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Self care by growing a garden

Unknown userMember09 Mar 2017, 10:11 pm AEDT

Self care by growing a garden

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?

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In response to: Self care by growing a garden

Unknown userMember04 Apr 2017, 7:51 pm AEST

Re: Self care by growing a garden

@Smc is your happy kitty plant also called a woolly bush?

In response to: Re: Self care by growing a garden

SmcSenior Contributor04 Apr 2017, 8:51 pm AEST

Re: Self care by growing a garden

That's the one.

In response to: Self care by growing a garden

AppleblossomSenior Contributor05 Apr 2017, 10:02 pm AEST

Re: Self care by growing a garden

@Former-MemberI am just letting the bulbs scattered here and there do their own thing.

I should buy a trellis, but not planning on spending on new plants, as I have got a diverse range, and believe in self seeding and propagating as much as I can .. in other words .. am tight .. lol

My son pulled out 2 dead bushes which was good.

In response to: Self care by growing a garden

Unknown userMember05 Apr 2017, 10:14 pm AEST

Re: Self care by growing a garden

No shame in being frugal @Appleblossom,
I look for plants that self multiply or can be divided too. Am aiming to have a crisis proof garden, Mr Darcy has been out weeding again so I am going to have to see what I can do about filling the spaces.

In response to: Re: Self care by growing a garden

AppleblossomSenior Contributor05 Apr 2017, 10:25 pm AEST

Re: Self care by growing a garden

I tried 2 Eremophilas, and they both could not stand the wind conditions which comes off the bay and is focussed down a channel.

I popped a small apple tree in one hole.

I had to move on to the zoo as I had taken over every bit of growing space within cooee ... one piano parent joked that I would start digging up the road ..lol ... they had come to me for 10 years and knew me well ...its probably true if I dont have an outlet for that part of my personality.

I aim to spend less time in garden ... its now established ... more trimming I guess ...we'll see .....

Its a great thing to share ... though I get that Mr Darcy is probably about as keen as my son ... which is ok .. it would be boring is we all had the exactly the same passions.

In response to: Self care by growing a garden

Unknown userMember08 Apr 2017, 5:07 pm AEST

Re: Self care by growing a garden

Got out into the garden today, planted some salvias a friend gave us but I suspect they might not be frost hardy, the stems do not appear woody enough.
@Smc no go for a woolly bush on my plot, nursery vetoed but got some bauera instead. Ended up moving two camellias that weren't doing so well and will put the new plants in their place but bit more weeding required before I can do that
@Appleblossom, Mr Darcy is not overly fond of gardening, just wants things to look nice. He does the heavy duty stuff and I fine tune. I need to ensure that I only ask him to do a bit at a time as he has been struggling since his trauma.
@Shaz51 hoping your gardening stint hasn't given you plumbago (oops ... lumbago).

In response to: Re: Self care by growing a garden

SmcSenior Contributor08 Apr 2017, 6:41 pm AEST

Re: Self care by growing a garden

Hope the salvias surprise you @Former-Member. Maybe they'll be tougher than they look.

The first of my drastically renovated veggie beds is coming together. It now has compost and manure added to the top, a few silverbeet seeds scattered down one end (Rainbow Chard) and the existing fennel plants have had their seedheads taken off and the long stems are cut down to just above ground level to encourage the "bulblets" to develop.

I went out this morning, and found a couple of very clearly defined wallaby footprints on the unplanted half... and some fresh manure from the same source. I will very definitely be fencing off the beds as I plant them. Planning on using old mattress spring frames. I'm hoping singles are tall enough to discourage the wallabies. I know they can jump that high if they want to, but it would be a pest having to make it taller than that.

I bought some reduced plants yesterday; a couple of punnets of snapdragons, some dill that's going to seed and an abutilon. Some of the snapdragons have gone into the veggie bed. I often get stumped for where to plant annual flowers, except of course for the enthusiastic self seeders that plant themselves wherever they please. I figure that if I include them in the veg beds, I'll have colour as well as food ready to pick.

Between collecting and barrowing manure and compost, digging it into the bed, doing some pruning, clambering under armco barriers and up and down a steep bank to collect apples (see Hot Choc thread) plus general walking around, I got a fairly thorough physical workout yesterday. Today it's raining. 😄 Yay, free watering!

In response to: Re: Self care by growing a garden

Unknown userMember09 Apr 2017, 9:41 pm AEST