LICHENS....play a crucial role.

Make a wish, a rainbow in winter is not common.

Where Lichens grow the air is clean...

This Euphorbia is about 20 years old and is host to many beautiful Lichens.

This tree has many Lichen beards growing on its bark.

Lichens like to grow on bush rocks.

Lichens grow on a 20 year old Bangalow Palm the perfect host for them.

This beautiful Lichen grows on a dead piece of wood.

Lichen love
Few other organisms play a more crucial role in the Australian ecosystem than lichens. The termites of the plant world, lichens extract and recycle nutrients, crumbling rocks to create the soil other plants need to survive.
Lichens are a strange assemblage of fungi and algae existing in a symbiotic relationship. The fungi are mostly of the genus Ascomycota, and the algae are single-celled organisms such as green or blue-green algae. In flat lichens, the algae dwell in layers between the fungi like a slime sandwich.
Although the relationship is complex, the algae's essential role is to share carbon with the fungi, which in turn scrapes nutrients from the surface it's attached to and provides the algae with somewhere to live.
Lichen can form flat crusts, bumpy or lobed masses, and fibrous fronds that hang like witches hair from the trees in temperate forests.
www.abc.net.au/science/scribbly gum/ by Heather Catchpole

Bull Bay Magnolia offers its bark to a wide range of fascinating Lichens in different forms and colours. It also plays host to small native orchids.

Here Lichens have made a "landscape" pattern. Lichens are so subtle and beautiful.

In medieval times, a purple dye discovered in lichen of the genus Roccella revolutionised the fashion industry. This dye brought royal purple, a colour previously extracted from the glands of tens of thousands of sea snails, to the masses. Lichen purple, which required as much lichen as material to make the dye, was popular until it was replaced by a synthetic purple made from aniline.

Lichen reacts very quickly to pollution, which kills the algal component, leaving the fungi unable to fend for itself. Different species are susceptible to different levels of pollution so their presence or absence in an area is an indicator of the quality of the air.

Lichen are nature's little indicator in several ways. Litmus paper, used to differentiate between acid and alkaline substances, is made from the same lichen which once supplied purple dye.

www.abc.net.au/science/scribbly gum/ by Heather Catchpole

Lichens in different colours grow on the bark of Tibouchina Noelle. Look at the green neon colour together with white and blue.

Fantastic landscape lichen.

Different Lichens are coating this bark.

This one looks like a snow flake. Many more grow on the bark of this tree.

Lichens are significant in Australia because of their ecological importance, aesthetic value, and usefulness to humanity. A lichen is one of the most remarkable alliances in nature. It can be regarded as a community rather than an organism because it always consists of at least one species of alga and one species of fungus. The algal portion of the lichen is its photosynthetic component and is very sensitive to sulphur dioxide in the atmosphere. The fungal portion usually makes up the bulk of the plant; it is drought resistant and able to withstand periods of hot and cold temperatures and dryness with no ill effect to the lichen which remains dormant. This makes the lichen a useful monitor for both pollution and water relations, that is, assessing the amount of water absorbed through the surface of the lichen in relation to the available moisture in the atmosphere.
Lichen spores prefer the bark of some trees. When they are happy they produce the most beautiful patterns.

Air pollution close to cities, highways and around factories denudes these areas of sensitive lichens. The renowned sensitivity of lichens to air pollution derives from an ability to concentrate air- or water-borne compounds in the plant body, potentially to lethal levels. Sulphur dioxide, fluoride, lead and zinc are common causes of death in lichen populations. Aerial application of fertilisers, fungicides and insecticides is also likely to have a significant impact on the non-vascular flora.

I passed the beautiful Hana Fuki...and I couldn't resist!




Believe it or not: Build a bridge and get over it!





Organic tip of the week:
COMPASSION IN ACTION A growing number of socially responsible manufacturers have recognised the cruelty of animal testing. By buying only "cruelty free" products and by voicing their complaints to companies that still use animal tests, consumers play a vital role in eliminating cruel test methods.

Please buy cosmetics which are labeled cruelty free not tested on animals.

http.www.crueltyfreeshop.com.au









Thank you for visiting and have a nice day.


Copyright T.S. Yesterdaytodayandtomorrow in my garden.


Photos from my garden. T.S.

