My last guerilla gardening act of the year was to go for a walk in the neighbourhood and scatter the seeds that had not made it into my spring plantings. Maybe they won’t grow but at least they have the chance, and I’m keeping my saved seed turning over.
The seedlings are doing well. Hard to believe the one on the left will become a huge tree and the one on the right will become a spreading prostrate wattle!
In the dye garden, everything has been doing well. We’ve had only one really punishing day of 42C so far this summer –so things are looking good for now. The daylilies have bloomed beautifully.
The Japanese Indigo came up well, and now the task is to keep it alive through summer. This time I planted some in pots to see if it does any better than in beside the vegetables. The tiny marigolds in the centre picture are flowering now, and a friend from the Guild has given me some dye marigolds that grow to two metres. They have managed the vegie beds so far! The madder, on the right, is rampant.
The kangaroo paws have done well. The birch trees are barely holding on because brushtail possums are eating their leaves so enthusiastically. The tansy is big enough for me to use it this year.
Our Eucalyptus Scoparia has suffered from the possums even more than the birches! But it is still alive and we are trying our third strategy for keeping the possums at bay. I have enough woad to create woad vats this summer! And I’ve saved seed from the dark hollyhocks.
And–this year I’ve seen skinks and geckos but also this wonderful creature! Something is working well in our backyard.
Local & Bespoke 
well, your brushtail possums are certainly a lot cuter than the local (o)possums! But critter damage is always frustrating. Do you side with the plants or the critters? Ideally there’d be balance…but….Your dye garden looks marvelous. I’m sure it will result in lots of fascinating blog posts for us!
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Ahhh! What a gently uplifting post. I have the beginnings of a dye garden in my new patch of earth, madder and dyers cammomile, gifts from a fellow spinner. I have 5 pots of Indigofera australis grown from seed but i have given up on the woad…too weedy and invasive for me right now. I do hope everything has done OK in the heat.
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