Fictional character and Muse Sally Baxter, the original Girl Reporter, is on gardening leave after five years of excellent service covering the past, present and future of journalism, among other things.
But you can’t keep a good Girl Reporter down, so I’ve agreed to keep her on as Gardening Correspondent.
Join Sally and her lovely assistant the Current Mr Baxter in this occasional series, documenting the continuing struggle to learn the Art of Gardening in a traditional Australian backyard.
It’s fun. But there’s a lot of killing.
Bird in Paradise all green fingers and thumbs
In April 2015 Your Girl Reporter and the Current Mr B finally did the grown-up thing and bought a house – a traditional Queenslander on a quarter-acre block in a hot and dry corner of Ipswich, west – but not too far west – of Brisbane. A year later, we were still getting to grips with our changed circumstances…
Listen, can you hear the garden grow?
The Baxters experience their first Spring in a traditional Aussie backyard. And with some foreboding Your Girl Reporter learns that a favoured flowering tree has an itchy reputation. Meanwhile, two penguins turn up in my Lady Garden. Yes. It’s a Thing. And the penguins are an expression of our love in penguin form – that’s what I told the Current Mr B, but all he sees is more penguins about the place.
Death in Paradise: It’s murder in the veggie patch
A failure to read the instructions leads to the first major killing in the Baxter backyard. It wasn’t all bad news, with a few rare successes recorded over the summer. And Your Girl Reporter learns how to get around the garden with the less lovely assistant, ankylosing spondylitis.
In to the deep midwinter with a backyard banana or two
Dad always said those freezing Grenfell winters convinced him he always wanted to live within sight of a banana tree. So it was a special moment for Your Girl Reporter when we planted two within sight of the back deck. Meanwhile, my Lady Garden takes a whipping from that bad girl ex-Tropical Cyclone Debbie. Every Lady Garden benefits from a little trim and tidy up, and Your Girl Reporter’s is no exception.
Death stalks the garden in a penguin tee
Farewell, Itchy Tree. We won’t be missing you. Not content with one killing, it’s a war on weeds at Chez Baxter and a losing battle against the killing power of the sun. Death stalks the garden in a penguin tee, while lovely assistant the Current Mr B power-sprays the weeds. He’s a handsome horticultural Clyde to my Bonnie.
Paradise postponed
The joke’s on me, Reader – as it turns out we’re relocating to Hong Kong after this episode, relieving Mr B from his gardening duties altogether. I expect it will be back to container plantings for Your Girl Reporter in the months ahead, which will be far less adventurous, and something I can manage on my own. Stay tuned, though! I will be filing my Hong Kong Adventures in Gardening in 2019. It will be fun!
Sally