HI folks,
This blog is all about creating an urban garden in a previously grass and concrete lot in suburban Australia.
Basically i'm trying to do a post a week updating the progress. Sometimes a vlog and sometimes text, sometimes both. Basically we are really trying to document our progress.
Today i am trying a new format where i mix the text and video versions together:-)
scroll down for the text version
Today we are planting out baby flower seedlings in the garden.
WHY PLANT FLOWERS?
Well there are several reason why you want flowers in your garden. Naturally they are gorgeous, but they also play important roles.
We all know the important role that bees play in our ecosystem and naturally flowers are the way to go. But did you know that having a wide variety of flowering plants is even better?
You want things that bloom at different times of the year, some in summer and some in winter. Different bees like different flowers. Here in Australia we have native bees and european honey bees. We want plants to attract as many as we can.
Why Not plant flowers among your veges? pretty little pops of colour around...so beautiful
variety of food for a variety of insects
No i have not forgotten the role that the vegetable flowers have to play.. we will get there soon
ENCOURAGE BIODIVERSITY BY ESTABLISHING a THRIVING ECO SYSTEM
Planting a variety of flowers/plants encourages a variety of pests. Which in turn will help bring in beneficial insects too..
If you want to have natural control of your aphids, you need to make sure its predators are here all the time. While this new biome might take a while to establish, having a diverse ecosystem in the garden is very helpful when you are trying to use limited pesticides. If you have both the pests, and plants that feed the pest predators.. You have a happy relationship.
What to do
Plant a wide variety of flowers / vegetables / Citrus / Natives
Think about what flowers when, make sure you have flowers and food all year round.
Sometimes this can take years to establish. I know we will be in for a bumpy couple of years while everything establishes. The pests come before the predators as a general rule...
DON'T FORGET THAT VEGETABLES THAT GO TO SEED
don't forget that some vegetables and herbs that get left to go to see do two things:
- They mean you can seed save for the following season
- they provide beautiful flowers that bees love for very little effort.
thinking basil, corriander, dill, fennel.
Don't be upset when your carrots bolt to seed.. Keep some for the flowers!
Bees love the little white flowers that smother many of these. Think about it, some flowers are bigger but it is one flower, where as lots of little flowers is lots of little meals.
COMPANION PLANTING
What i am doing above is not really quite about companion planting itself, (Which is useful to know) but rather just encouraging lots of different species into the garden.
Companion planting is planting things near plants so they can work together to reduce pests.
We can talk about that another day
TODAY WE ARE PLANING QUICK COLOUR
so today i am planting out some slightly bigger lavender plants and some smaller Pansy, marigold, viola, cornflowers, allysm and dill.
TOP TIP
If you plant you little flowers in little/medium pots - you can move them around the garden as needed and not take up all the vegetable garden space. so while my garden is establishing and i dont know what i need where, or what i am planting, i am putting flowers in little pots.
I can scatter these around the garden as needed.
they get watered at the same time, and are still quite protected in the beds from drying toooo much.
When you have a FOREVER home for the flower you can transplant it! If it is not one that only lasts a season that is..
But this is very helpful if you know you want established flowers in a couple of weeks or so but don't want to PAY for established plants.
naturally growing for seeds is best and we are... just not fast enough
below you can see the little flowers all potted out, but kept snuggled in this garden bed while i decide what to do with them
HOW I POTTED THEM
First of all gather all your supplies ready to go. Nothing worse that starting potting and missing soemthing. Little seedlings need to be potted quickly as you don't want them without water for too long or stressed in the sun. (I was planting in sun as that was where i needed to bed, shade would have been better).
Ensure:
Soil
WATER - i like to put some seeweed solution in mine to help calm the transplants down
pots
a way to label your pots - you NEVER remember what is in them
soil adjuncts - fertilizer - poop
some sort of mulch is handy
Saving costs
Buy smaller plants or seed raise
mix cheep soil at bottom of a pot and better where the roots are or mix altogether and add a little fertilizer
reuse pots - Just wash them to make sure no fungus or virus in the pot. Especially if you have left them in a dirty stack in your garden.
plan what you will need. - Think about what flowers you need in spring and then seed raise in late winter. I really need to do this this year.
CONCLUDING MESSAGES
Just another very busy week all in all. I will now sign off and start the next video.. lol... as its already late as well
talk later
happy gardening
Sarah
We have been in this house for 6 years now and it is a concrete wastleland of concrete and grass with a pool. we decided that this needs to change and are creating a little urban farm in.
We had a very GREEN back garden but it was just yukka plants. AND they planted this big rooted trees right on top of retaining walls. They are huge and are pushing on the walls. They needed to come out. Roots and all down into the earth we had to go...
You can see here the view when we moved in.,... green... but not "pretty and productive.."
Certainly no biodiversity. Not good for bees. Just green yick.
Anyway thanks so much for stopping along and reading my posts I am just loving my HIVE experience so far. Such a fun platform for sure.
For those that don't know my i'm currently focusing on Daily painting and somewhat amusing my self and my family with Acrylic pouring.. lol.. i wish i had a separate studio for that as it is so messy.
My other HIVE interests are:
- cooking
sunset photography (i take photos of the sky every night)
Art
Graphic Design
Gardening (just a smidgion)
Ballet
Sewing - I make Tutus and ballet costumes too...
Here are a couple of snaps of some of the stuff i do outside what you see up in the posts above.
