New mission: Playing jigsaw puzzles with Birdies Garden Beds.

[Mandy Onderwater]

Wowza, just the way the weather can just flip around aye?
Do you reckon any of the paint was dry enough, or is it too soon to tell?

 

[Grandmother Goose]

Wowza, just the way the weather can just flip around aye?
Do you reckon any of the paint was dry enough, or is it too soon to tell?

I'd painted from the top to the bottom of the posts, did all the on the ladder work first, and when I went to check the bottom of each half-painted post is covered in paint as well now. It would have done half my job for me except that it messed up the way the paint seals, so I have to paint it all again. Fortunately, I don't have to strip off the disaster and can just paint over it. Couldn't fix it today as the weather has been too cold, cloudy, and damp. Had more rain overnight and earlier today, so I need a sunny dry day over 10C to get everything dry enough and then a second day the same to paint again. It's not all terrible, I guess it's the universe telling me it's overdue time I cleaned up some of the mess that's been building up inside the house. That's how I function, work on one project and other things get neglected until the project is finished. Then catching up on all the neglected things becomes a project unto itself for a while. I don't multitask very well.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I love your attitude towards it. I'm the kind of person that just... gives up, hehe.
I'm glad it can at least be painted over. That saves you a little bit of the heartache.

 

[Grandmother Goose]

The best laid plans of mice and me... all garden related expenditure has been put on hold until after a new hot water system has been paid for. The only project in the garden I can currently do without spending some money is to move a pile of rocks. Not exactly the most joyful, interesting, nor stimulating task I must say.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Hmm, not unless you're using the rocks to create a pretty boundary or something like that. Quite a tedious task otherwise.
Admittedly, it can be a little satisfying to take frustrations out of them by throwing them.

 

[Grandmother Goose]

Hmm, not unless you're using the rocks to create a pretty boundary or something like that. Quite a tedious task otherwise.
Admittedly, it can be a little satisfying to take frustrations out of them by throwing them.

I'm using as many as I can to create a rock garden with native plants, but still, rock is heavy, and not fun to have to move it from the driveway to the garden.

 

[Grandmother Goose]

I'll update about my raised bed antics later, but for now I have finally got the native rock garden and reptile refuge section of my front garden complete.

The native rock garden started out as an idea to use up some of the natural local rock from my yard and doing something around the water meter that would keep it safe and not make it stand out as the awkward infrastructure necessity that it is. I'd created a large pile of rocks from every time I've had to dig a hole in the yard for any and every reason, from removing a tree stump to putting in fence posts, the whole yard is just rock, shale and sand, and anything I could do to make one of those rocks useful was ecological beneficial and one step closer to having to not pay someone to remove them all. The plan was to put in a post next to the yard tap, which is attached to the water meter, so I had a spot to put my Hoselink hose reel which I must say is one of the best garden things I've ever spoiled myself with, I love it. Anyway, as no one is paying me to say things like that, moving on...

I decided to go with a tall thick sleeper for a post, that way I could install the post, install the hose reel on the post at a comfortable for me height, and then cut the post to size. Positioning the sleeper in such a way that it would seclude the hose reel from line of sight of the street at least a little bit. It worked. I secured the tap to the side of the post, secured the hose reel to the post, I painted the post cottage green, and after many ideas and going back and forth over all of them many times, I ended up deciding to leave the post full size and put a metal art magpie on top of it, and decorate it with a few cute quirky metal garden ornaments on the front and some hooks and hanging plants on the side which will further help obscure the view of the hose reel from the street.

