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]

Oh Mark I've had some awful things happen in my garden and I felt aawfully depressed over it and other things.

I'm okay now but boy what a horrible set of things!
I'll explain more tonight.

Last night's wander in my garden perked me up a bit but those horrible things are just what happens some times and what do you do?
Get back on the horse that bucked you!

LOL!!!

Thanks for all your great advice for Blue and all here.

Love EM

[ecomama]

Hi Lillylane,

YES! SNAP LOCK LIDS lol... you get my drift? lol Weed Tea and Seaweed Tea is GREAT stuff but boy it pongs!

Don't overdo it in the garden with that stuff.

ONE CUP in a 9 litre watering can is plenty for our food plants.

Undiluted straight on to weeds can kill them.

It could probably kill other plants undiluted but my plants down hill from these (I leave mine open for the rain) are doing SO FINE!

The dregs of dead plants and seaweed can also be left around any tree's roots and watered in at the end of use for the tea.
SO you go to the the END of the trees branches and leaves and that's usually the circumference of the tree's roots.
THAT'S where you put nutrients.
WATER in very well if you use the dregs.

It's a magical thing to put out just before RAIN and does all the work of watering for you.
It just keeps on keeping on.

Nothing too close to the base of any trees.
This can cause rot on the tree and leaves it open for insects eg ants to get in there and wreak havoc.

Yes weeds lol.
They're always trying to tell us some thing.

Listen.
Observe.
Wonder.

Go with your instincts. This is a Biodynamic (Steiner / Waldorf) Principle.
Listen to your instincts.

Happy yet RESILIENT gardening everyone lol!

Love EM

[Matchy69]

Hi Em I am sorry about your struggles in the garden and elsewhere.I was getting worried about you as I hadn't seen you on your gardening thread but I am glad you are getting through it.I am All ways here if you want to talk.

I had a lost in the garden with my cape gooseberry.I don't know why I lost it.I have been growing them for years and this is the first on I have lost.I usually making jam out of them as it's one of my favourite jams.

Happt gardening,

Mark.

[Birdy77]

Hi EM and all gardenening friends here.

Loving hearing everyone's garden capers 😃

EM, did your mystery tree leaf up? Any further clues hence?

EM, you mentioned pet waste composting on another thread, thought I'd mention it here - there js a bokashi system called Ensopet that composts pet waste, I've been using it for a couple of years. I bought the kit at first, which consists of an in-ground bin and starter mix. I then made my own subsequent bins (out of discarded lidded buckets from a supermarket deli) which i now have a few around the garden - just remove the bottom and drill holes in the sides of the bucket, dig a hole and sink the holey bucket into the hole. Place pet waste in the bucket, sprinkle with starter mix, and put the lid on. Worms do the rest. The starter mix is available from eco stores online.

birdy

[ecomama]

Thankyou Mark!

I'll be back later tonight or tomorrow to explain the dreaded garden horrors lol...

I'm doing okay, just lots of health issues bothering me. Had a bad dream about them but it was another parent being diagnosed. YUCK.

I'm cranky about the Govt making Liposomal Vit C on prescription only.... what is that?
But I'm grateful for many other moves they're making for us. As they should lol.

Sorry to hear about your cape gooseberry Mark!!!
OMG TAKE MINE.... it's a freaking weed in my garden.
I'm ripping out seedlings all over my garden every time I walk down there.

Now you mention it... lol... you know what I'm going to ask lol... could you please put your Cape Gooseberry recipe on the recipe thread please?

THANKYOU!
Love EM

[ecomama]

Hi Birdy

Thanks for the tip about Ensopet things.
It's probably a good idea for a small garden, where the cabin will be.... it's food for thought and they tenants would have to want to do that I guess.
I can leave that till later lol... the plans for the cabin aren't even finished yet.

Our pet waste is easily composted.

Carnivore waste is supposed to cook in compost for 2y before it's deemed safe to use and we can do that.

Chook's straw is great anywhere although strictly speaking they are carnivores too!

