We approach the new new of 2025 in a spirit of hope
Fronds of hope
When we bought our 1920’s cottage bungalow in The Gully Catchment (Katoomba Falls Creek Valley) back in 2000, it was run down and surrounded by lawns front and back.
Since then over the past nearly 25 years, we removed all the lawn, renewed the dilapidated fences, annexed the verge with a fern rockery, terraced the front and planted many trees (including a Mountains Blue Gum), hedging and what has now become a micro temperate rainforest with now 17 tree ferns under an established canopy. The image above is one of a number we planted in Spring.
The birds have come back – crimson roselas, king parrots, magpies, currawongs, a few sulphur crested white cockatoos, bower birds, wattle birds, seasonal koels, New Holland honey eaters, thornbills.
Whilst we have not sought to re-establish the local forest ecology, our small plot is contributing to the ecology fringe buffer between The Gully and the surrounding township of Katoomba.
