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
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.
Another fact in street gardening is observing how people on the street interact with it. I want it to be practical with no rules imposed. I have found that on one corner people seem to walk on it. That means that I need to find sturdy ground cover plants that don't mind being trodden on. But they also have to be drought-proof.
Or maybe the answer is to put plants that are more noticeable in this area so people naturally move around them, not through them?
I have not been sharing many garden updates because a more typical #Melbourne summer has arrived and we are battling weeks of no rain and some days over 35 degrees (nowhere near as bad as #Perth though).
I have been very busy with family and community projects but fortunately my husband has stepped in to water plants. Even so, as you can see in this photo of our #StreetGarden, the plants have shrunk and are really holding on quite grimly.
This is a photo of the other half of our #StreetGarden - again with shrunken plants battling to stay alive through the dry weather #Melbourne has been having and a number of 35+ degree days.
During our mild and wet December and January I was starting to think I had been ridiculous with my rule of no planting during summer until the equinox arrives 20th March. But now we have had weeks with barely any rain and so my rule still holds. I am thinking that it is easier to garden through winter than summer here.
Plant-choice is crucial for street gardens where you cannot guarantee ongoing care. The council's choice of the drought-tolerant gray-leaf gazania is wise. Our group chose succulents and the hardy 'Big red' (sorry I don't know the proper name) geranium plus some salvias. The nasturtiums we planted have died down but there are lots of seeds in the garden ready to germinate when the time is right.
But the garden is still working beautifully to deter people dumping big pieces of rubbish there like before. I can cope with dealing with the little bit of rubbish that has floated on the wind (pictured).
This is a photo of the same #StreetGarden last Spring. Compare that to the previous photo and you can see how even the drought-tolerant gazanias have shrunk.
We have another week coming with no rain and a variety of temperatures from quite cool today (expecting 21 degrees) to 37 degrees predicted next Saturday.
We are planning our next #melbourne#StreetGarden challenge. We have some plots that are currently covered in rubbish and trolleys and are waiting for the council to clean them up. While waiting I am collecting cuttings of plants that are difficult to kill and require little maintenance.
This morning I spied this pelargonium and knocked on the door of the owner to ask if it was OK to take cuttings. I didn't really need to because it was on the street and growing outside his property, but as a society we need to combat #SocialIsolation by talking to our neighbours.
So I have a couple more cuttings in my collection for our next garden project
#OfficeKitty likes accompanying me in the garden while I am doing garden stuff. She does not like facing the camera and made sure her head was turned as far away as possible when she saw I was trying to take her photo. #caturday#CatsOfMastodon#gardenAus#GardenKitty
The man who works across the road and guards the plants in our #StreetGarden (from people who want to dig plants up and take them), gave me some old wire baskets to grow plants in.
Today I lined one with coir matting and emptied one and a half bags of potting mix in it (25 litre bags). I then planted some Christmas Lulium bulbs I had forgotten about. They had sprouted in a plastic bag in the garage. I also planted some Dwarf Iris Alida bulbs in the soil.
We had planned to hook this to the top of the fence but realised it would be way too heavy for the fence. #gardenAus
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