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Former-Member
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Re: Self care by growing a garden

Thanks @Determined, picture came through.

I will only have standard roses as they are heaps easier to weed under and you can grow things under them to help keep the weeds down. Trouble is they cost a bit more and I like mass plantings ...






Former-Member
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Re: Self care by growing a garden

@CherryBomb

I had to get someone you in to help as Mr Darcy was not coping but he whipper snipped where I asked him not to. The carnage was one bird bath and at least 15 plants. Fortunately as they were perennials quite a few of the plants have recovered but some have not.




Re: Self care by growing a garden

 My period of love of gardening started with taking an Dutch Iris bulb and some pelargonium cuttings.

Before that it was just one of the seemingly endless chores.

light blue iris.jpeg

its so exiting that I actually know what some of the names of the plants are .. as an inner city kid I only knew geraniums and cala lilies!

Here's a rose pic 

4 Yellow Roses L Holberg.jpeg

Former-Member
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Re: Self care by growing a garden

@Appleblossom

Love spring flowering bulbs. Some I have in ground but have a terracotta pot collection which I have tulip bulbs in. I treat myself to a 5 pack each autumn and the collection has slowly grown although some need replacing now. They really could do with repotting and a good feed of sulphate of potash after flowering. I have a miniature tulip which I got in memory of one of my whippets, delicate and beautiful, as she was.

I have Dutch Iris (yellow and purple) and daffodils in ground. I would love to grow Iceland poppies. Have had good success with ladybird poppies (the red and black ones).

Darcy

Re: Self care by growing a garden

@Former-Member "Edibles, ornamentals or both?" Very much both! Smiley Very Happy

I did actually write up a long post about my garden last night, but something glitched and it disappeared... so here I go again. 

Our family has had a crazy run of one thing after another for more than a decade. MI, major emergency surgery, natural disasters and other events and situations way too convoluted to list, so I decided a long time ago that my sanity-saver garden had to be crisis-resistant. 

The past couple of years have been really tough, and it's wearing me down badly. As a result, the big annual veggie garden in the back yard has grown very little except weeds this year. The few crops I have planted went in too late. Doesn't matter too much with the cabbage and broccoli plants. Most of them survived summer by sulking, and from past experience, they'll start growing properly as the weather cools down. But the tomatoes, eggplant and sweet potato have produced little or nothing.

And now the "crisis resistance" advance planning kicks in. I've got lots of friuit trees, so with no attention paid to them, we've had a few apricots and plums, and heaps of peaches. There's assorted herbs all over the place, perennials like rosemary, sage, lemon thyme, lemon verbena, lemon balm, garlic chives, various mints, fennel and others; and self seeding ones too- flatleaf parsley, chervil and borage. Lettuce and silverbeet also self seed, although none of them made it through summer. I'm expecting the next batch will start coming up soon. There's an asparagus patch (but it's not big enough- need to plant some more!!) and heaps of Jerusalem Artichokes that are currently taller than our side fence and flowering. They'll be ready for winter soups and casseroles.

Same goes for the ornamentals. There's a lot of drought tolerant flowering plants like bearded irises, lavender, buddleias, chinese lanterns (very tough once they get established), agastaches, senecios, yarrows, a few natives. Bulbs like tulips, nerines, daffodils and jonquils, belladonna lillies, grape hyacinths and more that grow over autumn/winter/spring when there's moisture in the soil, and self seeding flowers that do the same- nigella, poppies, calendulas. (Not an exhaustive list by any means. There's all sorts hiding around.)

At the moment, the garden looks messy. There's weeds everywhere, and lots of things in need of pruning, but it's still growing and producing. I'm hoping to get part of the big veggie patch back into order to plant some winter crops, and wanting to use the fact that it's currently empty as an opportunity to relay the beds into a better plan.

We've got plenty of wildlife that love our garden, including some friendly but not really tame wallabies... they're a bit of a problem because they like fruit trees and veggies too, but they get away with it because they're so cute. This one's a female with a rather full and bulgy pouch. Smiley Happy

 

female wallaby.JPG

Former-Member
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Re: Self care by growing a garden

Thanks @Smc

Can empathise with you on the weariness scale. I feel despite everything I have so much to be grateful for but have been missing getting stuck into the garden and feel a bit overwhelmed by what needs to be done. Hoping the equinox might bring weather that will have be back outdoors.

Found this article that could explain why gardening is therapeutic.

https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/antidepressant-microbes-soil.htm

So pleased to read your post, am super interested in your crisis resistant garden. I am surprised at the number of things that have survived at our place despite absolute neglect and like you hope to get the veg patch in better shape. We have a small asparagus patch too that could be extended, have been thinking of putting another section to strawberries.

Agastache might be a good option for the spot I thought I could tackle first.

I can imagine the wallabies would have gourmet taste and go for your prized plants first.

I tried to grow cauliflowers once, they looked good but came with additional protein in the form of miniature slugs.

Looking forward to the next installment.

Darcy

Re: Self care by growing a garden

Liking the new profile pic @Former-Member

I can see you are getting into the groove already 🙂

Re: Self care by growing a garden

@Former-Member... as yuck as it sounds, the odd caterpillar hidden in the caulis does no harm. They taste of whatever they've been eating but have a higher... erm... protein content?? I've found caulis to be the trickiest of the cabbage etc. family, but all of them are a bit pest prone.

The wallabies are unpredictable in their appetites, but I have to protect the trunks of young trees. Lost a few to ringbarking. They like snowpeas, so I'll have ot cage those.

I've read the article about the microbes in soil before. There's a tricky balance. If we're not clean enough we can expose ouselves to "bad bugs", but too clean and shiny's evidently not healthy either. 🙂

Former-Member
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Re: Self care by growing a garden

Morning @Smc @Appleblossom

Hoping to get something done today in the garden, yesterday too windy ... but I did find the mini file to sharpen the secateurs so that was a start.

Darcy

Re: Self care by growing a garden

And good afternoon to you. 🙂 

I was out all day yesterday, and this morning too. The only gardening this weekend has been quickly spraying the young plants in my "nursery" section so that they didn't die, but I've got some other potted plants pleading for urgent attention too, so I need to get out there soon. 

I tacked some of the pruning on Friday, and also distributed some manure rich bunny bedding to a few veggie plants. I chop the prunings up into short lengths, usually about 30cms, sometimes linger or shorter, and spread them over our paths as mulch. Cheaper than buying it in. 😄 (If it's edible stuff, it often goes to to the bunnies or guinea pigs instead.)