Smell this!

Pittosporum undulatum

Lots of flowers happening at PG today: get out and have a sniff at some of them!

We have a tree up by the arch at the top of the steps flowering - Pittosporum undulatum. The tiny white flowers are really sweet-smelling.

The Echiums around the garden are covered in blue flowers now too, and hundreds of honey bees and bumble bees are buzzing around them. They don't smell of much to a human being, but clearly they are absolutely amazing for bees and they do look lovely.

Philadelphus "Belle Etoile"

Then right next to the arch is our Philadelphus "Belle Etoile,"and that's covered in large white flowers too, so find out why it's called Mock Orange for yourself: what scent!

Matt and I spent 4 hours weeding and doing tasks on Saturday. Most notably, Matt concreted in two posts that will form the bases for the poop stations we just bought.

These solid metal containers will have poop bags available and a container for dog owners to place poop in, and they will be emptied monthly by volunteers and a poop pickup service we will pay for.

Disgusting

It was really disappointing to see that someone has been dumping bagged dog poop at the base of the light pole again, and also hanging bags of poop from the Agave at the front. How disgusting!

And it's also pretty galling to have to pay almost $800 of our money for two poop stations and a monthly fee to empty them because a few dog owners are so irresponsible, letting their dogs literally crap on all our hard work. It mystifies me how thoughtless this is - right next to a "Please pick up after your dog" sign too...

Well weeded

While pondering this, I weeded the end of the brights bed by the arch, and spread wood chips to suppress further weeds. I filled an entire bin of the composter with weeds, and turned another one over. Our composters need some work - the lids are damaged from homeless people climbing up on them, so we will need to buy new wood and redo the tops.

Someone kindly left an Agave in a pot at the entrance of the garden: thanks! Its worth noting that plants left in pots are usually stolen though, so please contact me if you have a donation :)

Before and after

On Sunday we returned to complete installation of the poop stations, only to find out that the company had sent the wrong top parts. We spent some time weeding around Agaves instead, as they often get a nasty case of rot at the base if you don't keep soggy weeds away from them. We pulled all the old chips away, which had composted down to dirt, removed all the weeds, then put fresh chips in so the Agaves are not buried in chips. Much better.