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
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.
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
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?
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.
Our street garden has flourished, and so too have the weeds! After weeding today I laid down some mulch. A couple of neighbours stopped to chat which is what a street garden is about - connecting neighbours with each other #gardenAus#streetgardening#gardeningAus
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