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

[Guest9337]

We had a great season for tomatoes recently, plentiful and tasty.

Tonight we added some home made worm juice to some pots to prepare the soil.

[Jstar49]

Heya happy gardeners!

I quite like winter becos there’s just not as much work to do.... although it’s taking Forever! For my tomatoes to ripen! And it must be a bit cold for my beans- they’re a bit stunted. It could be cos the birds keep eating the bean leaves.....

Hey Em you were wondering about growing freesias- I don’t think I’m the expert at all but when I tried to transplant my freesias- which we inherited with the house- they died. So I think they like to be undisturbed! I’m guessing they like good drainage. I always remember them being on sunny slopes....

cheers,

J*

[ecomama]

Hey Mark, YUM all those foods you're growing sound so delicious! GO YOU!

I LOVE Mystery plants that pop up, nice having an eggplant grow for you (a bit early but as long as it's happy!).

Hey D&G, Welcome here too! hahaha, so nice to see you here. WORM JUICE, YUM! I use the word Vermicast so as not to scare the children, thinking I might be juicing worms!

I have some "Worm Towers" stuck into the ground in certain spots around the garden where no one can see them. One is near where I sit and drink tea in the front garden. When I have visitors they shriek at me putting the tea bags behind the plants, but they're going in to a Worm Tower! Hey presto, nothing else to do - my style of gardening, but you wouldn't think so.

Hey J*! Yes, FREESIAS. Just to fill others in... on my trip down South to help prodigal son move in to a Uni Share house (even tho he's in his last year of HS)... the "Landlord" gifted me a BIG pot of freesias and omg I was in a state of flux between overly excited and dread lol. I've done nothing but kill freesias in the past and it's such a shame because I LOVE those plants. The flower's fragrance is exquisite.

SO thankyou J*, I also remember them growing well on sloping ground in moderately sunny spaces.
If anyone has advice, I need to take heed.
Apparently the Landlord "B" said I killed them with kindness bec he neglects them. But his climate is notably cooler usually than ours - not THIS Winter tho.... I thought it balmy compared to here when we went down there.

I will leave them in their pot for now... probably forever lol.
Help! I'm scared! hahaha.

Today we lost another beautiful rescue chicken. She'd been with us maybe 10 years so I know she had a wonderful retirement but we'll miss her. She was so FAT and gorgeous in her hey day. Shiny feathers once she regained them all. Her other elderly companion is still rather spritely although rather lost.

I need to bury her tomorrow.

I ventured down the way back with my tea this morning with the thought "I'm just going to have a LOOK, not do anything". I'm the biggest liar to myself hahaha. I ended up doing an hour's weeding.
But mostly enjoyed looking around.

Papa Brush Turkey and I must have E.S.P! He's now scratched ALL the leaves I'd blown in to a pile just behind the side gate, down to his nest. It's massive, he must be so proud!

2 week's more Lock Down and only 50% on site at work so I might squeeze some quality gardening in!
Yay!

Have fun in the garden!
Love EMxxxx

[Guest9337]

Our yards are basically swamps at the moment. We considered attaching anchors to our cars so they wouldn't float away.

[dizzy316]

I love to garden! Incredibly rewarding and helps with mental health. We are currently re-doing our backyard and plan to have a whole garden of plants/flowers/fruits/veggies that thrive in pots alone.

If anyone has a suggestion as to their favourite plant for pots and tips to help it grow please do let me know 🙂

[ecomama]

Lol Hello D&G you're so funny! Anchors away!
We actually have a row boat in our back yard that's doubling as a Frog Pond atm... you can borrow it if you like hahaha.

If your post was a prod to find out what grows in SWAMPS then reeds are great!
As well as Water Chestnuts, water lillies and Gingko Biloba I understand. Apparently SEAWEED is very nutritious lol!

Have fun!

Hey dizzy! A huge warm Welcome to the forums and an extra green welcome to our happy, hard working Gardening Thread lol.
Splendiforous (spelling lol) to have you here.

The best place to begin, Dizzy, is what YOU love to eat and see growing in your garden.
It depends on the climate in your area and more specifically, the MICRO CLIMATE of where you have your garden beds planned.

My hit suggestion to anyone starting out is observing what grows successfully in the gardens and green spaces in your area. Pick your faves and go for it.
Consider growing a food tree if you need Summer shade over the patches too.
Choice and placement is important. Mark is our brain's trust there!

