There were a few weeks involving competitions, an ongoing failure to catch up with copying lesson plans into templates, and some miscellaneous scurrying around, and kind of hyperfocusing on the gravel path as we needed to clear the pile before we could do a lot of other things including stuff with the chicken area, which meant not paying a lot of attention to the rest of the garden.
On the bright side said gravel path (started in last month's garden journal) is nearly done, it's slightly less firmly compacted in spots but happened a LOT faster with JJ and the wheelbarrow helping.
On my own I got up to the narrow point between the two immediately opposing grow beds after several sessions. After JJ fixed the wheel on the wheelbarrow and started helping we got the rest of it done in two and will hopefully finish it soon.
With the amount of gravel left in the pile I think we'll actually be able to meet up with the paved path that's currently buried so I'm going to have to work out edging as I'm running out of bricks.
I thought I had been checking things while working on the gravel path because I was outside after all but apparently not carefully enough as everything was "suddenly" sprouting/bigger and more trees were waking up. There was also a surprise dragonfruit tree which I initially mistook for another cactus (I haven't seen a small one before) and was wondering when JJ had gotten the third one (I knew we had two).
There were more bugs! Please excuse the terrible software zoom on the bee photo, I was too much of a coward to get closer.
I had decided we should attempt to transplant some of the not-sunflowers into the chicken coop. Ideally if they survived and regrew the chickens would have some shade over summer.
I figured they definitely weren't Jerusalem artichokes either (our next guess when they turned out to not be sunflowers) when I asked JJ if he'd made sure he got as much of the rhizomes as he could and he said it was all roots (of which he'd grabbed as much as he could) and no rhizomes.
A week or so later, one of the remaining not-sunflowers flowered.
Please excuse the terrible software zoom, I was physically incapable of getting closer without the ladder I was way too lazy to get for purposes of the exercise as this thing was over twice my height.
PlantNet thinks it's a foxglove tree (Paulownia tomentosa). We have loosely concluded that we might have somehow gotten an incorrectly packed seed packet as we would a) not plant trees from seeds (so no chance of JJ brainfarting and grabbing the wrong seeds from our little library) and b) not planted that many trees right on top of each other. Another friend posited that maybe our sunflower batch was bad and just never sprouted and these came in with birds but the chances of that many exactly where he planted "sunflowers" is astronomically low. The rest of the poor things are getting removed while they're still easily removable.
After a tense wait it seems both the transplanted maybe-foxglove-trees have survived the ordeal.
We may have to stunt the poor things' growth with some excessive pruning.
Eldest followed up his generic interest in plants by eventually getting into a horticulture course at TAFE (with the TAFE that offered it being its usual silly self) and has been both helping out in the garden a bit more and bringing home spare plants.
The first ones he brought back were kangaroo paws because he remembered that I wanted some, and they would have been part of last month's garden journal if they hadn't come in shortly after I'd posted it.
Then an elkhorn fern because his lecturer was "going through his native plants era too". I wish I'd gotten a photo of it poking hilariously out of his backpack. We got busy and took a bit longer than we should have to mount it, hopefully it recovers :S
I was just going to pack it into the gap next to the other one but we thought that might be a bit too crowded so it got its own log which we tied it onto til it attaches.
And also herbs. We ended up with so much thyme (I did make several variations of the expected stupid jokes) that he hung some to dry above my computer (apparently the only convenient place to hang it) after trying to propagate several billion cuttings.
Some herbs were initially stored in the bathroom because it's usually humid in there but got moved to the catio shortly afterwards. He also planted a bunch of microscopic seeds in more starter trays but I didn't photograph them as they were less interesting to look at.
JJ and I went on a date to Guildford Garden Centre as they had some specific plants I was looking for.
I could not remember which Eremophila JJ had accidentally got from Bunnings, just that they have pink flowers, so I grabbed one with orange flowers so it would be like the Correa set with one slightly odd one out. And then I did a JJ and accidentally grabbed a Dampiera hybrid instead of the Dampiera linearis that was literally right above it. It apparently wants full sun (the linearis one is okay in part shade) but is going into a heavily shaded location so I'll see how it goes and attempt to transplant it to the wall bed if it's really struggling.
The fence bed needs another 4-5 Dampieras for completion and I will see how big they end up down the line before I decide if I should add something tiny and cute way up front.
The original plan for the wall bed was three Hardenbergia violacea on trellises, two lavender bushes in between them and groundcover fanflowers and Swan River daisies at ground level. After some research with ReWildPerth I decided to switch to Hardenbergia comptoniana (native wisteria native to the area, the violaceas are native to the eastern states) and shrub fanflowers instead.
Guildford Garden Centre was out of native wisterias at the time. One of the staff members gave me the pro tip of leaving a placeholder pot where I wanted to plant it so I could start planting around the spot and suggested jumping on the waitlist for them which I did. They also didn't have Swan River Daisies and the other Brachyscomes wanted full sun. Once again a helpful staff member asked if I was okay with a not-daisy that looked something like a daisy that would be fine in part shade (but might not produce quite as many flowers) and so I subbed in "Seaside Daisies" (Erigeron karvinskianus) and will see how they look. They did have shrub fanflowers, we got "Aussie Spirit" (Scaevola nitida).
We later got a tubestock of Brachyscome "Mauve Delight" from Bunnings which said it was okay in part shade which confused me slightly as the same variety at Guildford Garden Centre said full sun. Did our usual see how we go.
