plants for sale

Nothing wrong with diversifying, right? I mean, I groom dogs for a living and I make stuff and I garden. And my garden produces flowers and flowers produce seeds and I end up with more plants and more seeds. Its the circle of life.

As Neil once said on The Young Ones, "we sow the seed, nature grows the seed, then we eat the seed, and after that, we sow the seed, nature grows the seed, then we eat the seed..."

Except for the eating part. I don't eat my flowers. I admire them. Then collect seeds, sow seeds, grow seeds, you get the picture. As a result I have baby plants growing. I can't use them all, so I normally sell them at markets here and there. 

Well, I decided that instead of having my plant nursery along the back of the casita where no one sees them, I'd put some out the front of the new grooming room so my customers can see them. That way, if anyone sees something they like they can buy it while I give 'rover' a new do.

I made the cute little sign using a timber offcut and acrylic paint. The large basket they're sitting in is a galvanised bakery basket I've had for a few years. I put some metal legs on it and for the last 2-3 years we've lined it with burlap and used it to hold carrots for the horses in winter.

I do love my galvanised metal things!

One of my favourite pastimes is moving things around, assigning new uses to old things, etc. 

I wonder how Wayne will feel about the carrot bin disappearing.... hm. He wasn't too impressed with the wood box moving to Stalag 13 to house chickens...

z

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my newest junky planter

I've had this gorgeous funnel shaped THING for a long time. Its some kind of filter, I presume it came from a water tank. I have no idea what it is... like so many of the things I collect, I just liked the shape.

I've had it for years. I've had various plans for it over the years. I was going to make a light fixture out of it at one stage. But its never happened. Its hung around in the yard most of the time, doing nothing useful.

Yesterday I decided it was time to do something with it. 

I've had many hanging planters over the years, mostly ones I made myself out of chains bought from the hardware store and steamers or colanders. I took one of the chains from a steamer with succulents in it and put them onto this rusty piece of gorgeousness of mysterious origins.

Who cares what it was in a previous life? What purpose it served. Now its a proud planter, holding a mix of succulents on the corner of our porch. In summer there'll be tiny hot pink flowers forming a halo around it.

Below it sit my old mop bucket - one of my favourite planters of all time, the steamer which lost its chain - sacrificed for the greater good, and my camelia, in a new spot.

See, I've had this camelia for a year and it wasn't doing great. Not where I had it... so, I've moved it. Its a heavy pot... moving it was pretty much impossible on my own... till I made a rolling base for it!

I used some pallet wood, made a frame and added castors. Now I can move it anytime I get the urge - to where it'll get more sun, where the frost won't get it or just a couple of inches to the left.

Meanwhile some months ago I posted about my change of heart regarding geraniums after seeing a photo of pelargonium apple blossom. Well... I was lucky enough to get a cutting of it from a really nice lady. And look at it now!

My formerly black thumb might be getting a tinge of green!

Before I go I'd like to show off my newest toy:

Isn't that little tricycle the cutest thing you've ever seen? Imagine plants in the little wagon... 

Watch this space.

z

new planter box

How do you like my new planter box? I think its really cool.

This is what it looked like when I got it. 

Yeah, your eyes are seeing well. I haven't done a thing to it other than bringing it home and plonking it on the porch. 

Well... I did put some plants in it. For now. Temporary plants. Two established succulents and 2 cuttings I got from a friend that I didn't have in my collection which I'm trying to grow. And one is a white geranium I am also encouraging to grow. 

I am not a huge geranium lover - I only have one pink one which forms balls of flowers which are gorgeous, and a variegated pink pellargonium a friend gave me a cutting of recently. That's been planted and is already doing well. Talk about low maintenance. But this new cutting is a white one with a double flower I fell in love with.

Looking for pics of the geranium I have and the geranium I think I got I came across some amazing photos!

I'm totally rethinking my stand on geraniums...

This is similar to the pink one I have. Its a pale pink ball of flowers:

According to the site I found this photo on, its a common geranium. But I thought it was uncommon and pretty enough to make me want a cutting. Growing up in Greece, I was used to seeing geraniums everywhere but I never thought they were very pretty.

Maybe its cause they always looked sun bleached and dry... Who knows? My mother loves them cause they take neglect in their stride. Maybe the greek ones are tougher. On the website I found the pink one above it said they didn't survive heat. Tell that to the ones living in pots on greek islands! Mine can cope with the heat but the frost nearly killed it a couple of years ago. Its still recovering. I now keep it on the porch in winter.

I think this is the one I got a cutting of. Its called a Double Trailing Sybil White Pearl. Click on the pic to go to the page.

Here is another photo of a Sybil White Pearl... Drool.

Or it could be this one. The Pelargonium Apple Blossom. How pretty is this one!

And here is another pic. OMG its amazing! I think I've just become a geranium person.

