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

[Matchy69]

Hi Boudica I am sorry to hear that your mother's health isn't good.You sound like you are doing the right thing making garden beds higher and paths wider.I looked after my mother who had osteoarthritis as well as cancer.It got to the point where she couldn't get outside in the garden.I had herbs in pots on her veranda for her and I did all the work outside in the garden with orders from mum.It got to the point where she couldn't manage her herbs.Breaks my heart thinking about it seeing someone who loved being out in the garden bed ridden.A lot of tears thinking about it now.

Take care,

Mark.

[Boudica]

Hi Mark,

Sorry if talking of my mothers illness brought up your sadness about losing your Mum. Perhaps I should not have mentioned it in this section. My mum went through breast cancer a 8 years ago, and it was horrible but she came out the other side. She is 69 now and hopefully she still has some years to go yet, she is still able to drive and get around, but just walks funny, and drops things. I know what is ahead as we went through the same caring for my Grandmother 20 years ago. It was very sad, but while we were able to move her in a wheelchair, we took her around to gardens and she loved to go to the zoo, so we went there a lot too. I would like to be able to take Mum on holiday to somewhere with lots of gardens while she is still able to walk, but covid has put a damper on that. I think most public gardens have really become more accessible for disabled in the last 20 years, so I think it is getting easier to get wheelchairs in. I am hoping we might be able to have a sunroom built where she can look out to the garden and birds, I know this was a comfort to my Grandmother.

[Matchy69]

Hi Boudica it is ok I was in a teary mood yesterday with lots of things triggering me.Making somewhere your mother can look out over the garden would be great.

Take care,

Mark.

[Matchy69]

Hi Gardner's this morning I spent 3 hours in the vegie garden and I got my bed dug over and put plenty of compost in it.I planted broadbean seeds and turnip which were suppose to be swede but picked the wrong packet up.Swedes are Swedish turnip and are hardy then the normal turnip.Swedes were one of my mum's favourites she liked to grow so I usually plant them in memory of her like the braodbeans I did.

I pretty stuffed now just going rest for the afternoon.I probably over did it and will be in pain later.

Happy gardening,

Mark.

[ecomama]

Hey Boudica

I'm sorry it looked like I overlooked your very heartfelt post about your mum.
We must've been writing at the same time! hugs.

I won't be all down and out about the issues your mum has but I do feel there's alot we CAN'T do for people we love when it comes to hoarding. Having this psychological illness can be a huge issue for relatives and the person themselves.

IME it's more of an issue for relatives! (My mother has hoarded herself out of her own home and the Council has given up sending her letters about her property but I've been NC with her for decades so..)

Before you mentioned your mum's hoarding, I wanted to mention raised garden beds. You could suggest ONE put close to the back door, then fill it with sticks to start with!
Also suggest some type of closed composts and even a worm farm tumbler for her kitchen waste?

But just working on ONE small section, not removing anything but organising some parts.

With your mum's medical issues, she MAY qualify for NDIS... my own gardener does NDIS work, so as long as the Goals are in line with gardening for her health benefits, she may be able to have a gardener help her and have this paid for via NDIS.

Best wishes, none of this is an easy task ofcourse but the love you express for your mother is worth noting. She's very lucky to have you!

EMxxxx

[ecomama]

Hey BB Gardeners,

I've had a ball in my garden... actually have found around 12 balls tbh lol... collected them for my daughter's dog to play with, so those have been a great find!

Today my trip to Bunnings resulted in our new electric lawn mower and LOTS of new garden tools! I finally got a new sharpening stone, bought a new tomahawk and some other things to repair my other tools.
I also HOPE I found a solution to my gardening tools disappearing from the kids "putting them away"... grumph... I bought a big tub for my gardening tools to put in the chook's shed.

After some discussion with BF and family, I arrived at solutions about what to do with the huge numbers of bricks and pavers I'm finding. I'm STILL digging them up! Along with lots of rubbish demon buried.

I wanted to camouflage them in the property without encouraging weed growth under piles etc.

I've decided to line the outside of the chook's shed with the bricks.
Stack the pavers along a long path at the side of the house.
Hence I bought some AWESOME leather gloves to save my cute pink false nails lol!

Now I've made those decisions, I'm really excited to do this work!

Also with all this conversation, my adult children offered to pay for a Green Waste skip bin for my birthday present lol... as long as the younger children can offer their labour!
We'll see lol.
So I can get to some heavy pruning, let the leaves die off and possibly use any branches I need to.

I also found a solution for the terrible erosion happening when my gardener was over zealous in my absence and upturned my 2 bath worm farms (no worms in them thank God) and frog ponds that frogs WERE in! grrr.

Moving on lol...they needed moving eventually so... whatever.
I can prune my bananas and lay the trunks perpendicular to the slop to divert water rushing onto my fruit trees... they compost really well, so I'll use unneeded timber planks to back them up.

Boring stuff like my Tax Returns DO need attention too! hahaha... lots of multi tasking going on atm. I'm off for a scrubby bath now.

Hope everyone's having lots of gardening fun!

Love EM

[Boudica]

Hi EM,

Thanks for your kind wishes. Yes I do care for my mother, but I have had a difficult time with her over the years and to be honest most of my life she was pretty flaky as a mum. I forgave her long ago though, as I realised it is because she is weak and unable to cope with life, not because she doesn't try. My brother and I grew up strong because we had to fend for ourselves. I think perhaps you are like this too, what do you think?!

Yes, hoarding.....urgh. You would understand since your mother is the same. I spent my childhood trying to clean out cupboards and organise junk! We were not allowed visitors, and if someone knocked on the door, mum would get us to hide under the kitchen table, in case they looked in the side window (so weird when I think of it now).

Mum still has several rooms you can't get into, but she is better than before as she has kept a few rooms clear and tidy(ish) since I fixed and painted them 10 years ago. Anyway, I am sure between you and I we could easily populate a whole thread on growing up with a hoarder and the lifetime of clean up battles!!! I think your mum might take the prize, as mine is yet to have council complaints!

Thanks for the practical tips, as always you are a mine of information

[Gambit87]

Hi Everyone!

hows it going?

been raining off and on past few days. Dont need to be hand watering the plants haha.

Ive been thinking I would love to rip everything out of the courtyard and start from scratch - but I cant.

[Matchy69]

Hi Gambit good to see you on here.The thing to watch out for with to much rain is Phytophthora or commonly known as root rot.The tell tale sign is it looks like the plant needs a drink as its wilting but if you pull the plant out the roots will be all mushy and rotten.

[Gambit87]

Hey mark

Thanks for the tip! i'll keep that in mind.

would that be common in all plants ?