Sydney Harbor Gardens - Pink and Green in East Balmain

I've come to a lovely interlude of my Year of Living Homelessly - house-sitting at a jungle-like home on Sydney Harbor, until mid-September.

   

I don't know how Helen managed to find me. Visually, we have identical taste in plants - I restrict myself to a garden of these three contrasts: 

• Pink on Green 

• Light green on dark green on light green
  

• Fluffy or heart shaped or dangling and lavish or massive - a party of distinctive foliage

Do this, and it will come out beautiful (To Cecilia and Helen, anyway)

Recycled tin can garden. Illustration by Cecilia

As the earth-garden areas are all in shade, Helen's edibles are in sunny pots, watching the harbor - guava, strawberry. 

I could make her hibiscus into tea, dig up her bamboo shoots and ginger roots for stir fry, and infuse the cream for my crepes with her lavender.

But maybe I won't. 

I think Red Shiso, that wonderful drinkable Japanese herb, would be a perfect friend for her existing plants. Maybe next summer.

Its true that I like diversity and change. Most mornings, a different Ten Story high 'residence' appears at my balcony.  But I never get a chance to make friends, that's the downside.

Upstairs I have a choice of five balcony garden seating areas from which to have my breakfast. 

There are another five courtyard gardens to choose from, less open and sparkly, so I prefer these. Add to the list two interior gardens, and a large pot plant population. 

Friends everywhere!

Although Helen doesn't specialize in Organic or in Edibles, if cities and citizen suddenly needed to feed themselves,  she could have a successful garden going in a year or two.  She could manage a whole neighborhood to succeed, I suspect.

Its just a tiny step from turning an able gardener into a Sustainable food gardener. 

But turning your average sustainability enthusiast into a successful food gardener takes years and years. 

It did in my case.

Bit by bit my garden and its casualties got me to face up to the realities: That a healthy garden springs from healthy soil, and a healthy character (or the love of gardening elicits health in our characters)

My balcony garden taught me these things:

• Pretending there isn't a problem won't fix things, 

• Procrastinate, and there isn't a tomorrow (for the poor plants)

• Take shortcuts, and your destination disappears.  

Just being in a clear house like Helen's, where each draw is filled with everything you need, and nothing you don't, is keeping my mind decluttered, ready for good permie action. 

Please send me blessings for a productive, happy spell here in East Balmain. And introduce me to your Sydney friends, so I don't get too lonely, here with all these plants. 

Residential Self Expression Goes Beserk - one street in Sydney

Meet Susan Street, Annandale.

Its my little brother's street. It backs onto a canal, but doesn't lead to anywhere in particular, and only takes three minutes to traverse. Most front gardens are a narrow strip of concrete, or a basement where the garden should be.

What I want to know is,



How did everything get so beautiful?



This house only has one plant in its garden.




Yet 'garden' is the world, as it is a little universe within itself.



This telephone pole is homeless. No home, but the furnishings are delightful.


And this old luvvy is Still here!


People bother to Customize


They reach for the tiniest scrap of light, of space


They respect their elders


This house said "Just because I came with boring pillars doesn't mean I have to keep them". Look what they did.
Just because the whole house is narrower than the car parked out front doesn't mean it cannot be magnificent.
I even saw someone playing guitar on the doorstep, and SINGING.


Concrete can be celestial.


And Urban Plein Air painting can be a lovely slice of riverside peace, for the harried teenager.


This is the last picture for now, its the fertility god Kokopelli playing in front of the streets most edible garden, where stairs lead down to the canal. The residents here took one look at the parkland out front and said "Mine"!
Love something, and its yours.
The stairs and slope and path are covered in rosemary and eggplants and mosaics, wheelbarrows of herbs have been trundled into the scraps of light that fall though the canopy.

Too Much!
You will get the other amazing Susan Street pictures in another blogpost.

These photos were taken in August, when I last visited Sydney.

Right now I'm quietly tucked away in my hidyhole in Waverton, having a little Japanese winter of my own, so for me its all quite seasonal.
The whole 0f 2010 was a tsunami of captivating things, and you don't blog about a tsunami while your are in it.

Now, here's my question, and I need your answer, because its a mystery I'm grappling with. Which photograph is beautiful, and whats the beauty make of?