Tag Archives: gardening

June 27, 2025 · 5:53 pm

Waste work and unlovely mending

This morning I went out to guerilla garden. First of all the sedges (cyperus gymnocaulos) and the knobby club rush (ficinia nordosa); going into the banks of a culvert. The suburbs are full of these unloved places where native plants could grow and habitat could be created, bare earth could be under a blanket of beautiful plants. Yet so often, none of these things happen. This is my third planting of sedge in this spot this season–last season I thought every sedge I planted had died, but this morning I found two that had survived.

Once planted, I picked up the fallen leaves from nearby culvert, made of concrete, and piled them up around the sedges. I can’t tell you how many conversations I have with people who pass in the street, about fallen leaves. Rich, amazing bounty, regarded by so many as an inconvenience and as trash. I have literally explained to people many times why I am picking them up (because I want them) and then had to explain how I will use them (compost, mulch, weed suppression, you name it) and sometimes even how (you can lay them on bare earth and they will return to soil, but better than it was).

On outing 2 I finally planted the last of the bottlebrush and tea tree, alongside the public transport corridor. And picked up the litter there. I took a bag that sheep manure came home in specifically for the purpose because there seems to be nothing quite like public transport infrastructure, for rubbish. Sometimes it just blows there, I guess.

Then I went to the local cafe and collected their scraps and coffee grounds. At home, in go dead street tree leaves to bring the carbon needed for composting to go well, plus this bag of paper towel from my “work” place. I’ve just decided it doesn’t make sense for it to go to public waste systems when I could bring it home and compost it. Yes, I’m taking my own hand towel and using one I can wash and use again. Meanwhile, these went into the compost bin too. The bag will go back in my bike bag for next time.

And then I have spent part of the day re homing things other people don’t want. And that neither they not I want to go to waste. This coverlet has found a new home via local Buy Nothing, and I have several other items waiting.

I don’t know quite what to say for myself today. Why am I posting about all this?? But it did strike me eventually that it has been a day of perfectly pleasurable waste work, which I am now capping off by mending yet another of my not-too-glorious undergarments, with part of someone else’s dead t shirt. I cut a pattern from a piece of used paper covered in text (that goes to the compost here too), and pinned it on; cut out two patches and pinned them on, folding over to reinstate some fabric where it has worn away. This garment is so worn, it seems a bit ridiculous to mend it. But I have not yet managed to let it go; and it is an old fave. So I decided to do it anyway.

Two patches, one under each arm; and then–as I am going that far–a little patch at the hemline (*cough* this was overlocked with no hem when this garment was new–long, long ago) where I have never noticed it has come adrift.

And after a long phone call and some instructional video watching… here it is. I tried two different threads–didn’t love the first one (perle cotton) in use so switched to the blue thread (sashiko thread).

And if nothing else, I guess I will learn about how that feels to wear, and how it washes. As well as–how long before more of the garment wears right through! And that is a wrap on my waste work day.

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June 12, 2025 · 4:00 pm

Guerilla gardening

Hello dear readers, if any of you are still out there! I looked into the blogroll on this blog today and found that almost every blog I used to list has gone. In fact, blogs as they were when this one started are pretty much gone, wouldn’t you say? But my urge to guerilla garden is not gone. So here is my deadly treadly last week; bucket of compost on the back, plants, water and tools on the front. Ready to go. Honestly, friends, the bin fire of the world at the moment is so utterly devastating and makes me want to cry and rage so much–it has been hard to post. But sources of solace are important, and continuing to do what we can is also important. Now that much of what I do is organising, this might be a strange choice of post. But I’m sharing anyway on yet another heartbreaking day in the life of the world.

The plants are native mallow; ruby saltbush and dryland tea tree. Here is their new home. Clearly designed to be planted–nothing growing there. And not much soil. I have carted compost here with the help of my beloved, as well as adding mulch as it collects in the nearby drain, over some months. So now there is soil there.

