Category: Garden Visits
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Flowering gum flowers
Close to the entrance to my local pool are a couple of flowering gums, one of which has started flowering again. I love these trees in flower as they are so vibrant and cheerful. For the rest of your weekend, I hope it’s as bright and cheerful as these flowers.
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The flowers of Auburn Botanic Gardens
The best flowers from Auburn Botanic Garden in early March 2026.
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Auburn Botanic Gardens
Last week, I decided to get out the house on a sunny day to visit Auburn Botanic Gardens. They are located in the western Sydney suburb of Auburn. I went about eight years ago and decided that it was time for a return visit. Some general information These gardens are run by the local council.…
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I’m a little jealous of the chilli plant!
Tuesday is usually takeaway night in my house and that usually means Indian food. To collect the food, I walk past our local community garden and they have a very productive chilli plant which I am rather jealous of. I haven’t been able to grow chillies this year, which I am disappointed by. At least…
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A Visit to Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden-Part Two
A couple of do, I went for a walk around the botanic gardens in Sydney, the first time I’ve been at the start of January in almost fifteen years. I had a really nice time, with the gardens looking absolutely great. This is the second blog post about my visit as there was too much…
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A visit to Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden
The colours and plants I found at Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens in January 2026.
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Australian National Botanic Garden, Canberra
The Australian Botanic Gardens are located on the lower slopes of Black Mountain which is on the edge of Australia’s capital city Canberra. Within its 40 hectares, there are around 77, 000 plants, representing more than 4, 600 species of plants-roughly one fifth of all of Australia’s native plants. I visited in September, so early…
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A pit-stop in St. James’s Park
A brief walk through St James’s Park in London. The shade from trees was nearly as good as the colourful flowers!
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Wollongong Botanic Garden
Wollongong is a city in New South Wales, Australia about one and a half hours drive south of Sydney. Last week, I went down to the botanic gardens for the day as I have wanted to visit for a while. History Before the arrival of Europeans, the area that is now the botanic gardens was…
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Long-term plans for my garden
Over the past few weeks, I have been thinking about my patio garden and what I want to do with it over the next year or so. I have been thinking a lot, because over the past year, the weather has been really odd, with the autumn weather only just starting to cool down now.…
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Colour on a rainy day
The good thing about brightly coloured flowers is that they are so cheerful when the day is cloudy, wet and dull. Marigolds are always cheerful with their orange and yellow flowers, especially in a gloomy dawn. While this lemon-scented gum isn’t colourful, I love the shape of the branches-it’s one of my favourite trees, especially…
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A walk through a local reserve
I have decided that I am going to get myself out every weekend for a walk through a local nature reserve or national park every weekend, to get myself out of the house and into nature more often. Recently, I have been too much of a home bird and that isn’t too great. Over the…
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I love looking at the planting around my local swimming pool. It’s full of native plants and trees. My husband dropped me off at the pool and I had a few minutes to have a look at some plants before he came to pick me up again. We have the white flowers of this broad-leaved…
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A rather nice trip into Sydney
As we hadn’t been for a trip out to the centre of Sydney for a while, my husband and thought it would be nice to go there for lunch to enjoy the last of the warmth, before it gets cooler again. I got taken to a proper good sandwich shop, but that is a side…
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Flowers from my week
I normally do this on a Friday, but I forgot. I have some from work and some from when I was travelling. They just go to show how varied flowers are. First up, who doesn’t like a rose? I love the colours in these petals. Hibiscus flowers are over the top, but I love them…
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The gardens of Independence Palace, Ho Chi Minh City
Whilst I was in Ho Chi Minh City, one of the places I visited was the Independence Palace. I have to admit that this was mainly because it has a fairly large garden area within its walls and that was what I was more interested in when I got there. When I’m hot and bothered,…
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Tao Dan Park, Ho Chi Minh City
Tao Dan Park is a short walk away from the Independence Palace and being at a slight loose end after looking at Notre Dame Cathedral of Saigon and Saigon Central Post Office, I thought I’d take a walk over there as it was almost on the way back to my hotel. I have to say…
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Trekking around the centre of Ho Chi Minh City
When I arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, I didn’t really know what to expect as I have never been before. It is busy and chaotic, with more mopeds that I think I’ll ever see again in my life! I have read that the city as a whole is lacking in greenery, which I can’t…
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Travelling through Singapore airport
‘What does this have to do with plants?’ is probably the first question that comes to mind when looking at the post headline in a blog about plants and gardening. The answer is quite simple one-the airport has so many plants and gardens dotted around it, which made my day if I’m honest! Singapore is…
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An afternoon walk in Lane Cove National Park
Lane Cove National Park is my closest national park here in Sydney. At one point, I would walk down there weekly with my husband but we fell out of the habit. We went down there for walk today and it was in generally lovely-and I’ll explain what I mean later on. The weather today has…
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My favourite plants at Sydney botanic gardens
Believe it or not, these photos are from the same fig tree in Sydney’s botanic garden. This is Ficus macrophylla f. colunmnaris that is native to Lord Howe Island off the east coast of Australia. As much as there are many fine fig trees in this great garden, and I’ll always go and have a…
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Sydney’s botanic gardens in spring
After feeling like I had cabin fever last weekend due to the need to get my next assessment done, I thought I’d get myself off to Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens. I don’t actually think I’ve ever been in spring, so I had a really nice time. The weather was cloudy and cool, but that’s the…
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Too many photos to know what to do with!
