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]

Hi Quirky!

Welcome to our happy little gardening group! A WARM warm welcome.

SO LOVELY to have you here.... when you said 'ground cover of chamomile' awww.. what a sweet picture that painted...I think chamomile is pretty hardy! Absolutely go with that.

Would you be walking on this ground cover?

I love Matchy's suggestion omg... we MOW the mint here! But we have a section where we walk through it because it's really pretty and REALLY useful too. You can get chocolate mint and that's YUM... spearmint too, pretty fancy. It puts up with any soil IME lol.

Being in a cooler climate, coriander or cilantro is a great cool climate herb and so great for cooking.

Parsley likes a bit of sun but can grow forever lol.

Oregano, probably not unless you have a really hot spot in a cool garden. Same with Basil.

A pretty wild but awesomely successful sowing technique is to:
* buy all your seeds
* get some vermicast (worm castings) from a Community garden if you don't have a worm farm
* get a HUGE bowl - I use our big stainless steel one. A bucket is fine too
* put the vermicast in, wear gloves if you're a bit ewww about it lol!
* sprinkle the seeds all over it and mix them gently with your hands
* add water to make a slurry
* throw this out on the ground.

If you want to do an "Anastasia" thing you can put some of the seeds of the edible plants in your mouth and apparently this activates what your body needs within the plants.

Things get pretty weird here lol!

Altogether my advice is go with what you love.... over time you'll intuit which little spots are best by looking at how the plants are enjoying where they are... and kinda how they're NOT. lol.

Bestest wishes, you're going to love this new adventure!

If you do love it, we're here, if you don't then we're here too LOL.

Love EM

[ecomama]

OMG Birdy77 I got SO excited that SOMEONE had come up with a name for my Mystery Tree for once lol....

I Searched for photos and ALAS NO it's not mine....

It has similar leaves but my one's leaves are much wider. And they get a "shine" to them.

The flowers are SO TINCY INCY WINCY TINY about as big as half my little fingernail or less.
A tiny little fluff.

And my tree is HUGE... it's 3 stories high and it's been chopped at the top numerous times.

I can't wrap my arms around the base of the tree trunk - it's pretty wide.

But if you're willing NOT to give up, I'll be here cheering for you.

Matchy, is it like yours???

Thankyou for your research!
EM

[ecomama]

Hi blondguy Paul

I hope others will cascade in to help you lol. cascade... get it?

You know I'm gonna go with food plants, so take it if you wish... plus I live in a HOT climate. These things I suggest are in the hottest part of my garden most of the year.

atm I have an accidental cherry tomato vine growing superbly over a retaining wall..

I also have oregano growing over it too... those 2 make it look like quite the Italian garden entry.

But further up I have lovely matchstick bromeliads cascading over. They were a gift a long time ago. They multiply by themselves and are very everything tolerant - dry, wet, hot, cold, anything.
They also have very pretty pink and purple flowers. I like them alot.

I also LOVE vines but I prefer them to grow up and around a tree trunk to keep them away from tentacling through everything else growing nearby. They can be a REAL pain.

Keep greening Australia guys!

EM

[ecomama]

Happy Plants or Dracaena Frangrans Massangeana for the experts in the group.

I'll stick with Happy Plants!

I just Googled them and omg what?? $115 per pot! No way.

These gorgeous plants are the easiest things in the world to propagate.

Just CUT the head off and stick it in a pot of soil then water.
I've done this straight into the ground.

I have some over 2 stories high (due to neglect) and they're about to lose their heads lol.
In the nicest possible way ofcourse, with a sharp saw lol.

I'm going to cut WHERE I want the next heads to grow from.
Then plant the parent's former head into the ground.

I haven't had much successful with taking the long middle stalk and having it strike.
But it's okay. I compost it. They compost really well.

They are a beautiful indoor plant too.

I find they're quite hardy in my garden.... but a little bit fussy about how good they look upon where they're planted.

They handle CROWDING which is what is perfect for the Balinese look.

