A visit to Rushall Garden

A couple of weeks ago I rode home from a friend's place past the Rushall Community Garden just near Rushall Station, in North Fitzroy. On a whim I stopped for a closer look. There was a woman watering her plot and with her permission I had a look around while she finished up. It's such a gorgeous place, more established that Merri Corner, lots of green, overflowing plots and laden fruit trees, benches in shady spots and interesting sculptures nestled amongst the communal beds. In one of the plots towards the train line discovered the wrought iron trellis of my dreams. I wish I could've gotten closer for a better shot but nevermind, here's a picture for future reference.

 
During my wandering I noticed that almost all of the plots were covered in a wonderful thick layer of mulch. I asked the gardener I met if there was a reason for this and she said they ordered it, as a garden, in bulk. I reckon plenty of mulch is one of the key features of a happy healthy garden but it seems to be something that a lot of people overlook. Bulk ordering is a great idea, something we should think about again for Merri Corner where the mulch can be, well, thin on the ground.

Anyway, here's a few quick, not very good, snaps of my visit to give you a little bit of an idea.
 

 

 

I heart artichokes

These beautiful beasts are growing in the plot next to mine and over the last month or so they've been lighting up the garden with their incredible purple glow. At dusk the purple is so intense they almost seem to glow from within.

Artichoke flowers are chockers with pale whitish pollen and the bees have been having a field day. I've included a blurry shot of a snoozy bee who was seemingly so overwhelmed by the floral bounty he fell into some kind of pollen coma.

People tend to think of artichokes as a bit of a posh, privileged sort of vegetable but in actual fact they are barely one step removed from field weeds. They are actually part of the thistle family. Generally it's the unopened buds that people eat but Jude let these mighty monsters got to flower and you can really see their wild and weedy, thistle-y pedigree. Thanks Jude.

 

The very hungry caterpillar

Look who I found in the garden today!

So there I was, walking down the path, when I spotted this little guy from a distance, hiding under a leaf on the persimmon. What a little cutie! It was pretty hard to miss from the side with not one, not two, not three but four Mohawks. But as you see, it's not so easy to spot from above. It's a great hairstyle but things are gonna change when it grows up and turns into an rather plain little brown vapourer moth (see below). From flamboyant teenage punk to understated adult in one quick chrysalis change.

Call me nerdy but I do love finding cool creatures down in the garden, sometimes even hungry little caterpillars. Not that it appeared to be all that hungry, or little. A mysteriously small appetite for one so large. Maybe it'd been through a slice of watermelon, a birthday cake and a lollypop before it made it to our persimmon tree. Given its rockin' coiffure I'm sure we can afford to spare a leaf or two.

Look closely and you can see it's little hairs poking out.

  

  

 

The new plot!

Man Vs Weeds

 
I don't know if I have the words for this post. Well, I have the words, plenty of them - excitement, sadness, joy, anticipation, hard work, monster silverbeet, sweat, weeds, squashed snails, sunscreen, weeds, transformation, weeds, letting go, weeds, compost, mud, sun, digging, mountains of pea straw, Ceres seedlings, tomatoes, bricks, planning, planting, unearthing, rhubarb, tomatillos, little lettuce, dreaming, something new -  I'm just not sure I can put them together into a sensible post. Such a complicated mix of happenings and feelings and diggings and plantings. But. Well. Basically, it kinda goes like this.

My true love and I have been hoping to give up our small plots and combine our holdings into a single, large plot.  This nearly happened earlier in the year, but didn't. We chickened out for a variety of reasons, most of them valid. The person who took the large plot instead of us never really got going and the space slowly but surely became a wild and weedy jungle and a haven for thousands of happy snails.

In the meantime, Sean and I waited, hoped, and, well, plotted, putting off our summer plantings until we finally got the go ahead. Last weekend, in two long and tiring days, making the most of daylight savings, we transformed a forest of chest high weeds into....our new plot. 

It's enormously exciting but of course, there's a sadness in saying goodbye to our old plots. So much work and love gone into their soil, it's hard to let go. It's only been a couple of years but I have so many happy, leafy memories. Some of them I've put down here, some will fade into the fog of seasons past. And that's ok. A new era has begun. Check it out..

Compost mountain. Two barrow loads of this gorgeous stuff from my compost bin at home.

 

 

Rock and roll gardener!

Baby cukes. Three have gone to the snails already. Bah!

Tomatoes. Late but better than never. Fingers crossed.

The Darling Blooms

Of course, it's not all about poppies down at the garden. All sorts of things are looking pretty. Quite a few of them even make their way into vases in my house. As previously mentioned I tend to hang onto bunches of flowers longer than necessary. Call me morbid but I like watching the way they change at they fade and fall. 

Stars of the garden and the vases this spring have been the sweet peas but the poppies, broccoli and kale, lavender and lately the flowering spikes of the rainbow chard have been putting in a sterling effort. Here, for your viewing pleasure, are the pick of the bunch for 2012.