The good news today is our beautiful state of Victoria is on its way out of Covid Lockdown and from 6pm Friday travel is allowed between Melbourne and regional Victoria. This means I will be travelling to see family next weekend ❤ ❤ ❤

In the garden it has been another week of cold, rainy days so not much has been happening here in Western Victoria. Clematis are flowering and it is shaping up to be a bumper Rose season. Aphids are starting to appear so a quick squirt with a hose or a spray of horticultural oil will keep them down to a manageable level.

I have found another source of news of the environment, ecology, and culture in Orion Magazine. I am looking forward to reading this through emails and maybe finding things of interest to pass along.

Technicalities have slowed the release of my first podcast (again) but it is getting closer! Keep an eye out on all my socials! Frances.

I have been lucky enough to escape from my local area to take a short trip to see my sister in central Victoria as her ‘single social bubble’.

A trip to the Bendigo Art Gallery was a treat as their exhibition of Australian artist Brett Whiteley was still open and free to visit.

I’ve not been a fan of Whiteley’s art until seeing his works in real life, which is always the best way to get an understanding of an artist’s work, but his works including plants and animals were particularly interesting to me. I had not seen any of these works before or maybe I just hadn’t noticed. Anyway, my mind on Brett Whiteley has been changed.

After this artistic joy and a meal at the gallery café, we took a quick drive out to scope out the Oak Forest at Harcourt, in the La Larr Ba Gauwa Park as my sister’s walking group are planning a visit.

The Oak trees were planted by the Land Department in 1900, Quercus valonia, and other varieties planted as well, were supposed to provide acorns for use in the tanning and dying process. The conditions turned out to be unsuitable for Q. valonia but the other species, along with some Elm trees planted to protect the young oaks, managed to survive and have become an attractive place to visit.

Unfortunately, it was raining, and the roads were too potholed for the car we were in so we didn’t actually get to the Oak trees, but one day I will!

Source: lalarrbagauwa.harcourt.vic.au

The Moreton Bay Fig 1979 Brett Whiteley

Well things are still moving toward getting my podcast, The Flowerpot Pen, off the ground; It sometimes takes me a while to get all my stars aligned. But don’t fret! it will come and as soon as it does you’ll be the first to know!

Meanwhile, in real time, Spring has really gotten off to a great start with some good rain and some good sunshine, quite a mix of the two. Weeds are sprouting and taking off while the farmers are getting out harvesting all the lush growth we have here in the Western Districts of Victoria; lush, green growth as a result of the massive year of rain we’ve had so far. It looks like it might be a bumper year for all things flowers too, roses are starting to bud up, my Wisteria is divine, and my Viburnum plicatum is flowering the best it has in years.

I am working towards getting some people lined up to interview in my podcast (yes, it is coming!) so you can look forward to some interesting talks with a variety of people from the home gardener to the professional gardener, and hopefully a few academics who can take us deeper into the worlds of botany and/or conservation and land management.

Head on to my socials and like and follow!

’til next time!

I’m slowly working through all of the steps to get this site up and running. Connecting the socials, allowing audio updates, preparing pages…it seems to be a web of interconnected digital threads that will, in the end, allow me to get some interesting information, conversations, and general gardening stuff out into the ether!

Podcast coming very soon! Look forward to connecting to some very interesting people.

See you soon! Frances.

welcome to The Flowerpot Pen, your news source for anything to do with gardens and our environment, mainly in the Western Districts of Victoria, Australia, but also over the world. Working together we can make a difference to how our world functions, now and into the future!

Please look at the links at the bottom of the home page and follow me in my various other roles as a writer and a creator. I’m looking forward to having you join my journey. Frances.