Gone potty? Plants gardens and lawns .

Good morning everyone.
I got myself breakfast and am having it in bed 😁.
Yesterday, it took my all day but I made myself a hanging basket out of a push bike wheel, took tyre and tube off, cut all spokes out. Tied wire in spoke holes , joined it all at bottom and gave it a coat of green paint.
Planted my largest Hoya plant in it and have it a good hose.
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i like that, @Harpy!
What a great way to recycle and old bike wheel
 
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Yes I was so proud of myself, the tubes get threaded though chain on the kids big tyre swing so no pinched fingers lol
If I can’t find a use for the tyre is will go to the recycle centre, I am a bit fanatical about recycling lol
 
tyre is will go to the recycle centre, I am a bit fanatical about recycling lol
Wow, brilliant! I thought Germany was on the forefront of recycling, what with every household having to separate paper, plastic, organic waste, electronic stuff and glass from the rest, but getting tyres recycled here is hardly possible.
 
Love this Harpy. I follow daily and today this made my day. I love my garden and this has given me good ideas for some unused items around my garden.
Great job!!
 
JayCs Aus isn’t great but getting there with recycling. My grandkids get a fair bit of pocket money after their saved bottles and cartons have been put through the return and earn machine and pops out a ticket value. They get 10 cents for every thing that’s gone through.
My kids just shake there heads, I say to them are you that rich now your throwing away money, there like what ? I say all the bottles in you recycle bin, your throwing away 💰 so I have my grandkids helping their parents put rubbish in the right bins.
Thanks eff2013, what type of plants do you like? I am making another frog hotel today 😁 I love 🐸 , the more croaking I hear the better.
 
grandkids get a fair bit of pocket money after their saved bottles and cartons have been put through the return and earn
Ah, cartons too - good idea. Although the recycling machines here aren't good enough yet to separate the layers well. They're working on machines that can separate everything, but as yet they're far too expensive.
Here poorer people that can't work go round our towns collecting, so kids do earn a bit too, but we encourage them to give the bottles to them, or at least leave the bottles next to the bins, so they don't have to rummage as much.
Most people here do want to do something for our world and thus the next generations.

Garden:
After my wife has helped identify most of the plants I couldn't, I yesterday completed my digital list of all plants in our garden, in 8 groups, clockwise. Then started researching what needs to get done, esp. cut when.
So February is the month here to cut back certain types of hydrangea (done that carefully already) and to cut back shrubs etc.: from March to September we have a law (since 2010) to not cut them back much to protect animals. Excellent to know, cos people like my wife were telling me in January that the garden needs to hibernate and not to do anything, and I was saying: no, I'm sure there's firstly a lot to prepare and secondly a few things like removing fungal leaves which won't harm evergreens like ivy despite any frost.
There won't be any frost the next 2 weeks, so ideal to do some cutting back and pruning.
There's a lot of quite good stuff in our garden, fairly natural, but also lots to improve because since a neighbour died, her husband didn't do much, and doesn't know anything much about gardening.
My first big decision was not to fight against the moss like my neighbours did, but to turn it into a "moss lawn", which is actually beautiful, and means not using the lawn mower anymore. I might put our army of two guinea pigs on the few stalks left, but it's probably ineffective, so I may just use a pair of scissors . It's so funny when everyone is so keen on lawns to do it differently, but it reminds me of "The Secret Garden", so that's the direction I may try to tend to a bit, makes it fibro-compatible to let things go in controlled wildness. But I've been going round closing any ripped up moss again and getting new sorts from other places, within and without the garden, see how they'll do.
The second one was to use all leaves as mulch - I'd always wondered why my neighbour threw it into the organic waste bin instead of using it. I recycle more and more, keep and dry all my wife's daily coffee and banana skins, have sussed out the plants I can dung with that. I may start up some compost, but am wary of it being too much work at the moment, probably wrong, and there is an old plastic composter that's standing around useless.
Yesterday it dawned upon me and I confirmed it in the web that the beautiful fungi (trametes versicolor) on the trunk of our big old lilac tree means it is full of it and won't be able to continue long like that. Knowing my wife hates too much change I asked her to decide if/how she wants me to save it. Knowing her and that I'll probably leave it to die beautifully and gracefully and try to plan new ones (- but where?)
The tiny snowdrops are fully out now, and I'm not sure if it's daffodils or tulips on the verge of producing blossoms.
 
