amelia the camellia

Whilst we were in the gardening spirit last weekend (and we had an extra two sets of hands here with Mr M's brother and his girlfriend staying at Brindabella) we went a bit crazy and got all enthusiastic. The remainder of the old garden fence still had to be removed so we got to work with the trusty Manitou.

The little garden gate used to be here, so now we sort of have an ugly concrete path that leads to nowhere? Oh well. We pulled out the dead shrubs on either side of the gateway, as well as the waratah which was not doing so well and blocking the lovely liquid amber tree which I love.

With the demolition of the old fence dealt with we were feeling pretty chuffed with ourselves and so moved into the dreaded jungle. Remember when I showed you the remaining jungle of garden at the front of the farmhouse? We really didn't know how to deal with it to begin with, but then we got down low and sorted out which plants were viable and which ones were choking the others.

There were about five or six big shrubs all in there, mainly rhododendrons and camellias as well as the creeping plant that seemed to cover the lot to make one big messy bundle. We decided that one big camellia, one rhododendron and another little camellia on the end were viable and the rest had to go.

It seemed a bit sad to be taking out these well established shrubs that someone had so lovingly planted and cared for, but they were really just simply too big for the space and had totally outgrown their position. So out they came...

...whilst Chelsea, Mr M and the dogs looked on. See how the jungle was right in front of the farmhouse? Totally blocking the view from the two bedrooms as well as the view of our little abode as your drive up the driveway. Lack of jungle out the front will hopefully let a lot more light into the dark house too.

Now the creepy-crawly plant we knew was going to be difficult to extricate from the jungle. It was all twisted up, grown through and around all the other shrubs. The more we pulled on it's long (freakish if you ask me) tendrils the more it seemed to destroy the camellia and rhododendron which we didn't want damaged. We eventually pulled the most part of it out with the Manitou, but it was quite the freaky sight! Chelsea and I thought it looked like stretchy mozzarella cheese - it definitely did not want to lose its grips on the jungle!

And then we were left with the tangled mess. A deafeated mess though - victory was ours! After we'd removed every last tendril of the freaky boa-constrictor-like plant (which involved some serious jumping and pulling on my behalf to reach the tops of the camellia) we think we have finally got our jungle under control. With a quick prune of the camellia and the rhododendron the view from our bedroom window now looks a little more like this...

In case you are wondering I have not gone completely mad, or maybe I have. Yes I have named my beautiful (albeit a little bald on one side) camellia. Mr M's lovely mother, who is pretty much my cottage gardening hero, swears by the concept of not only naming your trees and shrubs but she simply insists that you must talk lovingly and often to your growing flowers and seedlings. I am not joking. When I am planting things in my garden she tut-tuts that I'm not saying sweetly to my pansies 'Now be good little pansies and grow up nice and strong, there's plenty of sunshine and lashings of love in this nice garden'.

Upon reflection I thought to myself, well who am I to argue? So I have named my camellias. I have three 'main' ones and a few others dotted about, so far I have Amelia out the front, Camille on the east side of the house and Milly on the west. I'm now tossing up whether our new silver birch tree is a male or female: Sylvia or Sylvester?? Decisions, decisions.

Images by Emma Durkin for Cinderella at Brindabella.