Good Morning Gardenfolk,

Em, hope you are going ok and lust a bit busy, haven't seen you around these parts for a bit.......

Shell, your pumpkins sound great. I think you have done the right thing by lifting them as if the ground is very wet they can start to rot or got things gnawing on them. I have no space where I am to grow them, but I used to when I was a kid. I liked to grow the cute little orange ones that look like jack-o-lanterns. I made soup and served it with the little pumpkin hollowed out as a bowl.

Mark, It's great your Mum had you both in the kitchen, I think it builds confidence having these kinds of skills, and it is a creative outlet too. My brother didn't cook in his younger days but discovered an interest in it as a middle aged man, so now we compare recipes. He's more a BBQ & pizza kind of man though!

I had never heard of Rosella jam, I had to look it up as we do not have it in SA, how interesting! What does it taste like? Great you sell your homemade wares, you would probably do well with a market stall.

Eating mandarins in the sun sounds perfect. It reminds me of a trip I took to Fiji for a project in the forest near Mt Batilamu. We worked all day trudging around in the dense forest carrying equipment, and occasionally we would come across a mandarin tree......finding these juicy snacks was like striking gold!

Lots of people don't like broadbeans, but I do. I grew some last year. I hadn't planned to, but I was just walking along the street one day and a man I did not know approached me and said 'do you want some seeds?', he put his hand out and they were broadbeans. It was a bit of a weird experience, but he made my day!

Hi guys,

My garden is covered in little wire tents to protect it from the birds! They must be particularly hungry this year- they're even eating the tomato seedlings, which I don't usually have a problem with!

A few beans are up. the rocket is growing well, and H planted silverbeet seeds, so he's hoping for a bumper crop. Usually it's just me planting in the garden, but with me working long days H is doing some stuff, which I love. Not harvesting much apart from the lettuce which is ready, and rocket of course. But I was given a couple of fresh caught fish the othe day, walking along the beach, so that adds to my harvest!

Boudicca I love the sound of your courtyards- I imagine it lush and secluded..... Some climbing natives might be an idea for your place, could even attract butterflies and birds/bees.....Your local council may even have a guide book, ours does. Weeds to avoid, and indigenous plants for different conditions. There's a great creeper with bright yellow flowers that loves our fence.....

Cheers,

J*

Hi Boudica the Rosella jam sells like crazy at the craft shop.I have sold like a dozen jars to one customer.The jam has a tartness to it maby a tart raspberry flavour but very plesent to to taste.It I a member of the hibiscus family.

Broadbeans I remember as kid planting the seeds in my mum's vegie garden and always liked eating them.They always bring back memories of my mum's vegie garden.

Take care,

Mark.

Hey everyone

Sorry I've been MIA. Yes I've had a family crisis. LOTS of my effort in that sector of my life. Plus returning to FT work, settling my new brood of baby hens plus the USUAL carry on, plusthe roof and ceilings wanting to cave in, Lord help me lol.

I'm good. Just lots happening.

Sorry I won't respond appropriately to all posts. Thank God for Mark! Thankyou for all your posts, what I read about was amazing stuff!

Shelll, great work. It's VERY important that the pumpkins themselves remain as dry as possible.
PLUS the leaves. Let us know the minute any powdery stuff appears on the pumpkin leaves.
Always water along the ground and I would only water and the point of the plant's roots if you need to.
Ya think pumpkins are low care but they're not really! Darn it lol.

Boudica, you're creating a veritable food forest wonderland there lol.
Yes I've had lots of experience with drying fruits etc. (Since found out we cannot eat any dried fruits bec of our digestion... long story).
I bought a food dehydrator and it's FANTASTIC.
I LOVED making fruit strips by blending all the excess mangoes from my neighbour's tree, peeling, deseeding and pureeing it.
Then laying the puree around the silicone mats in the dehydrator.
Cutting these into strips and eating them for snacks and putting them into home made muesli.

Mark, I think I may have used the term "grafting" instead of propagating, sorry.
I can't stand grafting lol!!
I understand it's a really important process for people living with soils unsuitable for the chosen plant.
The grafted plants I've had have become very problematic tbh. Won't even mention the impossible vine from the passionfruit graft grrrrr.