What do children paint, when...

their parents and the grand parents are green fingered?




The day begins when liquid gold is shimmering and mingling within the still shadowy garden.

I wish I had a painted garden
Where the sun spreads golden glitter over rouge and over bleu
Where the clouds drift over rainbows, and the stars are silver raindrops
When the fairies and the goblins, danse le pas de deux.

Copyright T.S.

A hill full of flowers...

Sunshine....a flower....a bee and a heart who wants more ...

"Fairy Bells", winter pleasure, the blushed flowers of an Aloe.

My Island in the sun.

A species of purple Tibouchina. The whole shrub is a purple pyramid, the flowers picked out with starry white anthers.

Dark purple Salvia flowers through winter into spring. It grows tall and is easily propagated from cuttings. This is a plant that grows well in the subtropics.

When F. was three she made me a painting. When I asked her what did you paint. She said, I painted your garden.

Delicate blushers....

The imagination of F. says flowers and insects...

Believe it or not: Never eat the first strawberry....throw it where the birds will get it.

Organic tip of the week:

Recycle paper and cardboard.
That 12,000 tonnes of recycled cardboard and paper could potentially save:
more than 150,000 trees;
more than 4,000 litres of oil;
almost 50,000 cubic metres of landfill;
more than 380 mega litres of water;
almost 50,000 megawatt hours of electricity.
http://www.thisplace.com.au/







All photos T.S.

Copyright Blog Yesterdaytodayandtomorrow in my garden T.S.

Thank you for visiting and have a nice day.

A Courtyard Garden

Las Ventanas is the home and garden of my daughter ML and her family. Three dogs and a bevy of chickens. ML and her husband are keen gardeners and have created a heaven for birds and wildlife in their garden with planting hundreds of native flowering trees and shrubs.


"Sasha" is guarding the entrance.



In the corner in a pot grows epiphillum oxipetalum. Pots planted with a variety of succulents are arranged in groups. Hanging pots are filled with spider plants which ML likes.

The Spider Plant, Chlorophytum comosum, is a species of Chlorophytum native to South Africa.
Spider plants have long narrow leaves that are 20–40 cm (8–15 in) long and 5–20 mm (0.2–0.8 in) broad, which grow from a central rosette. It also produces branched stolons with small white flowers and baby plantlets.
It is a very popular houseplant. The most widely grown is the variegated cultivar 'Variegatum', with one or two broad yellowish-white bands running along the length of each leaf, but natural, entirely green plants are also grown.
The Spider Plant is very easy to propagate. They can be propagated by splitting its main rosette, or more easily by removing plantlets from the stolons and potting them separately or putting them in a glass of water.
It is an especially popular plant with beginners, as it is easy to grow and propagate and is very tolerant of neglect, being able to thrive in nearly any type of condition.
Spider plants have also been shown to reduce indoor air pollution.
At the spot where a leaf would normally develop a node, these plants will produce adventitious roots down into the soil, and new above ground shoots.Wikipedia

The whole area holds an under ground rainwater tank. ML has covered the concrete floor with small river pebbles. She has placed matching slabs to walk. Along this pathway she has placed Pony tails in pots. Two matching lollipop fig trees are framing the blue entrance door, and in the corner are Aloes and Agaves growing in pots.

Beaucarnea recurvata (often called the ponytail palm in English, even though it is not a true palm) is a species of Beaucarnea often grown as a houseplant in temperate latitudes. Successful cultivation requires winter minimum temperatures of above 10 °C, rising to around 30 °C in summer

The tinkling water from a small fountain gives a relaxed feeling to the setting...

Along the wall grows a Wisteria and in the troughs are more succulents. The flowering one the "donkey ear" with huge spotted leaves and tall flower stalks. This is a very hot area in summer. The succulents cope well and don't have to be watered all the time.

A shot of Agave and Aloes. A spider plant keeps company with the potted fig and the Lady Julia looks on!

A group of succulents. In the corner a big pot with a variegated Agave. ML cuts of the sharp pointy ends.

Believe it or not: The ponderous clouds that speak of thunder hail and lightening are male. The soft, gray clouds that nourish the plants with their dancing rain are female. In Africa.

Organic tip of the week.


Plant trees! They filter air pollution, contribute oxygen, help with soil erosion, provide shelter and habitats for birds and other creatures. Trees help control the greenhouse effect and act as air conditioners, keeping areas shaded and cool.

