A record drought & a yard full of trees

Trees: we need them more than they need us...and we ALL REALLY NEED SOME RAIN.

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Notes:

• Today’s full newsletter is only available to paid subscribers and members of The Wild Garden club.

• It’s a list of (almost) all the trees we are currently growing in our garden - that’s what you’ll get if you’re a free subscriber, PLUS a 30 minute video tour showing you all the trees in our garden (that’s what you’ll get if you’re a paid subscriber).

• If you’d like to access the whole newsletter (and to receive all of my member-only guides, newsletters, recipes and videos), consider becoming a paying member of Lo fi Life, or upgrading your subscription and becoming a member of my Wild Garden club (you can do this by clicking the button below).

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OK.

WHERE IS THE RAIN???

Why hasn’t it rained yet?? Is anyone else starting to get increasingly freaked out by the total lack of water falling from the sky?!?

I had a dream once that unhinged me for a few days. I’d woken up before sunrise and was making breakfast - boiling the tea, cooking toast, getting dressed - all the while waiting for the sun to appear like it always did. But I waited and waited and still it stayed dark. People started coming out of their houses, congregating in the street. Staring up at the pitch black sky, wondering, just as I was, where has the sun gone? And then it started to rise. But it wasn’t the sun as we knew it. It was a burnt out husk - a coal blackened ember that barely lit the earth. And all at once everyone realised that nothing else mattered - the wars, the petty squabbles, the last electricity bill. None of it mattered because the sun was dead and we were all about to be wholly, entirely screwed.

This feels a bit like that.

And of course it will rain... I guess. Probably. Surely.

But that’s not really the point, is it. Because even when (if) it does rain, it likely won’t rain as much, or for as long, and over the next ten, twenty years, none of us really has a clear idea of where this is all going.

Sometimes I feel a bit despondent. Worried I’ve picked the wrong career path - after all, who is going to want to garden in a soon-to-be-desert? Who is going to stay motivated while their Polyphagous Shothole borer-infested trees are ripped out, one by one, leaving their garden bare and sunbaked once more?

And then I counter myself. Because what is the alternative? We give up? We head inside out air conditioned homes, stick a pool and some gravel out back and leave the birds and the skinks and the frogs, grasshoppers, bees, bobtails and butterflies to their own devices? Abandoned to battle it out in the baking hot world we built for them out of our own avarice?

I picked this job for myself because I love it. Because there is nothing more soothing to my neurotic mind than chucking something in the soil, and nurturing it, and watching it thrive. And because far too many people don’t realise just how valuable and life enhancing growing things can be and I wan’t to tell them. To show them much we need it. Like we need the sun, and the rain.

So giving up isn’t an option. We can’t accept a world devoid of trees, of bugs, of wildlife. What a catastrophically depressing world that would be. The only option is to double down. To try harder, plant smarter.

I’m not exactly sure how to do that yet. I feel like our methods of gardening are going to need to become much smarter, more tactical and more pragmatic over the years to come.

For now, there’s one easy thing we can do to at least mitigate some of the damage that has been done over the last year in WA thanks to the drought and the shot hole borers: we can plant some trees.

This obviously isn’t a silver bullet solution - if WA does indeed turn into a barren, desertified landscape it’s not going to be hospitable to trees either. But trees are at the very least more resilient to the changes in climate. In a suburban environment, with a bit of irrigation, they can make it through dry summers in one piece, while helping cool our homes and providing vital habitat for birds and other wildlife.

Its been said that if the current rates of tree losses due to the shot hole borers continue in WA at their current rate, we stand to lose 10 000 trees over the next four years. And it is becoming far too normal to drive through suburbs that have next to no tree cover. Nothing to dilute the hammering, blinding rays of the sun. I don’t want to live in a world like that. I want to live in a world with dappled shade, with bird song, with greenery. The way to get there is to plant tough trees that will stick out these next decade with us while we work out how to fix the mess we’ve made.

It also feels way better to do something in the face of my own creeping climate anxiety, and planting trees is something.

So, here’s a list of (almost) every tree in our garden.

AND if you are a paying subscriber, keep scrolling because at the end of this newsletter there is also a 30 minute video tour of our garden where I show you every single tree on the list.

These trees have provided us with food, brought birds into our garden, shaded and cooled the backyard and created a microclimate that has somewhat shielded the garden from the worst of the hot, dry summers (which means fewer deaths of the other, smaller plants that are growing in their shade).

The endless blue skies which - in spring - were something to be celebrated and relished, today bring me a slithering, sinking feeling of dread. But they can’t last forever. Winter has to arrive, eventually. Surely. The rain must come, in the end. And with it, the possibility of action, of growth.

