadn’t got around to it.  Now I just wanted to clean out my cupboards.  I didn’t really need any new plants; it was just the challenge as some natives, especially the pea family, can be difficult to germinate.  Some need smoking or boiling water poured over them; others can be sanded to get the tough outer layers off, enabling water to penetrate into the seed.

I had two varieties of native grasses, a red pea bush commonly called Cockies Tongue, and the common native purple pea vine (Hardenbergia), I also had seeds from white Weeping Broom Bush which has a delicate scent. As well as the natives, I planted broad beans and coriander straight into the ground. Then two seed trays, one of Thai and the other of common basil and a mystery seed which looks like nasturtiums.  I do hope some of the seeds are viable. If most of them come up, I will have to give a stack away!  Any orders?

The following day I realised I hadn’t labelled one of my seed containers and had no idea what I’d planted.  First I thought it was coriander then maybe the tomatillo seeds but finally I had no idea, so it will be interesting to see what comes up.

As previously mentioned, I have been planning how to shade the raised vegetable gardens.  I had contemplated a shade sail, but this would have to withstand the strong winds and be removed and re-erected every year, something I wasn’t that keen to do.  And where would I store it, my sheds were already bursting at the seams!  If another pergola was constructed, it could be a permanent structure I could grow things over, preferable deciduous so that there was shade in the sweltering summers and in winter the sun would warm the northern facing wall of the house.  The tradesman, Luke, who constructed the previous pergola, came around to draw up the plans, saying he was flat out till Christmas but would squeeze me in.  Luke and his family were the ones who bought Mum’s home; it was then we struck up a friendship which has been beneficial to us both.

A date was set for the construction, with me preparing the holes for the posts that were to be dug in my garden, as I didn’t want it to be trampled on. I also trimmed back some of my rambling plants to make for easier access.  I learnt that the posts must be put in after the beams are put into place, being held with support beams which are later removed.  This way everything is plumb.  During the first half of the day, the basic construction was completed.  The afternoon resulted in the beams going up and the work finished, including a very neat job on replacing the pavers to the path.  The shade makes a huge difference in temperature to the whole garden.

The yellow sand which was dug out of the holes quickly went on Gumtree, which is a huge blessing. Once the pergola was up, I strapped down some shade cloth, which I’m hoping will stay on during Perth winds and maybe if all goes well, help slow them down.  I transplanted some rockmelon seedlings (well I think that’s what they are).  The plant that has been growing all winter has huge female flowers. Unfortunately there are no male flowers and with no pollination the fruit die.  I also found out what the mystery seeds were, which I had planted earlier, rockmelon or were they honeydew?

Towards the end of October, two of my church friends were cleaning out their homes and sheds, giving away pots of all sizes, and garden paraphernalia.  Of course I was not wanting things to go to landfill, so graciously accepted a couple of car loads of items.  A set of shelves caught my eye.  I had a similar set, which was very rusty, so it would make a great replacement, especially as it was another shelf higher – a great place to store all my extra plant pots. There were also quite a few containers of fertilizer of various types, reticulation bits and pieces, bamboo sticks and pine quad rods.  These came in handy for my next garden job: making a lattice out of some leftover skirting boards. The front of my house faces west and one wall gets very hot.  I tried growing a rambling rose over it but although it grew quite well and started to cover some of the trellis I’d previously made, last summer it was terribly burnt by the hot winds and from being up against the hot bricks.  This time I’m making a trellis with a shade cloth backing to keep the heat off the wall.  I bought a pink jasmine to cover the lattice, as it is quite hardy.  I’m putting it into one of the large pots I was given.  It needs to be in a pot, as it will be growing between the roses, which don’t like close neighbours.  I’m hoping the rambling rose and the jasmine will be good trellis companions, helping to shelter each other when the hot salty winds blow up the driveway from the south-west.  This job needed to wait though, as there were other more pressing things needing my attention -like a court case!

I don’t know about you but I’ve had so many struggles with a particular bank, trying to withdraw money online, transferring it into another bank account.  I have been moving money around to reinvest for a better interest rate.  As you know, there’s not a good return for very much these days!  For over two days I struggled with the website not responding, with the call centre not calling back and then having to be put through to the fraud team and still they struggled with my transaction going through.  Finally, after much frustration, covering a period of two days, with lengthy calls while I sat at my computer trying to explain what was happening, we got things sorted.

Now that the weather has changed it’s too hot to be knitting.  I’d been trying to decide on what hobby to take up, with a leaning towards art.  What was putting me off was not having the room to handle any more art, as my walls are occupied with Mum’s collection.  I also didn’t want to give pieces away, as not everyone appreciates the art of others.  Someone suggested I could make cards and give them away.  I thought that was a reasonable idea, so decided I’d like to try my hand once again at drawing. Maybe once I get the hang of that then I could advance to painting.  I was quite an artist in my high school days but since leaving school, I have let it fall away.  I’ve tried picking it up again several times but have been so disappointed by the results that I’ve given up.  What is in my head just hasn’t eventuated on paper.  After a bit of procrastination, the urge returned, so I took up pencil and paper. The sketching was of the Silver Princess eucalyptus flower and nuts; the purpose, a birthday card for my sister, Kat.  I was quite pleased this time with the way it turned out.

Read next update and I’ll bring you up to date with the court session with my neighbour.

Photos:  1. Mum’s self-seeding poppies in my garden    2. Succulents and seedlings    3. Paper wasps    4. Bee covered poppy    5. Sarah and I with her little coffee cup succulent    6. Before second pergola    7. Erecting the second pergola    8. Finished product     9. Huge rockmelon flower   10. Pineapple in flower    11. My first drawing

Prayer & Praise Points:
Praise the Lord for His continual blessings.  For the beautiful Kambarang weather.

Please pray that my neighbour will get professional help to help him with his anger issues.

Please pray for me as I look to the Lord for His will regarding a job offer from Dec to mid-January.

Please continue to pray for the Wilmots as they minister to the Martu people and for Janice, who is assisting with the community garden and training of those working in the gardens.

Praise the Lord for Emma who continues to look to the Lord for her healing. Please continue to pray for the treatment to help her overcome leukaemia.  Pray she will see speedy results and for the Lord’s healing.

Pray that those who don’t yet know the Lord Jesus will have their eyes opened to His love, peace and saving grace.

I praise God for all our supportive friends and prayer partners as we help each other through these difficult times.  We all need each another in different ways and it’s reassuring and encouraging to know friends are not too far away, thanks to technology and prayer.