But I digress. My new planter box. I love the 60s look. The inside is lined with a bit of galvanised iron so I don't have to worry about water leaking out the bottom of pots and rotting the wood.

I've actually had this for over a month, but I only put plants in it last week. 

A girl gets busy.

z

i'm baaaack!

Yes, I'm back. A lot has happened around here since I last posted, but I feel in a better place to share our life, news and my projects once again.

For starters, I'd like to share the old bike I rescued from a trip to the tip. It will eventually sit in the garden but till then I've leaned it up against the porch railing and started off some plants will which one day, hopefully, explode into colour and drape all over it.

I had a couple of rusty baskets, one of which was an actual bike basket for the handlebars. I lined them with plastic after poking some holes in for drainage, and filled them with potting mix. I then plonked in some plants.

I found this pitiful looking little plant at a garage sale - the daisies are so pretty I had to have it despite its one foot in the grave appearance.

Its looking like its going to the big garden in the sky right now so I may go ahead and move it to the embankment. Daisies obviously love it there, which is great, as I love the embankment covered in daisies.

When pulling weeds I dug up and added some alysum. Love that stuff. It grows anywhere - my kind of plant - and looks like clouds of white fluff.

The front basket got a gaura which was growing in a pot - it was a cutting... well, a broken branch from one of the established plants. I added a bit of catmint for its trailing propteries. Both of those are doing well, though the gaura will need to be moved as its way too big for a bike basket.

The garden is looking amazing right now with all the spring flowers. I've been sharing tons of photos of it on Facebook but might do a separate post on the blog about it soon.

Things on the farm are great. We have 6 ducklings in Stalag 13. The ducklings were easy to catch though I did throw myself on the ground in a most undignified way in their pursuit. The mother took us all day to catch. In the end we set up a dog crate and trapped her in it. I don't think she's forgiven us yet, but the ducklings are still alive! Unlike poor Little Herman IIs ducklings which disappeared in a matter of 3 days.

Sharing Stalag 13 with the duck family is a chicken. She hatched 3 babies who unfortunately got out of the dog house she's using as a nesting box, then couldn't get back in and froze to death over night. We were so upset. We've raised chickens in there before and that never happened before. Its always something. We now have a ramp so it won't happen again. The hen is still sitting. She had 2 of her own eggs and I gave her 2 from another of the girls. Fingers crossed. More chickens would be welcome, though no more roosters. The older rooster is being hounded to death by his much bigger son. Its sad. Other than letting them sort it out I don't know what to do. Chopping one rooster's head off was suggested, but... um... no.

We have 5 goslings as well. Doris, the younger of our geese, hatched them out yesterday. Since then its been lovely to watch the group walking around the paddocks - Doris with her babies, surrounded by the boys guarding her. 

Annabelle, the older goose, is still sitting on her nest. They should hatch soon. Hank has made it his life's work to guard Annabelle. We always know which boy is Hank, he has a squinty eye so he always looks like he's watching you like a mafia boss. He's also the one out front every time we step out into the paddock warning us to behave or else.

The youngest goose doesn't have a name as we really can't tell him apart from Jethro, the other original goose. It's hard to tell pure white boys apart... At least the girls have different markings.

The horses are all in great condition thanks to all the feed in the paddocks. Wally is his usual cranky self, Dancer is as sweet as ever and she and Cass continue to dislike eachother. Little Chipmunk foundered again so he's back in the starvation paddock. He's not too impressed. We allow him into the casita (my workshop!) to get out of the weather and out of the mud when its been raining a lot. Now he's bored he's beginning to do naughty things. The other day he emptied the bag of rubbish all over the floor. I was not too impressed.

There's been no progress on the new grooming room, but hopefully I'll be taking all the rubbish/plaster to the tip soon and I can begin working on the walls. Which reminds me... where is the electrician? Hm... He was meant to come last week.

On a more personal note, I've taken time off work and am spending my days building up my home grooming business, painting, gardening, and playing with dolls.

Yes. You read that well. Dolls.

Ok, not playing as such, but remaking.

I'll share in another post once I'm ready to show the world what I've been doing. Lets just say its a new hobby for me and I'm loving it.

So there you have it. For now. See you again soon.

z

love the coffee and decor

Some mornings we actually have time to grab a latte before work. This place is one of our favourites. Its a coffee shop attached to a laundromat in North Hobart called Gioconda. The coffee is great, the food is great, and the decor is fantastic!

Get a load of this planter!

Pretty darn cool!

And then there's the couch... its almost the same as the couch I almost bought. Love the industrial coffee table.

What about the pallet couch and the spool coffee table? How can you not love it?

Love the mix of styles - retro, deco, 60's, rustic. Somehow it works.

I just had to share the pics cause I really do love this place. Next time you're in the area why not drop in for coffee or to get some washing done.

