That's not a fern, this is a fern!

I'm noticing a recurring pattern here, reminiscent of that infamous 'knife' scene in the Crocodile Dundee movie (where a street punk tries to mug Dundee and says “I have a knife!”. Dundee calmly responds with “That's not a knife, this is a knife” as he pulls a large machete type blade from his belt.) The landscape here is immense and nature abhorring any vacuum, fills every inch that my humble European eye can see with gloriously over-sized flora, fauna, foliage and fruit. So when Jean suggested we do some planting outside I should have known this wasn't going to planting on a scale that I was used to.

There are pockets of rainforest (or remnant rainforest) on the property and Jean and I spent the morning clearing away big swathes of fern bracken (think of our fern only ten times bigger) to create space for some rainforest plants such as hook pine. In contrast to how I'm used to 'gardening' this kind of planting is not undertaken for aesthetics reasons. Most of the little plants we planted today aren't even visible from the house or the driveway, in fact, at least half of them are planted on a slope under a canopy of trees that we had to hack our way into! The motivation for planting these seems to be the long-term development of these pockets of rainforest.

Jean's knowledge of botany, and in particular her local environment, is astounding. Everything has a place, a purpose and a reason and she uses the knowledge she has gathered over the years to piece it all together. 

Makes me wonder how the knowledge I have gathered over the years could possibly contribute to a worthwhile purpose. Answers on a postcard please.