Japanese Garden - January '23 Update

With the school year about to commence after Australia Day next Thursday it was time to spend some time in the Japanese Garden. The watering has continued over the summer months but little else has been happening in the garden - apart from the weeds growing! There were also many leaves and bark from the surrounding gum trees covering the plants, stones and rocks.

First task was to give many of the azalea shrubs a light trim to neaten them and attend to some of the larger plants such as the rhododendrons. The possums have been causing some damage which includes attempting to nest in the bamboo, breaking small branches in the cherry trees and feasting on the magnolia leaves. The magnolia has now been netted so hopefully this will discourage the possums and allow the leaves to grow and the tree to recover.

Every few months the leaves need to be removed from under the bamboo at the Foot Street end of the garden. This usually means picking them out by hand as access between the bamboo makes it challenging to use a rake. Weeding and raking was the next task after dislodging the loose leaves and cuttings, followed by picking up the piles of weeds and leaves throughout the garden.

The blower/vac was then fired up to help with the cleanup of the many cuttings and leaves on the white stones, river rocks and paving next to the 3 classrooms. Some food for the garden with dynamic lifter scattered liberally before a good soaking with the hose and then time for some photos to finish.

The start of the academic year inevitably means hotter weather so ongoing watering will be required in the coming months and our next working bee will be held in March when we aim to schedule on the same Sunday morning Frankston High hold their Term 1 working bee.