To the mirth of everyone in my extended family, I cannot keep a plant alive more than three weeks. I try, I really do, but that seems to be the magical number. I don't know my perenials from my annuals and I had to ask my mother-in-law how to prune my rose bush.
The ironic thing about this is that when we moved into this, our first 'real' home, 18 months ago, I swore blind I'd be the most houseproud woman anyone knew. Apparently the 'blind' part stuck because now I simply don't notice the clutter, LOL - and that extends to the garden.
What I know about gardening could fit onto one (very small) page. Yet today I did something I will probably end up regretting - I decided to get stuck into our backyard garden beds. We have a simple and relatively small garden - small expanse of lawn in an L-shape with a long edged garden bed running along the back fence and a very narrow garden bed running down the side of the house. We noticed a couple of weeks ago that one of the bushes/shrubs/things with leaves in the long garden bed had died. We didn't even notice it was ill. We don't even know what it WAS, for that matter. We just realised one day it was brown from root to tip. So today I cut it down.
It was strangely satisfying to hack at the pile of kindling with my bare hands (I am woman, hear me ROAR!) and DH's handsaw. What once was a bush is now a rootball with a few sticks point out of the ground. I'm going out there later tonight and digging up the stump.
At any rate, as I was imagining everyone who has ever wronged me and ripping this thing to pieces, it struck me what a perfect opportunity I had to teach myself gardening. First of all, the garden bed is already laid out, edged and has an irrigation system. Second, it's in a spot that gets sun for about 4-6hrs a day. Originally I was thinking vegies, but my limited knowledge tells me they are water-guzzlers and we're on water restrictions where we are at the moment - we're only allowed to water on Saturdays, after dark (and not all night either). It's coming into winter now so rainfall will help but come next spring/summer, the plants need to survive on very little water.
After I cut down the bush, I went to Bunnings (hardware/garden store) with the inlaws and looked at a few different drought-hardy plants. I have a few ideas :) DH, the usually resistant half of the partnership, is giving me a short leash to plan out and execute a garden, probably just in that small spot where the bush once lived to begin with. I am thinking of planting some lavender, federation daisies and a type of chrysanthemum (whose name escapes me right now, LOL) that gives masses of colour but survives well with low water. The garden bed itself needs a bit of improving...we have sandy soil (I had to look up the difference *grin*) but its looking good - apparently lavender grows well in this area. DH will be well pleased as the flowers will bring in the butterflies and bees and he can take photos until he bursts.
I'll take a couple of photos of the areas and you garden folk out there can help me plan :)
Cheers,
Lizzie
The ironic thing about this is that when we moved into this, our first 'real' home, 18 months ago, I swore blind I'd be the most houseproud woman anyone knew. Apparently the 'blind' part stuck because now I simply don't notice the clutter, LOL - and that extends to the garden.
What I know about gardening could fit onto one (very small) page. Yet today I did something I will probably end up regretting - I decided to get stuck into our backyard garden beds. We have a simple and relatively small garden - small expanse of lawn in an L-shape with a long edged garden bed running along the back fence and a very narrow garden bed running down the side of the house. We noticed a couple of weeks ago that one of the bushes/shrubs/things with leaves in the long garden bed had died. We didn't even notice it was ill. We don't even know what it WAS, for that matter. We just realised one day it was brown from root to tip. So today I cut it down.
It was strangely satisfying to hack at the pile of kindling with my bare hands (I am woman, hear me ROAR!) and DH's handsaw. What once was a bush is now a rootball with a few sticks point out of the ground. I'm going out there later tonight and digging up the stump.
At any rate, as I was imagining everyone who has ever wronged me and ripping this thing to pieces, it struck me what a perfect opportunity I had to teach myself gardening. First of all, the garden bed is already laid out, edged and has an irrigation system. Second, it's in a spot that gets sun for about 4-6hrs a day. Originally I was thinking vegies, but my limited knowledge tells me they are water-guzzlers and we're on water restrictions where we are at the moment - we're only allowed to water on Saturdays, after dark (and not all night either). It's coming into winter now so rainfall will help but come next spring/summer, the plants need to survive on very little water.
After I cut down the bush, I went to Bunnings (hardware/garden store) with the inlaws and looked at a few different drought-hardy plants. I have a few ideas :) DH, the usually resistant half of the partnership, is giving me a short leash to plan out and execute a garden, probably just in that small spot where the bush once lived to begin with. I am thinking of planting some lavender, federation daisies and a type of chrysanthemum (whose name escapes me right now, LOL) that gives masses of colour but survives well with low water. The garden bed itself needs a bit of improving...we have sandy soil (I had to look up the difference *grin*) but its looking good - apparently lavender grows well in this area. DH will be well pleased as the flowers will bring in the butterflies and bees and he can take photos until he bursts.
I'll take a couple of photos of the areas and you garden folk out there can help me plan :)
Cheers,
Lizzie
2 comments:
I absolutely share your lack of gardening skills.
I don't even own a single house plant. It seems a little cruel to subject them to me, you know?
*Grin*
Oh, but I am determined to learn. I actually bought a magazine yesterday - a GARDENING one, LOL - because it had a 'beginner's gardening' section! And I mean REAL beginner's stuff - how to dig, how to sow a plant, etc :P I'm not THAT bad, but I did managed to teach myself a few things!
Today I am taking photos of my backyard at various times of the day to get an accurate idea of where the sun shines and for how long. And I'm taking "the one who needs convincing" to the hardware store (I know, the irony!) this week to show him what I want to buy. But I'll plan it out first.
P.S. I own plants - they are silk!
Cheers,
Lizzie
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