'Ditch the lawn' movement in southern Australia shows the benefits of removing the traditional patch of grass in front of homes and planting things that will attract birds etc.
My mother ripped up her front lawn in 1987 and again in her new place in 1993. At the time I thought it was strange but the results in both gardens convinced me that this was a great idea.
If we needed a place for our children to play we walked to a park
Any #hydroponics people out there? My coriander is disappointingly leggy. Does anyone else have this problem? Do I need more light? More nutrient? Bury the seed deeper? After a little while the fallen ones die off and the healthy ones become straight (4 week old coriander) #GardeningAU
Artificial turf is really bad for the environment and can heat up to 80 or 90 degrees on a sunny day adding to the heat of the house.
When we bought our house it had a backyard with artificial turf covering a large concrete pad. What can we do to cover the concrete with something better? #GardeningAU#Melbourne
Managed to do a fair bit of gardening today despite battling the start of a migraine (eventually thwarted by caffeine and rest in the afternoon). I repotted a blueberry plant that was in a way too small pot. I also repotted my $5 tubestock camellia I purchased recently.
My big success was finishing sieving my worms from their worm poo and therefore being able to retire one tray of my worm farm. It has taken me many hours over a few weekends to accomplish this because it is the first time I have done it and I didn't know what I was doing. Eventually with advice from @treevan and @earthmothering9 I got it and this morning I was much more efficient. This is what social media is so good for - sharing skills and experience as well as encouraging others.
So I cleaned up a worm tray and felt good! #worms#vermiculture <- newly learned word for me :-)
I used the worm poo slurry for our street garden. After a harsh summer I have been giving it some loving care. Despite the perargoniums being stunted while they held on for dear life during the period of no rain and high temperatures I pruned them a bit yesterday to encourage new growth.
I have grown the pelargonium (geranium) pictured below on the left from a cutting I took from a street planting in North Fitzroy. Those pelargoniums needed cutting to invigorate them and make them bushy. The cutting had thrived in a pot so I planted it out yesterday.
The pelargonium on the right is a slower growing variety grown from a cutting from my mother's garden. I have put it in a more sheltered position in the street garden as it is a slow grower and seems to be a bit more delicate.
While I was tending the street garden this afternoon a neighbour I have not met before stopped and said he likes seeing me take care of the garden so often. That makes me happy because that is the point of the garden. In an area covered with signs of addiction, rubbish and grafitti of the tagging variety, I want this small patch to uplift passers by and awaken in them the thought that it is possible to make things better here. #StreetGarden#Melbourne#StreetGardening#GardeningAU
Sitting on the couch after spending a couple of hours sieving worm poo to extricate bits of plastic from the shredded material I added, and to extricate worms (some tiny) and worm cocoons. I then poured the worm poo slurry onto the garden. #GardeningAU#Melbourne
This morning our gardening group gave away a lot of cuttings to a family nearby. We had been nurturing the plants over summer. We also gave away plants that my mother no longer wants.
Gardening can be an incredibly cheap hobby if you know a bit about plants. Many gardeners have piles of black plastic pots they no longer want and some plants like pelargoniums (geraniums) are easy to grow from cuttings. I pick up cheap potting soil from a supermarket as the easy to grow plants don't really care about what they grow in.
@melanie Gardening requires a lot of hope doesn't it?
I am nursing a rhododendron cutting that is probably 5 years old. It only grows during autumn. This year it has grown a couple of tiny shoots at the base (if you expand the photo you can just see them). I am looking forward to the year it flowers. It is a cutting from my mother's garden and has beautiful orange flowers (see the right-hand photo). It is a Vireya Rhodedendron 'Simbu Sunset'.
Day 3 of my quest to separate the worms from their castings and retire one bin of our worm farm. I have been following helpful advice from @treevan and @earthmothering9. This morning I bought a cheap sieve and have been pouring rain water through the castings to separate the worms and put them in the other tray.
To my annoyance I found that there was a bit of shredded plastic amongst the shredded paper we had been feeding the worms. I have been painstakingly fishing the plastic out as well as the worms.
