That's all folks.

So i'd like to share some gardening tips with you, well not the sort that will help your garden grow bigger and brighter but rather the ideas iv'e come up with for entertaining kids in the backyard.

This modern world of ours is quite different from the one I grew up in. My son has known how to say DVD and Ipad for at least a year now and he is 2 years old! He fully knows how to navigate the Iphone and I mean getting in and out of applications, scrolling through photos and taking photos himself. Are kids smarter or are we lazier? and do we just think they are smarter because they can use technology.

Anyway I still insist on having his birthday party in the backyard with a gazebo and just the toys we have at home. As I said in an earlier post my son is not particularly interested in helping me in the garden. Kids however, love water, but what about our water restrictions?

I overheard a kid say to his mother at the park " what's that?" he was pointing to a sprinkler, his mum said " it's a sprinkler" he then said "can we get one at home?" and the mum said "no darling we are not allowed"

When I was a kid my mum used to hold the hose out and we would run back and fourth, it was great. I mean we would have preferred to go to the pool but it was still fun, we would look at the rainbow the reflection made.
Now we can only fill up the plastic pool a little bit, and when Eden is enthusiastic about watering plants I tend to stop him after about 3 water cans full, because I feel so guilty for using water.

So a few fun things to do outside that don't involve water. (or not much water)
well... I invited all his friends over for an amazing treasure hunt (it was a magic one), well that's what I told them but basically I had some coloured icy pole sticks which I stuck around the garden and the kids collected them and put them in a bucket. Go mum!!
hey come on they loved it. and all you need is a packet of icy pole sticks!
(You could do it with marbles too.)

Digging for treasure is another one! with marbles or figurines.

Growing grassheads.
all you need is:
stockings, rubber bands
seeds, cup, texta
water

all you do is to cut the foot out of a stocking, stuff it with grass seeds, tie the bottom off with a rubber band so it's round like a ball moisten the ball with water, draw some eyes on, stick it in a cup and voila! in a few days you have a grass head. Genius!!

build a bonfire, (maybe not in summer)

plant a herb garden
many steps here, some involving trips to nurseries (see earlier interview with Gus)

build a leaf stack
get a stick
get some leaves
stick leaves on stick
Leaf stack!

make mud pies - ingredients dirt and water, hey not much water. Mix dirt and water, eat.

collect flowers for plant press! if you don't have a plant press just use a heavyweight book

So there you have it. Backyard fun for the Aussie child imposed with water restrictions.

Where did I come from?

I was born in Richmond. I Don't remember the house very well, but i believe we definately didn't have a backyard. From there my family moved to East Malvern, where we had a small house and an enourmous back yard. My parents were the type to send us outside till dinner time, and saying we were bored was a big no no. I have a lot of fond memories from that house. like the cubby house we had and the swing set. We played totem tennis and cricket, we had one of those token paved strips leading to the hills hoist that we used as a pitch. My family has great memories of the fruit trees and they are still mentioned today.
We had a blood plum tree Prunus cerasifera you know the one with the dark purple red leaves with the fleshy fruit that stains your clothes red. We had one in the front yard which produced plenty of plums. We had a lemon tree Citrus × limon, an apple tree (i think they were of the Malus ballerina variety) and a pear tree Pyrus in the back. The pear and plum didn't do that well, their fruits were always hard and a bit sour, but the absolute favourite was the apricot tree Prunus armeniaca. It was massive! we spent all summer sitting under it and devouring the fruits, we shared them with the neighbours and friends and they were just awesome.
I don't think my folks were particularly into gardening my dad still loathes mowing the lawns. actually come to think of it my dad did have a little horticultural hobby. he had "special plants" the kind the kids weren't allowed to touch. We could only look. He would put seeds on pieces of cotton wool and keep them moist, then after a while little sprouts would shoot up and then he would put them in pots, they would then be transplanted into the special plants area and they would grow huge.... funny those plants always got stolen.

