Who else likes gardening?

[ecomama]

Hi everyone

I hope you're staying well today.

Who else likes gardening? I would love to connect with people here who are happy to share their gardening adventures.

For me I know that gardening helped heal my soul during tough times. I hope it will again.
Then with other things going on, it became a jungle.
I'm part way into rediscovering it again and doing A LOT of hard yakka atm, when I am motivated.

I have new dreams and ideas to put into the many bare places, as I remove thickets of lantana etc. This will all be on a tight budget and I'm ok with that.

I want to create a peaceful place where I can be.
I would like to grow food again (tell 'er she's dreamin' atm lol).
I would like to re-establish my worm farms and compost heaps.
Autumn is such a beautiful time of the year in the garden.

I'm 'alone' in my gardening journey and would love to share and hear about other's gardening antics. Hopefully we can troubleshoot any issues in our gardens and talk about any healing we're feeling too. There's a lot of knowledge we can share. I hope this thread can brighten your day!

Love Ecomama

Please

[Lillylane]

Thanks for your insight EM, re prep. How wonderful you are a mum to multiples... and more kids too! I’ve found it challenging just being a newbie mum of two. But now that they’re nearly five years old, it’s amazing to look back at their early years and realise how much things can change so quickly.

I’m so sorry you and your kids have been through such awful times. Wishing you every strength and support through your recovery.

Native Violets are a pretty lovely garden discovery. What a great lawn substitute. They would be loving all that rain.

Funny thing, I’ve been falling asleep to videos about lawn care. I find it helpful to listen to something as I fall asleep (rather than let my mind bring up unpleasant feelings, memories etc). But it can’t be anything I find very interesting because then I pay too much attention to to it.

Next thing I need to tackle in the garden is our front yard. It’s mostly comprised of pebbles, now full of weeds after the rain. I’d like to make it more low maintenance and greener. So lots of mulch and some herbs and ground over. The pebbles can go somewhere else. It’s a big job. Not getting the best sleep atm. So just starting with small steps - marking out the pathway from letterbox to front door. I really just want to get to the best part which is planting plants.

[ecomama]

HI Lillylane!

High five on the multiples ✋ 😎 lol and that's a knowing wink behind those sunglasses.
WHAT A JOB.

I found the whole pregnancy and birth very traumatic - it was the medical professionals who caused all the trauma. NOT the actual pregnancy and birth, even tho it was hefty compared to a singleton experience. If you ever need to talk about what's on your mind, you can talk away here or on my thread 'new person' or if you have a thread, I can pop in there.

NOT that I have all the answers.... but it can help talking to others who've been there and survived.

NOW for the pebbled front yard omg... my first thought was I would offer the pebbles on Freecycle or my Community group if I didn't want them.
Even a section at a time.
Someone will want them for free and that means free labour for you.

I'm hearing you, we ALL want to get to the planting stage! lol. It's so fun.
Prep is 95% of the work in my garden.

A section at a time is very sensible!

What are you thinking?
Raised garden beds or straight in the soil? (It's probably gravel right?)

Have you got a list of faves to plant?

I ALWAYS companion plant to keep the pests away or distracted.
This way we get more to eat from what we plant.

Love EM

[Lillylane]

Hi EM

Can completely understand what you’re saying re the pregnancy and hospital experience! Totally!

I took a long time to fall pregnant and then had a miscarriage. Some time later we found out (during a scan) we were expecting twins - it didn’t feel real. And the first thing we were told about were all the risks and complications... I cried all the way home.

My time in hospital was traumatic and exhausting. Really wished I was allowed to go home earlier. If we were to do it all again I would know I’d have to really stand up for myself. I joined a local multiple birth group when the girls were babies and it was a huge relief and support.

On to plant babies 🙂
I’m picturing some oregano, thyme and rosemary in our front garden. Anything that can handle drier conditions. I’d love to try some bush tucker plants too. Native thyme and midyim berries. Has anyone grown these?

I might need another small tree, like a crepe mytle or olive tree to provide a bit more dappled shade. There might be room for a lemon myrtle.

I love trees and would plant more if it weren’t for the overhead powerlines.

The soil isn’t great - very compacted from black plastic sheeting and pebbles. So it’s gonna need some work.

[Matchy69]

Hi Lillylane bush Tucker is great to grow.I have grown a lot over the years.Midyim berries are pretty hardy usually grow them in semi shade.Gets tiny white soft fruit on them which pleased enough to eat.While I was at bunnings yesterday I did see the native thyme there and was all ost going to buy one and then next to it was a natie bluberry Lilly which is a grassy looking plant that gets edible berries on it and it said on the tag frost hardy and drought tolerant which will be perfect for my garden.

Happt gardening,

Mark

[ecomama]

Hi Lillylane

I'm very sorry about your miscarriage.
I'm so happy you have your gorgeous girls.

I'm happy we SURVIVED! It was a dreadful experience really bec of the medical ppl involved, if I took them OUT of the whole thing, it would have been a BEAUTIFUL experience pregnancy and stuff.