So if you do one thing in your garden this winter, once the heavens have finally opened, plant a tree. Plant one of these:

(almost) all of the trees in our garden

Banana

Banana trees are a fantastic tree to grow if you live in Perth - they thrive out here with very little effort needed. They are fast growing and dynamic - once one trunk has fruited it will die back, leaving space for a new baby trunk to grow up in its place. After you’ve harvested the bananas, chop that trunk off at the base, allowing the new baby tree to spring up.

Mango

Mangoes can take a little while to produce fruit and can fruit unreliably - last year our tree produced thirty fruit, this year not a single one! That said, they are a beautiful tropical tree with a lovely arbour, and when they do fruit they are certainly worth the wait.

Papaya

A tall, short-lived, fast growing tropical tree. These have a shallow root system and are often grown in permaculture gardens to quickly create shade. There are male, female and hermaphroditic (self-fertilising) varieties - unless you want to buy a male and a female, look for a self-fertilising papaya tree.

Bay tree

This is such a beautiful tree, it can be grown as a bush or standardised and allowed to grow as a tall tree - the leaves are a wonderful addition to so many dishes and, being from the Mediterranean, the trees are tough and willing to endure droughts and hot summer sun without complaint. They’re slow(ish) growers but will eventually reach great heights.

Curry leaf tree

These trees are gorgeous - they have lovely delicate leaves with such a pungent aroma - so beautiful in curries! They’ll grow 4-8m in height and self-seed easily but in my experience none of the little curry leaf seedlings that emerge in autumn has matured into a proper tree (I suspect winter kills them off), so it hasn’t been an issue.

Red-fleshed apple

This is a lovely, flavoursome variety of apple with a red and white centre - as beautiful as it is delicious.

Eureka lemon

This is a great lemon for almost year-round fruit, there are only a few months of the year when it doesn’t provide us with lemons. Last year some of the lemons were bigger than a grapefruit! In terms of flavour, though, I prefer a Meyer lemon (sweeter and with softer, thinner skin). Lemons and other citrus are also good options if you’re growing a potted garden - pop them in a big pot, make SURE they don’t dry out and feed them semi-regularly with chicken manure and they should give you fruit. Like most plants they will do better if planted in the ground, though.

Tahitian lime

It took our lime tree about 7 years to produce reliable fruit, but now it drips with limes towards the end of autumn - delicious and great for mojitos if you also happen to be growing Moroccan mint (the best kind of mint to grow imo).

Kaffir lime

If you like Tom Yum and generally delicious food you need to be growing a Kaffir (aka Makrut) lime tree. They are tough (like most citrus) and have incredibly flavoursome leaves that work well in all sorts of Thai dishes, taste delicious with fish and are also wonderful in desserts. Thinly slice the fruits and add them to icy water in summer in place of sliced lemon - so much better!

Pink grapefruit

I treated my pink grapefruit tree like crap (left it in a pot, neglected to water it for an entire summer, almost killed it). It is finally in the ground and is coming back into leaf. If any plant deserves a recommendation it is this poor little tree - it is tough as old boots.

Orange

Our orange is laden with fruit at the moment and is a great, low maintenance tree.

Black Sapote

This tree is reputed to have fruit that tastes like a chocolate pudding! And this year I have two (2!) fruit slowly slowly ripening on it. So I will be able to report back to you on the matter of flavour very soon (as long as the damn rats don’t get to them first)

Custard apple

Custard apple fruit is one of the most delicious flavours on earth. Our custard apple is still immature so hasn’t fruited yet…I am waiting impatiently. In the meantime, it is also a very beautiful tree with big leaves and gangly dangly branches.

Elderflower

Our elderflower was sadly infested by shot hole borers so I have been hesitant to replace it. It was gorgeous though - it produced gorgeous frothy white flowers in spring - the bees loved it too. In the mean time I have replaced it with a white flowering crepe myrtle as those are less susceptible to the borers.

Fig

Figs are another tough tree (though sadly they can be infested by the borer - as so many trees can, it feels almost pointless mentioning which trees are susceptible as the vast majority are). If you keep your fig happy and borer free, however, it will be worth your while. They have fragrant leaves that can be used in cooking and the most delicious fruit - you can never get good figs at the shops, if you want the sweetest, tastiest, freshest figs you really have to grow them yourself. I have heard that the best fruit grows on young branches, so a hard prune is recommended for figs towards the end of winter before they put out their summer growth. I’ll be testing this theory this year so will report back!

Dwarf Peach-Nectarine

Two fruits grafted onto one base - this tree produced the best peach I have ever eaten a few years ago, one year ago the fruit fell off, this year the rat ate the only peach on the tree. A tree of dashed dreams and false hopes, but next year I’ll be ready with a net and a lot of determination! If you have a courtyard/balcony garden dwarf fruit trees are a great option as they’ll do well in a large half-wine-barrel pot.