As an adult I believe those plants are called Marijuana plants. also known as Cannabis, Gunga, weed, Mary-Jane hooch, Choof, 'Pass the dutchie on the left hand side', anyway you get my point!
Actually called c.staiva it is an annual plant or herb from the cannabaceae family. Humans have cultivated this herb throughout history for many different reasons such as industrial fibres, oils, and food but perhaps more commonly it has been used as a drug or can i say medicine. Each part is harvested differently depending on the use.

I can't really say my parents were hippies, I mean they grew up in the 60's and 70's i guess, my dad is a huge music fan and plays guitar and piano and sings, what this has to do with anything i don't know! My mum is super straight and doesn't even really drink and has no idea about gardening, i have a love of plants and nature but maybe that's because they always kicked us outside, i'm actually grateful for this.
about 13 years ago we moved to Moorabbin my parents bought a huge property there on the highway (1000 square metres) huge house and huge back yard, we had a pool that eventually died, but it was a great place to hang out as a teenager. My boyfriend at the time and now husband had moved out of one of his dodgy boy share houses, and was throwing away a poor sorry looking cactus my mum put her hand up for it and planted it in the from yard, why am i telling you this? because after about seven years of this bloody cactus growing increasingly tall and multiplying all over the place something remarkable happened.

Cool huh? The flower showed it's face for one day only! And then died.
anyway my parents like so many have just sold that dump, I mean my sentimental family home that I grew up in and loved.
and have bought a one of two brand new "low maintenance" town house with little to almost no garden, there is an atrium which my mum keeps saying 'maybe we'll just put some succulents in there'. It's all about low maintenance. What happened to everyone? Whats wrong with a bit of hard work? I forgot to mention we lived on a kibbutz for 4 years, there was no bloody low maintenance. It was all hard work and being outside. Our houses were so small we had to be outside, and we loved it! low maintenace succulent what the ? I protest! however it's pretty nice going to my parents clean new sparkly house.....
that cactus didn't make the cut to that house but the Peyote my brother was growing well lets just say we didn't see that when we packed up the house hmmmm???

A little bit more on Mcfarlane!

Just a little word on my Northcote garden. I rent the house i'm in but actually I quite like the layout and the choice of plants which apparently is the owner's work. Iv'e put up a few photo's please don't judge me it's a bit of a mess! I planted the little native wattle a little while after I moved in and actually it's doing pretty well. my dwarf lemon tree has a few green lemons which actually look like they are turning yellow??? maybe! There is 2 lavender bushes one in the front and one in the back, Magnolia grandiflora, Maple tree, Cordyline, Ornamental pear which has almost shed all of it's leaves. I pressed a few of the leaves in a little flower press and then made a greeting card and stuck the leaves on it. The leaves are just so beautiful, and I don't mind in the least that they are deposited all over my lawn. but actually the most impressive of all the species in the back yard, is the Mahonia x media! an awesomely impressive species. I actually pressed one of the leaves for my plant press for the the hort plant prac, the flowers are bright yellow erect and spreading and the leaves long, compound with prickly edges - have a look at the pic. The rose bushes however eh! I'm not really into them. Perhaps I don't know how to prune them, down the side of the house the stems grow huge and I can see them from the lounge room, which should be a positive but it's not. They don't really produce any flowers and just look like prickly weeds. I grew cherry tomatoes down the side of the house last summer, well two summers ago you can't really call what we had a summer. I thought they looked nice at the window and smelled great when the windows were open. I grew basil next to the tomatoes and they grew beautifully too i couldn't keep up with it, i made 2 pestos that summer...mmmmmm pesto!

perhaps the newest member of the garden is the Loquot tree - Eriobotrya japonica My husband bought it for me for my birthday in December. When I lived overseas I used to eat the fruit by the bucket load. I have seen quite a few of these trees in the neighbourhood but none have fruits yet. (The bum in the picture is my brothers) photo further down the page.
This is the area I live in.

