Ever since the pine forest was harvested, Choughs have been absent from the garden, but not from the neighbourhood. Only this morning a family of them were making a fuss among the trees next door but they didn’t deign – or dare – to rummage in our garden; at least, not while we were watching.  

Over the years we’ve discovered that mulch is a Chough-attractant. It seems that they don’t differentiate it from leaf litter on the forest floor. To them it’s just something to throw around and rake over, like arguments in a bad marriage.

Some years ago, a delightful local woman who was hosting an open garden on a wet and windy day, lent us umbrellas to tour her garden. She also gave us some of the best gardening advice we’ve ever had: Plant groundcover.

Groundcovers shade the soil and limit moisture loss, helping other plants survive dry weather. If your garden’s regularly visited by Choughs and/or Blackbirds who cast aside the mulch, groundcovers might just be its salvation.   

One of the groundcover stars of shady places is Blue Bugle Flower (Ajuga reptans). It’s about 15cm high, taller when it flowers. It loves its position beneath the tree near the water tank. I’ve also grown it in a spot that has morning sun but it wilts a little there on very warm days. It’s great for binding soil and grows densely, giving weeds no chance at all.

I planted three different types of thyme around a Magnolia tree in the centre of the lawn. All of them, including the tree, carked it, the thyme falling victim to a spell of very hot weather soon after planting; the Magnolia succumbed to a severe frost.

Normally you can’t kill thyme with an axe but I seem to have a rare talent for it. One thyme plant survived, however. The one on the left grows in a bed on the eastern side of the house where it thrives. I just trim it to keep it compact. This is a low, creeping variety which seems to grow better in this climate than the bushier types.  

One of the showiest specimens in the garden is the Ice Plant (Lampranthus aureus). It grows in a mass around the base of the Chinese Pistacho tree, crowding out weeds and providing a safe haven for small birds. I give it a severe prune after flowering to keep it in line. Some species have bright orange, purple, red, yellow and cream flowers. We considered Ice Plants in those colours, too, to create a far-out psychedelic effect but then thought better of it.

Baby’s Tears, also known as Cuddle Bug (Soleirolia soleirolii), doesn’t do at all well in anything but moist, shady spots.

It grows like topsy in Sydney’s warm, humid Summers. Here I grow it in pots and keep it in the shadiest spot on the deck.

So why am I telling you about something that I have to mollycoddle?

When I saw a large, overflowing pot of Baby’s Tears at a garage sale, for just two dollars, I had to buy it. A pretty addition to damp-loving pot plants, Baby’s Tears help the soil retain moisture. The plant that it shares with here is Flax (Phormium tenax), given to me as a present. A keen drinker, it’s become something of a burden in hot weather and I’m hoping that the Baby’s Tears will help lengthen the time it can tolerate between waterings. 

Despite its sad name, Dead Nettle (Lamium galeobdolon) is a pretty plant that grows well in part shade. This one (on the right) receives morning sun. 

To the left is the one plant that we brought from Sydney to live here. 

Wrapped in wet newspaper in a plastic bag, a few rooted bits of it travelled with us by car. It’s as-tough-as and provides good groundcover in dry, shady spots. Dying down in Autumn, it disappears in Winter and bounces back, without fail, every Spring. I love the leaf colour and the pretty clusters of white flowers. 

For sheer toughness and speed of growth, you can’t go past Sedum. It’s planted in the front garden where it’s spread to such an extent that it flows over rocks and takes root in the lawn if I don’t keep an eye on it. Easy to remove, it’s also dead easy to propagate and grows in both full sun and part shade.

Succulents can be mass-planted to good effect. These grow so densely together that from time to time I have to thin them out. They’re hardly ever watered, making them one of the most trouble-free space-fillers in the garden.

Combining a variety of drought-tolerant plants to look as spectacular as this is an art. Needless to say, this shot wasn’t taken in our garden but at a garden in Castlemaine. The planting is a mixture of a low-growing Euphorbia, Gazanias and a type of Aloe, presumably one that’s frost-tolerant. I love the colours and the rounded shapes, interspersed with the spiky Aloe.

Choughs or no Choughs, with plenty of groundcover to protect the soil from baking in Summer, the garden now has a fighting chance. All it needed was a commonsense approach to groundcover. Thank goodness we met that local woman.