Self care by growing a garden

Hi Peoples... Springtime's getting closer, so my hands are getting grubby!

Over the past few days I've put a quince tree and a pear tree into the garden, along with some rhubarb and a few "pretties". The English Snowdrops have finished flowering (my winter pick-me-up plant), hellebores are flowering, and I'm watching flower buds developing on my tulips. The almond trees and some of the peach trees are almost flowering. Blood orange is fruiting, but they're little and thick skinned. It must be hungry. I've planted some extra asparagus crowns rescued from my Dad's veggie patch, and I bought a hazelnut plant today that needs to go in ASAP, along with a second one that's been in a pot for toooo long.

The weeds are totally mad... tree planting requires that first I clear a space in the lush long grass. One of our chookie girls died over winter, so I need to look into a better pen because the current one is a bit too small for the new "friends" I'm hoping to bring in for her sometime soon. Also if I move her to a bigger pen, I can get all the bedding out to fertilise the spring plantings. I've used up the stockpile of old composted bedding on the before-mentioned fruit trees and asparagus. Plus they also got composted bunny poo and coffee grounds from our local bakery. My sister has been saving her pistachio shells for me; they'll be going on the asparagus bed as a slightly salty mulch. (Asparagus actually likes a little bit of salt.)

So has anyone else got green thumbs that are getting itchy?

@Former-Member, ours is a total mess too. I wonder what the other garden club members must make of it. We're in the centre of town, half a block from the little local supermarket, so we're very visible. I take heart that they all know that despite the mess I often pull out some lovely fruit and vegs or flowers for our monthly mini-competitions, and for the local ag. show. And they're nice peoples... no-one's said anything negative.

My hubby's not a gardener either, but he's very appreciative of what I grow. He used to buy me flowers when we were courting/newlywed... he gave up when he realised I was growing nicer ones anyway, so instead he's happy for me to spend up on plants. When he needs time out, his big unwind is assorted "toolwork" projects, and so in turn I'm happy for him to spend on that. Pass him a damaged antique tool, and he's likely to restore it to near new working-order condition.

I bought a pear tree and a hazelnut the other day. End of season specials, because they're practically shooting. The pear is a Corella, to replace one that died down our driveway. I planted the original one and a Fascia Rosa a few years back as cross pollinating varieties. I'd lost the name tags somehow, but I did a Permaculture course shortly after they were planted, and as part of that drew uop a garden plan. So as long as I've got the plan accurate, I've replanted the right one... hope so. The original two were on dwarf rootstock, this one's regular stock, so I'll have to be diligent about keeping it pruned to size.

The hazelnut went in today, along with another that has sat in a pot for way longer than I intended. I think I bought it about the same time as the two pear trees! I haven't grown anything (except the dread weeds) in the bed I planted them in for a couple of years. I did find the labels from an unsuccessful onion crop while I was pulling out said weeds. So yeah... I'm trying to get properly back to it. You know things are hard when the relax-pastimes are too hard to face. Hope you "get there" soon.

I have to put barriers of some kind around all the trees, otherwise the local wallabies ringbark them. In the long run, I want to have the garden properly fenced, but that will have to wait for the necessary time and energy to be available.

And meanwhile we shall keep dreaming...

@Smc @Appleblossom @Faith-and-Hope

Can feel things starting to stir in spite of Mr Darcys set back and I think I might just have to pay for some help.

Appleblossom, F&H, going by what you said in another thread I think what I need, apart from a crisis proof garden is a "shabby chic" garden - perhaps at the moment mine is just a bit shabby but from what Smc has said, I am sure that hers might fit this bill, I don't think that a garden needs to be manicured to be beautiful.

Absolutely @Former-Member ..... I love a rambling cottage garden ..... just stick a trellis and a statue in it anywhere .... 🤗💕

I have been "told" I do "shabby chic" in clothes and probably do in garden. Mine is tiny, so not too difficult. Mostly I garden for me and its like my sand pit and I dont do it for looks.

Funny though a couple of neighbours got competitive and it was like wow man chill, I was just starting and just having a go. One went and the other backed off, so all good.

Ohhh I love the pictures @Appleblossom, @Former-Member, @Faith-and-Hope, @Smc, @Lostatsea

@Former-Member@Shaz51@Appleblossom@Faith-and-Hope and anyone else around...

No, my garden is currently just shabby. The only "chic" in it is the feathery one that lays an egg every day or two. 😉

I keep dreaming of the idea of getting it up to display-able standards, but not out of competitiveness. That can get bitter, and takes all the fun out of it. It's more that I'd love to be able to share the garden with other people. I turn 50 in November next year, and it would be lovely to have the garden in a state where I could have a Garden Party to celebrate. Not too sure it'll be possible.

I'm just back from the week at my parents' place. I inherited the gardening bug off them. They've been in aged care for about two years now, but despite being almost completely neglected, their garden still looks surprisingly good. A bit wild, but it's got the right kind of "bones" for that to work. (See photo...)

I think I've mentioned before that I've put in a "plant and neglect" veggie patch in Dad's old garden. It got totally overrun with couch grass as his health and mental function went downhill, so my technique is: cover part of the couch with an 8x4' steel sheet, leave it there for a month or two, move it to another spot, dig out the light starved and leafless couch runners, soak well, plant veggies, then go away for a month or two and see what has survived next time I'm there... Not altogether succesful, but has worked better than you might expect. And it's good "therapy" for me too. 🙂 I picked heaps of Tommy Toe tomatoes last year, despite fruit fly depredations, also some healthy Golden Nugget pumpkins, and a Lebanese Zucchini that had grown into a big hard skinned squash, a bit bigger than a football. I've been planting snowpea and silverbeet/parsley seeds the last couple of visits. Not much of it has come up, but there's the possibility that it's because the soil is cold. Will find out next visit. This time I also stuck in some potatoes that had gone green. Anything I plant needs to be able to be harvested whenever. Something like broccoli that has to be picked at the right time or it shoots up to flower is no good. (If the snowpeas go too far, I can still leave the pods to fully mature and dry so that I have seed for the next year, so they pass requirements... just.)