What's Flowering in our patch in Makuru (June / July 2019)

The first in a series of blogs where I share what's flowering in our patch. With a deep respect for the traditional custodians of this land, I'm sharing what's flowering during each of the 6 Indigenous seasons. We are currently around the middle of the Makuru, traditionally known as the season of fertility and associated this season with the weather being the coldest and wettest of the year with more frequent gales and storms. Climate change is having a huge impact on these traditional seasons and the patterns and timings are definitely shifting, confusing all flora and fauna.

Our aim here is to give a majority of our land back to nature and one way we do this is by having an abundance of food in the form of flowers for all endemic fauna - from the tiniest native bees to the largest foraging mammals and birds and everything in between. From trees to groundcovers, natives to edibles, here's our list of plants that are in flower. We hope you find some inspiration from this list for what you could plant in your own garden. (Note: some are only flowering for parts of Makuru and some are flowering throughout the whole season:)

My patch in late Spring

When we took over the guardianship of this 5 acres in 2005, it was all just weedy paddocks with thankfully some 35 year old trees around the borders. Our aim from the beginning was to re-create a healthy mini ecosystem that would provide the needs of all endemic life as well as grow our own food and herbal medicine.

We wanted to provide a great diversity of flowers, with overlapping flowering times throughout all seasons and to have peak flowering to occur during Spring and Summer to provide the necessary resources for native bees to successfully nest each year.

Vibrant sunflowers attracting in the beneficial bugs and pollinators

We have succeeded! - our garden is abundantly bursting at the seams with life! So I've decided that every 2 months I will walk around my garden and record what's flowering and share with you. Hopefully my lists can provide some ideas of what plants you can introduce into your garden for some year round flowering.

Our aim over the next couple of years is to introduce even more endemic native plants;