The last wedding of the season approaches next weekend and the gardens are looking good. The lawns have responded to the March rains and autumn fertilizing and are looking beautifully green. Unfortunately I fear that it was too cold when we applied nematodes recently to combat the lawn grubs as a fox has been digging up grubs merrily. The Plectranthus ciliatus has been putting on a wonderful show and is worth keeping under control for this reason. This plectranthus tip roots readily from it’s hairy stems and so can be a little invasive but not hard to pull back. 
Camellia sassanqua Setsugekka
The windflowers and sassanqua camellias are flowering, the camellias will continue to flower well into the winter. We have arborists working on the Pyrus in our car park. They are pruning them back off the buildings, raising them a little to allow cars easier parking underneath and thinning them so that the winds will pass through. They have grown well in a less than ideal situation and have become wind sails; catching the wind and being rocked more than we would like in a car park. We save as much of the wood chip as we can and have started mulching our garden beds including the bed at the front of the Gazebo. Here we have laid cardboard down over a particularly bad patch of onion weed and mulched on top of the cardboard. A visitor told me I need to cover onion weed for 7 years! The Rosa mutabilis is in this section of the garden. It is still only small but I find the flowers and their fading exquisite.
gardens50plus 
Thanks Liz; if you think the plectranthus would grow on the south side of our cottage, under the pergola there, would you please save me some of your weeded bits, so I can give them a try? You could bring some in August,M Perhaps?
Dionne Mitchell Curra Creek Figs & Fine Foods 532 Curra Creek Road Curra Creek NSW 2820 Mobile: 0414 815 110
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Hi Dionne,
I can certainly bring you cuttings in August. If the hellebores are managing then the plectranthus should be fine.
Liz
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Hi Liz,
My plectranthus here in Canberra is not so rampant but it has grown a bit, and has a few flowers looking very pretty under the olives. I’d like to put some of the native one there too, for the contrast of its silvery leaves. Are they roses in your gazebo bed with the purple new growth? Very healthy looking for this time of year if they are. Mine looking quite spotty, but the new “Joyfullness ” rose has some good Autumn blooms.
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Hi Fiona,
The Scentimental rose was very badly hit with black spot at the end of all the rain in March. I removed most of the leaves and gave it a fertilize with Neutrog rose food and a small amount of Sulphate of potash as recommended in the Gardening Australia Fact Sheet.Also sprayed with a dilute bicarb soda /seasol mix. The fact sheet suggests fertilizing 4 times a year. I am not keen on the sulphate component as it may be detrimental to good soil microbes but the rose certainly responded. The rose Soul Sister nearby has not looked nearly so healthy through the year but had no black spot!!
Our native plectranthus was just about wiped out in the cold last year but I still have a bit struggling on.
Liz
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