Boudica - yes citrus LOVE nitrogen. Ours are in soil so I wouldn't suggest to do what WE do lol... our citruses are called "the wee trees" lol... yep the best citrus around!
Talk about UPcycling! hahaha.
You can make a nitrogen rich mixture with an 11L bucket with a LID (you'll find out why after you make it!)... put ALL deseeded weeds into the bucket to the top. I'd avoid virulent weeds, grass works well. Then fill to the top with water.
Let sit.
Keep adding weeds.

Use 1 cup of this when it smells like cow manure into a 9L watering can and use this diluted mixture every 3 weeks on citrus.
I'm do permie things. My weed teas sit higher than the plant I want it to receive and the rain overflows them. Works well!

LOVE EMxxxx

Hey BB Gardeners!

I spent most of today in my garden and wow my back is ughhh.

Besides the lantana issue, there's a Mickey Mouse plant issue, Tobacco plant (not the smoking tobacco but another awful tree) AND Asparagus Fern issue.

That Asparagus Fern is one HORRIBLE underground monster.

Now we have 6 young hens that free range, I'm really hoping they help raise the fertility of the soil and allow grass to grow better and crowd the weeds out.
My gardener and I are also allowing bracken fern (yep!) to grow anywhere, Cape Gooseberries, Mint and ANYTHING else that's easier to pull out & get rid of than the monsters lol.

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed but most of the times, it's just head down and get to work.

I still have HUGE piles of timber and need to cut down 6 dead trees... I'm going to ask around at work if anyone needs firewood lol.
Soon I'll burn off some the less thick branches etc.

BUT I've decided to really build up areas to make hard landscape terraces in the future.
Each terrace will include some fruit trees.
I need to cover the piles to rot down with old carpet and sheets of metal just to keep the Brush Turkeys and my chickens away from scratching them all apart.

Back to my PAID job tomorrow lol!
Happy gardening everyone,
Love EM

Hi Em good to see you got out in the garden and sounds like it's going to be an amazing garden with the fruit trees on the terreces.Thwir is always some weed coming up especially after all the rain.That wild Tobacco is in the Solanaceae family and related to potatoes and tomatoes.It is quiet an interesting family.I noticed I got one of those tobacco plants growing here that should pull out.I just want to identify what one it is first.

Happy gardening,

Mark.

Thanks Mark, I didn't know that.

This is one of the worst weeds to have in my garden, worse than even lantana!
That's saying something lol.

Every single hair on it's leaves is a potential seed for another whole tree.
Every wood shaving from a saw whilst cutting it down is too!
It's HORRIBLE.
So the sooner you get it OUT the less issues you'll have.

It can also spike a person and sting too.

I use gloves I can wash and put every skerrick of it I can find into a garbage bag immediately to throw in the garbage bin. Getting out every root is a pain but has to be done or any roots send up a tree grrr.
NONE of it can be composted or used in any way here.

One snuck into our garden about 10y ago and I've had issues ever since grrrr.

BEST WISHES! Hope you don't have the same issues I've had and still have.
EMxxxx

Hello Peeps,

Wow, a lot has happened on this thread since I last looked, people have been busy.

Jstar, it's nice you can share your gardening with your H. Your wire tents sound novel. I don't have bird issues.....my nemesis is snails! I love indigenous plants, and try to include them where I can to provide food for the native creatures. Unfortunately, the plants that belong here do not thrive in the deep shade that has been created by the buildings and fences, however I have taken over the verge and an adjoining council owned bit of land and planted them with local plants.

Mark, you blew my mind with your jam made of hibiscus! I started searching on line to see if I could obtain this plant to try it out, but I think perhaps it will not like the frost that we get here. Great that you have a thriving little business.

EM, good to see you back here. I hope your family stuff settles down. I like to read your gardening adventures, your garden sounds like vast wilderness that you are bravely forging through, always making new discoveries. It really is very exciting! Thanks for the info re: drying I will take that on board. My cat is presently attending to the nitrogen needs of my lemon tree, but I like the idea of making weed tea potions and will give that a try.

All the best BB gardeners

Hey Boudica

Omg Mark has recipes of ALL SORTS! Too much excitement about them all here.