Then I decided to work on the little wildlife pond to go next to it. I used a black UV stable 30L storage box that I bought cheap on special from the local hardware store. I put 2 inches of washed sand in the bottom of it, covered that with an inch or so of black aquarium pebbles, popped a large rock in one corner to create a ramp so if any little critters fell in, they could easily climb back out. I built rocks up around it as it wasn't buried in the ground, but now it looks like it is. Then I went to a local plant shop and picked the tiniest little pot containing the last little sorry looking little water plant they had in stock as their previous supplier went bust and they were still looking for a new one. So, I arrived home and put the little plant into the pond next to the rock, and then looked up everything there was to learn about it. Nardoo, proper name Marsilea drummondii. It's a type of water fern that looks like clover and is an important native bush tucker plant but not one that should be harvested and eaten without knowing exactly what to do with it, because that's how the Burke and Wills expedition ended. Any more information about eating it I'm going to defer to JP 1983 as that's in his wheelhouse.

I thought it would be good to put a hollow log and a couple of small native plants to create a little reptile refuge for the little lizards that inhabit the yard next to the pond. In the same yard on the other side there's a pile of scrap metal which they've been living amongst and I plan to get rid of it, which will leave them homeless and vulnerable, so I decided to create a safe little sanctuary retreat for them to move into when that day comes. I posted on local social media asking if anyone had any small hollow logs or similar, explaining what I wanted it for. Among all the locals that love to poo-hoo everything and responded with warnings about all the deadly venomous snakes moving in, one woman was super keen on my idea and offered me several hollow logs for free. When I arrived to collect them I found out that is she Indigenous and really keen that I was interested in doing something good in the yard for the local wildlife, but also she remembered me from a few years ago when I gave her some huge yukka plants that were in my yard that I didn't want when she was looking for some for her garden, which would have cost her hundreds of dollars if she had to buy them. I was just happy to get them out of my yard.

Two perfect hollow logs and a pile of stone later, I expanded the native garden from the water meter to the ancient and was almost dead until I saved it silky oak aka Grevillea robusta tree in my front yard. I went to the plant shops again and got some bags of soil mix for natives, and started looking at plants that would work well in that spot. I returned home with a low growing kangaroo paw, a brachysome multifida (like a swan river daisy but a creeping ground cover species), a little dwarf correa, and two dianellas that are vastly different in appearance, and a desire to make space to plant a lot more natives. I planted the plants by creating rings with the rocks which I filled with the soil into which I planted the plants. Unfortunately for my garden budget, I had picked up the native plant version of the disease that causes us humans to have to buy more and more and collect them all.

I started researching native plants, making a list of what I wanted, how I'd set them all up so they would grow here, and the learning curve was steep and some questions I simply couldn't find answers to, so I resorted to asking questions of horticulturalists and specialist plant breeders and growers, and the next thing I know I've expanded my native rock garden. I built up the ground around the outside of it with bark chip to suppress weeds and make the built-up rock garden look like it's not built up at all. Except around the base of the tree, I carefully had to dig a bit and go much more shallow and slope the rock garden down a bit to avoid building up the ground around the tree as I don't want to cause the base of it to rot. I've got more hidden little caverns in the rocks for reptiles to hide out. I've got more plants. I've got epiphytic orchids growing in the tree and on the rocks. I've got a large fern growing at the foot of the tree with some hardenbergia vines one white one purple that will grow up the tree trunk. I've got a midyim berry in a pot at a height that's very easy for me to reach to pick the fruit. I've got a desert lime. And the star of my little natives show is the famous Wollami Pine. Yep, I have a dinosaur tree growing in the desert. And it is indeed growing. It has increased in height by almost 8 inches since I first got it and is currently budding with new growth.

Among it all I have decorated with garden ornamental whimsy. Little metal art bugs and birds, solar glow in the dark mushrooms, and fairy houses, and dragonfly lights. I've also added a plant pot dish as a second bird bath, and a glass flower on a stick type little bee waterer. And it's all working. I've increased the insect activity in my garden, I've got larger reptiles popping by for visits with smaller ones taking up residence in the garden. All the plants that are in are getting well established and growing, and I'm very happy with it.

I had 3 tons of garden loam delivered late on Monday and I've been spending most of my time since moving it into the largest of the garden beds that I've built, which won't be enough to fill them. But once they are filled and I can get some plants in there, I'll be back with more news and photos.

