Self care by growing a garden

I went to Tesselaar on a day bus trip when we lived a bit over an hour the other side of Melbourne @Smc , no driving stress 😀. Went to the International Flower & Garden show on the bus too. When in Tas we were able to visit Table Cape Tulips (van Diemen's bulbs). I have family and friends in the ACT so have been to Floriade a few times.

I ran out of room to bring my tulips with us on our move but my understanding friend is now enjoying them. She even scored my sulphate of potash as no garden liquids were allowed in the shipping container.

I've been to the Melbourne Flower and Garden show once @Former-Member. Was pretty good, but I'm not sure that I was so keen that I'd brave the city again to see it. Despite having spent over 10 years in Menbourne, I'm very much a country girl.

That's quite a collection @Shaz51 😀😀😀.

@Former-Member, I've just twigged, my Mum used to order bulbs from Van Diemens. I've found catalogues at their place, among others from assorted specialist growers... which is why my sister and I are collecting up her bulb pots to grow on and hopefully flower. Some have labels, others have lost them, so we don't know if we've got common old whatevers or something unusual.

Very nice @Shaz51 The ornamental plant pots are almost nicer than the succulents.

Adge

Popped outside this morning, a brief inspection of the potted collection warmed the heart - a few more of the newly planted bulbs as well as the ones we brought with us are starting to peep through. Think that only one of the plant divisions we brought with us is a goner, but will leave it just a bit longer in case it buds at the base.

@Smc I didn't have too many "special" plants as such, I think after I took on board your mention of a "crisis proof" garden I aimed for reliable performers that thrived on neglect and had really good impact with group plantings that gave colour in every season. Once a mini hedge or row of flowers had finished flowering, the eye was drawn to another row of colour elsewhere and I tried to minimise spaces that needed a lot of attention.

In the new place I will once again aim for a crisis proof ornamental section, perhaps using borders and background "hedging" to provide the year round colour with a couple of spots where some special plants can go.

@Former-Member, some of the best gardens around are based on crisis proof plants. They mean you can focus on design without having to worry about nursing fragile specimens.
Good news is, that doesn't necessarily mean it's all common plants. There's some lovely species that are tough but unusual at the same time. I've found some lovely agastache varieties, and while not quite unkillable, they are very hardy.

Went through some of the latest batch of bulbs that came back with us. A couple are agapanthus. Not fussed about the big growing one, but if it turns out Mum had one of the miniature varieties, I could happily include that in the garden. Another's Sprekelia, which I do have already but don't mind having more. There's a couple of pots of Chionodoxa, which are common but I don't have them, so happy with that. Then there's one that's maybe Ixia..?? Mum had lots of yellow ones, but she also had the bluey-green one, so here's hoping. 🙂

Do you remember maybe 10+ years back, a garden in the Mt. Noorat district called "Wigandia" won the Your Garden "Garden of the Year" comp? That was all based around whatever survived neglect, being a dry western district farming property with extremely limited water.

Hope to put in some not so common plants @Smc 😀.

Lots more weeds out today. Another garden bed actually looks like a garden bed. The weed compost pile I'm building against a concrete fence is getting bigger. If it looks like it's rotted down enough in a month or two, I may be able to plant tomatoes straight into it. If not, it'll definitely be ready for autumn veggies. Or get used as summer mulch.

I'm also flattening out part of our naturestrip that has built up into a little hillock, over where water pipes went in many years ago. I'm guessing the deeper soil at that spot means more leaf growth, trapping any dusty soil that blows in. The clumps of turf I've stripped off from there have gone into the chook cage. Two very happy chookies are currently alternating between dustbathing in it and scratching for insects.

Pruned all the dead wood off a lemon tree (which I am so pleased to have 🍋).

A neighbour has given me 4 x kangaroo paw plants.