Pining For The Hanging Basket
 

After looking at the bluebell thread,it made me realise just how much i miss the British love of gardens and flowers with colour and designs done with a lot of thought and consideration.
I cannot wait to walk down a street with beautiful well kept hanging baskets bursting with colour.
Look in front gardens tended to and given thought and effort.

Sadly, Australia is obsessed with nothing other than natives, which, on the whole are drab and bland. There are some exceptions to this rule, but their total lack of interest in anything exciting in the garden leaves me cold. I understand their problems with water shortage, so i guess that is probably a big reason for it, but its yet another reason i cannot wait to return home.

Re: Pining For The Hanging Basket
 

Yep I agree.
You cant be a lovely cottage garen in my mind. Some lovely plants here I do love like Tree Ferns & Birds of paradise but I miss annuals, perennials and the like.

The bluebells and those woods - ahhhhhhhhhhhh

Re: Pining For The Hanging Basket
 

Surprised by this comment. I find there is much more wildlife and trees and interesting gardens here in Oz?????

Re: Pining For The Hanging Basket
 

The plants around by me are all native bush stuff. Pretty flowers on some, but on the whole they are "Bottle Brush" or scraggy looking foliage plants. And as for wildlife....what wildlife? I actually heard a bird the other day and it made me stop and think "Crikey...that was a bird!" the sound is so rare.

Oh, I live in a new suburban sprawl.

The English gardens, when well tended, are the best by far.:thumbup:

Re: Pining For The Hanging Basket
 

There seems to be more happening in the East of australia in the gardens .
Here in the west they are dead as Dodo during the day time ,it is busier in the garden during spring and autumn .Unless you live out bush of course where you may get an abundance of wildlife .

Re: Pining For The Hanging Basket
 

I had forgotten how busy an english garden was until i went back this winter and there was squirrels,magpies ,robins,tits all coming into the garden and there was always some kind of action going on .

Re: Pining For The Hanging Basket
 

My father in law is a super star at hanging baskets, he helps me create mine every year. He is doing a basket especially for me this year and emailing me a weekly photo - how sweet :D

I loved my garden at home and could quite easily spend all weekend sorting it out but loved it - here I dont have the motivation at all.

I hope I am home this time next year in time for bedding plants and hanging baskets.

Re: Pining For The Hanging Basket
 

My god you must live in a bubble. One of the first things I noticed over here was the birds. So many different sounds every minute of the day. Then again I was talking to an aussie the other day and she told me she had seen a programme about brits moving to oz and said this family returned back to UK and one of the reasons they gave was that the birds were too loud!! Unreal but not suprising. Bit like going on holiday to Majorca and whinging about not having a chippy!!!!!!!!

Re: Pining For The Hanging Basket
 

Interesting first post. :blink:

Re: Pining For The Hanging Basket
 

Just gobsmacked, don't they have birds in Perth then?

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wouldn't know - never been there - and no desire to go...

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:lol: snap ;)

Re: Pining For The Hanging Basket
 

Morning missus - how's it going?

I should be packing.... getting my UK phone charged... :)

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I must remember to tell the possum that Mr GG and I spotted on our way home from the local that it does not belong in our neighbourhood: all wildlife is henceforth banished unless it is imported from the UK. Ditto plants.

Re: Pining For The Hanging Basket
 

yep you should but if you're anything like me i function better under pressure, well that's my excuse anyway :lol:

i've been on the dog 'n bone this morning to a couple of friends in the uk, so we are taking the morning nice and slow :)

talking of flowers and hanging baskets, ours here don't last long due to the high humidity and then they are are bleached out by the sun, so much more vibrant back home :)

Re: Pining For The Hanging Basket
 

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...

Re: Pining For The Hanging Basket
 

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.

Re: Pining For The Hanging Basket
 

I found the gardens really boring in Oz :thumbdown: 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!

Re: Pining For The Hanging Basket
 

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.

Re: Pining For The Hanging Basket
 

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

Re: Pining For The Hanging Basket
 

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!!!

Re: Pining For The Hanging Basket
 

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.