I will get there! I am being slow and nitpicking doing this but that is my nature and it is better to get those personal qualities out on the weekend and in solitude rather than annoy people at work with them. #GardeningAU#Melbourne#worms
Back aching from bending over patiently sieving worm casts for bits of plastic, worms and worm cocoons. I am in the back yard having a cuppa amongst my pot plants.
In our small inner-urban back garden I don't have enough sunlight or garden bed space to plant all the plants I would like, so I have a collection of pots that I move around to catch the sun or avoid the sun, depending on the time of year.
I am also growing cuttings for our street gardening group. Our group met this morning and consulted on what we have coming up. We are hoping to give away the cuttings we nurtured over summer to residents living nearby. I have also picked up some plants my mother doesn't want, but I don't want them either, like the frilly pink camellia in this picture (grown from a $5 tubestock purchased about 5 years ago). I might see if I can find a new home for those plants too.
One of the members of our group has taken to naming his cuttings. He might find it a bit hard to give away 'Herby' so I suggested he keep it.
The light failed so I finished the weekend's gardening work. I managed to repot and divide 3 gazania pots. I watered the lemon and lime trees as well as the gazanias with the worm castings that I had filtered through a sieve with rain water.
Last week I planted a geranium (pelargonium) which grows a couple of feet next to the garage. In front of that I planted a jasmine plant I grew from a cuttingnso that it can grow up the fence. Then on the street I planted a 'Big red' geranium that has a small bushy growth habit. Today on the other side of the garage I mirrored the planting of the previous week.
You can see the stump of a tree on the left. The builder planted a Cyprus on each side of the garage which predictably became nuisances in such small spots, so close to the building. The previous owner had them cut down but when we moved in a couple of years ago, they were sprouting. We poisoned them and waited. They have not sprouted for about a year and the wood is rotting, so now I am planting some more suitable plants. #GardeningAU#Melbourne
My mother's garden in full autumnal colour: this morning I divided more clivias and planted the extra plants in the communal garden that lines a long path. I also pruned some Ivy geraniums and placed cuttings in the communal garden.
The body corporate does not have much of a gardening budget so we we are filling the big empty gaps beneath trees with plants that Mum can't fit in her garden. I follow the 'don't seek permission' principle but we both understand that if they don't like them then they can feel free to remove them.
After the working bee in Mum's garden last weekend there are fewer potted plants and the camellia in the foreground on the left (dark green leaves) is free of the jasmine that was covering the top of it. #GardeningAU#Melbourne
I finished the day with working on the worm farm. I am fairly new at worm farming. This is the first time I have emptied a bin. The worms love their castings. Over the last couple of weeks I have been fishing out worms from the castings and putting them in the current tray we are using.
The photo shows me dealing with the last lot of castings. I have created little piles. The idea is tha the worms in each pile migrate to the bottom. I then scoop off the top and find the remaining worms left at the bottom which I can then add back to the current tray. #GardeningAU#Melbourne
Yesterday we had our working bee in my mother's garden. One of my mother's neighbours joined my husband and I and we spent several hours pruning, planting, mulching and chatting. It was lovely for Mum as she had different people to chat with while we were working.
We planted or moved around 25 plants in the garden beds that had been reshaped by the path my brother recently made. Things we planted included camellia, canna, clivia, mondo grass, succulents. Mum's neighbour spent about an hour on a ladder carefully removing jasmine that was covering a large camellia. We filled a green wheelie bin with prunings.
I potted up some geranium, cornea, abutilon and jasmine cuttings that Mum can look after.
I don't have any photos other than this one I took before we started. #GardeningAU#Melbourne
Had a good gardening day today. In the afternoon I planted a tall-growing geranium cutting outside the garage, a jasmine cutting next to it which will grown up the fence to the front door and on the street side next to the short drive I planted a 'Big red' geranium cutting that has a spreading compact growth pattern.
Each plant I had grown from cuttings in pots last year so they all had good root structures. By next summer I hope they will be well-established and hopefully they will survive the hot, aftoon western sun.