IME they like a spot:
* out of strong winds
* sheltered somewhat from the sun by larger tree's shade
* with good drainage
* drier rather than wetter
* out of humidity.

Apparently their BIGGEST compliment is when they flowers and the flowers are quite spectacular (not that I've seen mine flower for a long time... maybe soon now I'm giving a hoot lol).

Anyone else have these beauties in their gardens?

EM

[Lillylane]

Hi EM

Thanks for the baby lemon tree!! (in spirit)

I would happily do some tree pruning in return for you if I could. I’ve been pruning our very tall Lilly pillys (very slowly).

Did some mulching today. One of my favourite jobs.

Paul, a couple of cascading ground covers that come to mind (both are very hardy once established) are:


-Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’

- Creeping Boobialla

[ecomama]

Hi Lillylane

Wow I just Google searched that Dichondra and it's BEAUTIFUL!

Looks so gorgeous growing between pavers... I would much prefer that growing and any other ground covers instead of grass tbh.

The chickens ate all my grass anyway lol... when we had 26 of them.

I wonder if the Brush Turkeys would leave it alone though?
Won't find out unless I try lol.

I know that was for Paul but thankyou from me too!!!

Great suggestion!

The creeping Boobialla looks lovely too.
It reminds me of our Murraya growing instead of grass on our nature strip near the road (I planted it lol).
I LOVE the scent at Christmas time of Murraya, it lets me know that Christmas is almost here.

Lovely
Thanks Lillylane and yes indeed I'd love a help with my pruning of my huge lilly pillies too!
I think my new lemon tree will be staying put for the future cabin's occupants.... could be me in my old age and that would be wonderful.

EM

[Matchy69]

Em the mystery tree I have gets a different kind of leaf on it to yours,more of a normal shape leaf.It gets an insignicant flower on it which I can't remember really what it looks like to it flowers again.It is just coming into leaf now.I keep chopping the top of it of as it will grow into the power lines.I might chop it out completely next winter.Someone tried to tell me it was a camphor Laurel but it is definately not that.

[ecomama]

I know mine isn't a camphor laurel either... those smell strongly of camphor.

Tbh Matchy it's been so long since I've seen the leaves (like a lifetime ago) that I'll check back in when the leaves come back lol.

I could be confusing the maple leaf shapes to the ones from another tree.

[Lillylane]

I planted three ornamental pear trees back in Autumn and have just noticed they have started shooting out really bright green leaves.

When I’m getting anxious, I look out at the trees. I’m grateful to be able to see something green out the window.

Difficult day. Wishing things were different. Maybe I can try and think about what to plant underneath these trees.

[ecomama]

Hi Lillylane

I had an extremely difficult day too after some really shocking news yesterday.

What's going on? Would you like to talk about it?

I've always thought that a "Gardening Counsellor" would be an awesome thing.

Your pear trees sound absolutely beautiful. It's too hot here for apples or pears, sadly.

But a lovely surprise today was that my gardener was walking out the front way with me and asked "Why is your pawpaw in a pot?"

Wow we have a pawpaw growing. How incredibly fortuitous. I was simultaneously shocked that by chance I spotted it growing, thought it looked pretty and potted it up months ago AND the most beautiful memory of my Nana came to me... I was born in Asia and couldn't stomach the Western food here... my Nana had never even heard about papaya let alone eaten it. Yet my mother had told her that if they fed me Asian food then I would eat.

I have NO idea to what lengths my Nana went to but it was clearly her LOVE for me that motivated her to find and plant a papaya tree. Then show me the big fruit dangling and said it was just for me.

I believe it must have been sent by my Nana to be discovered at JUST this saddest of times for me today... to give me Hope and remind me of LOVE. Even when my heart is breaking all over again.

My Nana had JUST that persistent kind of love lol.

Now I'm a Nana and my grandchildren love to eat fruit I grow. They love to pick it and water it all too.

I'm so fortunate to have a garden that can grow food for us.

I shall plant my surprise Papaya soon and next to it a Beloved Pomegranate.
An Homage to the past and the future.

Many Blessings in your garden and always
EM