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

[ecomama]

Matchy are your nectarines the size to pick ALREADY?

Ours aren't.

I must go for a wander into the back garden with my daughter's dog this afternoon.
She needs in inspect every inch of the property when she arrives lol.

I also need to fill our green bin with dead lantana stalks and maybe do a bit of pruning - just may be lol.

It's SO HOT today!

I'll pick a nectarine and try it while I'm down there.

Thanks for the heads up lol!

EMxxxx

[Matchy69]

Am yes mine are ready to pick and ripening up.Some good size nectarines.

We had a some heavy rain yesterday morning and then we got a storm yesterday afternoon.Hot here and windy today.

Mark

[Clues_Of_Blue]

Hi all,

As much as I enjoy gardening, I'm unfortunately not great at it. Doesn't stop me trying, though, and some of my fruit trees are doing quite well. I planted a nectarine, a cherry, an almond, a mandarin, an apricot and a lime two or three years back. The mandarin and apricot are going great and have already produced some pretty tasty fruit. The lime and nectarine look okay, are growing slowly, no fruit yet. The cherry and almond I thought were goners, but have remarkably both started growing again from their bases.

Something I like to do (admittedly with limited success) is try to grow anything from the supermarket that still has roots on. The one thing even I can't stuff up is spring onions. Use the main part, keep the root portion and stick that in a glass of water. Change the water regularly, and you'll have spring onions growing merrily for some while. Stuff like onions, garlic, carrots and potatoes are pretty likely to sprout if left too long, and they can be planted. I've had them start to grow nicely, then die off. That's on me and my black thumbs, I guess.

Blue.

[Matchy69]

Hi Blues Clues it's great to get at in the garden we are always learning no matter how long we have been doing it for and still have failures.I have had plenty over the years.With regards to your cherry tree and almond reshooting from the base it could possible be the root tock that is shooting as they are usually grafted.Another thing is many need cross pollination from two different varieties to set fruit though Stella is one variety of cherry that is self pollinating .I have over 40 years experience growing fruit and vegies.Spring are great to grow and easy.I put them in my cooking and on sandwiches all the time.

Happt gardening,

Mark.

[Clues_Of_Blue]

Thanks, Mark. I've started and lost many a veggie and flower garden. All it takes is being really busy or away on a Summer day and it's all gone - I can certainly see why so many people only take up gardening when they retire! Could be root stock, personally, I'm just happy something is growing, haha. I did my research at the time and got a self-pollinating cherry - embarrassingly I can't remember the variety now. Oops. 40 years, you must really love your gardening. Any eco and bird friendly tips on keeping bugs off my pak choy? Not that I expect to grow any until the cooler months but last time it was growing brilliantly until the bugs got to it. The spring onions are great in a glass on my kitchen bench, I use them in my homestyle 2 minute noodles, it's great to just cut a little bit off and watch it grow back, they're so fast growing.

Blue.

[Matchy69]

Hi Blues Clues heres a natural pesticide spray you can make for your vegies to keep the bugs off.
Ingrediants
1 tablespoon dish washing liquid.
1 cup vegetable oil
Water
Mix 4 teaspoons of mix to 2 cups of water (500ml)
Put in spray bottle and spray once a week on vegies.
Derris dust is an organic pesticide made from a tree root that works well however research with rats and mice show it can cause Ahlzheimers and Parkinson's disease and this product is being banned in the USA and Canada but still available in Australia.I use to use this product but have stopped.
Your cherry that is self fertile would be either Stella,Black Gold or North Star Stella being the most common grown here.Thats the variety I use to grow.
Happy gardening,
Mark.

[Clues_Of_Blue]

Neat, thanks for the tip, I've written that on my whiteboard. I think the cherry is a Stella. Have actually been out in the garden today, big yard and my mower is on the fritz. Nothing like cutting the grass with a whipper snipper. Oh well, we use the resources we have. Happy it's done, and to see my cornflowers and dianthus' along the back fence actually doing pretty well. I thought the cornflowers were done for last summer, but they've sewn their seeds and new plants keep popping up. 🙂

Blue.

[Matchy69]

Hi Blues Clues that sucks your mower isn't working and would get a bit tiresome to do a whole yard with a whipper snipper.
I love it when things keep coming up from seeds.I have left some carrots in the vegie garden flower and go to seed and they have been coming up randomly all through the vegie garden.
Happy gardening ,
Mark.

[Lillylane]

Hi EM,

I’m looking at my weeds in a different light now, thanks to you 🙂

Re weed tea: a snap-fit lid makes a lot of sense! I’ll have to see what I can find before I make it again.

Been very hot the last couple of days. Would be nice if it brought some rain.
My salvias are loving the heat though.

L.

[ecomama]

Hi Blue

Remember us gardeners, you included! must be resilient bec we ALL have dismal failures and it's not only for our efforts, sometimes the weather does tricks on us and it's BAM.

I had a pretty depressing week walking around and looking at my garden lol... I'll write more tonight - I have work today and an early meeting too.

Or insects for sure!

I find that planting a whole stack of marigold seeds around anything pretty precious (like cucumbers or leafy greens) attract PREDATOR INSECTS to the area and they eat any things that eat our veg.

Local Community Gardens are there for us to pick from ANY TIME of the day or night.
You don't have to join or help out.
Just pick and eat lol.

But those Gardens and Permaculture Groups (free to attend for 2 meetings and maybe free for all now!) and they give away cuttings and seeds ALL THE TIME.

Seedsavers gets far too many seeds to handle lol.

Re fruit and nut trees

Mark gave great advice there and was eluding to the root stock taking over.

If the growth is ALL from the bottom, look at the leaves.
Are they the same as the top of your tree (the ACTUAL tree you'd hoped you bought lol)?

If it's different growth, you need to cut it all off to give nutrients to the TOP of the tree.

If you leave it, it can take over.

Back tonight.

Love EM