Native and Exotic Trees in our Garden

On the south-east corner of our block, right at our gate, is this enormous Sugar gum,(E Cladocalyx).
It has several stories of foliage and beautiful bark which shows up wonderfully in the morning sun. Unfortunately it doesn't show up so much on the photo. It is a great place for all manner of birds, we had a whitefaced heron last year hatch it's chick in there as well as magpies and Murray magpies. It also has a wild bees nest in one of the hollows.

The very tall tree on the left was a seedling I just let go because it was in a suitable place not far from a tree I expected to die but didn't. The seedling tree shot up at an enormous rate and is as straight as an arrow. Gumtrees are notoriously promiscuous so I have no idea who its parents are and it is now so tall we would have buckley's hope of getting a flower or seedpod from it to identify it.Some of the gums are flowering at present and we have a lot of noisy minors in them as well as flocks of rainbow lorikeets which chatter and "carry on like pork chops". I wonder where that expression came from?
The Golden Rain tree(Koelreuteria paniculata) now has these lovely golden seed pods . It is a lovely shady tree in the summer and it will turn a lovely colour in autumn. The pods rattle when the seeds ripen and they too will change their colour in autumn.

They are an easy care tree and will grow quite quickly and other than having to pull out the numerous little trees they produce they really are no trouble at all.
I have started cutting back the lavender and daisy bushes, they are finding things tough at the moment as we have had only a sprinkling of rain so far this year, December was dry too. The irises will be next.Our gardener has dug up the medium agapanthus for me , split up the clumps and replanted some back in new soil.




The days are starting later too, now it is quite noticeable in the morning, the sun rises a minute later each day which means at the end of the week it is seven minutes later rising. I am not a fan of daylight saving and always find when we revert back to normal time, the days seem longer and I get a lot more done!!