Friends, Family & Carers Forum

[Smc]

I usually struggle to get a tomato crop @Former-Member... let alone capsicums. I love homegrown toms, the supermarket ones are completely unappealing. If I get a good enough crop, I'd have the chance to bottle a whole lot of them for wintertime. Tomatoes are dead easy, as long as you don't mind them "skin on". I did some from someone else's garden a few years ago, and I just squashed them down into the Fowlers bottles until the juice ran out then sterilised as per instructions. They were a little short on liquid so I'd add a bit of water next time, but ooh they tasted good!

[Former-Member]

Perhaps one of these would help @Smc

This one probably fits our budget better:

[Smc]

@Former-Member, I'll be inheriting a glasshouse from my parents' place, once it's been emptied out and dismantled for transport. It's a big one, about 6m or so long, and I was trying to puzzle out where to fit it in... then, among Dad's pile of paraphenalia in the backyard I found a couple of extra gables and enough framework to rebuild it as two smaller glasshouses. So my sister and I are each taking "half a glasshouse". 🙂 I expect it will be a great help.

[eudemonism]

Hi @Former-Member @Smc

I'm trying to think of ways i can spice my garden up and make some more changes. I got a few ideas. I've pruned all the low branches of the elm tree off. And I've just left a little piece of growth on a 2 1/2 metre stem. My plan is for it to grow into a big shade tree that i can sit under. 

I'm umming and arring about either letting the fig tree grow into a massive tree for shade and ornament or keeping it pruned and trimmed, for a food plant; as per guide on YouTube.

I'm thinking i focus on what i got rather then adding extra. As once there's a big tree there. It takes an awful lot of work to prune or remove.

I have let go of the idea of having a food forest/pure edibles garden. Although all trees and plants have medicinal or other purposes. I've got ideas that I've been wanting to put into practise for along time. And i think i gotta just go with it rather then adding additional bright ideas that never come to fruition. Plus. WHEN dealing with plant and trees and moving and pruning stuff. It's wise to get it right the first time. 

[Former-Member]

Looking after what we have can be a job in itself @eudemonism. 

I am looking at ways to make our garden easier to manage.  I had big plans ... 

[eudemonism]

Yea @Former-Member i think it gets that way for alot of people.

Might have to google rules about gardening

[Former-Member]

Finishing a section properly before moving onto another has been a problem for me @eudemonism. 

[Smc]

@Former-Member, it's hard having to revise or let go of big plans. 😞 At present, I'm hoping ours for both garden and house makeovers are only "on hold", but they've been that way much longer than we expected or wanted them to. We have been thinking in terms of what happens as we get older. We've had a big heads up on that via my parents. At present, grass/dirt paths with plants spilling over the edges are fine. By the time we hit 70...80..?? (depends how well we hold up, who knows?) it might be wiser to have paved paths and raised beds.

Have spent today with dirty fingers. Hubby, Sister and self are making another trailer-in-tow trip to our parents' place, so I'm trying to get a few more things into the ground where they won't be so prone to drying out. Am expecting that the trailer will come back with more plants. (Mum's bromeliads that I brought back last time are sending out flower shoots. 😄 )

[Former-Member]

@Smc am hoping that we can get our place lower maintenance and have a beautiful garden. I think once we get a few more hedging plants in and the ones we have join together there will be less room for weeds (we have spaced all plants so when mature they will fill their beds and will  not need clipping so some still have air between them).  The trees are the same,  I hope that I have spaced them adequately so when mature they will not impinge on pathways.  The trees are starting to grow really well now, some up to a metre in the last year. 

[Former-Member]

Our garden looking heaps tidier now that the bulk of the lawn mowing has been done.  Mr Darcy used the old mower which was back from service and I had a shorter stint getting a section done with the new mower.  

Are you a gardener @sunflowers?