Author: Monica Oppen

My neighbour, Matthew, (no.32) has all but abandoned his garden. It’s been years now and the garden has become more and more overgrown, re-wilding. The grass has disappeared and ferns, Tradescantia, Madeira vine have replaced it. Self-seeded trees are growing, forming an arcade along beside the path. The species of tree, an ash (Fraxinus griffithii)… Continue reading The gate is padlocked shut

For a period of time over Christmas and New Year I shared the kitchen bench with a huntsman spider. A small one. It seemed to like the compost bucket and I imagined it was eating the tiny flies that hover in there, providing an ‘ecosystem service’. Sometimes it would be at the other end of… Continue reading Living with…huntsmen

I spotted it back in July, an elkhorn fern on a Podocarpus elatus, a street tree on the railway line side of the road. The elkhorn’s base was already the size of my hand with half a dozen leaves so it was rather like it had landed like a space ship or UFO on this… Continue reading Elkhorn has landed

Last year there was mainly leaf curling spiders, not just here in the garden but also up on Summerfield in the Hunter Valley. This year the leaf curling spiders are gone and the orb weavers are back. They spin huge webs. They sit at the centre, mainly at night. During the day they often hide… Continue reading Spiders and crickets

I spot the first purple fruits on the ground lying amongst the leaf litter. Plums! Known as Davidson or Mullumbimby plums (Davidsonia jerseyana) they are an Australian bush tucker food and are really sour. They are not in the Prunus genus with the other plums we know.I look up and along the main stems of… Continue reading Bumper crop

The trees in the backyard have been trimmed away from the house. Right back. A burst of light and heat now slams down into the garden which the plants down below are not used to. I water them to help reduce the shock. I think of it as though a canopy tree has fallen and… Continue reading A burst of light

There is a triangular garden with the house on the wedge-shaped corner of Douglas Street and Gordon Crescent. The house faces Douglas Street. The trees in the garden lean over the 6 feet colorbond back fence. Walking down to the shops or the station ducking slightly under the branches the smell of figs (Ficus carica),… Continue reading The promise of figs

It is a rather pathetic new planting—a last minute, much belated rescue attempt to save the cane palms (Chrysalidocarpus lutescens) I inherited from Brigitta and Elise, which I have been neglecting. Hidden amongst the foliage of the garden bed directly in front of the house it was easy to pass them by. In pots long… Continue reading Palm Rescue

They sit completely still on a low branch of the jacaranda, the laughing kookaburras (Dacelo novaeguineae) which visit Matthew’s garden. The garden has been almost completely neglected and is in the process of re-wilding—an interesting experiment, or perhaps re-wilding is an over generous descriptor.I wonder what the kookaburras might find there. Lizards? Though only small… Continue reading Kookaburras

Bright as a lolly wrapper it was impossible to miss. But how did it get there at the base of the Brush box (Lophostemon confertus) across the road on the nature strip between the road and the railway line where the council workers mow and whipper snip diligently. Small and nestled against the trunk of… Continue reading Lolly wrapper