We do have a Recipe thread Mark has generously contributed to. He's wonderful in so many ways.
So talented.

Sure Boudica, it's sensible to only grow plants that are known to thrive in the climates of our area and the different micro climates in our garden. My disclaimer is this... some times... just some times... we have a perfect spot getting the right sun, possibly reflective heat from a brick wall or something similar, where we can grow something that wouldn't ordinarily grow there.

EG The Botanical Garden in Tasmania does this with it's organic food gardens. My all time Idol Peter Cundall beginning this, continued by many others.

I was SO HAPPY to read you planted out the Council land! hahaha I've done this to the hilt too here! It's beautiful.

Well done you!

Love EM
PS: The family issues aren't likely to pass quickly BUT I've been able to mend some family rifts to a point and this is helping buoy us all through these difficult times.
Thankyou, hugs.

Hi Boudica and everyone.Rosellas that are grown for jam are an annual and I plant seeds from the previous season in punnets in spring and transplant out in the garden and they will start to crop at the end of summer into autumn and are finished by winter.I have a good supply of seed now and will plant at big next spring.I don't mind eating the calyx raw and putting it in salads.It has a tangy taste to it.The flowers can be eaten to.

Happy gardening,

Mark.

Hey garden gnomes!

Mark I didn't know that about rosellas! How interesting! I shall have to research more, and perhaps try some jam when I see it. I grew up loving my nans plum jam, but not much luck finding plum trees for this climate....Someone advertised a graft variety specifically designed for this climate- they could have sold their 15 young trees about 20 times over! And I missed out...I was a bit sad!

Boudica your gardening efforts sound awesome! I too love the sound of taking over the verge and the council land. I'm so glad you love natives too! It's such a delight when we see a new bird begin to visit our garden, or a different bee. I just love it! I have no room in my garden for anything thats not food, habitat or insect attracting flower. It's not for everyone, but I decided to be ruthless so I can grow everything I want to.

I have problems with slugs- close relatives of the snails. I toy with the idea of ducks sometimes- apparently they can eat slugs without damage.

I enjoy sharing the tasks with my H- It's so much nicer than him watching me work and telling me what I should do lol! He's very tidy too, so I have to keep an eye on things or else he tidies away my messy plants just before they flower- or fruit! He's so funny- I think his fave time is when I've weeded the beds clear and just about to plant. It's great to get him planting the foods he likes to eat tho. His radishes are coming up-we're not sure if any will get to full size before he eats them all! Now if only I can get my daughter into the garden....she's started a garden club at school, but doesn't do much at home....hmmm.....

Em, I've got to love your determination! It does sound like sooo much work! But if you keep the vision in your mind, you will succeed!!! Maybe a small bobcat could work wonders, in the future...?

Anyway, happy gardening everyone. May your plants prosper! (Except the lantana Em, may that shrivel and die!)

Cheers,

J*

Lololol hey J* Yes, may the lantana wither and die lol.

A funny thing a Permie once said to me in relation to too many snails was.... "You don't have an over population of snails, you have an UNDER population of birds"...

I literally bring snails HOME to my garden lol!! I haven't had snails since forever... and leeches don't last long either, which is awesome.

Ducks are beautiful creatures to have, so gorgeous... they need to bathe in fresh water to be really happy and their poo makes a REAL mess, but you can bake with their eggs ... sweet things.

I DEFINITELY want a baby digger! NOW. lol. I need to get 5 or 6 dead pine trees out... mad ole tree loppers killed them last year grrr. Now the dead trees just standing there with no branches.
A few stumps too.... need to get another sharpening stone for my axe, just another job!

Hey Mark, those Rosellas to make jam from sound great! I didn't realise they were annuals either. Thankyou for sharing that info.

Re: our happy baby hens... I bought the CUTEST chook patterned plastic to cover the roosting box they don't use yet lol.
I spend hours with them each day before and after work, it's so peaceful being with them.

I get to see some tiny weeds & pluck them out, move timber to help level the land in prep for the terrace formation.