Around midday I'd been in the garden for "ages",
proud of now knowing most plants, looking, slowly pruning around and cutting back,

then seeing I've thankfully been "breeding" moss in the leaf mulch to move to the moss lawn
I discovered & helped some 30 snowdrops struggling to get thru the mulch,
(but I feel read up that the mulch is best to leave till mid-May)

then found a big patch of a very strange gooey brown semi-transparent substance 10cmx1cm and
decided to take photos of that and anything new, to "focus" better,
that helped me found a long white bud my wife later explained is probably a crocus and finally.....

I "found" a big patch of 100 snowdrops in the middle of the garden, which I hadn't seen the whole time?!!!! Altogether 180 snowdrops....

Talk about being "blind". Or put positively: learning to see... 👀 📷
 
Harpy, I love all plants, but my favourites would have to be the tough ones like Lilly Pillies, Nandinas and Roses. Three years ago I planted 2 Crepe Myrtles and I am still to see them flower. I also have red geraniums in hanging baskets on my deck.
My garden is my escape. When I’m not in a flare I can potter around for ages. Sometimes I over do it and pay for it later.
 

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Yes won’t be long and the recycle return and earn will take most bottles at present they don’t take wine or spirits. There definitely are a lot less bottles ect along the roads.
Wow jayCs, that’s a lot of snowdrops. I love hydrangea, if looked after the can put on a beautiful show. It’s terrible when a tree dies, I have a beautiful spotted gum that has died . Still haven’t got it cut out but not rush. If I get it cut down I might want to get the trunk cut in rings slabs so I can plant orchids/stag/ elk horns on.
A moss lawn? Low maintenance lawn lol, once your scissor work is done never need to touch it , sounds great. Sounds very frog friendly too lol. I too have compost bins, I keep my favourite compost bin in my banana garden and when I take the lid off the top is totally covered in worms. Think that’s why my bananas are thriving.
I would love a secret garden , it would be lovely to go hide away in for some quiet time.
I bet the daffodils look lovely in bloom.
Hi eff2013, I got a white crepe myrtle, my mom had all the colours at her old house. Never thought to put my geraniums in hanging baskets, do you have to prune them much to stop getting shaggy?
We have planted about 30 weeping Lilly pillies along our side fence , there 3 metres tall and make an awesome hedge. Well we haven’t pruned ours and just hang naturally they just are so pretty and keeps our privacy .
 
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The bright sun with slight frost reminded me this is the "bright winter", not too frosty to stop a little pruning.
To get back to earlier sunlight and schedule again I cared for the balcony plants first thing.

In the garden...
thinking...:
Freeing 2 ivy sorts from fungal leaves, that slow thorough conscious dedicated care reminded me of my self-care, its mirror / reflection, its symbol, its expression, inspiration (necessary!), and of it being re-Creation....
Seeing:
Snowdrops sprang into the "100s" this morning... :-) One group caught me unawares again, jumped on me.
Moss does need a bit of maintenance: the birds like pulling the cover back, so that I have to plaster that up.
But much fibro-friendlier than mowing. And not much rumpus possible on it, but that's OK too.
I wonder if I have any chance getting frogs in this garden, that'd be lovely. The spare tin tub as mini-pond??
Sorted out today that neighbour was unsuccessful using the compost bin cos he didn't layer between.
Great idea, my wife'd love a hide away too, so would I.... the biggest strain today was talking...
......
And that leads to the big contradiction I need to overcome: I need to communicate quicker what I need....
The strain of listening and talking makes it harder to think & talk, but I need to sense that in time and react and say why I'm reacting. Listening to my neighbour, I should have sat down in the garden and explained why. Listening to a mate whilst he was de-cluttering something for me I was sitting down, head rested, so thought I could push/hold thru, but actually I was hungry and knackered. So I should have asked him if he can do it differently.
 
even tho we are in the upper 30s to low 40sF/4-5C here right now, and expecting rain later today.. it is still far too "wintery" here to even think about gardening... we will only be around 25F/-3C by Thursday.. The ground is still frozen solid..

I am, however looking forward to warmer weather and my lilacs blooming.. I have an entire row of them, all different colors - white, pinks & the traditional light purples, as well as a couple of hybrids that are a dark purple with white edges - those are absolutely stunning, and smell heavenly!
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Play them some nice music or sing to them 😄
 
Play them some nice music or sing to them 😄
Me?... you mean unexpected music 🎶 might tell people 🗣️ I need them to shut up? 😷
Hmm, might work, but music is just as hard and singing 4x as hard as talking, had to stop...
And my (our) basic problem is realizing I need to quickly sense and get the message across as soon as I've reached my limit 🧱 (15' talking, moving target), without undertaxing myself....
 
Sing nice songs to the plants and flowers, 😁, tell them how well they're growing 🌺🌷
 
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