Good Health Gardening

From where I stand, this is a no brainer. It makes good evolutionary sense for activities like gardening to be deeply embedded in our physical and emotional wellbeing. I've always felt somewhat self conscious about how much joy I get from gardening, and from cooking and sharing the things I've grown. However, I reckon the "buzz" you get from growing things, and particularly from growing edible things, is not just an inner-city-hipster-urban-farmer-reconnecting-with-the-earth moment. It's part of our genetics. Of course feeding our families with the results of things we've grown or gathered is immensely satisfying, it is no doubt deeply connected with the pleasure responses in our brains. Because for vast swathes of human history, it's how we've survived. 

It's just a hypothesis, a good one I think, and no doubt you could spend time and money on some nifty research in order to collect solid evidence to support the evolutionary links between gardening and human wellbeing and how this can benefit those who are physically and mentally unwell. But for my part, I think it would be somewhat pointless. The bit I like best about this article is where the talk about "sensible and pragmatic use of evidence." Ie. it doesn't cost much and it's not going to have a whole lot of negative impacts, all evidence suggests it'll do you the world of good, so bloody hell, go and do some gardening, it might just cure what ails ya!

http://bit.ly/1WDsdMv

tiny edible garden

I wish I had some before photos of this little patch. Two weeks ago it was a tiny weedy mess. Our uphill neighbours have moved out, so while the house was vacant, I took the liberty of clearing the weeds, laying down cardboard and a thick layer of gutter mulch and putting in some edible seeds and seedlings. I planted strawberries, Lebanese cress, silverbeet, parsley, chives, ginger, coriander, lettuce, marigolds, beans, peas and an elderberry. Oh, and a hardenbergia for the fence. Doesn't look like much at the moment but a week or two should work wonders.

Hopefully our new neighbours are inspired to keep it going. If not, the parsley should self seed to create a parsley forest, which is better than weeds. 

orchid wonderland

Stuff and cuteness

Pot of greens - Lebanese cress, red-veined sorrel, perpetual spinach and salad burnette.

Orchid magic!

A surprise in the vase of long finished roses.

Bing! String of pearls, at it again.

New pots

Freezing here but couldn't resist a bit of under cover potting in the cold, planting out the succulent snippings I pinched (literally) from mum's garden. My new favourite DIY planting invention are cuboid tins made into hanging containers using a couple of nail holes and some wire. I've also been busy with the ceramic drill. And I found something to fill the weird, tall, metal planters I found at the op shop. Photos are dodgy (gloomy/ cold hands) but I'm pretty pleased with how it all turned out. 

backyard moments

We had cake for breakfast out the back today. Serenaded by the strange sounds of nexdoor's washing machine/dryer (?!) it was delightful nonetheless.

Brighton Rock

I'm rubbish at growing things from seed. But I've been trying to get better, mostly in an effort to reduce the number of plastic pots I chuck away. So I always check out the seed shelves when I'm at a nursery. A coupla years ago, at Bunnings, I grabbed a promising looking packet of speckled snapdragon seeds, an old, presumably English variety called Brighton rock. I'd certainly never seen anything like them in the ready to grow punnets so I figured, for a couple of bucks they'd be worth a go. 

I managed to raise some in the fishtank-come-greenhouse and I planted them out into the garden where they did, absolutely nothing. For about a year and a half. Now, all of a sudden they've put on a burst of growth and begun to flower. Glorious, pink-specked yellow clusters of funny little dragon faces. Turns out they were totally worth the wait.