HUGS.

Your front garden plans sound great! YES ALOT OF HARD WORK lol.
I try to work my butt off during the cooler months bec it's awful doing it during Summer here.

Have you set out a rough design for that tough patch?

Are you going to plant your herbs straight into the ground?

I suggest having an idea where you want to plant those beautiful natives and noting / knowing the sun pattern across that garden.

Then with the super hardy plants; rosemary being the most hardy... planting that where it will get the most sun, even with the growth of your natives - because they GROW!

I'm telling you this bec I didn't realise how tall my photinias would grow and they shaded my lavender (loves same conditions as rosemary). One completely died with lack of it's faves and the other one is crawling out onto the path to GET more sun lol.

This wouldn't normally bother me but I had a potager garden there "French Style" and everything was supposed to be symmetrical lol.
So much for that idea working.
I can hardly turn the SUN around!

But it's all FUN and it's all about learning.

The ONE character trait GOOD gardeners must develop is RESILIENCE LOL!

BTW I turned the photinias into a "Bosco"!

Have you seen the GREAT Monty Don shows on Netflix?
Sure that's in England and France AND Italy lol but he teaches so many things through those shows... and as gardeners we can never know it all!

LOVE YOUR WORK! and sweat and tears lol....

Love EM

[ecomama]

Thankyou Mark!

Thanks for popping in with your wealth of knowledge about Natives!

I'm crowning you our RESIDENT NATIVE EXPERT here lol and if anyone else knows about natives then we can form a BRAINS TRUST here lol.

LOVE YOUR WORK!

Love EM

[Lillylane]

Hi Mark,

Thank you for sharing your experience with bush tucker plants. I managed to find small midyim berry plants at a local nursery so I’m looking forward to planting one (or maybe more).

I’ll keep an eye out for that native blueberry lilly which I haven’t seen before.

We have some large Lilly Pillys along the fence of our back yard. Have made jam from the fruit - this year made about 5 big jars worth and I think it’s my favourite kind of jam now.

Wishing you happy gardening

L.

[Lillylane]

Thank you EM for your kindness. Yes we survived! What a journey.

I tried making weed tea by the way and wondered what you use to store it in before using it?

Our front garden is east facing - about a third of it has some light shade from deciduous trees.
For now I’ll focus on one side of the pathway to start with. It’s a small area and includes an existing garden bed, which I’ll just extend. The soil doesn’t seem too bad there - I’ll dig in a bit of compost. The weeds have gone nuts - forming a very green carpet - it almost looks pretty being so green.

Oh I will check out Monty Don’s shows. They sound great.
I had to look up the word “Bosco” as well, as I don’t know what that is. But it came up with a chocolate drink. I can’t imagine making a chocolate drink from photinias, so I’m not on the right track, am I? Haha!

I love all my plants equally of course, but feel extra pressure to keep them alive if they’ve been gifted to me. My mother in law (oh the pressure!!!) gave me a Rosemary plant and I’m so glad it’s hardy and survived the awful summer we had last year.

Hope you get some lovely gardening weather,

L.

[ecomama]

Hi Lillylane lol a chocolate drink lol!

A bosco is a well trimmed hedge at the bottom and cloud like formation at the top! above heads.
It could be spelt differently IDK but I heard and saw it in one of the European garden shows... omg you'll LOVE those shows!

There are Australian ones on ABC iView too!

I was lucky enough to get about twenty 11 litre buckets with snap tight lids through my Trading Group years ago for alternative currency ie NO money lol.
Some Restaurants sell them cheap or give them away.
Bunnings more expensive, I'd rejoin my Trading Group JUST to get them lol!
My daughter used an old garbage bin but the lid.... didn't do the job lol.

IT SMELLS like cow manure! Because it's JUST like cow manure lol.

Seaweed tea is less offensive but still smelly!

SOME ppl put an aquarium aerator in the bottom of the bucket. I think that's fussy but good on them! lol.

ALL YUMMY for the garden.

You know what those "weeds" are telling you right?
That the soil in THAT spot needs aerating, weeds have deeper roots than grass.
That it needs microbial and subterranean creatures like earth worms...
Weeds enrich the soil UNTIL it's rich enough to sustain grass or other hungry plants.
AND the soil needs NITROGEN.

I love weeds because of what they're trying to tell me.
Bindii are telling us strongly that the soil is TOO compacted. I only take them out in spots RIGHT next to grass or plants I want growing across the spot.

So your instincts were SPOT ON making weed tea!

I cut my tall weeds at their bases... or mow them.... until I can see a more preferable plant taking over. (Unless it's lantana then I RIP that out! but don't scream, even lantana can enrich soils in many ways).

Mother Earth doesn't like to be left naked. So plants that can be sustained WILL move in to cover her up.

Enough weed tea WILL kill weeds. They're simply not needed any more because you've raised the nitrogen level high enough.

Love EM

[Matchy69]

Just an update on my Nectarine,I have been harvesting them and they have been deliciously sweet.The birds think so to as they are getting a good feed as well.