What PERFECT weather we had here today!
I went for an hour's long walk with my LEAF BLOWER oh yeah. Saved me 2 day's work of raking and sweeping, love that thing.

Happily I saw some Bromeliads on the side of the road when dropping Yvette to work early this morning. I picked them up and potted them asap on getting home - Happy days!

Then on picking her up, our neighbour placed 4 mini vege garden structures out for pick up. YAY! We took them home. These match one big one I was gifted and had no idea where to put it. I'll put them in a pattern for the intended Cabin's back yard, PERFECT!
That garden is almost devoid of lantana now, lots of cleaning up to do there yet and changing the slope of the ground also.
My accidental Papaya will go in this garden, plus there are accidental Mulberry Trees (5 last count) already there. Some tree stumps to remove ugh, but it's BEAUTIFUL soil down there - thankyou lantana hahaha.

The Cabin's back yard gets too much sun atm, I'll change that over time.
It's front yard has the Macadamia Tree and some native trees also - lots of shade.

If Lock Down goes for a while, I'll teach myself how to roast the Macadamia nuts. Atm I gift them to a family who eats them and sells them for themselves which I'm happy for.

Have a great week!
Love EMxxxx

[Matchy69]

Hi dizzy great to see you on the gardening thread.I see you want to grow your plants in pots.Just curious for the reason for growing all in pots.I have seen some amazing gardens all just grown in pots and you can change things around very easily and if something isn't doing so well in a spot you can shift it to get more sun or less sun.

Fruit trees that can be good to grow in pots are dwarf varieties especially citrus.

Em is right the best way of working at what grows in your are is to have a walk around the streets and see what looks good and what you like and take notice of what position it is growing in.Take a photo of the plants if you don't know the name of them and someone at a nursery can identify them for you.

Happy gardening,

Mark.

[Lillylane]

Hi All,

This reminds me... the only way I can get motivated to go for walks is to tell myself I’ll check out gardens along the way.

Visited a local native plant nursery last weekend. Could have stayed there for hours. Bought a little plant with amazing purple flowers I’ve never seen before, tetratheca thymifolia.

happy gardening,

L.

[ecomama]

Thanks for your advice Mark, it's really helpful as always!!

How's your garden doing?

Hey Lilly Pilly! Nice to see you here.

I'm glad you're getting out for walks. It's lovely seeing other people's gardens.

My little pinky purple succulent is NOT doing well on the balcony any more.
Left out the front, the chooks ate it lol.
Might need to bring it inside, but it's colder in there atm now our heater's broken, hmmm.

I can see from my last post here that I had GRAND plans of learning about roasting macadamias during the lock down / working mostly from home phase.
Tell 'er she's dreamin'.
Work has gone crazy, I felt my blood pressure rising this afternoon! Very demanding.
Took a nap "after work".

I fell asleep to an ABC iView "Dream Gardens" episode and it gave me ideas for my front "Potager Garden" which is just a round bricked courtyard now that the trees are shading 90% of it.
I got some baby Liriopes at a HUGE discount earlier in the year. They're happy in their pots still.
I need to put them in bigger pots, in a swathe under a tree to see how they go there. If I can plant them there, they'll form a long line and look beautiful over time. If I can keep the chooks and brush turkeys away.
My clivias in pots there have to move... not sure where to just now. Must be shady though. Their flowers are so pretty so I want to be able to see them.

I took a romantic walk with my leaf blower this morning lol.
That thing is perfect for me.

Papa Brush Turkey's nesting mound is getting bigger! He went INTO my chook's shed and dragged all my empty seed sacks out for his nest. Take it easy brother! I had to go down and take them back lol.
The mound is doing a good job of taking over the banana patch, which I'm good with.
Many have to be removed over time anyway for a new fence AND a path to the intended Cabin.
I can thank him for that!

It's not the end of our Turkey adventures.

I need to get more activity in tomorrow if I can, a 3 HOUR Zoom meeting the next day will be challenging for me to sit through. Plenty of Loo Breaks I think!

Darn, I forgot to put the bins out!

happy gardening,
Love EMxxxx

[Gambit87]

Hey everyone!

pruned the roses the other day - sad because there was some good growth on there, but gotta think long term.

I bought a Felicia Pinwheel Periwinkle plant on the weekend! cant wait until it flowers! should look good.

hope youre all well