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

[Boudica]

Hello,

Wow PamelaR, your veggie garden sounds great. I have some herbs but want to grow more veggies. I bought silverbeet, butterbeans and swiss chard today. I've never grown sweet potato, do you know if they would grow in sandy soil?

50 years of work, makes me tired thinking of it!! I would like to start composting. I have only small yards (3 courtyards) as I live in a townhouse. I am a bit worried about the smell, I thought maybe I should try one of those compost bins that are all closed up, or maybe a worm farm.

I can relate to the dysfunctional home life, but you can find a bit of warmth and sparkle in surprising places. I have very fond memories of home grown fruit from the orchard and our pets (ducks, chickens, cat and canary).

[Boudica]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for the info about Tangelo. I don't think I like marmalade, but I haven't had it since I was a small child.....so maybe it is time for me to give it another chance! I'm thinking of getting a lime tree that I will grow in a pot (a present for my dainty swallowtail butterflies!

[PamelaR]

Hi Boudica

LOL - yes very tired after 50 years. Enjoying retirement. I've never planted sweet potato, it's just grown in the compost from the bit I cut off the sweet potato. It's quite a vigorous veggie and maybe not for a small townhouse garden. But, maybe in a pot with a trellis - could possibly work. Not sure about sandy soil - have a look online.

I've never had a smelly compost. I've tried the bins and was totally unsuccessful. Mine goes straight into the open air - in a specific spot that is wired (to let in air, rain and water to drain).The success to a not smelly compost pile is - no protein, no starch (i.e. no meat products, including seafood, milk, rice, bread etc). Pure veggie (none of the onion family either). I use lime, to help cut the smell, and add blood and bone (that creates a smell - one I don't mind), manure if I have any (mostly cows, as I have too many natives growing and the run off from the compost pile may have an adverse affect on the natives if I use chicken manure), grass cuttings, leaves, cardboard.

I think you're right about trying a worm farm in a townhouse - might be your best option.

My warmest memories from family life are of my cat and my younger brother.

[Matchy69]

Hi Boudica and PamalaR sweet potato grows best in sandy soil but will grow in any soil.Mine grows crazy in a rich black soil and has taken over half my vegie garden and my footpath and neighbours yard.I harvested some massive ones last year.

[Boudica]

Hello,

Thanks Mark, for that info. How did you obtain the material to grow them, did you just use sweet potato from the supermarket or did you buy seeds / plants?

[Boudica]

Hi PamelaR,

I was thinking of trying sweet potato on an empty bit of council land that is adjacent (I have been planting footpaths etc and I also have some strata land I can colonize gradually!). The trellis is an idea I might try, thanks.

Hmmm, yes maybe the worm farm is the best option. I have a son with autism who has a lot of sensory issues. If something smells bad he won't be able to go outside at all, so I must be very careful of odours.

My son likes to grow veggies, but mostly we've had to use pots, because our soil is still quite poor. I have been mulching with pea straw for years and applying compost, but it is alkaline, very sandy with shells and limestone rocks when you dig down, so still a work in progress.

I really like native plants too, and have been trying to fill the nearby footpaths etc with native clumping grasses and shady trees.

Hope you're having a nice Sunday.

[Matchy69]

Hi Boudica I got the original sweet potato plant from Bunnings.It has just taken off.You can propergate your own by cutting a sweet potato in half and placing it in a half a glass of water so only half of the sweet potato is in the water and will shoot from the top and roots should grow on the bottom.Place the glass on the windowsill .

[PamelaR]

Hi Boudica and Matchy69

Growing sweet potatoes is very easy. Mine have grown in very solid places - around rocks and everything. A bit misshapen, but still taste good. While sandy soil might be the optimum as Matchy69 suggests, I've had my spring up in dark soil, hard soil, compost. I've never planted any, just put the end bits I cut off before cooking in the compost with everything else.They just take off (have to pull some out because I get too many, like pumpkins and tomatoes).

What I do have difficulties with is pumpkins - the vines grow extensively and I get loads of flowers, little pumpkins then they fall off. I've read up on it and they say it has to do with in adequate fertilisation. Can't understand this because we have lots of native and honey bees around the natives.

[PamelaR]

Boudica

PS - having a lovely Sunday thank you. Hope you are too. Visited my bro in a nursing home, watered the garden, refreshed the bird bath and was thanked by a brown honeyeater - it took a bath while I was sitting there. Beautiful!!

[Matchy69]

Hi PamelaR usually with pumpkins falling off is a lack of pollination or its to wet or to dry can effect pollination as well.Have you noticed if the bees are pollinating the pumpkins?Usually the flowers open first thing in the morning for about 6 hours to they close.If the bees aren't pollinating properly you can try hand pollinating with a male flower the Stamen onto the female flower stigma making sure to pollinate all segments of it with pollen.