 

[Grandmother Goose]

Oh, and I managed to use up all the rock I'd collected, which cleared a space in the driveway that I have managed to avoid filling up with anything else so far.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

It's good to hear forum you again @Grandmother Goose , it's been a while! I hope you've been doing well. It definitely looks like you've been very productive as your garden looks absolutely amazing!
Certain sections made me thing of @Ray Speed 's recent post [click here].

I absolutely love how you are working WITH the wildlife, rather than against it. It's become such an uncommon thing. I too, sadly have to work against wildlife as I have an elderly person living here that might get hurt if I didn't. But I do keep certain areas safe for them to frolick in. Plus I have the added bonus that I know the lady across the road keeps most of her property wild. It's worked a charm for a lot of smaller wildlife, whereas the bigger wildlife enjoys the creek we have running through our backyard.
It's so sweet that the lady remembered you and gave yopu those hollow logs. It's good to see how people sometimes come together when they have a common goal.

What plants are you looking forward to planting there, or will that mostly depend on availability?

 

[Grandmother Goose]

It's good to hear forum you again @Grandmother Goose , it's been a while! I hope you've been doing well. It definitely looks like you've been very productive as your garden looks absolutely amazing!
Certain sections made me thing of @Ray Speed 's recent post [click here].

I absolutely love how you are working WITH the wildlife, rather than against it. It's become such an uncommon thing. I too, sadly have to work against wildlife as I have an elderly person living here that might get hurt if I didn't. But I do keep certain areas safe for them to frolick in. Plus I have the added bonus that I know the lady across the road keeps most of her property wild. It's worked a charm for a lot of smaller wildlife, whereas the bigger wildlife enjoys the creek we have running through our backyard.
It's so sweet that the lady remembered you and gave yopu those hollow logs. It's good to see how people sometimes come together when they have a common goal.

What plants are you looking forward to planting there, or will that mostly depend on availability?

Availability hasn't been a problem for me so far, so long as I'm willing to wait for the right season to roll around, except for one plant. For a year now I've been trying to get my paws on a Pandorea pandorana "snowbells", which is a type of wonga wonga vine, and I can't seem to get one from anywhere short of driving all the way to Melbourne to pick one up in person from a couple of places that don't do mail outs. Everyone has all the other wonga wonga vine colours - yellows and reds and pinks - and they all have Pandorea jasminoides which is very similar but with a different type of flower. I had a P. pandorana snowbells growing in my yard in Sydney. I'm almost tempted to contact the bloke that bought the house to see if he's willing to propagate some plants from cuttings and send them to me.

It has made me decide to get one of each of all the others and grow them all along the trellis I'll be running across the back of my raised beds, being pedantic about training them all to grow sideways first so they all spread across the whole width of the trellis and mix with each other. Then as they grow the trellis will be covered in all leaves that look the same, but will flower with two different types of flowers in a whole range of different colours. I originally wanted to just cover it in snowbells, but the more I think about it, the more spectacular it will be with all the different varieties. Then if I get hold of a snowbells later on, it can just go in with the rest of them.

I'll be starting my vine collection next week to do that with, meanwhile I picked up a Pink Jasmine today to weave among it all as the leaves of that look pretty much the same, and the smell, omg. The plant store had 3 of them and I could smell them the moment I walked in the door. It was quite overwhelming in the car on the way home, I actually had to wind the window down. I put it among my rapidly growing collection of potted plants that will be going in the garden bed once it's all filled up, and left the front door open and enjoyed the smell as it gently wafted through the house all day long. Wonga wonga vines don't have any smell to them except for the snowbells variety, so the jasmine will more than make up for that.

I've got a lot of the plants for my large garden bed already, though not enough to fill it up, I have enough to make a good start with it, and can fill the gaps with annual plants until I get all the things I want growing in there. I mostly want it to be a perennial garden, just using annuals to fill in bare spaces until no more bare spaces exist.