In they go! I love the way that free mulch just lands on city streets most times of the year. There for the taking and using. I collected a wheelbarrow load yesterday and one of my neighbours was incredulous. “What are you going to do with it?!” “Compost!” I said. Honestly, I am incredulous more people don’t do it.

And here I am on site… (and I apologise for my phone advertising itself so relentlessly. If you know how to make that stop, please do tell me how it’s done!

And here is one of the plantings and its stake, made from part of a hard rubbish deck chair and given a pointed end by my beloved, who has power tools to contribute to the team. Thanks for reading, lovelies.

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June 7, 2024 · 2:25 pm

Worm farm covers

I receive a lot of other people’s worn out textiles (and their new ones, for that matter). One use I’ve found for a range of different well-worn fabrics that do not lend themselves to any kind of upcycling, is to make insulating covers for worm farms. I’ve made quite a few of them, but finally it was time for our worms to get their own. The image above is the outer layer of the cover, layered up with dead jumpers, fleecy fabrics and such. I usually then layer over them, worn out t shirts, sheets that are too thin to be made into anything else–so I can stitch them down and hold the main insulation layer in place. Technically, I guess I am constructing a quilt!

Here I am foundation piecing stretch denim onto these other layers. I turn dead jeans made from “rigid” denim into all kinds of things, but stretch denim is not so easy to put to use, and I now receive many pairs of stretch jeans that have clearly had only short lives in use before wearing through or tearing, because the quality of the denim is so often very poor. And, news flash, the the thing that makes those jeans stretch is plastic. Made from oil. Fossil fuel. I would still prefer to use them than have them go to landfill, so here I am, using them. Below is the rectangular side of the cover, with a cut-open t shirt of unknown origin holding down layers of moth-eaten wool and mohair jumpers.

And here is the result, lined with a part-sheet that was gifted to me and still had wear in it. I’ve got to admit that these are hard to make–there are stages in the process where all the seams are thick and some serious wrestling is needed to sew them. And sometimes there are some broken needles and yet more swearing.

But–they do the job well and they keep all kinds of fabrics I can’t find other uses for, out of landfill. They always look wonky, but seriously?? They will now spend years in the sun, wind, and rain. They will be pooped on by possums, birds (and rats, probably). We have two worm farms, because someone down my street dropped by one day having never spoken to me, but having decided I was the type of person who would keep worms. Clearly, she was a good judge of character! She wanted to give me her worm farm, worms and all, and I accepted. So, I made a second cover!

Here is the top of the worm farm insulating blanket in construction, layered up in wooliness. In answer to your question, yes, it does make me sad to cut up jumpers that have sometimes been hand knit with love (and often for specific beloveds). In this case I am not privy to the details. To be honest, I think people give me things that they can’t bear to dispose of, or don’t know how to re-use, in hopes that I will find a way to use them. And the quantity of such things that come to me now motivates me to use them without being too precious. Thanks to ShamselDin Rogers (@shamseldinrogers) I now think of this as #trashsewing.

This is the tricky stage: sewing the sides to the top. Yes, I know that is a beautiful Tiwi Islands fabric in there. I don’t know what it had been used for–perhaps a curtain or a wall hanging in full sun. The printing on it is all that is holding it together, the fibres are so weak. I was so disappointed that I couldn’t use it for something lovely showcasing it, but–I couldn’t. The bright print on the right has had a long life as a pair of pants before ending up with me.

This model has an outer constructed mostly from the canvas I harvested from a duffel bag abandoned in the neighbourhood, and some more harvested from a pair of dead deck chairs I took apart for re-use. A year ago! It feels good to have these fabrics off the floor of my sewing room!

Another progress shot, where you can clearly see how lumpy, bumpy and chunky this is!

And finally, the worm farm has received the disintegrating moth eaten blanket that was covering it before (which the worms and microbes will now consume), and has a nice new covering that will keep the temperature inside a bit more to the liking of the worms through the chill of winter and the heat of summer.

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