#G'day All
9 messages in this thread
G'day all,
Well didn't you guys come along at the right time. I live in Sydney
Australia and in the last couple of months I was voted, somewhat
reluctantly to be in charge of the garden in the front of our block of
flats, (condo's as you guys call em, I think).
Not knowing anything about gardening, I naturally panicked.
Well first job was to rip down the old retaining wall out front and replace
it with a railway sleeper terraced garden bed. Which is how it stayed for
quite a while. The other flat owners didn't share my love for the lovely
red hue of the soil and asked me to plant something so it was off to the
local nursery.
a car load of natives later I must say it's looking ok even though I still
don't know half the plants I put in.
So hopefully I might get some hints from you guys, even though I'm on the
other side of the world, I think the basics must be the same.
PS I really enjoy potting around out there now, very therapeutic I must
say.
David, welcome aboard Gardening Forum. We'll be glad to help as we try to
keep reminding ourselves that your season is the opposite of ours. You are
moving from summer into autumn in the next few months if I'm understanding
the differences. But you are right, mulch is mulch, compost is compost,
and digging a hole is probably pretty much the same. Autumn is a great
time to plant perennials and shrubs. Some small flowering shrubs might
help fill in your space and not take much work once they are established.
Looking forward to chatting down under.
Jeff,
Thanks for the welcome. I didn't realise but I must be a good gardener
<g>, that's exactly what I've done. Heaps of small flowering shrubs,
perennials and lots of trailing groundcovers, I have no idea what they are
called but only one has died so far, so I'm pretty happy.
Maybe I should upload some before and after GIF files of the old patch,
actually, it would be interesting to see other people's efforts as well.
Pity about the lack of a scanner on this end.
David
Hi, David, great to have an Aussie on board! I love your plants (just
placed an order today that included a bunch of Australian natives). I live
in San Francisco, CA, which is similar in climate to Sydney, from what I
gather. Just put up some Australian seeds (hard as rocks, had to treat
first with boiling water), such as kennedia species, swainsonia, alyogyne.
What have you put in your block garden?
You've got me there Marjory, I keep forgetting the names of most of them.
I'm very much a "that looks good, give me one of those" type plant buyers.
I'll have a look this afternoon and send a list. The ones I can remember
at the moment are Native Rosemary, "Snow in summer, Spanish Shawl, ummmm,
arrr, I'll have to check.
So you're in San Francisco, I wanted to get there last year when I was up
there for business, but time got in the way. From what I've heard from
others is it's a great place and just about the closest thing to Sydney you
can get in the US.
Good to see you're spreading the seeds of Australia, they're nice and easy
to look after, which is important to those of us who use the book "The Lazy
Gardener" as a bible.
Talk to you soon.
David
David, "snow in summer" here is cerastium, which is extremely aggressive in
my year-round growing climate; "Spanish shawl" (heterocentron) is invasive
here. If you have the same plants, you will have quick coverage. They're
not Australian natives, of course. I wonder what your "native rosemary" is.
The "darling pea" seeds I potted up germinated in 2 days! I was amazed, as
the seeds were as hard as pebbles when I potted them up, after covering
with boiling water and letting sit for 24 hours, which I did twice before
putting the seeds into soil. I hope I get a few survivors this time. We
have an Australian Plant Society in California, which started up a few
years ago, and through it I get an Australian horticultural journal which
focuses on your fabulous natives. Such weird plants — you even have a
little orchid which spends its entire life underground (but then, after the
platypus, nothing much surprises us about Australian flora & fauna).
Welcome —
Good to hear from the other side! We have some neighbors doing a four year
stint in Sydney, and it's hard to keep in mind what it's doing down there
with the opposite season.
Keep in touch. Shep
Sorry Shepherd,
this is "this side", you guys are on the other side <g>. Where abouts is
your "this side"? and where are your neighbours doing their stint.
You reckon you have have trouble working out what it's doing down here,
with the Summer we're having at the moment, we seem to be getting four
seasons every day. The weather has been really weird lately, but at least
we're getting some good rain, keep those little plants growing.
Anyway, Talk to you later.
David
I do know what you are talking about with the "this side" routine, because
every time I go to California they talk about Vermont as being "out East",
when EVERYONE knows it is "back east"……
I'll have to ask my wife where they live…I think it is in Turramura, or
something like that; he is with Time magazine.