This week in guerilla gardening the neighbourhood

This morning I headed out before going to work with some fair sized ruby saltbush and a bucket of earth.  The spot I had in mind has been thickly mulched, which is great–but it means there is little soil for small plants to get their toes into. 

The last round of planting here (by myself as well as by council’s contractors) did not do well, and I think the lack of soil was one major reason.  So this time I brought my own to help things along.  In the six months or so that have passed, the mulch has begun to convert to soil and that might help too.  The earth beneath is compacted from being parked on and contaminated with concrete components.

It doesn’t look promising, does it?  But I think it will be lovely in time. There are trees here and more understorey will help.

I came away with empty everything.

But then I realised I had missed the rubbish, so I brought that home.

Fingers crossed for long term success.  If this patch of twelve can make it, I can spread out from here and provide cover for ground that now only grows weeds.  I like that idea.

Meantime, it is spring here and the garden is really showing it.  Woad and weld are coming along and the madder is up again.  I have been sharing plants at the Guild and planting vegetables and flowers.

So, I decided to put in the native plant seeds I collected earlier in the year and late last year.  Let’s see if I can grow enough propagating skills to stop the neighbourhood turning into a ruby saltbush monoculture!  I make my tags from a yoghurt tub.  I quite like the look of the bit that’s left.  But have been carrying the thought that plastic is forever higher than usual lately and finding that hard knowledge instructive.

I’ve noticed that lots of gardeners are keen re-users and recyclers, and I am among them.  I do love using this method for growing seedlings learned from Linda Woodrow’s book on backyard permaculture.  It uses milk bottles and styrofoam from hard rubbish.  So at present I am still a re-user with aspirations.

Cross your fingers for sprouts!