Around the garden
Ask the best and greatest thinkers in the world today-how God makes a flower and you'll find they cannot say.  The botanist can tell you what goes on beneath the ground-but why and how it happens is a mystery profound.
Down there in the earth's dark womb a speck of life is stirred, quickened by some magic process or mystic word.
Slowly then it thrusts a point of green towards the light, bringing forth what was conceived in secret out of sight.
On slender stem there forms a flower most beautiful-perfect in its daintiness, a tiny miracle.  When upon a dreary day this lovely thing we see.....We should learn afresh the lessons of humilit
y.
I find gardening quite a challenge, as our winters have frosty mornings which kill a lot of plants and our summers can be hot and dry.  Fortunately I have a good water supply but I have to pay for it, we have water meters.
Because my garden is large I've grown a lot of trees and shrubs. Most of the trees are native to Australia as they suit our dry climate, they thrive on harsh conditions, like  bottle brush, and melaleucas.    I would consider myself a lazy gardener as I have to find time for my other hobbies (like making web pages).  
I reckon the best thing for a garden is mulch and plenty of it.  I use whatever, leaves, grass etc, but it must be a thick layer.  I never dig, as there is always something growing.  To me, mulch is more important than fertilizer.
The plants I like the best are the ones that drop their seeds and come up again next season, like  cosmos, balsam, salvias, petunias, marigolds and portulacas and there are heaps of others.  I also have summer and winter flowering bulbs, but the garden is mainly dormant in winter.  Thats when I do the cleaning up and prune the roses ready for spring.
  Kikuyu grass makes a good lawn when its not too dry or too cold but it does revive very quickly when conditions are right. I don't stress over the odd weed or two or twenty, or grub or thistle and I encourage birds to the garden.
The only spray used is to kill bindii and clover and this I mix in a container and paint on the weeds using a paint brush.  I don't kill plants this way.  Other odd nasty weeds I dig out using one of hubbie's screw drivers.  My garden is rather haphazard and as I like all plants there is no particular theme, anything goes here, so long as the plants are hardy.
I like flowers inside in vases, which end up as pot purri.  I mainly use the rose petals and lavender and any other flower that looks good dead.  I just put them all in a suitable container, add some orris root powder, if I remember and a few drops of essential oils and there you have it.  Rose buds dry well and look great.  I also hang bunches of lavender around the place along with stattice,and anything else that is nice to look at and which doesn't make a mess.  
A fish pond and aviary complete our garden, and of course we have a barbie( barbeque) area for outdoor eating and entertaining.  This is Australia after all, we Aussies enjoy the outdoors.   
Photos from my Garden.