Thanks for the tag @outlander Good morning to anyone else around at the moment.
Hi and LOL re your picture @SunFlower_7 - I know what that is!
So - gardening .... I'm lucky to live where there is a large area with 14 raised beds (about 2 m x 1 m in size) that 4 of us currently share. There are fruit trees around the perimeter too. At the moment we are cultivating : bananas, passionfruit, basil, tomatoes, guava, lemongrass, chives, lemon verbena, beans, apple cucumber, butternut pumpkin, 3 types of thyme and 4 types of mint, loads of parsley (mostly gone to seed now), leek, ceylonese spinach, silverbeet, coriander, pommegranate, olives, fejoa, lavender, rosemary, tarragon, oregano, purple sage, eggplant, avocado (my cabin is under a huge old avo tree), capsicum, chillies, watermelon, lillipillies, cumquat, lime, paw paw, strawberries, blueberries. And we have seeds in for beetroot, lettuce and some flowers. Mostly I just water it all but occasionally we have a group working bee e.g. relocating the beds currently which is a huge job and involves lots of transplanting. We 'make' our own soil from a combination of some bought organic soil, compost, chook poo, mulch and occasionally use seaweed emulsion or chilli or garlic spray which fix most problems. Otherwise the block is mainly sand with bits of debris and even bits of coal. The whole yard used to be a bitumized car lot only 3 years ago so it's really amazing watching it transform. That's why we mainly only eat stuff from the raised beds.
I feel totally blessed to be a part of this. Especially unique in our inner city suburb. Only possible because bro and sil managed to buy the totally derelict house next door - and because they are such community and envoronmentally motivated people. Sure beats the public housing situation I was in before I came here for family support. I was told that the neighbours and even my Dr call our place "H...... island"!! (like the one in the barrier reef).
Having written this has shown me again how lucky I am to have been given a space to live here. It doesn't solve my daily problems but it sure helps to even just sit out there when things get rough with my mental health challenges. Hoping to inspire others to have a go, even if it's a couple of herbs in pots or a flower or two.
