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???