Week 3 December 2000: Moving logs and stumps into various spots in the garden to form sculptures. Plenty of lizard activity in the gardens. Saw a large Copper-tailed Skink (15 cms or 6 ins) in one of the garden beds. At least 4 lizard species now call Yallaroo home.
Potting on some struck cuttings of a special form of Grevillea montana. This medium Grevillea comes from the Hunter Valley north of Sydney. Some months ago we found a roadside specimen with yellow and green flowers. The usual form has red and green blooms. This form will be an interesting addition to our Grevillea collection. We have 120 varieties surviving and thriving at Yallaroo.
This week we found two interesting small plants in our regenerating grassland. Scutellaria humilis, a member of the mint family, is known as the Dwarf Skullcap. This perennial herb grows in clumps and has small, tubular, purplish flowers. This species should propagate readily from cuttings, as does most of the mint family. Thysanotus tuberosus is the other small plant. Known as the Fringe Lily this herbaceous annual has beautiful mauve-blue flowers. The plants are hard to find when flowering is finished. We marked a number of specimens with plastic strips so the mature fruits may be harvested. The species is propagated from seed. Both species have potential as cottage garden plants.
Planted two native climbers against our shed. Hibbertia scandens is a vigorous climber with large yellow flowers. Pandorea jasminoides has pink bell-shaped flowers. Hopefully they will join a rampant Banana Passion fruit vine and cover the north-facing wall of our shed.