surveying the land

So on Saturday morning, I'm hanging the laundry out to dry (yes, we actually do that here and save electricity for more vital functions) and what do I see peeping out in the bush but a rose. Upon closer inspection I found that we have at least 4 rose bushes in the side garden. Now as I retold this story to a friend back in the States, she said "Just how big is your yard, how can you not notice 4 rose bushes. I'm getting an image of your house as a vast estate!" Well not exactly, but it's not laid out like a typical house in the states sitting in a flat section with a yard and perhaps some bushes along the border. We're literally in the bush, as they say here. The house is perched on the top of a hill and about 20% of the land is relatively flat yet heavily landscaped in native palms, grasses, and other assorted things I haven't quite figured out yet. Then the other 80% of our roughly 900 square meter section is native bush going straight downhill. To give you an idea, here is our "backyard." (don't ask my why the picnic table is perched on a percarious platform on the brink of a steep cliff, though I would love to make that platform the taking off point for a rope swing, wheee!)



Now this included trees, wildflowers, large canna lillies (like a big Calla lily) and assorted other flora and fauna. So you can literally discover something new every day. I've staked out a small vege patch on one of the flat sections, but the rest I'm slowly trying to learn how to deal with.

The garden, and by garden in the Kiwi sense I mean entire section of land we own, has been largely ignored for the last year or so. So first we've got to clear all the dead palm leaves etc out and see what exactly we've got. Aside from what I've planted, so far I've identified:
A gathering of Bamboo trees,
4, perhaps 5 rose bushes mostly white,
many "cabbage" palm trees,
a very large Pohutekawa bush, otherwise known as the Christmas tree here for it's large red blooms that emerge in Dec.,
a native kowhai tree, whose yellow blossoms are the national flower of NZ,
many different ornamental grasses, some green, some red, some purple, and a host of unknowns.
Perhaps I'll start an "identify this plant please" section of the blog.