Self care by growing a garden

[Former-Member]

There are a number of smaller trees that grow to about 3-4 m @eudemonism that could give you shade. Bare rooted trees deciduous trees available late autumn - winter are a lot cheaper to buy. Crepe myrtles, maples, ornamental cherries, magnolia all have smaller cultivars - important to check label. I noticed Bunnings have evergreen magnolia 'little gem' and other smaller varieties heaps cheaper than the nursery. You should be able to get something around the $20 range that is a decent size. It can be a good investment, given the time it takes to grow them from scratch. Even though these are not edibles, providing shade and beauty to me is adequate reason to grow them.

[eudemonism]

Yea OK @Former-Member I was drawn to the elm tree because of its. Medicinal and food properties. Apparently it's a hallucinogenic. But it may grow a little to big. And my advisors think I should remove. So now I'm researching options. Eude.

[Former-Member]

@Libra
Come and meet some fellow gardeners.

[eudemonism]

@Former-Member I planted a second fig tree today. A black genoa fig. The first one is a brown turkey... So now it's a game of tlc. Researching. Pruning. Nurturing. Fertilizing. And waiting...

[Smc]

I've still got a Silvan Beauty fig sitting in a pot. I won't plant it just yet. The soil is really dry, and I'd be better waiting until we get a bit of rain happening. I've also got a Brown Turkey, which in theory should be  a lot bigger and healthier after 4-5 years in the ground. It's still too small to have sert fruit. I need to look it over and see if there's anything I can do to encourage it a bit.

[eudemonism]

Hi @Smc I think there is four main varieties of fig. Common figs. Fig trees that are typically found in gardens. The brown turkey. The black genoa. The alma fig. And the celeste fig. I don't know if these have sub types or not... There is seven hundred varieties of fig trees all up. But most of them require male and female plants to pollinate and produce fruit... Trusting my online research is a correct source... I'm planning on getting the alma or celeste next...

[Smc]

@eudemonism, thankfully Brown Turkey is one of the self fertile ones, and as far as I can tell, Silvan Beauty probably is too. Certainly none of the suppliers are recommending a pollinator. 

Silvan Beauty comes highly recommended for it's flavour and as a heavy cropper. I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes. 

[Smc]

Mentioned in another thread that I've been outside getting my fingers dirty today for some mental space.

Has been reasonably productive. I've repotted a few plants I bought a couple of weekends ago. A very good nursery in our area was having a weekend clearance of some surplus end of season stock, so it was a chance to buy a few things in need of minor TLC that would otherwise be a bit out of budget. Most were a bit potbound, so I've tickled their roots to loosen them a bit and put them into bigger pots. 

I've also planted out some sweet potato shoots. It's really way too late in the season for them. They need 4-5 months of warm weather to produce a crop, and our first frost will probably happen sometime in April, but I found a sweet potato in the pantry with lovely little shoots on it, just begging me for some soil.  I'll try to overwinter them, in the hope that they might crop next year. If nothing else, the lightly cooked young shoots make a yummy green vegetable

[eudemonism]

@Smc yea. I've seen some monster fig trees around the place. I've been doing some research on them. And trying to do my homework. I'm a bit unsure about how to prune them... Or whether I just let them go wild... There's stuff all over the Internet about figs...

[Smc]

Thanks to @Appleblossom, we've been sharing around a few tulip pics on other threads, so I thought I'd bring ti over here. Seems a bit sad if the gardening thread misses out!

These are some Mascotte tulips that I bought myself as a Mothers Day pressie a couple of years ago. Bought myself because I'd keep telling the family that I'd like tulip bulbs but they were never sure where to buy them from.  They had the good grace to come into flower right on our wedding anniversary, which made them a lovely second gift. They flowered again last winter, but not as well as the first year. I don't think the doubles are quite as hardy as the singles, which are pretty reliable about coming up and flowering every year in our garden. One of the sweeteners for getting frosts.