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Who else likes gardening?

ecomama
Valued Contributor
Valued Contributor

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

977 Replies 977

Lillylane
Valued Contributor
Valued Contributor

Hi EM,

I’m looking at my Lilly Pilly trees and getting worried they may be getting too tall for me to prune myself. Did you get tree loppers to prune yours? Is it very expensive? Do they charge per tree? I have a row of 5 of them.

I feel like I’m just asking everyone questions today and not giving anything back 😛 In ‘real life’ I would give you some jars of Lilly Pilly jam to say thanks 🙂

Haaaaa thanks em. l was getting a real kick too out of not killing the veggies too just for once while she's away but l created a monster . Anyway that sounds rx proof l'll give it a try .

Speaking of mangoes l think they were mangoes , big green things with this film of slim on the outside they need special washing first. Well it was awhile ago you see but the house we rented up in nth qld for a few yrs had three big mango l think they were, trees . So every yr we climbed the trees pick them all box them and sell them to the fruit market guy. lt turned out quite a perk.

rx

Jstar49
Community Member

Hi all you lovely gardeners,

Rx I am soo jelly of your tomato success! How great is that! You must be missing being able to share it with gf tho. I like Ems suggestion. Just stir it occaionally and it will be fine! The more you cook it down -gently- the more it will become like tomato paste. great for adding flavour to pasta and pizza etc. Add onions and basil for flavour if youre feeling adventurous!

Lilly I think the main difference between chutney and jam is the amount of sugar, and also chutney has salt and vinegar. Smells AMAZING while it's cooking. Or at least I think so. My chutney recipe also has spices + onion and is lovely with vego meals like dhal and rice, or tofu. When I have heaps I also freeze for adding to smoothies. Or theres a great recipe for Weiss bars- uses coconut cream and mangos and sugar. YUM! Wait til you have lovely sweet mangos tho.

Mark what do you suggest for our citrus? We keep getting leaf curl. I've got the stuff for it- haven't applied yet. But are we doing something wrong, for it to keep being a problem? The new lemon tree is in a pot- I think it dries out too much. I wonder if I can have the pot standing in water....will it hate that? I wouldn't be surprised if ants have moved in!

Cheers,

J*

ecomama
Valued Contributor
Valued Contributor
Lillylane said:

Hi EM,

I’m looking at my Lilly Pilly trees and getting worried they may be getting too tall for me to prune myself. Did you get tree loppers to prune yours? Is it very expensive? Do they charge per tree? I have a row of 5 of them.

I feel like I’m just asking everyone questions today and not giving anything back 😛 In ‘real life’ I would give you some jars of Lilly Pilly jam to say thanks 🙂

Umm firstly I used to climb the trees myself and used a mini chainsaw to cut down the branches.
THEN I used one on a pole lol.
THEN I borrowed my Uncle's reciprocating saw to do it.
Now I'm just watching the big one GROW!

Omg the cost of tree lopping ain't fun!
Plus most tree loppers I've had have been reckless.

So BE CAREFUL and very prescriptive!

Some charge by the hour, some charge by the tree.

Some charge for the "full job" - done badly IME.

My last tree lopper was pretty awesome, he LOVES trees!
He charged me $200 to prune 3 Crepe Myrtles "just enough" near the driveway, as I asked.
I'll most definitely get HIM back.

The ones before charged me $2000, if I remember correctly - to practically kill my pines and cut 2 Lilly Pillies in the OPPOSITE way I asked.
Everything was done very badly with them.
They missed 2 trees included in the quote.

Stupid me did all that verbally, the walk, the quote.
So get everything in WRITING, even via text is okay.

Lills, no need to pay me back lol "pay it forward" if you must but I think you already do plenty.

Love EM

Haaa funny thing though j she'd give me all these instructions all the time but l kept forgetting to do it all anyway. Poor things pretty well grew themselves .

rx

Matchy69
Blue Voices Member
Blue Voices Member
Hi Jstar citrus leaf curl can be caused by a few things from not enough water to or to much to temperature being to hot or cold but theost common one is insect attack which could be mealy bugs or aphids or the common one is Cyrus leaf miner which can be noticed by silver trails on the leaves and is actually a moth that lay eggs on the leaves and when hatched tunnel into the leaf causing curling.
You can spray the tree with pest oil which is organically certified or Eco oil.

Matchy69
Blue Voices Member
Blue Voices Member
Hi Em and my grandparents farm was sorounded by natural bushland and my brother and I would walk through the farm and into the forest exploring it.I am surprised we never got lost.It was a wonderful place to go for holidays.I did have a misshap with an axe under the ma go trees.I thought I would chop some firewood.I still have a big scar on my foot.
Take care,
Mark.

ecomama
Valued Contributor
Valued Contributor

And J* about the leaf curl; you need to cut off all the curled leaves.

I've gone to use the Eco oil I have, about 5 times over the past 10y lol, then realised the temperature was TOO HOT to put the oil on.
So then I just poured Weed Tea all around, in fact my orange tree is quite old so I dump the entire 11L bucket decomposed weeds an' all, all around it.

I realised also it was probably THIRSTY! Because I neglect my garden so much (yeah it's true).
We're on a slope, so I put alot of timber branches on the LOW side to stop the water running away.

Having the row boat Frog Pond on the HIGH side has seemed to help too.

Anyway those things have seemed to keep any issues away for about 3y. I'll keep you posted!

Love EM

Jstar49
Community Member

Thanks Mark and Em

yes that’s the problem I have also with eco oil- too hot!

shall try to keep it moist. I may have to empty the pot and check for ants nest first. They seem to move at no invitation!

J*

Matchy69
Blue Voices Member
Blue Voices Member
I checked my beans this morning and their is some on their ready to harvest.I will be having green beans for awhile.I am still picking tomatoes and eggplants.My sweet potatoe has taken over and is spreading onto the footpath and into my neighbours yard.
Happy gardening,
Mark.