I bought 100 glue cartridges for my hot glue gun last night and LOTS of duct tape.... no successful ideas forthcoming on YouTube or anywhere about dealing with suckers.... the plant form lol.
SO I envisaged my own process and will video my work, the process and hopefully the success!

Just storing up the soil, mulch and hard landscape materials to cover them once I cut the suckers off, hot glue them and duct tape them lol... sounds so funny. Hope it works!

I need Prayers lol... loving being in my garden.

EMxxxx

Just one small report , we have pumpkins.

Checked yesterday , got about a dozen of the long pumpkins , and same again of the round ones with spots. Damn shame gf isn't here l hardly eat the stuff. She has it for breakfast , makes smoothies , eats it raw , by the bucket load.

They're 100% organic too so l hope they taste better than our crap water tomatoes. They look great , hopefully that counts right.

rx

Hi randomx they might be Jap pumpkins you have if they are the same type round and long.Pumpmkins make a great jam and easy to make.You can also make pumpkin soup out of them.Great to see you have a crop.

Take care,

Mark.

Hello garden folk,

Have not been on here, as I am not supposed to think about gardening when I have uni assignments pending - urgh. I use gardening as rewards for myself to motivate me - ie. when I have finished X assignment, I can buy Y plant for my garden, or am I allowed to spend Z amount of time pruning hedge!

Em, Yes, conditions are so different in different parts of the garden due to fences shade, exposure to the wind etc, so I do try moving things around if at first they are doing poorly. Peter Cundall was great, I miss him!

I too have noticed Mark seems to have amazing super powers that he does not acknowledge, he has quite a fan base on here though!

Re: Not to many snails, too few predators. This is how I like to think as well. What I need is blue tongued lizards actually, they would naturally be around here, but neighbour has yappy dog, that I think keeps them away. There are lots in my mother's yard and she never sees snails. My son made an electric snail deterrent device when one of my young trees kept getting eaten, and had not one leaf left. The device gave snails mild electric shock that would make them turn back. It worked well and tree is flourishing now!

Ducks are awesome company and great for snail control. When we had ducks (Khaki Campbells) we would collect containers of snails from other people's yards to give them for a treat. One day I will have enough land to have ducks and chickens again (sigh). They are messy though and you need to be ok with washing down poop and cleaning ponds or water troughs each day.

Re: Terraces.....amazing!! You are so energetic EM, it is inspiring. I used to be like that too, energy sucked out of me lately, but hopefully temporary. Terraces look beautiful and very practical, a lot of work moving earth though. I remember trekking in Nepal through areas with terraces for growing rice (in areas lower in mountains). Another thing I loved there was that they used canes of poinsettia trained into a kind criss-cross as fences - really beautiful in flower.

Re: suckers - hot glue and duct tape certainly is a novel approach, you are very creative! I am very interested to see if it is successful

Mmm pumpkin. My favourite thing to do with pumpkin is to salt and roast thin slices and serve with local goats curd on caraway rye toast, delicious!!

Oops false start their hit the wron g button.Talking about Peter Cundall my mother and I met him many years ago at a garden convention and he was the same as he is on tv in real life a very nice man and we could have spoken to him for hours.Such great knowledge and such enthusiasm.I have a photo of him with mum and I.

Blue tongues are great and I have a family living in my front garden which is good as my vegie garden is in the front.We need to be encouraging wildlife into our gardens that in return can control pest in the garden.

Take care,

Marks.

Hello BB gardeners,

Mark, so nice to meet Peter Cundall, he seems like a great guy. That is such a great memory and memento to have with your mum. My mum and I share an interest in gardening too.

Just wondering if any of you gardeners have tips to help keep gardening accessible for disabled folk??? My mum loves gardening, but she is sick (untreatable) and I want her to be able to keep going with it as long as she can. Her main illness is neurological, so she has issues with balance and sensation. This means that using her hands and feed is becoming more challenging. Fiddly actions with fingers are out now, but I got her some secateurs that are meant to be easier for impaired folk and she is managing at the moment. She is struggling with taps and cannot use hose fittings at all, so I need to set up automatic irrigation of some sort. She has ataxia (a staggering gait) and balance problems at the moment and will eventually be unable to walk, so I have started trying to build up some of the garden beds to make them higher and widen paths for when she will have a wheelchair. Any suggestions on improvements for accessibility or gardening products available would be most welcome.

