Garden inspiration: what's flowering in the bush now

A good way to know what will grow well in your garden is to wander along to your nearest nature reserve and see what's growing well there (apart from any stray weeds of course!). Unless you're unlucky enough to have a garden full of fill, your soil should be fairly similar to the soil in nearby reserves, and will support a similar range of species. 

Here are a few common species that grow near my place, and that could easily be used in gardens across much of the Illawarra.

Native violet (Viola betonicifolia), which grows happily in 
part shade, and will spread readily 

A bog-standard lomandra (Lomandra longifolia) - the
flowers on their long spikes smell amazing

The cheerful flower of the trailing guinea-flower
(Hibbertia dentata), twining over a sweet
pittosporum (Pittosporum undulatum) 

Tiny white flowers on the sandfly zieria (Zieria smithii).
These don't smell nice - but maybe they repel sandflies? 

Not flowers but fruit: from the scentless
rosewood (Synoum glandulosum). In a good year
the tree can be covered with fruit

Not flowers, but colourful young leaves, brought out
on this brush muttonwood (Myrsine variabilis) by
the very heavy rain at the end of August

Take time this weekend to see what's happening in a nature reserve near you...