Thread: Peach drooling
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Old 03-02-2008, 12:28 PM posted to aus.gardens
Trish Brown Trish Brown is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Nov 2007
Posts: 167
Default Peach drooling

0tterbot wrote:

snip

nobody has ever asked me where i got anything, ever. perhaps i am doing
soemthing wrong :-)


Maybe I was just lucky? Most of my sewing has been to dress a
late-in-life daughter who happened to do dance as well. I pulled out all
the stops for her, while the early-in-life son only got practical stuff.

i have been a negligent in my sewing activites lately :-( but i still love
spotlight!


Yeh! My fantasy is to get locked in there over a long weekend. Three
things I love to shop for: haberdashery, stationery supplies and
hardware (in that order). I've got an Australian botanicals quilt
rolling around in my mind for this year. I'd like to work a whole lot of
lesser-known native plants (not your basic waratahs and grevilleas etc)
into a very large appliqué and embroidery project. Only thing is, if I
think too hard, I convince myself I'm not clever enough to do it right.

Can you picture an appliqué jobbie that has a large spotted gum tree up
one side with embroidered blossoms and highly textured bark? The leaves
would be a challenge, but done correctly I think it'd be really
spectacular. OR (light bulb moment) a Red-Flowering Ironbark!!! Ooo! I'm
loikin' what I'm thinkin'...

Ah, I envy you that! (The fruit, not the cross children). Our block is
very poorly drained and so far, any fruit trees I've tried to grow have
drowned. We're hoping to do *some*thing to fix the drainage problem, but
not sure what... Main push at the moment is to get rid of the 'lawn'. I
have learned that lawn is a very overrated phenomenon and I no longer want
any.


that is bad news (about the drainage). whenever i see those diagrams of "how
to make drainage trenches" in books, i feel very sad for anyone reading them
with a special interest. jackie french (rather typically!!!) breezily writes
that one can "plant them on mounds" if drainage is bad.

our drainage is not so good, either, & we've lost a few from waterlogging. i
spoke to dh about not letting the holes be "glazed" and too smooth when
planting them in. he did that a few times & i think that didn't help the
problem whatsoever.
kylie


We've thought about it for fourteen years and *this* year, we're going
to bite the bullet and plant serious trees - probably casuarinas for the
grass repelling and the parrot-feeding cones and the gorgeous sound they
make in a breeze. I thought if we used River Oaks, then they'd be able
to cope with the seasonally boggy soil. D'you reckon? I'd have loved to
put in some Buckinghamia and Hymenosporum for the blossoms, but I don't
think either would last five minutes through the winter. Ah well. And
then, of course, some raised beds for the veggie garden of my dreams.

Do you have any good ideas for protecting Blue Tongues? Our dog has
found out she can kill them and despite some pretty hairy bellowing at
her, continues to do it. I thought, maybe some pipe of some
description... But how to keep it clear of soil and teach the blueys to
use it?

The other battle is with the #)%*%^^&#^ veldt grass that's taken over
the place. It looks fabulous left to its own devices, but it's nearly
two foot tall now! The frogs and blueys are loving it, but it gives me a
pain in the face: when you mow, the cables just rise up like spikes and
refuse to be squashed!

Ah, the problems of the flustered gardener! :-D

--
Trish {|:-} Newcastle, NSW, Australia