The first day of Spring, 1 September, is Wattle Day in Australia.
The Golden Wattle, Acacia picnantha, is the national flower of Australia.

This photo above is of a related variety of wattle, over our fence.

There are birds everywhere - behaving as it if is spring.
The satin bowerbird has moved his bower from the rainforest to a place outside the studio.

We have been developing a new garden to the north of the netted food garden.
Some large trees have been removed (they were dangerously close to the neighbours' house)
and there is far more light now, from the north, into the garden...

Here is a view from inside the food garden, looking north to the new garden.
The plan out there is to have chest high native plants which will attract
small birds which will be predators of insects.
Small bird can get through the mesh into the food garden.
Larger birds (parrots, bowerbirds) which destroy food gardens, are excluded.
The low height of the new garden will ensure that there is still light coming into the food garden.
Our advisor on plants is Rebecca, who offered the valuable observation
that we should avoid including the larger and more dramatic Grevillea cultivars
which attract Wattle Birds (artist's impression here), large honeyeaters which drive out the smaller birds.
(I have been unable to get a picture of the spring-raptured wattle birds,
flying fast through the garden in pairs, close, or one holding the tail of the other.)
With Rebecca's guidance we are using locally occurring plants.

and from outside, looking in
- the garden is steadily advancing north from the other end,
still grass and weed in the foreground.

Several weeks ago, Belinda and Susanna, WWOOFers from Hong Kong,
school teachers on a very brief visit,
helped us make a start on the new garden.

This above is "Grevillea Belinda", known outside our garden as Grevillea macleayana,
the Jervis Bay grevillea. This is only found in this area.

Susanna chose as 'her' plant the vigorous groundcover and climber
Kennedia prostrata, also known as Running Postman, because of the red flowers.

This week we have the assistance of another WWOOFer, Oh Yunsim,
from beautiful Cheju Do (Cheju Island) south Korea,
an architecture graduate from Ulsan University
who has been studying English in Sydney for the past year.

Yunsim chose Rulingia hermanniifolia which only occurs locally and can be difficult to grow....
so we really will have to work to be able to report to her on its progress:

Here are some other pictures of work on the garden

cutting old tree roots out, to make way for drainage to pond

There are two things you have to do to get to eat cake

[1] eat it before Sam eats it

[2] make the cake (orange and poppyseeds)

Yunsim works tirelessly

but also gets to sit on the swing and talk on the phone

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