Thursday, May 24

Facing Up







... to Reality?  I'm getting better, much better. 
... to People?  I'm working on it, trust me.

This last week or two has seen a number more upheavals in my little world. The Universe's way of saying, step out of your bubble and look at the big picture? Probably!
The short story is, I'm moving out of my house.
But it's gorgeous! But you love it there! But you've done all that work! But you planted things in the ground! And you've got big plans for those things! etc. etc.
It's hard letting go, it really is but the frustrations of renting and holding together a share house have taken their toll and it's time for a little break.
Besides, I'd be a pretty silly little business lady if I didn't have an escape plan for my garden at my rental property, wouldn't I? It just means that moving house for me also means moving a garden. Totally do-able ... right?

I'm not even going to brief y'all on the new plan because the way this year is turning out, I bet you it's changed 3 times by next week. 2012 really is a lesson on taking a deep breath, trying to stay centered and keeping your eye on the big picture and when all else fails throw your hands in the air and laugh hysterically.

What I do know is that I want to do this, I want to grow stuff, I want to share it with people. I am going to do this. So in the face of all the recent upheaval, I went to Facebook :-) That is, I launched "The Urban Flower Farm" on the book of faces, here and you may have noticed, added a page here. It's happening people, it's really happening.

Monday, May 21

Guerrilla Florista #1

Guerrilla floristry: it's just a word for something that many of us do without thinking, but I kinda like it. So here you go, a nice little example of what you can do - without buying a thing. Glorious parrot tulips are the show stopper, granted, they were a gift, a mother's day bonus; if you like :-) 
The rest? Lavender from the garden, olive branches from the footpath where someone had been pruning, privet berry and abutilon (or chinese lanterns) from a lane-way somewhere near me.

Wednesday, May 9

The first clods are turned
















Wow, I took this picture less than a week ago and already the bed has expanded and the first batch of bulbs is down! Oh, and the sweet-peas. The whole right hand fence is bordered by them and I'm looking at ways to move those giant planter boxes so that I can plant more. I've gone with two varieties from Eden Seeds, an early flowerer and one that makes super big blooms :-) They're tucked in with some mulch for a blanket and wire netting as a "mosquito net" or in this case rat net. Yep, that's right, the mice and rats love the taste of little sweet pea seeds and shoots. I learning a lot through others' experience - in this case Mel, she lost nearly all her sweet-peas to the little mites last year.

I've also been propagating and transplanting - proper big gardener me! I've got some helleborus babies from Mum's place - she's got fields of them the lucky thing. But I am also waiting to receive a few pretties from Diggers at the end of the month.

Gosh, here I am babbling plants at you and I haven't given you the other update. What did I say about life changing at super high speed??? Two weeks ago, I was talking two urban plots - mine and the boyfriend's. That's changed, we're down to one now - ours. That is, he's probably going to move in here. Which is awesome, but I had already kinda ordered a bucket load of seeds and baby plants.

So this has pushed me to try out an idea that I have had many times before. Create a network of people locally, who have space in their yards to "foster" plants. I provide the plants, the organic fertilizer and any other practical support and in return, I have "picking rights" to the plants when they flower. The idea is not to demolish these plants but to harvest sustainably and teach others how to do the same. I haven't approached anybody just yet but I am hoping it just might work. My brain is bursting with many more possibilities but I'll hold back until after Mother's Day to look into any of it.

I keep getting way ahead of myself and I just keep having to remind myself, it's one step at a time. Right now, the next step is head down, bum up - get through Mother's Day.