My mother already falls a lot in the garden, but she is very stubborn and unlikely to follow advice, so I am just trying to find ways to make it better. She has a very big wild yard and I am not really enjoying the prospect of tackling it, as she is a hoarder and fights any changes I suggest. She does not allow the removal of any green waste from the property, and will explode if I put a stick in the bin! When I clear paths, she fills them up with garden clutter! Although easiest for me to leave it alone, it is not safe, and a serious fall could be devastating for her at this point as she has osteoporosis and immunodeficiencies.

Thanks for reading :)

Busy thread!

Hey rx, I put the simplest and most DELICIOUS Pumpkin soup recipe on the recipe thread, PLEASE try it once you get some awesome pumpkins.
It's a super easy recipe - seriously. 4 ingredients, pumpkin, oil, salt, water.
We may all need Counselling to move past that tomato experience of yours!

Hey Boudica lol thankyou for joining in, it's lovely.
Don't you just see EVERYTHING else when assignments need to get done?
It's a THANG lol!!
Yes indeed I also think terraces are beautiful. I was born in Asia and have visited a number of Asian countries, seeing rice growing in the paddy fields is pure beauty.
I'm AGES away from getting to the point of building them... but that's my VISION and I'm sticking to it lol!!
Atm I'm basically working on getting some "ORDER" to my garden omg, so much rubbish I'm pulling out of the ground, I had no idea what demon was doing. I have 2 old kiddies pools full of rubbish just from 3 day's collection grrr.

This afternoon I was able to burn off some dead sticks, cut off lots of dead banana leaves and burn those too. Our huge "Faraway Tree" is dropping leaves which I'm composting in a "Leaf Mould" once more.
The charcoal and ash will add different beneficial nutrients to my soil too.

Mark, Peter Cundall was magnificent. I spent many nights nursing my babies on a Saturday night watching Gardening Australia and he boosted my passion for gardening forever.
That's beautiful you got to meet him with your mum. Happy memories!

Love EM

Hi Boudica I am sorry to hear that your mother's health isn't good.You sound like you are doing the right thing making garden beds higher and paths wider.I looked after my mother who had osteoarthritis as well as cancer.It got to the point where she couldn't get outside in the garden.I had herbs in pots on her veranda for her and I did all the work outside in the garden with orders from mum.It got to the point where she couldn't manage her herbs.Breaks my heart thinking about it seeing someone who loved being out in the garden bed ridden.A lot of tears thinking about it now.

Take care,

Mark.

Hi Mark,

Sorry if talking of my mothers illness brought up your sadness about losing your Mum. Perhaps I should not have mentioned it in this section. My mum went through breast cancer a 8 years ago, and it was horrible but she came out the other side. She is 69 now and hopefully she still has some years to go yet, she is still able to drive and get around, but just walks funny, and drops things. I know what is ahead as we went through the same caring for my Grandmother 20 years ago. It was very sad, but while we were able to move her in a wheelchair, we took her around to gardens and she loved to go to the zoo, so we went there a lot too. I would like to be able to take Mum on holiday to somewhere with lots of gardens while she is still able to walk, but covid has put a damper on that. I think most public gardens have really become more accessible for disabled in the last 20 years, so I think it is getting easier to get wheelchairs in. I am hoping we might be able to have a sunroom built where she can look out to the garden and birds, I know this was a comfort to my Grandmother.

Hi Boudica it is ok I was in a teary mood yesterday with lots of things triggering me.Making somewhere your mother can look out over the garden would be great.

Take care,

Mark.

Hi Gardner's this morning I spent 3 hours in the vegie garden and I got my bed dug over and put plenty of compost in it.I planted broadbean seeds and turnip which were suppose to be swede but picked the wrong packet up.Swedes are Swedish turnip and are hardy then the normal turnip.Swedes were one of my mum's favourites she liked to grow so I usually plant them in memory of her like the braodbeans I did.

I pretty stuffed now just going rest for the afternoon.I probably over did it and will be in pain later.

Happy gardening,

Mark.

