Self care by growing a garden

[Smc]

@Former-Member, my whole garden has to be reasonably crisis proof. At home, I try to have a lot of perennial and self seeding edibles. That's not practical here, but yeah, "set and forget" also qualifies.

A very similar house to Mum and Dad's two doors along the street sold recently, and is now a scraped bare block. I expect that's what will happen here too, so I'm not putting anything long term into the ground. There's some fairly impressive mature plants here, such as a Firewheel Tree, and it will be sad to see them go.

[Former-Member]

[Former-Member]

[Former-Member]

[Former-Member]

[Daughterdid]

@CherryBomb I see this is an old post but are there current gardening posts available? I'm an amateur herb/succulent/flower gardener. Thanks!

[Daughterdid]

@Former-Member so beautiful, so true. ❤️

[Former-Member]

Hi @Daughterdid

This post is still active, as we are in winter it is a little quieter bit please do feel free to post.  

[Smc]

Hi @Daughterdid. Yes, we're still hanging around despite the cold. 😄

I live in Central Vic, so we get some reasonably serious frosts here. Bunnings Garden Centre stock is supplied according to statewide or national catalogues that don't necessarily take into account regional conditions.... As a result, our nearest one received a bunch of frost tender fruiting plants recently. 😛 Unsurprisingly, that resulted in some tamarillo plants being reduced to half price. I've wanted a tamarillo for ages!

So I bought one on Saturday and put it under our porch for a bit of protection. Then we had a minus 4 frost that night. The poor thing was frozen solid, from the top leaves to the soil. I took it inside, because most of the damage from frost happens when the plant thaws too quickly, and its cells burst.

I'm happy to report that it thawed out nicely in our shower recess, and, apart from the leaves being a bit autumnal-reddish, seems unaffected. Methinks it will be spending winter as an indoor plant and going into the garden mid-spring, when the frost danger has passed.

[Daughterdid]

@Former-Member oh my, yes it's easy to forget that winter and daytime is summer and nighttime here! My herbs are in full bloom. It's been intensely hot and rainy. I've planted basil, my favorite, and rosemary, chives, oregano and lavender, and some cherry tomatoes. 🙂 If anyone grows lavender I'm having a hard time starting it from seed. I hear it can be difficult.