Safe in my garden

Lanolin

Lanolin

I'd like to show you my garden...but I don't have any pictures yet.
However, you all invited to read what I've been up to in my rambling garden diary blog.
I started this garden recently after studying horticulture for a bit and NOW I sort of know how to do it.

http://ramblinggarden.blogspot.co.nz

I'm wondering if you have a garden what kind of special features have you put in..? To make it your safe quiet place?
 
hmm, no gardeners hanging round here. ph8th, please come back!
Got no one to talk to.
My garden style is definitely english country plonked in suburbs attempting to be cottage.
 
Well, I stay in a flat, so no garden, I did get us a pot plant, it lives outside, right in front of the flat door, a jasmine plant. I only like plants that really smell nice.
I can tell you this, I do long for a piece of ground, but what would I plant - things like potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, onions and the like.
 
Ooh jasmine! I have one by a fence, its doing well now. Just giving it some epsom salts and leaves are nice and green, hasnt flowered yet though.

I think we all long for our own promised land. I dont have any of my own either, just live with my parents, but am looking after it. Mum opposes me though.

I never realised how important land was before really started gardening...and that soil health is everything. It is def easier if your land is fertile, soil good, well drained, loamy, you have water...you can grow anything.
But you can make the desert bloom if you know how.
 
Try some sweet smelling citrus trees, like lime would be good in a pot if you got a warm patio.
I have carrots and spring onions in a tub filled with soil since our own soil in the yard is not very deep.
 
Mmm, lime tree. Good idea, will see if I can get one. Our winters can get close to zero deg C. So that might be a problem, being coastal, we often have wind, sometimes really cold also, but I'll research.
 
Yes I am.
But Jacarandas are very scarce in the area where I live now, Eastern Cape. Jacarandas can be found in their thousands in Gauteng and North West provinces.
Interesting however, at one point our newly elected(now 21 years old) democratic government declared war on any plant or tree that is not indigenous to our region. The Jacaranda is actually one of them, so that almost lead to civil war.
Anyone who has driven through Pretoria during bloom season will tell you, the city of Pretoria cannot be the same without those trees. It is something to experience indeed.
 
?
Thats funny today I just put some native ferns in my garden, cos I didnt have any.
Auckland is known for its pohutakawa tree, a favourite cos it blossoms red at christmas time. Also known as nz christmas tree. Its a native.

Im fond of chinese toons that turn pink in spring.
 
Gosh some lime trees are expensive, saw ones in tubs going for over hundred bucks! Or they could have been limequats.

A new hybrid.
I was considering buying a lime tree but i notice they have thorns. Maybe just buy a lime fruit and plant the seed??
 
While you are enjoying summer south of the Equator, most of the staff here at CFS is enduring a cooler than normal winter... LOL... ;)

Glad to have you back !
 
Hi Lanolin,
We have been watching a lot of videos on homesteading and learning alot on how to take care of the land and grow healthy produce.

It amazes me how so many people simply will not take the time to care for the ground and use chemicals to try and make their produce grow. Yuk!!

Glad your back!
Blessings
FCJ
 
Hi Lanolin, it's nice to see this thread move! I love to garden... I tend to sort of mix things around when I plant. I am a firm believer in companion planting. It works really great to cut down on pests & diseases, and you can grow more in less space.
I have also had good success with outdoor winter-sowing in milk jugs... just set them out during winter & forget about them until time to transplant in spring.
(Will work on adding a photo or two)
 
Here's one garden photo from my 2015 garden, (IF it posts properly...lol)
full

You can't tell it from the photo, but that frame was about 7 feet high. The tomato plants grew to about 10 feet before they fell over! (I used wood ashes to combat against squash bugs, and to fertilize a bit.
 
AtomicSnowflake said:
Hi Lanolin, it's nice to see this thread move! I love to garden... I tend to sort of mix things around when I plant. I am a firm believer in companion planting. It works really great to cut down on pests & diseases, and you can grow more in less space.
I have also had good success with outdoor winter-sowing in milk jugs... just set them out during winter & forget about them until time to transplant in spring.
(Will work on adding a photo or two)
Click to expand...


I live about half an hour from an Amish plant nursery.....words fail to describe it.Beautiful plants I have never seen.Familiar plants are MUCH bigger and healthier looking than anything you have ever seen! They really seem to have a gift for it.My wife and I both love plants and flowers but we couldn’t grow chick- weed in a cow pasture.lol ...if the Rapture doesn’t occur , come spring i’ll Go take some pictures of the Amish hanging plants and post them....They are the size of Volkswagens....haha!
 
Just a side note - A colleague of mine once attempted to graft a Pine branch onto an Apple tree to grow Pineapples... ;)....:)

That didn't work out too well... :LOL:
 
It was clay base at about 6" down... we got a small load of mushroom compost dirt to add to it the previous year, (2014), and I used a thick mulch of pine needles. The pine needles actually do not make the soil acidic, as long as they are brown and not still green. The pine straw works amazing... it retains moisture, doesn't allow rain to splatter dirt on the leaves, actually repells certain pests, keeps the soil loose, and really draws in the earthworms. Because it breaks down so quickly, the soil becomes rich, black, and "alive".
The photo was from the next year, (2015), and I was not able to keep the pine straw added fast enough, so on it we had used a bit of aged horse manure, landscape cloth, and woodchip mulch. But the pine straw was far better.
We has also burned the area at the beginning of the season, and I used wood ashes to dust the plants, and sprinkle over the soil as needed.
The okra plants grew like trees, with large 2" stalks, multiple branches, and reached about 9 foot.
But the best friend for the clay soil would be to use alot of pine straw to build & nurish the soil.
(I have some pics from the 2014 garden I'll post too.)
The whole thing was mainly a learning experience, but it did turn out well. And was very productive in a small space.
 
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