What a day to show members of Australia’s Cuban community around the Burnley gardens and field station. Here’s musician Adrian getting up close and personal with some of my Cranberry Hibiscus. Put simply, practitioners of the Afro-Cuban religion venerate plant life and see many of Melbourne’s public gardens as places of great spiritual energy, especially the ones with big trees. The massive Kauri Pines at Burnley drew the most praise today - I agree! #sundaytour #cubansoverseas #burnleyfieldstation #spiritualplants #sacredlandscapes #hibiscusacetosella #cranberryhibiscus #agathisrobusta #urbanparksareboss

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Let us pray for the day when we all have lethal forearm spikes to catch our dinner with... #prayingmantis #spikyarm #dontfwithme #hunter #predator #beneficialinsects #lifeinagreenhouse

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Food Production for Urban Landscapes is back for 2019! This year’s class put in all their crops on a relatively mild day for a change but it was still the usual hard slog getting everything planted, fed, mulched, watered and finally netted from the pesky wood ducks. This is the first time in 128 years that some kind of undergraduate class hasn’t grown food in the Burnley Field Station so good to see Masters/post grad students keeping the tradition and dream alive #burnleyveggieplots #burnleyfieldstation #urbanagriculture #allotmentgardening #studentsgardening #studentsworkinghard #outinthefield #gettingtheirhandsdirty #wereallknackered

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Introducing the Wampi or Clausena lansium, native to south-east Asia. I have two specimens which have produced fruit for the first time, like a slightly more tropical (read pineapply) kumquat, which makes sense because it’s in the citrus family. They seem as tough as nails and have survived mild frosts in the Burnley Field Station and horrendous heat. I bought my plants from @daleysfruit in northern NSW and they sell an indigenous Australian rainforest species too which is now on my shopping list #wampi #clausenalansium #rutaceae #exoticfruits #novelcrops #burnleyfieldstation #toughplants #urbanfruittrees

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A journey today from the drought stricken and sunny Hunter Valley up into the cool, misty Barrington Tops with its patches of Gondwanan Antarctic Beech. But this moss covered tree at 1200 metres was none other than Banksia marginata! #mossontrees #banksiamarginata #australianrainforest #gondwananrainforest #nothofagusmoorei #barringtontops #australiannationalparks #barringtontopsnationalpark #subalpine

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Timor Rock in the eastern Warrumbungles near Coonabarabran NSW. It’s a remnant of an old volcano from 17 million years ago, from the same ‘hot spot’ that created Mt Warning and the Victorian Volcanic Plains (it’s currently somewhere west of Bass Straight I believe). The rusted car is a family heirloom - a 1981 VB Commodore that took my brothers and me around Australia when my Dad had long service leave a lifetime ago. It was put out to pasture as a paddock basher on my brother’s farm but didn’t survive the 2013 Warrumungle fires. Now visibly resting in peace #warrumbunglenationalpark #warrumbungles #coonabarabran #countrynewsouthwales #paddockbasher #vbcommodore #rustedcar #burntoutcar #timorrock #oldvolcano #surreallandscape

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Things emerging at the Northcote Pool Kitchen Garden in time for mid to late autumn - Butternut Pumpkins and Sweet Potatoes. In these hot, climate change/catastrophe summers, Sweet Potatoes come into their own. They barely look back on the 40 Degree days and the tubers start forming early as long as they receive standard veggie patch irrigation, especially in the first two months. The purple Northern Star (bottom left) is usually available in supermarkets while the beige coloured Kestle (top right) is rarely seen. Either way they both yield well in Melbourne. And by this time of year the (edible) foliage is outcompeting weeds (bottom right) making it a super functional and attractive ground cover #sweetpotatoplants #batatasdoce #ipomoeabatatas #roottuber #groundcoverplants #climateadaptation #climateadaptedplants #climatecatastrophe #heatwaves #butternutpumpkin #edibleleaves #northcotepool #kitchengarden

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Here be monsters at #bunurongmarinepark. Big tides over the last few years have washed a lot of beach away and revealed some bizarre looking rocks #lookslikeanalien #strangerocks #onanotherplanet #alienencounters #whataretheyhiding #alienconspiracy #overactiveimagination #coastalwalk #onthebeach #dinosaurcoast #flatrocksinverloch #seaweedeverywhere

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A heritage Utopia for lovers of colonial Victoriana, including Bunya Pine silhouettes, Italianate architecture, heavy interiors, Lemon-scented Gums and the contemporary addition of delicious food prepared by the Karen community, ingredients sourced from the kitchen garden #werribeemansion #araucariabidwillii #corymbiacitriodora #heritagegardens #playingforsheepstations #goldrushmoney #victorianinterior #urbanagriculture #communitygarden #karenfood #parksvictoria #italianatearchitecture #treesilhouette #nineteenthcentury #picturesque #gardenesque

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It’s a Rescue Banana from my garden! It’s as happy as all those Greyhounds walking the suburbs now, only in this case walking becomes being watered again! Off to a new home and successfully dug up by Maddy and Paul #rescuingplants #bananaonthego #bananaplant #melbournebananas #savingplants #newhome #mattock #itsarescue

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Goodbye garden! The compost bins are decanted and have been lying around like beheaded Daleks for a few days, off to their new home at the Northcote Pool tomorrow. It’s been scary watching couch regrow this summer from its tiny strands that I’ve oppressed like humanoid kryptonite to C4 grasses for so many years...my Abyssinian Banana is 10 years old including its early life in.a pot and still shows no sign of flowering. I’m watering it to the bitter end before I abandon it to its fate next week in my chopper out of here (Ford Falcon Station Wagon). Over and out.#goodbyegarden #abandonedgarden #compostbins #daleks #obscurereference #leavingyoubehind #thefallof #outofhere #enseteventricosum

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Last days of Chez Moi...improvised seating devices are the order of the day. Moving house proves again the value of the Aussie milk crate. Note for legal purposes: actual milk crate may not be shown #movinghouse #chezmoi #nottostandard #improvisedseating #milkcrate #milkcratecreations #rentallife #nomoregarden #getoutclause #untouchable

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