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Unknown userMember
A SOS to any green thumbs out there
I have always found gardening to be therapeutic and it has given me great joy. However, after a major crisis with Mr Darcy's health I have not had been able to get back into it. Have other gardeners suffered from a similar hiatus and how have you recovered and got going again?
Darcy
PS have a spot that needs filling any recommendations for a 1m high cool climate white flower plant?
In response to: Self care by growing a garden
Shaz51Senior Contributor
@Smc, @Former-Member
was my Lemongrass
In response to: Re: Self care by growing a garden
Unknown userMember
Have had a productive session in the garden this afternoon, planted a heap of oriental iris bulbs (Spuria) that I had dug up ages ago, was able to border a garden bed with them (and still have some left over to give away)
I also moved a clump of leafy greens plants that I knew contained day lilies and found some bearded iris and some other bulbs, species unknown. Replanted what I could use and will also be offering the left overs to a friend. Am hoping the iris and bulbs will be desirable varieties but at present they help fill empty spots.
In response to: Re: Self care by growing a garden
Unknown userMember
How does your garden grow @Adge
In response to: Re: Self care by growing a garden
Unknown userMember
A bit more tidying up done today, digging up unwanted plants and weeds. A friend came and collected some plants for herself and a friend of hers, with a few more plants put aside for another friend.
The flurry of activity partly due to accepting an offer from someone to bring around a trailer and take away a load of green waste for us so have a deadline to meet 🤓.
In response to: Re: Self care by growing a garden
AdgeSenior Contributor
My Garden grows well thanks @Former-Member With the Winter rain & cooler temperatures - no rain in Summer her.
Hot dry Summers, cooler wet Winter (all rain is in Winter) - "Mediterranean Climate" (they call it).
No new plant additions in many years.
Except my Epidendron/ Reed Stem (Crucifix) Orchids in a pot - bought & potted up, a few weeks ago.
I'm a keen Heritage (Old World) Rose enthusiast.
When I get my Gardening/ plant Mojo back - I would like to go buy & plant some of those.
Currently, I only have one survivor left - Lemarque, a Noisette climbing Rose (from the 1800's).
- White fragrant flowers - no thorns (thornless)!
Zephrine Drouhin (a Bourbon climbing Rose, from 1868) is a beauty - pink fragrant flowers, no thorns.
I had several - none at the moment.
Terrible Root Nematodes here (sandy soil pest) - they eat the plant roots, the plant gets sick & dies (especially roses).
Roses must be on Fortuneana Root Stock (Nematode Resistant) - or they don't survive here.
Adge
Adge
In response to: Re: Self care by growing a garden
Unknown userMember
@Shaz51 I forgot to mention Mr Darcy broke the fork handle today, my brother broke our previous one in January and insisted on getting this one (I wanted to fix the other one as it is a really good brand) so we now have 2 fork prongs without handles.
In response to: Re: Self care by growing a garden
SmcSenior Contributor
@Former-Member, I think I've got three handleless forks waiting for handles... One I won't bother with. It's a modern one, a high quality (expensive) brand, but oooh I was not impressed. The tines bent, and lost their temper so they kept re-bending, and eventually the metal sheaf that goes around the handle tore. The two I will fix are old solid ones. They should last almost-forever.
@Adge, I've got a lovely Anais Segales rose growing at the front of our driveway, but I didn't realise how big a clump it would grow into, so I'll have to relocate it to somewhere roomier. I'm seriously considering a hedge of it- by the time I break up the clump, I think there would be enough. (The wallabies will love me forever... 😛 But that's OK, I think it'll be vigourous enough to withstand a little bit of grazing.)
There was also a Bloomfields Abundance next to the driveway when we moved here. Totally unpruned, maybe 5' wide and 8' tall. After musing about it for ages, I decided to hard prune it back to a straight trunk at a point where there were masses of young shoots coming out = masses of ready to grow leaf nodes. Hubby came out when I was 8/10ths of the way through reducing it to a stump, and got a bit of a shock. "Hang on Sweet, shouldn't you think about this?" "....I've been thinking about it for the last six months!" Sure enough, after a slightly nervous couple of months wait, it sent out an absolute cloud of growth in springtime. 🙂 Now I give it a pruning every year, and occasionally another hard prune if it gets away from me.
There's some old roses in Mum and Dad's garden that my sister and I want to dig out. Some of them she got from a friend who had a specialist old rose garden. I know there's Zephrine Drohuin, and Reine des Violettes... some David Austins, some modern tea roses, and a few others that are probably heritage varieties. We were hoping to be getting them out about now. Oh well. 
In response to: Re: Self care by growing a garden
Unknown userMember
The old fork is a quality one @Smc and we have not had any tine problems with either fork. At my old garden club we had a workshop on secateur maintenance, new group is in recess at present, was a little inspired by this Gardening Australia segment.
In response to: Re: Self care by growing a garden
SmcSenior Contributor
Back inside after watering some of my pot plants. The soil is a bit scary-dry for wintertime. 😞 The garden might be in for a hard year.
Loving seeing how many bulbs are coming up. Lots and lots of tulips. They'll be a treat in a couple of months.
Feeling sorry for any Melbournians who wanted to do spring corona-gardening, with garden centres and nurseries closing. But I wouldn't be surprised if the supermarkets do the cluey thing of bringing in a range of plants, seeds etc.
In response to: Self care by growing a garden
Unknown userMember
Aren't these gorgeous?
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Help us push aside the stigma and discrimination surrounding complex mental health and change the way people talk about, and care for, mental illness.
SANE acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures; and to Elders past and present.
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