Hey Boudica

I'm sorry it looked like I overlooked your very heartfelt post about your mum.
We must've been writing at the same time! hugs.

I won't be all down and out about the issues your mum has but I do feel there's alot we CAN'T do for people we love when it comes to hoarding. Having this psychological illness can be a huge issue for relatives and the person themselves.

IME it's more of an issue for relatives! (My mother has hoarded herself out of her own home and the Council has given up sending her letters about her property but I've been NC with her for decades so..)

Before you mentioned your mum's hoarding, I wanted to mention raised garden beds. You could suggest ONE put close to the back door, then fill it with sticks to start with!
Also suggest some type of closed composts and even a worm farm tumbler for her kitchen waste?

But just working on ONE small section, not removing anything but organising some parts.

With your mum's medical issues, she MAY qualify for NDIS... my own gardener does NDIS work, so as long as the Goals are in line with gardening for her health benefits, she may be able to have a gardener help her and have this paid for via NDIS.

Best wishes, none of this is an easy task ofcourse but the love you express for your mother is worth noting. She's very lucky to have you!

EMxxxx

Hey BB Gardeners,

I've had a ball in my garden... actually have found around 12 balls tbh lol... collected them for my daughter's dog to play with, so those have been a great find!

Today my trip to Bunnings resulted in our new electric lawn mower and LOTS of new garden tools! I finally got a new sharpening stone, bought a new tomahawk and some other things to repair my other tools.
I also HOPE I found a solution to my gardening tools disappearing from the kids "putting them away"... grumph... I bought a big tub for my gardening tools to put in the chook's shed.

After some discussion with BF and family, I arrived at solutions about what to do with the huge numbers of bricks and pavers I'm finding. I'm STILL digging them up! Along with lots of rubbish demon buried.

I wanted to camouflage them in the property without encouraging weed growth under piles etc.

I've decided to line the outside of the chook's shed with the bricks.
Stack the pavers along a long path at the side of the house.
Hence I bought some AWESOME leather gloves to save my cute pink false nails lol!

Now I've made those decisions, I'm really excited to do this work!

Also with all this conversation, my adult children offered to pay for a Green Waste skip bin for my birthday present lol... as long as the younger children can offer their labour!
We'll see lol.
So I can get to some heavy pruning, let the leaves die off and possibly use any branches I need to.

I also found a solution for the terrible erosion happening when my gardener was over zealous in my absence and upturned my 2 bath worm farms (no worms in them thank God) and frog ponds that frogs WERE in! grrr.

Moving on lol...they needed moving eventually so... whatever.
I can prune my bananas and lay the trunks perpendicular to the slop to divert water rushing onto my fruit trees... they compost really well, so I'll use unneeded timber planks to back them up.

Boring stuff like my Tax Returns DO need attention too! hahaha... lots of multi tasking going on atm. I'm off for a scrubby bath now.

Hope everyone's having lots of gardening fun!

Love EM

Hi EM,

Thanks for your kind wishes. Yes I do care for my mother, but I have had a difficult time with her over the years and to be honest most of my life she was pretty flaky as a mum. I forgave her long ago though, as I realised it is because she is weak and unable to cope with life, not because she doesn't try. My brother and I grew up strong because we had to fend for ourselves. I think perhaps you are like this too, what do you think?!

Yes, hoarding.....urgh. You would understand since your mother is the same. I spent my childhood trying to clean out cupboards and organise junk! We were not allowed visitors, and if someone knocked on the door, mum would get us to hide under the kitchen table, in case they looked in the side window (so weird when I think of it now).

Mum still has several rooms you can't get into, but she is better than before as she has kept a few rooms clear and tidy(ish) since I fixed and painted them 10 years ago. Anyway, I am sure between you and I we could easily populate a whole thread on growing up with a hoarder and the lifetime of clean up battles!!! I think your mum might take the prize, as mine is yet to have council complaints!

Thanks for the practical tips, as always you are a mine of information

Hi Everyone!

hows it going?

been raining off and on past few days. Dont need to be hand watering the plants haha.

Ive been thinking I would love to rip everything out of the courtyard and start from scratch - but I cant.

Hey mark

Thanks for the tip! i'll keep that in mind.

would that be common in all plants ?