Disclaimer: I am not being paid for this post but if I'm offered free coffee I won't say no.... 

z

the embankment 2 years on

Its spring. Everyone loves spring cause flowers bloom and make the world pretty.

The downside of all this thriving is the grass (ie weeds that form what we affectionately refer to as our 'lawn') is also growing... like... well... weeds. 

I find myself walking across the yard and see a particularly obnoxious weed staring me in the face, grab my grandpa weeder* thinking "I'll just pull up this one, oh, and maybe that one..." and an hour or more later I'm still pulling up weeds.

This is the time of year you need daylight savings just to keep up with the garden!

However, its also the time of year when things begin to look amazing. This afternoon I mowed and was thinking how I need to get out the brushcutter (tomorrow is another day!) when I looked at the embankment and realised how my dream is finally coming true.

Do you remember when I first conceived of the embankment? When we moved here the driveway was just a slope, directing rain down onto the 'lawn' and under the house. We got the driveway levelled, put in a retaining wall alongside the house and were left with a really steep embankment which I thought would look lovely covered in flowers.

But the soil there is like cement - hard clay. So I figured I could make it work if I used old tyres, filled them with dirt to give the plants something to grow in till they could find their way into the cementlike dirt below. Its been a long, tiring project, but its finally beginning to look like I envisioned.

Take a trip down memory lane with me.

This is what the driveway looked like when we bought the farm. A gentle slope, covered in weeds.

It offered more space to park but it wasn't pretty.

The first step was to get in an excavator to level the driveway, which meant cutting into the slope, creating a steep embankment. Excuse the photo. Most of my old photos were lost when my external drive died.

Next step was a retaining wall to shore up the driveway but basically that was it. Done. A steep, dry, ugly embankment.

But I have dreams. First I tried planting succulents on the slope thinking that nothing else would grow there - and succulents can grow in anything. Well, some grew but they were taking forever and weeds began to take over again.

So my next idea: tyres. First we put down weed matting to stop the weeds. Then we put down tyres.

At this stage everyone said it wouldn't work. The tyres would slide down. The weight of the tyres, filled with dirt, when wet, would create an avalanche.

I didn't listen. I got my gardener/helper to hammer in metal stakes on the bottom row and randomly on the upper tyres in order to keep them in place. I figured they'd stay in place once the plants took root, as they'd act as anchors.

At first I kept the scattered succulents where they were, placing tyres around them. Later on they were dug up and moved. I water the embankment in summer and the hose reaches about 3/4 of it. The last quarter is where I've moved most of the succulents as I want the sections closer to the house and gate to be vibrant with flowers. I'm happy if the far end has green covering it.

(The ground is so hard used long nails and bits of plastic to secure the weed matting!)

Slowly I began to fill the tyres, breaking the weed matting, putting in clay breaker, filling with soil and planting all kinds of things. Most of the plants I put in were given to me by friends, dug up on the side of the road, or from cuttings. I figured that things which grew from cuttings or on the side of the road were hardy enough to grow on the embankment.

And that's how we went from this:

To THIS!

Amazing isn't it?

There's still tons of work to do. I need to weed for one thing. And trim frost bitten bits. Plus  I'm always moving plants. Some of the plants are growing over smaller ones in nearby tyres so they will need to be moved, or left to peek through gaps. Eventually I want it to be so well covered you can barely see the tyres.

I'm a lousy gardener... hit and miss is the way I work. I put things in the ground and it turns out they're the wrong size for where I put them (it doesn't help when I get things without labels and have no idea what they are!). For example I was given some poppy seeds. They were labelled 'big' 'small' and 'medium'. I had them in pots on separate tiers of a plant stand, small on top, big on bottom, medium in the middle. But I had no idea how big 'big' was... Till a lady told me they were iceland poppies and I googled them. They're HUGE. I had to move a couple of them....

There are still quite a few tyres to fill with dirt,  plants or both. And more succulents to move. But the embankment beginning to look like I wanted it to... a mess of plants all growing up to and around eachother.

Meanwhile, the rest of the garden is blooming as well. My anemones came back this year - I have my own method: In early spring I cut off dead flowers to encourage more blooms. At the end of the summer I let them go to seed and spread seeds in the garden beds.

Works for me.

I swear I never bought these flowers. Yellow/orange ranunculus.... The packet I bought was blues, pinks and whites. Wierd. But pretty.

Between these and the poppies which could be any colour, I think my plan of a limited colour palette in my garden has flown out the window.

Love the tulips. These are part of a section of tyres filled with bulbs. I'm thinking I'll sprinkle alyssum seeds in the tyres as well so there's something in them all through summer.

So there you go.

I'll get more photos when more things are blooming later. Its a promise.

z


* A grandpa weeder allows you to weed standing up, using your foot on a long handled tool to pull up weeds. I love it!