Garden Pictures Pictures by Marguerite (672 photos)

When I lived in Southern California as a kid, our house backed up to some old orange groves and the farmers had put in these huge Eucalyptus trees every 10 rows for shading. Boy did those things smell, some people liked the smell but not me. Pheww. I'm guessing this forest is very strong smelling!

No, it is not strong smelling. I think the ones they planted in Southern California would have been the fast growing and for paper industry used Eucalyptus globulus ( Tasmanian blue gum ). They have a very strong smell, but only in hot weather, when the leaves exhude their odor. You know it could easily have been another species, as there are hundreds of different Eucalypt trees, each suitable to a different climate, soil and humidity. There are only 3 different kind of Eucalypt trees in the Jarrah forest and none of them smell strong. In fact their blossom smells wonderfully sweet and you can barely hear yourself breath for the sound the bees make. Jarrah blossom give extremely good honey, it never thickens and has antibiotic properties. It is much dearer to buy than other honies. I have seen Eucalyptus plantations in Portugal too. They grow naturally in South Africa and Argentine as well.

I knew there are some different ones but not quite so many. I guess that plant scents effect me somewhat more than some others, cause my mother and I were always at odds as to what plants to put in, all the ones she really liked I thought stunk !! From friends still in California I understand that most all of the groves are gone now, more homes were built, It was a good place to live in the 60's but I don't think I'd like it now. Just too crowded for my taste.

I only see your comments now Wohlibuli. I am smiling how you differ from your mothers choice of plants.I don't know anything about the US, other than seeing on tv so I couldn't agree or disagree on the changes in California, but like everywhere else, it does get more crowded as time passes. There are still wide open places and also forests with very few inhabitants other than native wildlife ( lol ) here. But you do have to travel if you need shops, schools, doctors etc. So it is either much travel and peace and quiet, or suburbia and noise. Sometimes a hard decision to make, probably depending on your kind of work. Thanks for your feedback once more.

Wow, a very different walk in the woods ..... wonder what Jasper ( that's him in my avatar) would make of that!?!

Your beautiful Jasper would go mad, just like my dogs always did. It's wonderful if you train them to be obedient, they can run around along the tracks free.