I'm going to end up with a lot of natives in the raised beds as well with the way I'm going. But edibles I plan to have in the front garden beds are all ones that I can overwinter in the garden and grow as perennials: egg plants, chillies, capsicums, the tiny wild marble sized tomatoes that never die forget the name of them now, a rhubarb. I did have a babaco that I was planning to put in the front garden but it got taken out by a storm (snapped the plant off at the base, and just as it was getting fruit, I was so annoyed, but my fault for not using a stronger stake for it) and is currently out of season, so I'll be getting a replacement later on for that. I also have 3 lilly pilly plants that I'll be making a hedge with, in the front yard on the other side, with an apple tree and several grape vines that will grow on a pergola that I am yet to build... that's a next year project. There's a good chance I'll end up growing various veg in raised beds under the grapevines during the winter whilst the sun can get through to that area, and maybe cherry tomatoes and lettuce under the dappled shade of the grapevines during summer.

I've got a box full of seeds to plant as well, and a pile of seedling boxes to plant them in, now that the annual early spring winds have settled a bit and are no longer trying to blow everything to NZ, I really must get cracking on that.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Sounds like you have some amazing plans! I imagine it'll look absolutely beautiful a few years from now when your collection is complete!
Do the vines have a special meaning to you, or do you like that it's native and had quite pretty flowers?

Do you live far from your old property? Otherwise you could possibly go over and take a few cuttings (with the new owners' permission of course).

I've tried growing rhubarb here, but it's simply too warm for them. Whilst I managed to somehow keep it alive for quite some time, it never grew right and always got swarmed by pests. It was just struggling too much to even grow properly.

 

[Grandmother Goose]

Sounds like you have some amazing plans! I imagine it'll look absolutely beautiful a few years from now when your collection is complete!
Do the vines have a special meaning to you, or do you like that it's native and had quite pretty flowers?

Do you live far from your old property? Otherwise you could possibly go over and take a few cuttings (with the new owners' permission of course).

I've tried growing rhubarb here, but it's simply too warm for them. Whilst I managed to somehow keep it alive for quite some time, it never grew right and always got swarmed by pests. It was just struggling too much to even grow properly.

I've over 1000kms from my old residence.

I honestly have no idea why I like those vines so much, I just do.

Have you tried growing rhubarb under some shade cloth or under a dappled shade tree? Or as an annual from Autumn to Spring through Winter?

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Oh wow, fair enough. That's quite a big distance. Definitely not a daytrip, haha.
I'd try contacting that person and see if they could help you get a couple pieces.

If that's the case, why not
I like English Ivy, which is considered a weed in The Netherlands. I've always enjoyed what it looked like when it climbs over buildings (ignoring the damage they do).
And currently the ONLY reason I grow lemon balm is because I love it's smell and like to rub a few leaves between my fingers whilst working in the garden. It also helps me avoid the smell of the tomato stems a little, as I can't stand the smell of that.

It just gets eaten alive. If it isn't the mealybugs, it's the grasshoppers. That and everything else seems keen on it. I don't even like the taste too much (though I used to occasionally enjoy it with custard), it's more sentimental than anything.
It's also the whole reason I've got sansiveria (mother-in-law's tongue) growing, as my dad used to grow that plant in the windowsill since his youth. He only more recently got rid of it as they were moving house.

 

[Grandmother Goose]

Oh wow, fair enough. That's quite a big distance. Definitely not a daytrip, haha.
I'd try contacting that person and see if they could help you get a couple pieces.

If that's the case, why not
I like English Ivy, which is considered a weed in The Netherlands. I've always enjoyed what it looked like when it climbs over buildings (ignoring the damage they do).
And currently the ONLY reason I grow lemon balm is because I love it's smell and like to rub a few leaves between my fingers whilst working in the garden. It also helps me avoid the smell of the tomato stems a little, as I can't stand the smell of that.