My husband and I dug out weeds on the opposite side of the garage. I have another set of potted cuttings I can plant there when I have time in a few days.
When we first moved in 2 and a half years ago there were two conifers planted foolishly close to the drive and house which had been cut down but were still sprouting. We had to poison them and wait until they had well and truly died. The bases of these trees are now rotting away nicely. Every few months we are able to cut away more of the cut-down trunks.
I also planted coriander seeds and a clover mix in a part of the garden with poor quality soil. I had saved a dried, okd oak-leaf hydrangea flower head in a paper bag. I shook some of the seeds into a couple of punnet. Let's see what happens with them!
It is so nice that we are now having mild weather with good rain making gardening feasible again. #Melbourne#GardeningAU
It is a public holiday here and peak gardening season. This morning I did a lot of work on our worm farm. I had retired the bottom bin 3 months ago and have been only feeding the top bin. We have a lot of worms and some migrated up. They have eaten a lot of stuff in the top bin including all the shredded paper I had put in there.
However, there are still heaps of worms in the bottom bin that are not migrating up. I was puzzled. What were they feeding on?
As I pulled worms out from the bottom bin by hand this morning (spent about an hour doing it), I felt solid material amongst the worm paste. There were still remnants of corn cobs in there. I also found a couple of partially digested tea bags. No wonder they are still happy there.
"Perhaps this winter, I will be brave enough to tame the insolent garden that taunts me" - Virginia Trioli's ode to her gardening inadequacies as the season has abruptly turned from summer to autumn and winter approaches. #GardeningAU#Melbourne
This morning I organised a working bee in my mother's garden for next weekend and invited a couple of her neighbours to join us. My job will be to supervise the novice gardeners who will do the work. They will gain gardening skills and knowledge. At the end they will take away potted cuttings for their garden. #WinWin
I hope to pay a local cafe owner to supply rice paper rolls and coffee for the gardeners at the end of the working bee. This cafe owner provides a lot of community support for the elderly in the area, including my mother. This is one way I can give her recognition and thanks for what she is doing.
It has been a big gardening planning weekend. We are in peak autumnal gardening season after bunkering down during the hot, dry summer. My mother and I made a list of tasks to do. We are organising a working bee. Hopefully some interested neighbours and family will join us in a week or two.
This afternoon I surveyed our street garden. Lots of nasturtium seedlings have popped up after the big rain. I moved them to fill empty spaces. The earth that has been dry as dust over summer has now been replenished after the rain. The trowel sinks in easily.
I had a chat with a hospitality business owner who runs his business next to our house about our progress and planting strategy. He has put an application into the local council to get funds for planting on the street corners to deter rubbish dumpers. #GardeningAU#Melbourne#StreetGarden
I found a tube-stock plant I had bought at the Melbourne Garden Show a few weeks ago and forgotten to repot. It is an Eremophila Glabra from Western Australia. It is a ground cover plant that grows in a 1m-2m circumference. It is suitable for dry, sunny conditions with light soil.
I planted it in our street garden. It is the light-green leaved plant rising straight up in the middle of this photo. It is a bit of trial and error to find what plants succeed in the conditions of our street garden. It will have a chance to establish itself properly before it is assailed by our next hot, dry summer.
I have planted it close to a geranium and nasturtium seedlings. I regard those plants as dispensible. If the Eremophila succeeds I can move them or remove the other plants.
How gorgeous are these 'Japanese Anemones' flowers that caught my eye when out walking today.
Looking splendid in the sunshine, the flowers are a stunning blend of pastel pink leaves with soft white edges that surround a bright lime green centre with a ring of short, bright yellow stamen.
After several days of gardening in 2 gardens during Easter, I am taking it easy in the garden this weekend.
I took a stroll with my mother in her garden, thinking of what further work needs to be done next weekend when I spied an upturned pot in a garden bed. I bent down to fix it and saw another upturned pot behind it. I wondered what caused this when behind a camellia I saw that the bird bath had toppled over from a higher garden bed knocking over the pots.
I pulled the bird bath out of the garden bed. My brother was going to take it to his place, but now that the bird bath is so broken we will take it to the tip.