Wattle On The Way Back Heralds Health

Our wattle is blooming gorgeously at the moment, bringing back a healthy feel to our garden.

When I broke my leg early last November, I didn’t really understand the consequences, and have since had a series of unexpected events that I’ve gotten to deal with.

Unfortunately, one of those was the realization that the cold of winter had killed off a lot of our Aussie plants in the garden.

It had been a relatively mild winter, but there were also some bitterly cold mornings when the temperature dropped well below zero.

And I reckon some of these killed off out hardenbergia, kangaroo paw and grevillea, all of which I had loved dearly and mostly grown from seed.

Until now, I’d prepared them for the cold by wrapping them or their pots to protect against the frost.

But being unable to walk, I didn’t get into the garden for the last two months of 2025, and by the time I got off crutches in mid-January, I was too late in taking action.

The garden I’d been so proud of looked barren and forlorn as a result of the neglect.

Our wattles started blooming a couple of weeks ago. The silver wattle was a little lackluster as we pruned it in the early autumn last year while it was still in its growth stage. It burst back with leaf growth, but not many flowers.

Our golden wattle, which didn’t bloom in the first year we grew it, has produced many more blossoms, but not really reached a spectacular sight. I’ll prune it this year and hope for a better bloom in 2027.

Also looking out for better things with the lawn. I’ve used North American grasses for the past three years because I hate how Japanese grass dies off in the colder months. The upshot had been beautiful cold weather lawn and grass dying off in the summer and the space turning into an ugly dustbowl. I’ve tried to counter this with using different seeds in different seasons, over-seeding and fertilizers. I’ve spent hour after hour watching lawn experts on YouTube and researching ways to have year-round green grass in Tokyo. Now, I have given up. I’m doing what I should have done in the first place and stuck with native grass and acceptance that this means a sandy brown carpet from December to April. I flattened the lawn and laid a layer of topsoil today, then will lay hime korai turf tomorrow. The expense in terms of labor and materials do not justify a lawn, bit I hope I can revive this.