I am going to keep an eye out for Swan River Daisies ideally as plants and may also try the seeds again and rub them in like I did with the wildly successful beneficial insect mix as I suspect I accidentally planted the last batch too deep. I may also just keep geting the other Brachyscome plants in different colours.
I also found out that the native wisteria can grow up to 3m high and 3m wide which means I should only need one of them and they are apparently quite vigorous so there might be a lot of frantic pruning in my future.
I'd read that blueberries could allegedly survive occasional flooding from roof runoff (confirmed by plant pro friend) so we grabbed a couple of them for the section of the porch and wall beds that get most of the runoff.
JJ kind of does whatever with the food garden like I tend to do whatever with the cottage garden now but we still like to run things past each other so I'm counting the apricot tree (there was a fruit tree planned for the chicken area) and the raspberry bushes as "on the list" (even though I didn't know about the raspberry bushes til we got there and he probably didn't either). He also grabbed another rosemary at the request of Youngest.
They also had plants rather than seeds of all the three types of groundcover/"lawn replacement" I was looking for! Left bottom to top right we have creeping thyme (Thymus serpyllum), white star creeper (Pratia penduculata) and kidneyweed (Dichondra repens).
My current ploy with those is to grab some every time we go back there (or anywhere else that happens to have the plants, Kambarang seems to have them sometimes too) and just keep adding them around the place until I eventually get full coverage one day maybe.
I was pretty good for once and only got one spontaneous impulse plant: an adorable little Heart-leaf Flame Pea that goes perfectly in the tree bed.
I put it in the gap in the middle as it's supposed to grow to about 1m tall, and it's not centralised partly because I wanted to leave a gap for another two and mostly because I slightly misjudged where the "centre" was and was also trying to work out where the tree roots were going so I didn't hit them on the way down.
I researched it after I'd planted it and apparently it can also get to 1.5m wide which should fill up a sizeable portion if not all of that gap so I may only have room for one more unless I end up needing to replace that pink Impatiens closest to the tree, which I also don't want to block. Alternately I can put another ground level water dish/bird bath bowl in that area like the one I got for the chicken area to replace a scungy drowning hazard of a bucket.
It should be shallow enough for a chick to stand up in but I may put a small rock in there anyway in case some other critters come in there to use it at night. Also planning on putting some azolla in there as apparently it's good for chickens, and keeping some in our remaining aquaponics pond to replenish stocks as the chickens will probably eat all of it in about five seconds.
Plant pro friend also confirmed the differences in clover for me (it seems I have red, white and yellow clover growing in the grasslands at the moment) so I'm currently pulling all the yellow clover (it has prickles and I have a vendetta against spiky plants in the cottage garden) as well as genociding several "unwanted" plant populations which I was trying to green mulch but JJ requested I put in the chicken area instead as he's worried they'll grow in the sleeper bed. I filled 1.5 large pots and it looks like I have done nothing at all ^_^;
Kind of like my life sometimes x_x I'm sure there will be a stage where the difference is suddenly noticeable maybe.
plans
⬜ move beehive and birdbath (which is primarily easy water source for the bees) into bee garden
⬜ replant birdbath pockets
⏸️ relocate and set up aquaponics properly
⏸️ two ponds need replacing and we might be getting another one
⏸️ pvc pipes
⏸️ shubunkin (5-20 apparently)
✔️ transplant chickweed to chicken area
✔️ transplant not-sunflowers to chicken area
⬜ transplant nasturtiums to chicken area
⬜ trans/plant sweet potato to chicken area
▶️ transplant aloe to pots or fence bed
⬜ dig out tree stumps
⬜ attempt to transplant the apparently immortal Crapemyrtle to where the bigger tree stump was
✔️ make seed mix out of creeping thyme, kidney weed and white star creeper and go ham slight plan change now that I know where to get plants from
⬜ separate Easter lilies, replant big bulbs and whatever smaller bulbs will fit, cure some small bulbs for friend that requested some
⬜ dig up whatever the hell is coming up in the tree bed and transplant to Easter lily patch wherever is appropriate
▶️ replace all ice cream containers and buckets with bird bath dishes
side quests
⬜ desktop aquaponics
⬜ Youngest's old fish tank setup
⬜ really small dwc raft or materials to make one OR modified planter for constant flow system as suggested by J
⬜ heater
⬜ betta
⬜ see where neighbour got shrimp and snails from or if they have a population excess to rehome
⬜ mini waterhole + dampland
⬜ drill drainage holes in decommissioned large cat litter tray
✔️ pot saucer or some kind of small bowl
⬜ azolla
⬜ knotted club rush
⬜ centella?
⬜ frog pond
⬜ above ground round pond or "rock look" prefab pond if I can get Youngest to dig a SMALL hole for me
⬜ tassel sedge/more knotted club rush
⬜ more azolla!
⬜ water fringe lily
⬜ more viola hederacea?
This post also appears on my blog.
- sproing is sprunging
- slow and slower
- heavy lifting
- I want it now!
- floral experiment #2 and more hare-brained schemes
Want a cameo character? If you interact frequently with me here (either on my posts or your posts or better yet both!) or on one of the linked Discord channels, all you have to do is let me know and tell me what you'd like :) Everything you need to know is (probably) here and if it isn't just ask (link goes offsite to my blog).
Thanks for looking! _
Fun Discord servers:
-={ ko-fi }=-