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I do love living in Northcote it's a great suburb and community! there are plenty of well loved gardens and exciting vegie plots. I go down to CERES quite often, I just love it there. CERES is the Centre for education and research in environmental strategies.

It has something for everyone. it's built on an old decommissioned municipal tip that was once landfill and wasteland. Today however it's a stunning community garden. and all waste and water is recycled, and much of the site is powered by renewable energy such as wind and solar.
They have 300,000 visitors per year. Amazing!

I am a host for there organic vegie box delivery, which means people order mixed veg/fruit boxes and they are delivered to my house for people who live close by to pick up. The idea is that CERES are using less petrol delivering to individual houses.

If you haven't been to CERES you should visit there website - www.ceres.org.au
and then go down there. they have lots of hidden treasures for example they have a bike shed workshop, they build bikes or sell parts if you want to fix your own, and the staff and volenteers there are more than happy to offer advice. they have a permaculture nursery, green energy, cafe, a market on the weekend and first wednesday of each month, and there is usually a band playing. Clearly i'm a fan!


On another note I checked out the smart water website http;//www2.smartgardenwatering.org.au/ and at first i didn't really know what it wanted from me but then when I actually tried to navigate it, it was quite user friendly. the site recommended I obviously water less in winter or even from now, and more between october and Feb. I think it's a really great site! when i get back into the garden I will no doubt visit again for more advice. and for people maybe just starting out gardening I think it would be very useful.

Well that's it for this time, stay tuned and keep digging!

Gus and Lou's backyard transformation

For this next entry I would like to introduce some friends of mine, Lou and Gus. Lou and I are in a mothers group together and her son Grover(great name) and mine are great friends. They just moved to Reservoir in October last year into a "family home" from a warehouse in Westgarth. At first they found the move quite stifling, well maybe Lou more than Gus as Lou has lived in warehouses for many years. There back yard is quite large but whoever lived there before them had some, how can i put this? interesting taste in landscaping! there is a small patch of grass, surrounded by painted concrete, Yakka trees and weird square hedges and plenty of red volcanic rock, very unappealing in my opinion.

Over the mothers day weekend gus decided to create a vegie garden, and i think he did a remarkable job. I don't have a photo of what it used to look like but basically the ground was all covered in volcanic rock, it would have been quite a big job to get rid of it all.

This is them a year ago!

I thought it would be fun to interview Gus and thought i'd share the experience.

Bianca: Sooo, what inspired you to start a vegie garden?

Gus: I wanted to be able to grow things and then be able to eat them, and I wanted to see if that was possible, having no real prior experience in gardening.

Bianca: why did you choose an above ground plot?

Gus: Because it was easier to install, rather than having to condition the large patch of soil, we could just add soil to what was existing – it was also less expensive (and time consuming) that way.

Bianca: where did you get your materials?

Gus: The majority of them came from Bunnings. The soil we got from a garden supplies place. We also reused a lot of junk to make the garden work. For example, reclaimed materials – old bits of wood. And old carpet we used to line the ground as a barrier for weeds, and then covered it with some inherited volcanic rock.

Bianca: what did you choose to plant and why?

Gus: Carrots, Potatoes, pumpkin, lettuce, broad beans, peas, snow peas, passion fruit, blackberries, raspberries, cherry, apple and apricot, herbs – rosemary, sage, lemongrass, parsley; garlic, onions, watercress. We chose them because they are the ones in season and available and they are the ones we will eat!

What soils did you use?

Gus: A combination composted soil that was recommended was good for growing vegetable gardens!

Bianca: What type of mulch did you use?

Gus: We used pea straw for the garden bed.

Bianca: Did the design work out the way you imagined?

Gus: yes, it did – there were only really slight changes to our original plan.

Bianca:What has worked so far?

Gus: At this stage, everything seems to be going really well, except one lettuce which we lost early.