Mulberry

A big, hardy, delicious tree that drips with juicy, sweet magenta fruits every springtime! I love our mulberry. Every house needs a mulberry tree, but ours may be on borrowed time as a single shot hole borer hole has been found in it. I’m hoping it might be ok, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Pomegranate

Super tough and with beautiful flowers and totally gorgeous fruits pomegranates could be growing simply for their ornamental beauty, but it helps that their fruit is delicious too. These ones are near-impossible to kill (I should know, I treated mine appallingly and it didn’t mind a whit). This is a great one to pop in a large pot if you have a courtyard or balcony garden.

Pecan

This tree was in the garden when we moved in, it is GIANT - about 8m tall - and it provides heaps of lovely dappled shade. It would give us pecans if we could be bothered to pick and shell them, but so far we’ve preferred to leave them as an offering to the Carnaby's black cockatoos that visit our house every Autumn to feast on them.

Lemon verbena

I killed my last lemon verbena by pruning it too harshly so this time I am leaving it unbothered to do its thing and grow as a bit of a bushy shrub. The leaves of the lemon verbena have an amazing flavour - they taste beautiful in iced teas, finely chopped into a salad, as part of a vinaigrette or alongside some fish - a totally versatile tree with the most gorgeous little white flowers in summer). You can also get lime verbenas - I’ve just added one to our garden!

Crepe Myrtle

I’ve already mentioned our white crepe myrtle, but we also have three pink ones! The more nervous I get about shot hole borers, the more crepe myrtles I buy as they are one of the trees that is reported to be pretty resistant to the borer. They are covered in flowers through summer and you can get them in a huge range of colours. Their trunks are smooth, mottled and beautiful too.

Cottonwood Hibiscus (Hibiscus tiliaceus rubra)

These ones are - in my opinion - a little overdone in Perth. But that’s just because they are tough and reliable, fast growing trees that form an easy hedge (if a hedge is what you want; they can also be left to grow into a regular standard tree). Actually, I like the leaves, and the trees do produce lovely creamy white flowers. I’m really being unfair to be honest, the only reason I don’t like these trees is that I see them everywhere. They’re a great option for adding a lovely deep purple foliage element to your garden.

Angel’s Trumpet tree

Everyone stresses out about these trees being poisonous. So don’t eat them. The flowers are INCREDIBLE and they come in massive waves multiple times throughout the year. A great small tree that will grow in dappled shade in the understory of bigger trees or in a sunny location.

Gingko biloba

Look, everywhere online says that Gingko trees don’t mind a drought and are hardy, reliable trees. Tell that to the balding stick in our backyard. Since buying our tree I’ve discovered that ‘drought tolerant’ means something different to everyone else on the planet. Which shouldn’t really come as a surprise seeing as it HASN’T RAINED AT ALL HERE IN SIX MONTHS. It remains to be seen whether our gingko twig survives… but I wouldn’t really go recommending it at this stage.

Madagascan Boabab

This guy has a big bulbous trunk and loses all its leaves in winter and looks totally ridiculous and I LOVE IT. Such a silly little tree and definitely one to consider if you feel like planting something kooky (you could also grow a Queensland Bottle Tree if you’re after another tree with a lotta junk in its trunk).

Sandpaper wattle

A beautiful WA native with very rough, spiky leaves, the sandpaper wattle is covered in yellow catterpillar-like blossoms in late winter/early spring. Its more of a sprawling shrub but well worth adding to your garden.

Cape wedding tree

A great small tree/shrub to add to a dappled-shade are in your garden, the cape wedding tree, like the angels trumpet, will flower in part shade and the flowers are GORGEOUS and smell wonderful. Such a beautiful tree - once you see the flowers in the video below you’ll see why it’s the cape wedding tree, the flowers are so bridal looking and pretty - they droop down from the branches in giant clusters like little bells.

Cestrum Nocturnum

Another option for a shady zone, Cestrum Nocturnum (aka Night Scented Jessamine) is a fast-growing small tree that produces masses of tiny white fragrant flowers in spring. It’s called Night Scented Jessamine because the flowers are most fragrant at dusk - a beautiful small tree you could pop near an outdoor seating area so that its fragrance can waft over you while you have an evening tipple!

Olives

Olives are another good option if you’re growing a potted garden. They are so tough and will withstand a pretty huge amount of abuse. They aren’t afraid of the summer heat and their silver-grey-blue foliage is truly beautiful. Pop them in the ground and they will grow lovely and big and plenty of birds like their fruits too!

Cypress pencil pine

These trees are useful to add as a design feature in a garden that lacks vertical height. They grow tall and (relatively) skinny and can give your garden a lovely Mediterranean feel. They have a great presence in the garden and, with a pretty shallow root system, have always been easy to transplant when I decide they need to be relocated (which is basically every autumn) - tough as old boots!

ALL of our trees…on film!

Ok, time for the video tour! I hope it will help you to see how these trees are all growing in our garden and that it might give you a bit of added inspiration to add some of them to your patch too! Enjoy!