It just gets eaten alive. If it isn't the mealybugs, it's the grasshoppers. That and everything else seems keen on it. I don't even like the taste too much (though I used to occasionally enjoy it with custard), it's more sentimental than anything.
It's also the whole reason I've got sansiveria (mother-in-law's tongue) growing, as my dad used to grow that plant in the windowsill since his youth. He only more recently got rid of it as they were moving house.

Any time English Ivy causes damage to a building, it's because the building was damaged and not structurally sound to begin with. If it's built properly, which means there's no cracks for ivy to get into and force apart, ivy can't hurt it as it will just cling to the face of the wall. Unfortunately my 90+ yr old little cottage wouldn't be able to cope with that, I'd have the ivy growing through the walls and inside the house if I grew it in anything other than a hanging basket... which I plan to do. I was going to grow it on a trellis along my veranda to create a shade wall but opted for a tall hedge of lilly pilly instead.

I think restricting ourselves to only growing things that can be eaten, or only growing flowers that can be picked for a vase, creates a garden that misses out on so much. Food and cut flowers are great, but we need things that make us smile just from looking at them, be it due to it's appearance, or a find childhood memory, or because someone special gifted us the plant. And we definitely need to grow things for their great smells. I'm starting to consider ditching the wonga wonga vine plans and getting some more of that jasmine, because the smell is amazing (when you're in fresh outdoor air and not locked in a car with it).

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Haha fair fair. I reckon that for most of those buildings it was just age too; the mortar would've crumbled over time and/or cracks might've appeared. A lot of buildings in the Netherlands are built on clay ground, which can slowly sink buildings over time (I've seen it happen numerous times). We even have houses in bigger places like Amsterdam or Utrecht, where the bottom floors of the houses are now below the waterlevel and abandoned, but people still live on the upper floors like "normal". And every year it seems to have sunk a centimeter or two more.

For me, gardening meant enjoyment. So I grow to enjoy my garden, more so than enjoying it's produce. On many an occasion I never even picked the fruits because I just liked the way the plant looked with them. And when they started rotting, birds would come and pick out seeds. It's almost more enjoyable to me than eating it myself. Though, for some plants, eating it gives me great satisfaction as I know I grew that myself, in my own garden, with my own hands. And it just somehow makes it feel healthier. And to be fair, homegrown green beans beat anything a supermarket can sell.

Currently I have a fair lot of flowering orchids on the patio table. Granddad-in-law used to grow them and win competitions, but I refused to buy any in his later years after getting rid of them. He called them a disease (because when you buy one, you always want more). So now we have like 7 or so orchid plants, haha. 3 or 4 of them are mine, though they were all gifts from him to me (because I take care of him day in and out). That was very sweet. And somehow I seem to be able to keep them alive and thriving! Just a couple of weeks ago I actually dusted the leaves off, right before they flowered. They look amazing now.
They're not useful for more than an ornament. But they are making multiple people happy now. I call that a win

 

[Grandmother Goose]

Ah the orchid bug, I have recently felt that one. My grandmother used to have a shade house in her back yard full of orchids and bromeliads. I was conned by my mother into believing the hype about orchids being fussy and hard to grow, then earlier this year I discovered dendrobiums, I now have one inside, one outside on a rock and one outside in a tree and I'd love to have a lot more of them. I also ended up with a Cattleya called "Trick or Treat" which has orange flowers and would be amazing to put on my front veranda if I can get it flowering in late October each year.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I think people believe orchids are hard to grow because there is so much wrong information out there. I don't know who started the rumour that you should water the orchids with icecubes, but there's a special place in... down below... reserved for them.
Orchids are tropical plants. They thrive in warmth and humidity. Icecubes WILL kill them, as it's too cold and will damage the plant and it's roots.
Other people give orchids their chlorinated tapwater which can kill them, but not likely. My mom has always had a few orchids on the window sill that we watered every month or 2 with tapwater.

Depending on where you intend on keeping them, they can be really easy to keep. Just bear in mind that if grown indoors, they might dislike your airconditioner, so keep it out of direct flow and/or on a warm windowsill.

