I love summer

I must say i do love our Melbourne/ Australian summers. Except for the abundant weeds in my garden!!!
It takes a while to kick in but is nice to have these long dreamy evenings and enjoy the warmth during the day. Mornings are just the best (if you're a morning person) and I've really only discovered this since I've been hauling myself out of bed on our allotted watering days at 6am in the morning. But it really is the best time of day when everything is fresh and clean and just starting to wake up.
As the bees start to hummm around the catmint and the rose buds begin to open the day warms the cat stretches and it really is a delightfully comfortable time of day. It can take two of us about 1 hour to water the whole garden and I know this sounds dreadfully slack from someone who is an avid gardener and I can hear you saying what about tank water and recycled water. We do use grey water but not on the vegies and herbs and most of our garden is new. So it is still at the nurturing stage. But we have gone from a large suburban block covered in couche grass, cottoniaster, and an old cyprus to one which now is packed with fruit trees and natives .....so we are slowly trying to do our bit. The rain water tank is on its way after all the pipes are down.

So I have decided to showcase one of the many plants i have in my garden today, its a creeper and a ground cover which is not stringy like some and has beautiful contrasting rich green foliage whith purple stems . It is Aphanopetalum resinosum or Gum Vine, a little known Australian native which will ramble along the ground or cover an ugly fence or old shed given half a chance.
Its a tough pretty Australian native which will survive frost and drought alike. In spring time it will be covered with small creamy green flowers. Its a great plant for weed reductions or to plant in a shady or filtered sunlight area. and it grows reasonably fast . Aphanopetalum is also a great plant for a fernery or hanging baskets. In these times of drought and dryness cooler and shade loving plants seem to have gone by the wayside so i will endeavour to showcase some plants which will tolerate both cooler climates and dryness. Here is one!