A walk around the back gardens. It's mostly a small bird sanctuary with prickly and dense plants. Several hybrid grevilleas and one very native type. #gardeningAu#bloomscrolling
This is a small garden in front of our place in inner #Melbourne. The photo was taken at the start of April. People liked to dump rubbish here and I was sick of constantly clearing away cardboard boxes and other junk left here. I am also keen on getting more greenery in the street because our street is awfully hot in summer. #StreetGardening#GardeningAU
I went to my mother's place and did a lot of pruning. Then with those cuttings, plus some very cheap bulbs I organised several volunteers to move the existing plants and plant the cuttings. A couple of us planted cuttings in pots to give to neighbours and left pots with cuttings in the new garden for people to help themselves. #StreetGardening#GardeningAU#Melbourne
Our garden is now 4 months old and flourishing. Some nasturtium seeds I had planted months before our gardening bee had laid dormant in the ground for about 5 months. After we planted the other plants the nasturtiums surprisingly sprouted.
We haven't had much rain for a month but now that the garden is largely covered by leaves and mulch there are no signs of lack of water.
What I am really happy with is that people have completely stopped dumping rubbish here. It shows what a difference it makes when people can see a place is cared for and it looks pretty.
However, you will notice a dumped shopping trolley next to the garden in one of the photos. That is still an issue. I caught one of our neighbours dumping a shopping trolley in front of our place about a month ago. I ran up the street with the trolley shouting "you've forgotten your trolley". I knew and he knew he hadn't 'forgotten' it but it helped him save face as I gave it back to him.
I had procrastinated on planting those hyacinth bulbs so they looked a bit tired by the time I put them in... but they are growing! Hurrah #GardeningAU
Guava time, round 3 (I think). We've actually been doing a good job of using and giving it away this year, but I think it's time to say goodbye to the tree after winter. #GardeningAU
It is a gorgeous day in #Melbourne today. I am about to go out for a walk but before I went I took some photos of the only flower in our garden at the moment - this camellia sasanqua 'Jane Morgan'. I couldn't decide which photo to share but chose this one as it also shows the winter sun with clear, blue sky in the background.
This camellia is another Bunnings bargain that I have snaffled - $5 about 4 years ago. It is not my favourite variety of camellia - but bargain! #gardenAus#gardeningAus#gardeningAU
Despite the physical changes and now just wanting to curl up in my bed and cry, I did manage to get my #PlantMail potted up today.
This week’s newbies are:
Echeveria Sea Dragon
Echeveria Ballerina
Echeveria Tolimanensis Hybrid
Echeveria Laui x Strictiflora Nova
Echeveria Edgy
I also repotted my Echeveria Neon Breakers that was bursting out of her pot with lots of babies. I forgot to get a pic before she went back out under the frost cloth but she looks little in her new pot despite desperately needing the size upgrade.
I went more than a little overboard online plant shopping this week so next week’s post will be a big one!
The #streetgarden we planted on 10th April is going really well. People have taken some of the pot plants we left for people to take home. The nasturtium seeds I planted last spring had not sprouted by April so I gave up on them. To my surprise they have since sprouted.
Today I did some weeding, rubbish removal and moved some of the nasturtium plants to better places. #gardeningAU
This week’s #PlantMail potted up. It’s been a tough week with the #LongCovid fatigue hitting me particularly hard so they didn’t get potted up until yesterday afternoon despite having all arrived by Thursday.
Echeveria Dream Fantasia
Echeveria Pagoda
Pachyphytum Bubblegum
Cotelydon Choco Line
Echeveria Purple Delight Variegata (cutting)
Echeveria Purple Delight Reverse Variegata (They are a whole lot lighter in person than the sales pictures and may not survive due to lack of colour through which to photosynthesise. Usually you’d leave practically albino ones like this on the mother plant)
It’s time for an updated #introduction. I’ve been here since 2016, listening and thinking. I live by the sea in Wollongong (IYKYK) and I’m a university worker. I research healthcare storytelling and I think about #compost#TransRights#SafeWork and #GardeningAu. I believe we’re going to have to work together differently to face what we’re facing. Life is short.
First time growing sweet potatoes. The plant has been looking sad lately and we needed something for dinner so figured it was time to harvest.
I was surprised at how easy these tubers came out - they snapped out clean when I started digging in the pot. They're weirdly perfect looking. Tasty too. Fed the plant some fresh dirt as thanks, hopefully it'll yeild some more next year.
Handweeding and adding *Lomandra hystrix *plus a few assorted trees into a SE QLD #bushregeneration#riparian trial site, a mix of a #Miyawaki style on #Syntropic rows. All grown from seed in a home nursery, and watered once at planting time. No fertiliser or any amendments in field, soaked in seaweed and worm castings the day of planting. No herbicide will ever be used. The 2m Commersonia bartramia on right of frame of Photo 1+2 is 4 months old.
The resulting tree growth will be thinned to best performers while maintaining species #biodiversity and spacing. Some will be volunteered for #biomass production through #pollard or a form thereof, more often than not the faster-growing pioneer species. You may think the spacing is crazy but if I grow 50 tubes from the same seed batch, there may be 5 great performers, 30 OK, 5 poor, and 10 thinned in nursery. Even where they are planted onsite could be a difference in growth rates.
Photos 3+4 are 3 months old, have had less rainfall, and are at tractor spacing if that was ever required for mowing management. Just a test between closer and wider spacing across the site.
This is part of a 40m wide, 10 row system that is 1.5 years at the oldest. As the system matures, herbs and shade-loving species will be added when the weather is good (maybe after #elnino).
Rather than call it Miyawaki/Syntropic mix, how about something like S.A.P - Successional Accelerated Planting? Something tree-related? Any ideas?