 

[Grandmother Goose]

I think people believe orchids are hard to grow because there is so much wrong information out there. I don't know who started the rumour that you should water the orchids with icecubes, but there's a special place in... down below... reserved for them.
Orchids are tropical plants. They thrive in warmth and humidity. Icecubes WILL kill them, as it's too cold and will damage the plant and it's roots.
Other people give orchids their chlorinated tapwater which can kill them, but not likely. My mom has always had a few orchids on the window sill that we watered every month or 2 with tapwater.

Depending on where you intend on keeping them, they can be really easy to keep. Just bear in mind that if grown indoors, they might dislike your airconditioner, so keep it out of direct flow and/or on a warm windowsill.

Airconditioner? What is this thing you speak of? I can't grow anything inside anyway except in the kitchen, as it's the only room that's bright enough, and even then the light has to be turned on to make it bright enough. The top of my large fridge which is the closest point to the light is acting as my little indoor plant nursery at the moment, hosting 2 of my orchids and a few baby plants (spathiphylums and a monstera), and the light stays on during the day and half the night so I can see in there, so the plants are just taking advantage of that.

They'll all eventually be grown in the more humid microclimate areas of my gardens in dappled shade. I'm mostly going to stick with natives of the east coast as they're tough as nails. Ice cubes being used to water plants wasn't a thing when my mother was alive, the problem was people trying to grow orchids in regular potting mix. My grandmother figured it out simply by looking at how they grew in the wild and she grew them in a mix of volcanic rock and bark pieces in pots, in a shade house, watered once a week, and didn't tell anyone else how she did it - growing orchids back then in a desert was considered impossible, she considered it her favourite little secret. I didn't understand any of what she did or why until recently when I went on a learning spree about orchids, then suddenly my grandmother's eccentricities made perfect sense.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Hahaha I know right! I finally got one installed in the main livingroom
We don't use it much, and we can't put the temperature as low as we like, in consideration of granddad as he gets cold more easily. But I'll take a room temperature of 26 over 35 any day

I'm keen on natives to help nature. But I'm also keen on growing natives from home, which don't normally work in this climate. Currently I don't have native money though, haha. We do have 2 saplings of whatever tree it is that the ulysses butterfly likes, so at least we've got that going for us now. I'll have to plant them eventually, but I reckon the cows might try eating or breaking them at this point and time. I'd have to figure out how to put an electric fence around it maybe, haha. They have a habit of pushing over loose poles. Naughty creatures.

Haha, your grandma seems like she had a bit of cheek to her. I tend to love spreading my "secrets" as I want everyone to enjoy it just the same. I get my joy in seeing other people's joy.

 

[Grandmother Goose]

Hahaha I know right! I finally got one installed in the main livingroom
We don't use it much, and we can't put the temperature as low as we like, in consideration of granddad as he gets cold more easily. But I'll take a room temperature of 26 over 35 any day

I'm keen on natives to help nature. But I'm also keen on growing natives from home, which don't normally work in this climate. Currently I don't have native money though, haha. We do have 2 saplings of whatever tree it is that the ulysses butterfly likes, so at least we've got that going for us now. I'll have to plant them eventually, but I reckon the cows might try eating or breaking them at this point and time. I'd have to figure out how to put an electric fence around it maybe, haha. They have a habit of pushing over loose poles. Naughty creatures.

Haha, your grandma seems like she had a bit of cheek to her. I tend to love spreading my "secrets" as I want everyone to enjoy it just the same. I get my joy in seeing other people's joy.

Native Aussie animals and insects with also thrive with the right exotic plants, you just need to know what the animals and insects need then find exotic plants you like that can meet those needs. There are not very many Aussie animals that are species specific with their needs [slowly pushes the koala to hide behind her in a very suspicious manner].

What you're suffering from is zonal denial, I suffer from it too - Sugar plums, Wollemi pines, and Daintree pines aren't meant to be grown in a desert. We're not the only ones. You might enjoy this video on the topic: