Elvira

I've given up on hanging baskets - they dry out in no time.

I should get the area around the pool planted - any suggestions? Must be low maintenance...

TruBrit

i don't plant up baskets either for the reasons i said however i do add some colour around the pool. best to check the garden centres in your area coz anything i suggest might not suit your climate.

LouiseD

I found the gardens really boring in Oz There are a few exceptions but most were just a piece of dry brown grass. Absolutely no creativity, thought or imagination whatsoever. You just can't beat an beautiful English country garden with it's variety, colour and fragrance. Oz may have many things but beautiful gardens aint one of them.

It's one of the things I really missed while I was in Oz - I'm not a great gardener myself but do my best. I love looking at others gardens here and most people tend to take pride in the appearance of their gardens with lovely displays, hanging baskets, wall baskets, tubs, pots and borders.

One thing I did love in Oz though were the beautiful birds - what amazing colours!

Fleaflyfloflum

I do love the birds here. I regularly have kookaburrahs, cockatoos, parakeets and magpies come sit on my balcony which i love.

I dont know how anyone can say Australian gardens are better than British ones though!! For the most part, Australians are just not interested in making their gardens attractive. They could if they really wanted to. Some of the plants here are gorgeous, but because they are not considered natives they are often frowned upon.
You only have to go look at the inferior standards of their garden centres to see how little they care! They are usually small, cramped places with very little imagination and not much to choose from. I have found the odd place that makes an effort, but generally the standard is poor. I have a vested interest in this subject as i part trained as a garden designer many years ago. I want to go back to it when i return to UK.

PLANTS

Thats really nice of your FIL!

I use to love being in the garden too and my hubbie use to call himself a Garden Widow as I could always be found either in the garden or greenhouse! Here I just dont have the motivation either, I ahve pots but nothing compared with the UK.

One of the loveliest things I saw last year being bk in Rugby and driving around was seeing all the baskets being hung out, the long trays of flowers hanging from the railings and the middle roundabout beds being planted up with the annuals. They even did a huge rugby type cup out of annuals and greenery, quite beautiful!

We use to get an amazing amount of birds in our UK garden too and we put out lots of bird seed too so we encouraged them more. So lovely seeing a robin in the garden. I do love seeing the birds here on the grass verges eating and seeing the black parrots flying over but on the whole there aren't that many birds I see. Coming in swift season I think here though so might see a few more (or at least I think they are swifts!).



Plants

tani

Where I am there's loads of beautiful birds, very noisy but lovely parrots, also lots of lovely plants and gardens with loads of beautiful pants I just love - but, I still do miss the old lovely flowers and gardens of UK. And the grass!!!

St.Georges Girl

Don't assume that where you are in Oz is the same, I can assure you that Perth isn't like NSW or Victoria at all. We do not get the array of birds here that are found over east and, what we do have is diminishing fast because the land owners are bulldozing their habitat every day here. It took 3 years for the suburb we are in to get any signs of bird life back, because most people who build do not want to plant trees as the leaves will get in their pools. It's sad I know, but that's the way it is here. I too miss the English gardens, always have. I have tried to keep hanging baskets but the heat and the very strong winds here destroy them. We don't have Possums either. Oh and btw, I also think the bush land here is ugly.

You'll probably find they are Swallows and House Martins, but almost the same. We have them swooping across the pool when we don't have the cover on. They pick up insects and drink on the wing.