I’ve done a bit more browsing through my phone photos this evening and realise that I should get them into some sort of order. In total, there are well over 8,000 of them and most are of plants and flowers. Most of these I’ve forgotten I have and I think they should get some air…
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Barangaroo Reserve
Saturday was a beautiful day here in Sydney, although rather windy. I decided it was the perfect day for a trip into the city to visit Barangaroo Reserve, located on the edge of the harbour. See the screen shot from Google Maps below to see the location relative to the Sydney Opera House. Barangaroo Reserve…
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Roses, roses, everywhere
Today, I started the marathon task of pruning all the roses at work. This is a large job as it is a large rose garden and, because of this, it’s one that I probably won’t get to finish. From Monday, I will be moving to another school that I’ll be looking after, so the rose…
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My trip out
Today, I went out into Sydney so I could go to the state library to do some studying. I do this every now and then as, when I’m at home, I get distracted by a cute cat, and housework like laundry, hoovering and the dishes so the studying doesn’t always get done as it could…
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A weekend walk
I went over to the Sydney Botanic Gardens again this weekend, this time to see some botanical illustrations on some of the rainforest plants of Australia. While I didn’t take any photos of these great drawings, I took the opportunity to take some photos of my walk through the gardens. First up is this hibiscus.…
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Plants from my botanic garden visits
In the past couple of weeks, I have been to a couple of botanic gardens . I have just written about my visit to the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens, but I have also visited the Australian Botanic Garden, Mount Annan in south-west Sydney (which is home to plants native to Australia only). As there is…
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Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens
On my recent travels, I found myself at the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens in Hobart, the capital city of Tasmania, Australia. Whenever I travel, I always try and find a public garden of some sort to visit. This post is all about my visit to these fine gardens, which I enjoyed immensely. The weather was…
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On my travels again
I am again doing a bit of travelling, this time I’m on a cruise down to Hobart in Tasmania, Australia. We stopped at a little place called Eden in the south of NSW on the way south from Sydney. This was the view from the cruise ship as we were heading into Eden yesterday. It…
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My walk through the Botanic Gardens
As I was in the city yesterday, I thought I’d take a walk through Sydney’s lovely botanic gardens. It was a hot day with plenty of sunshine, although it was really humid! I came across some plants that I have not seen before, which is always a bonus. First up is this shrub to small…
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My trip into the city
This afternoon I went into Sydney as it has been a really nice day, even if a little on the hot and humid side! I like going into Sydney very now and then, just to get out on a weekend and do something other than sit around at home. While I was out and about,…
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My visit to Port Lincoln, South Australia
I am currently on a cruise around the south of Australia and today I visited a little place in South Australia called Port Lincoln. Everywhere I go, I like to look at the plants they have in the place that I’m visiting. First up is a plant that I’ve not seen in a while that…
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The Chinese Garden of Friendship, Sydney
This is a garden that I have wanted to visit for a while, but never had the time to visit until recently. The garden opened on the 17th January 1988, being designed and built to show the friendship between the sister states of New South Wales (NSW) in Australia and Guangdong in China (along with…
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The Goods Line, Sydney
The goods line, is a section of old railway that ran between Darling Harbour goods yards and the rail yards around Redfern further south. It was first built in 1855, becoming vital for the movement of goods like coal, shale and wheat amongst others. Over time, the Ultimo (where the goods line is located) became…
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Lisgar Gardens Hornsby
My first garden visit is to the lovely Lisgar Gardens on Lisgar Road in Hornsby, NSW. These gardens cover 2.6 hecatres on a hillside, with the different garden levels created by using sandstone blocks. The gardens are owned, and cared for, by Hornsby Shire Council. They are open 8 am-3.30pm on weekdays and 10am-4pm (5pm…
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