Our Garden Path

A behind the scenes look at something so very exciting unfurling in our Tiny but Wild meets art studio world of late. We’ve been filming scenes for a My Garden Path segment of a forthcoming episode of Gardening Australia!

In the lead-up to filming, we have been thinking about what our green garden space means to us. We popped up Louise’s Great Aunt Anne’s farm name, Tumbledown, by the doorbell and it’s as if it was made for the spot. It is as if it has always been there, those brittle plastic letters, weathered and unassuming. A playful name. A fitting addition.

Our garden, like the name, is a mixture of inherited plants, sidewalk finds, an abundance of Chinese jade and spider plants that spread and spread, with small natives in the gaps between, and many, many eyes, for this is the temporary home of Umi and Fred*, the Grey-headed flying fox pups; Walt and Mr Velveteeny**, the adult Grey-headed flying foxes in recovery; Hans the Younger, a Gould’s wattled microbat; and three groups of orphaned Ringtail possums, Bill Berry and Jean, Rose, Constance and Harry Houdini, Oti, Toffee and Marble. Beneath the giant Olive tree that shades and protects all three enclosures in our courtyard garden, the tree is as old as our collaboration, planted not long after I moved in.

Our green walled garden is a green hug around their enclosures, and in that way, it is our kind of productive and healing garden.

*Umi and Fred have since ‘flown off’ to pre-crèche at Bat Rescue Bayside. Seeing the future pollinator pups tuck into some red grapes, as they settle in and meet other pups, their excitement affirms they are ready for this important next stage.
**Walt and Mr Velveteeny have since been successfully released at the Yarra Bend flying fox colony. But to learn more of this, you’ll have to wait for the segment to air.

We have learnt, and are learning, everything from the animals in our care; and we have learnt from and work with other shelter operators (in particular, Bev and Paul of Bat Rescue Bayside, and Michele of South Oakleigh Wildlife Shelter), rescue organisations (Wildlife Victoria, and Warriors 4 Wildlife), conservation groups (Koala Clancy, and Friends of Bats & Bushcare), and vets (Zoos Victoria, Melbourne and Healesville, WV Travelling Vets, and Johnston St Veterinary Clinic). It has connected us to a wide and caring community of compassionate staff and volunteers, and gardeners, too, who, like Uli and Chris, wish to share their willow myrtle boughs and grevillea cuttings.

Our care work, and our artwork, has reawakened a way of seeing. Because ‘nature’ is not ‘out there’ but everywhere, everything, interconnected. Just as our care work and our artwork is becoming indivisible, it is one. Multifaceted and glorious. We step up, to ensure it remains so.

And we are thrilled to get a chance to communicate this thanks to Gardening Australia.

Heartfelt thanks to Freya, Mav, and Lynne, who made us feel welcome and at ease in the spotlight; we had an absolute ball, and can’t wait to share the forest-making, pollinator-positive joy with you all, when it screens.

Hans Holbein the Younger, a sub adult Gould’s wattled bat, named, while in care with us, after the artist, because we have a fondness for saddling grand names to comparatively smaller forms, made a dazzling performance for the cameras. A Gould’s wattled bat we recently rescued in the city, Hans will soon be ready for release.

Much like Hans the Tiniest, a Little forest microbat, who recently joined him in care, and has since returned to his insect-rich home in Sunbury.

(Learn more about microbats via the Wildlife Victoria microbat fact sheet, which features Twinkle, a Lesser long-eared micro we cared for, in the header.)

At the conclusion of filming, we also returned little Comma, of Oxford Street, Collingwood, who had been in care with us for a handful of nights after a member of the public spotted him exposed in a church doorway, wedged between the front door and its bars, and called the case into Wildlife Victoria.

He remained quietly tucked away in his enclosure during filming so as not to be stressful for him. And after a final check over, observation, and eating and drinking well, it was time to take this sweet ball of punctuation home. The English Language School (where he was found), with its tall Callistemon and towering gums, and highway of overhead wires was the perfect spot for a Friday night, mild weather release.

Once more, as we waited for the birds to roost and the night shift to commence, we walked around the urban environment wee Oxford Comma inhabits. May he lead a long and safe green life, like Hans the Tiniest, and Hans the Younger, when his time comes. Here’s to the urban, inner city possums! To fast-darting microbats, roaring and screaching beyond our human ears!

It is a wonderful feeling to return a ringtail to their home, to walk the surrounding area and see which food trees we can find, as we look for preferred and safer aerial pathways for these arboreal, nocturnal loves. In doing so, we tap into an awareness that our way of reckoning is not the only way, as we marvel at the broad and rich intelligence of other species. They are forward moving, they are action, and we feel hopeful as we step back.

As Mary Oliver so neatly described, “attention is the beginning of devotion”. Certain things can only be revealed through time.

As ever, please note: you need to be a qualified, vaccinated carer to handle megabats and microbats.

In addition to the required permits (from Parks Victoria and DEECA), all Gardening Australia filming of the animals currently in care and at the Yarra Bend flying fox colony was conducted with the utmost care, so as not to cause them any stress.

As social media places change, I’ve decided to open up the comments section on Marginalia for a spell.

Image credit: Azalea Walk [looking towards the house], 1938–1939, colour glass lantern slide, 8.5 x 8.5 cm, State Library Victoria

The title of this post is in relation to the definition of ‘garden’ being “a piece of ground adjoining a house, in which grass, flowers, and shrubs may be grown”.

Additional pictures by @freyakismet, shared with permission, and the exquisite work of the human form of Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/1498–1543), including Jane Seymour and Anne of Cleves.