OH YEAH BIRDY my Faraway Tree has leafed up all right.
Bright green shiny leaves and no closer to finding out it's name than any other time.

But I don't search any more either.

It has a billion native bees on it, so I'm glad it's food for nature too.

But the SHADE it makes is SO AWESOME!
Makes our downstairs a delight in Summer time.

Thanks for the tips Birdy!

Love EM

[Matchy69]

Hi Em I am sorry about your health problems.My self I am waiting for more surgery which should be done soon.

I put my cape gooseberry recipe on your other thread later.We should make a Beyond Blue cook book with all the great recipes we are getting.

I wish you could send me some seeds from the cape gooseberry as I lost my seed bank as I haven't grown them for awhile.My Rosellas are coming into fruit I be making jam soon out of them.I save some seed for next spring.

Happy gardening,

Mark.

[ecomama]

Hi Mark

SO sorry to hear about your ongoing health problems too.

I hope the surgery goes well!!!!

Lol funny you mention that about a Cook Book, my fiancee and his siblings received a computer printed cook book from their mother many years ago, of ALL her recipes and there are about
500!

She was an American born from Italian descent but it had lots of Mexican influenced dishes too because they lived in San Diego.
I asked if we could publish it. The recipes are awesome and most quite simple.

Thankyou.

I wish I could send you some seeds TOO!

I got the original seeds from a Community Garden about an hour away many years ago.... well that's not quite the truth lol... they gave us the fruit to eat and instead of eating mine, I took it home, dried the seeds and threw them in the garden lol.

They weren't supposed to grow here, apparently it's too hot.

So I chose the coolest part of my garden way down the back and wow, they took off!

The disappeared for about 5y during all the Courts and I thought for sure I'd lost them for good.

Then miraculously lol they sprung up FULL SWING right near the top of my garden.
At least 15 metres from where they first grew.

Amazing.

I have more news for my next post then my dreaded garden news but I'm bouncing back lol.

EMxxxx

[Matchy69]

Hi Em those cook books written by mothers are great.I have my mother's original cook book with all her hand written recipes including some American ones when she worked at the American Consulate in the 1960s .

Take care,

Mark.

[ecomama]

Those handed down recipes are pretty priceless Mark.

I love them lol.

So everyone my daughter downloaded a tree and plant identification app on her phone.

I've been pulling out this mass of "something" and then I couldn't remember whether my gardener was shocked I as pulling them out OR was animated for me to keep pulling them out lol.

So my daughter ID'd them.
They're Peruvian Lilies from the Inca Lily family aka NZ Christmas Bells.
Keepers! lol.
I'll know to take more care and NOT rip them out anymore lol.

They have the most beautiful flower and are pretty much tolerant of all types of neglect lol.

But the app had no idea what our Faraway Tree was.
It gave lots of answers but no way is it any of those.

My disasters lol:
- my nectarine had beautiful half sized fruit on Thursday last week (from a distance) and then on Sunday they were ALL gone... some had been cooked on the tree by the extreme heat we've had.
Some were SO swollen from the rain all in a few weeks.
Some were then attacked by fruit fly.

All gone.

Next disaster lol... well it could be worse...
- I went to get my green bin from way down the back where we'd cleared huge walls of lantana and there was a carpet of green ALL over the cleared land..

I looked closer and I think it's thousands of shoots of lantana coming up from the long roots.
I tried to pull out some seedlings but they were almost impossible to get out,
YEP must be attached to the strong root systems.

I know it's Mother Earth trying to protect herself but omg what a lot of work.

Any seeds I could plant to "out-compete" the lantana would bring another wave of difficult to get rid of plants, so hmmm.

I need to conserve my energy over a day, then wrap up good from the mozzies and get down there with a hay fork and rip out all the roots and dispose immediately.
WHAT A JOB in this heat. Not happy!

2 other lantana plants have burgeoned with all the rain.
That's a saw and rip job too.

But I knew it wouldn't be easy lol, I didn't think it would be THIS hard though!

EMxxxx