Suburban Tokyo’s Little Slice Of The Godzone
Aussies like to call our country the Godzone, a corruption of the phrase “God’s Own Country,” and we’ve been lucky enough to replicate a little bit of that zone in the suburbs of Tokyo.
Thanks to the talents of the amazing Alex Endo, Japan’s premier author on Australian plants and designer of gardens using Aussie natives, we have an incredible Aussie garden.
Late spring in the lead-up to the rainy season is when the garden puts on its finest show.
Nearly everywhere is lush and green.
But there is also an explosion of color and beauty as the flowers spring forth.
We have the scarlet of the callistemon.
The burning red of the bottlebrush flowers is eye-catching and I hope that just tipping this year will give us repeated blooms instead of the damaging heavy prune I inflicted on our poor tree last year, limiting it to one batch of blossoms.
Grevillea are putting on a flamboyant blast of yellows, pinks and gradated mix of both as Kangaeroo Corner’s centerpiece.
Our kangaroo paws have tended to be lime-colored, but they are slow to come forth this year, but those that have buds are displaying the typical tendency. We’ve got a kangaroo paw patch going, but there are no signs of flowers there at the moment.
A paperbark teatree (Melaleuca quinquenervia) is also starting to bloom, with more buds than ever before for us this year.
Our bush rosemary has continued its stunning run, blessing us with delightful blue flowers for almost a couple of months now.
Even the irises are gorgeous, and a gift from the previous owners of our home, who were apparently avid gardeners.
This year I am trying to keep the lawn alive after summer after the blistering heat of the past couple of years had turned it into a dustbowl. It’s remarkably verdant now, but it remains to be seen what it will be like when the heat really turns up.
The birds and insects are loving the garden and flocking to enjoy it, too.
And so is Mrs. Kangaeroo, who has started her Magic Herb Garden, which is thriving and providing us with added flavor and joy with every meal.
And the May sunshine, when it does creep through, is having a wonderful effect on the solar-powered water pumps, including on the Fountain of Strewth, which is crocodile-infested and prohibits swimming (except for Americans).
Also infested was my favorite plant from last year: the huge kangaroo paw grown from seeds brought back from my hometown, thus imbued with sentimentality and a source of immense pride when they thrived. Sadly, they hadn’t grown this year, and I found out why. The pot was riddled with the larvae of Japanese fruit beetles (we call them Christmas beetles in Oz, but they were no present for us), the scourge of beautiful plants as they devour their roots. I was all set to nuke the little pests with a heavy dose of Diazinon, which came highly recommended, only to discover the insecticide is phosphorus-based. Aussie natives hate phosphorus! Having realized that, I dug out as many of the larvae as I could find, replanted the kangaroo paw and will hope for the best. If they haven’t recovered in a month, I’ll dump the soil and try again.