Photos by ML.

Copyright. T.S. Yesterdaytodayandtomorrow in my garden.

Thank you for your visit and have a happy day.

I have been TAGGED....

by easygardener

Here are the rules for tagging.



Link to the person who tagged you.
Post the rules on your blog.
Write six random things about yourself.
Tag six people at the end of your blog.
Let each person know they have been tagged,
by leaving a comment on their blog.
Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Don’t feel you have to tag anyone in turn. It is up to you.

Here are six things about myself:
I like chickens, not only for their wonderful eggs. I would like lots of different breeds and a fancy hen house.
I love early mornings, it is my best time of the day.
I am a bookworm.
I like cooking especially soups.
I am a chocoholic.
I hate doing repetitive work.

Here are the 6 persons I like to tag:





Cooking in someone elses kitchen


Simple Things


Gardening fool


Green desert


ladyluzsalamanderverde


terra farmer


Thank you for visiting and enjoy.



















































































Thank you for visiting, enjoy and have a lovely day.

THIS IS WINTER...in my garden

Pyrostegia venusta climbing up a tree. Its glowing orange flowers light up the winter garden. (Pyro=fire)

The lovely flowers of a scented Geranium which come into their own over winter. I love this colour, I will make cuttings of this one.

Dianthus planted into containers in spring go to sleep over the hot summer, are pruned and then flower on from autumn into winter. From time to time they are replaced with new plants. If I have time I make cuttings otherwise I buy them as seedlings in punnets.

Ice Bear

The beautiful but temperamental Hana Fuki

Drama girl is an actress of excellence, she performs well from early autumn into spring.

Some of my Camellias, they add colour to the garden through winter.

Agave attenuate is a bold looking plant, after about 10 years this plant bears a foxtail crowned with white umbels. If you never look at a flower you will turn your head for this one.

Agave attenuata is a species of agave sometimes known as the "lion's tail", "swan's neck", or "foxtail" for its development of a curved stem, unusual among agaves. Native to the plateau of central Mexico, as one of the unarmed agaves, it is popular as an ornamental plant in gardens.
The stems typically range from 50-150 cm in length, and eventually old leaves fall off, leaving them naked and visible. The leaves are ovate-accuminate, 50-70 cm long and 12-16 cm, pale in color, ranging from a light gray to a light yellowish green. There are no teeth, nor terminal spines, although the leaves taper to points that fray with age. The inflorescence is a dense raceme 2.5 to 3 meters high, with greenish-yellow flowers.

The flowers of this Begonia have finished but the leaves are attractive and provide interest through winter.

Ivy Geraniums come into their own over winter with non stop flowering and glossy leaves. In summer they struggle with the heat and humidity. This was just a cutting a few weeks ago.

A Laelia orchid has decided that winter is the time it likes best.

Schlumbergera also kown as Zygocactus are epiphytes growing on tree branches. They show their exotic flowers in winter.




Cordylines are attractive all year round winter doesn't make a difference to them.

The small Zinnias seed where ever they think it is convenient even between paving stones.

Winter is the time to plant roses.

Pink Euphorbia milii flowers well into winter.

Melaleucas flower profusely in winter providing food for birds, small mammals, bats and insects.

Anthurium grows in many forms, mostly evergreen, bushy or climbing epiphytes with roots that often hang from the canopy all the way to the floor of the rain forest. There are also many terrestrial forms as well as hemiepiphytic forms. A hemiepiphyte is a plant capable of beginning life as a seed and sending roots to the soil, or beginning as a terrestrial plant that climbs a tree and then sends roots back to the soil. They occur also as lithophytes. Some are only found in association with arboreal ant colonies or growing on rocks in midstream (such as A. amnicola).

Believe it or not:

1768-1786 were the years of enlightenment with its belief that the application of reason and good sense could solve all the problems of mankind!

Organic tip of the week:

Use egg cartons to grow seedlings, from seed. When the seedlings are ready to plant, simply cut the egg carton and plant the seedlings with the carton, without disturbing the root system. The carton eventually breaks down and creates mulch for your new plant!

Pictures T.S. from my garden.

Blog Copyright T.S. Yesterdaytodayandtomorrow in my garden.