Bianca: What watering system are you using?

Gus: We have a 1000-litre water tank collecting from the roof which we use a wateringcan with, and there’s been heaps of rain going directly onto it too!

Bianca have you checked out the smart garden watering website?

Gus: no...

Bianca: On a scale of 1 - 10 how has your life improved since having a plot.

Gus: 10. But our gardening life has improved 100%!

would you say the cups of tea delivered to you during this process improved the overall outcome??

Gus: Yes, wholeheartedly – in fact, it couldn’t have been done without the various cups of tea, sandwiches and other beverages!

So there you have it another successful "DIY" garden experience, this project only took him and his mother in law along weekend to achieve. It just shows what you can do with a little extra time.

He has created six plots there. and is using 5 of them at the moment so he has room for some summer veg. He has also planted a couple of fruit trees. there is an apricot treePrunus armeniace which Gus feels is not doing very well. and a lemon tree in the front.

and here are some photo's!

John and Shirley an inspiration to all!

Im going to write little bit about my neighbours as there garden is much more fascinating than my own. John and Shirley moved to my street in October 2010. Their kids live in the area and they thought it was time to be close to them. They have moved here from Inveloch which seems funny to me as I always imagined retiring to the country.

They are a very sweet couple and they are crazy keen gardeners, especially shirley!;they're so enthusiastic about their relatively new garden, and were super excited to tell me all about it. John is in his 80's but he is very fit and not afraid of a little hard work.  they have quite a small paved back yard but they are trying to create a lush full feeling out there. in the front yard there used to just be a  Weeping or Ornamental cherry which they have kept but everything else they have planted themselves and  this includes:  Pitosporum angulatem, Hardenbergia, Asparagus densiflorous fern, Nandina, Magnolia grandiflora, Cordyline austarlis, Abelia shulmanii so they have planted a lot and that's just in the front and down the side. they also had an entire side fence covered in Hedra helix which was pulling the fence down. They have pulled that away, but it's a pretty persistent little vine and is still trying hard to conquer.



In the backyard  they have planted Callistemon, geranium, port wine magnolia wild rasberry  hibiscis hibbertia scandens. native wahlenbergia, so you can imagine it's starting to look pretty amazing. If i had such a bare uninspired space i'm not sure I would of had their vision. they made a very small vegie patch and planted a few herbs when they moved but they started to sprout and then all died.  so they are convinced the soil in contaminated in some way. maybe from  the paint from the fence so they are trialing a few other things and then they might change the soil entirely. i will speak to them this week and we can see how it's all going.

The first blog!

Well, i'm not one for blogging. i have a facebook account but i'm not particularly active, i use it for connecting with some friends overseas. so i have to admit that this does feel a bit weird, but here goes.
Now i'm going to try very hard not to bang on about being a mum and my child because i know it can be super boring, but before i had a child my garden was wonderful and i spent lots of time designing and playing in it, 2 years ago I grew tomatoes and lettuce and leeks and loads of herbs, and used them all in my dinner parties and boasted about the fact that they came from my garden. Now, however my grass is barely mowed my mint is near dead along with my lemon verbena which both I over used in way too much tea.
it's a pretty sad state, my son likes watering the pavement and picking the green lemons of my dwarf lemon tree, I had this wonderful image of my kid and I doing the gardening together and it was going to be so sweet and fun, but i have a crazy kid who likes climbing the ladder and will not help weed or water plants. instead puts all the watering cans along with his teddy bears and himself fully clothed in to his pink kiddy pool.
Anyway I live in Northcote which has some wonderful gardens lots of front yard vegie patches and big water tanks that all the hippies love pointing out with lovely signs (which is great) but i'm actually going to go on to talk about the neighbours across the road from me whom i find quite fascinating as they have retired from Inverloch to the city.  they have done some great stuff with their yard, so stay tuned for John and shirley's back yard blitz.