Beautiful Australian Gardens

 Beautiful Australian Gardens

You can see many beautiful pictures of Australia, of its coasts, beaches, mountains and forests, but in this blog I want to share with you some pictures of some of the gardens where I’ve gardened in over the last forty years in this country, plus some of the wild life found in them.

This is the Australia that I’ve come to know intimately.

A Garden in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia

This was a garden around an old stone cottage. It was in these hills that my children grew up and on this property built many cubby houses. There was a garden around the house and an acreage on which we keep a number of animals. The garden was on a slope, and very suited to the stone features that were created there by my brother – a stonemason. Over the time we were there we kept; sheep, goats, a cow, guinea pigs, geese, chickens, cats and dogs.

                                  My youngest son, and his dog Honey

A Garden in a City Unit, in Melbourne, Victoria

This garden was more of a courtyard attached to a city unit. Here we had room for a balcony, a small garden shed, and a few small trees, and one very large eucalyptus, on which we hung a bird table that attracted many rainbow lorikeets. 

                                                                                                       

Rainbow Lorikeets visiting our city unit

A Garden at Lakeside, in Loch Sport, Victoria

This was a holiday home close to a beach and next to a lake. It was a very beautiful site, but three hours drive from where we were living at the time. However our children enjoyed the country living and opportunity to sail on the lake. They were also fascinated with the wild life. We often had kangaroos and echidnas in the garden with galahs, rainbow lorikeets and plus many other birds coming to the bird table.

An Echidna hiding in some straw












A Koala up a pole

A Garden in the Dandenong Mountains, Victoria

Whereas most of my gardens I’ve had to start from scratch this garden already had large trees, rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias. This has been another garden visited by colourful birds. Here beside those mentioned visiting our other gardens we also have king parrots that brighten up the bird table. (Cockatoos are not allowed to alight; they come in flocks and are too destructive.) 

Inquisitive King Parrots

And 

A Desert Garden of a Friend

A house in an old opal mine

My blogging began with the story of my husband’s retirement project in Greece. For me that adventure began when I was staying with a friend in Coober Pedy, in a desert area of South Australia and received a phone call from him telling he that what he wanted to do next was to renovate an old house in Greece.
Coober Pedy is an opal-mining town, and it gets very hot in summer. The folk here often turn old underground opal mines into homes. This is the type of house that my friend has. She has a garden, though very different from the one I have in Victoria up in the mountains.

Her two kittens exploring the Sturt Desert Peas

March in Greece


Clean Monday or Katheri Deftera is 40 days before Easter. This year Greek Easter and Western Easter fall on the same weekend (it often doesn’t). This year Clean Monday will be on the 3rd of March. It is the day the housewives spring clean and marks the first day of lent.
March 2nd is Saint Theodore day.
March 19th is Crysanthos Day.
March 25th Independence Day


This is the Greek National Anniversary and a major religious holiday with military parades in the larger towns and cities.This celebrates Greece's victory in the war of Independence against the Turks who had occupied the country for 400 years.

The 25th of March was actually the day Bishop Germanos of Patras raised the flag of national rebellion at the monastery of Agia Lavra in the northern Peleponisos.

For Greece, the 25th of March is the equivalent to the 4th of July to Americans.  The Greeks celebrate this day with marches and celebrations throughout the country.