10 July 2009

Mulch Day at Home

I worked in my own garden Wednesday. I’ve been volunteering in bush regeneration and giving some community garden help. But my own garden was/is becoming overgrown.

It’s the same way with what some of my new Australian friends are saying about Christians. “They want to tell you how to live, but they don’t want to change themselves.” I haven’t heard that quote quite that directly, but that’s the sentiment I seem to get when someone’s honest with me.

So I went to Bunnings and bought mulch. I brought it home and pulled weeds starting at the end of the front garden that had the least weeds and the most lizards. I enjoy an occasional lizard poke out of the plants to tharn (ie stare at me with fear) for a second and then scurry back into hiding. It’s less overwhelming and more enjoyable to start where it’s easier to make a change.

I poured out 120 litres of Eucalyptus mulch over the semi-weeded area in the lizard zone.

I also weeded around our food plants in the back. Then, I spread a 30 litre bag of moisture retaining mulch around strawberry plants, Thyme, shallots/spring onion, kale and some lettuces, potato, and two choy sums I planted from roots in our refrigerator. Oh, I also mulched this around a lemon tree that looks pretty bad and it seems is under chronic ant attack. Bizarre. I found four dead slugs in the jar of honey/borax I left by the tree to kill/deter ants. No dead ants. I threw the jar away after I licked some of the honey. Just kidding.

I also removed some huge branches (hacked up with my rusty box cutter) from the palm type tree and the purple flowering tree. I threw them on the ground to dry in the sun so I can tear them up for mulch later. I also worked in the compost heap. There were some old, dead branches and bits of Grevilia tree. I hand mulched these and covered the food scraps and lawn clippings we’d piled up in one spot. It was quite a relief to bury the slimy, rotting pile of food scraps before we attracted rats or even ravens.

Here are some pictures of some of what I just described:
Food plants in the back:
Hacked off palms/POMs:
The lizard area in front. Can you see the big one?

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