Kingscliff Community Gardens : Update-It's Autumn!

A new season has arrived. Sigh. Autumn, you are by far my favourite time of year, and I for one welcome you. Cooler breezes, winds that blow summer away. What's not to like?

Gardening just a whole lot more pleasant. Especially considering summer ended with a lovely amount of rain. My prayers have been answered.

The only challenge to gardening has been this; hubby and I have one car. Between us. As he is in Brisbane several long days for uni, and at the gardens on Fridays, I really have very limited access to the car. Also, I don't garden on his main day as I've got a cute little human to play with. We do a short day together earlier in the week. 

This has slowed progress down. And I do have to remember to water plants under trees that miss light rains. However, as we discussed today, compared to this time last year, the gardens look AMAZING!

I really wish this was a community garden picture. In all fairness, we do have a mini version of a picket fence and some hydrangeas planted. Given time...

Thanks Pinterest, forever inspirational.

I have to admit, I'm extremely comfortable in my pink socks and work boots. 

Country gal at heart.

This eye sore is set to become a gorgeous urban veggie plot. Watch this space.

My cute little garden helper. 

Sometimes a simple phone call is all it takes to get what you need, like this carpet. It makes a cheap weed mat, and thankfully, is in an abundance behind a local carpet store in Tweed. 

And it's free.

Hubby has a great idea, to simply clear, weed mat and mulch over areas to open them up and make the garden look 'loved'.

My bulbs arrived! I ordered two types of jonquils and some freesias. Hopefully, by late winter, heavenly scented blooms will cheer up the gardens.

Shane hard at it, neatly covering the newly cleared area with the carpet hubby and I collected and roughly dumped last week.

Paul doing an awesome job cutting the carpet to fit.

Hubby and my sweet Belle in the distance. This side garden is growing incredibly well. However, the run off is killing the grass. Hopefully, garden edging will be the next step here to prevent some of this overflow.

Thanks to darling Poppa Ian yet again, we have post holes dug to put his picket fence in.

So excited to see this area taking shape.

And here is the man himself- Poppa Ian showing us how advanced years can't kill passion.

Another erosion issue-sand piling up on the chess board. Hubby realised today a retaining wall is needed. 

Sadly, we also discovered local kids have not only smashed some loose bricks, but have been scratching at the chess board, damaging it. 

Among other things.

As frustrating as this is, we know that the majority of people will use this area for the right reasons.

The picket fence looks so good! I can't wait for the plants to mature and fill in the 'gaps', creating a lush, shady oasis.

There you have it, a bit of progress, a new season and some exciting future plans. Rest assured, there will be much more to come, even if at a reduced pace :)

As always, thanks for reading!

Kingscliff Community Gardens: Long, hot summer

It's still summer. A dry one at that too. I'm not sure how many rain storms we've had because they've barely hit Kingscliff, with the exception of a brief shower or two. We desperately need real rain. Days of it.

The poor gardens! Survival of the fittest it is then. I've had a few causalities- plants under trees mainly. Reality is, with things heating up on top of our already long, hot summers, the plants I choose have to be ones that thrive on a few drops of rain and occasional watering from me.

These beauties are one such plant that thrives on neglect: the good ol' frangipani. Their summer blooms on this seasons cuttings are a cheery reminder that the garden can and will flourish.

We have had more tyres delivered, including several truck tyres.

Hubby and I disagreed on this, but here it is. I wanted to plant out a couple of individual tyres so the plants would grow under the trees without root competition. Hubby got his way and covered the new fenced in area with so many!

Whilst I enjoyed the gym workout carrying them, I'm still not sure I like the look. They will eventually be covered with straw mulch however.

This should soften the look. And when the plants grow, they wont be that noticeable anymore.

More tyres, many still needing to be filled with dirt.

The good side of this: I can plant out individual tyres with flowers until the shrubs take over and thicken up.

They also retain water beautifully.

Some more mulch added today. It will take a bit more to cover it completely. 

I'm now thinking some trailing plants may soften the overall look.

Time to research plants- something I really love to do :)

This bland looking container is actually home to several new dwarf, white agapanthus plants. There is another one mirroring it on the other side of the path. By keeping the design simple, and planting appropriate plants for the conditions, the garden will definitely flourish and look welcoming.

These will be a gorgeous floral entrance way to the gardens hopefully by next summer.

This cleared section is the approach left hand side of the bridge. Mick and hubby did a great job clearing it today, ready for planting out. 

Keeping it super simple and low water needs here for sure.

The garden is forever growing and expanding!

And there you have it, your lot for the week. Looking forward to bringing you more soon :)

Kingscliff Community Gardens: Machines and Muscles

Welcome to the machines and muscles post!

Other than sweltering through two of three summer heatwaves (number three due this weekend), where tempers were tried and endurance was at an all time low,  so much work has been smashed out these past several weeks.

Proud of absolutely everyone involved, myself included. We have lifted more, dug more and carried more that any of us thought was possible. Quite satisfying, really :)

I've also realised that I am willing to commit to one full day a week. That doesn't include watering, especially as it's been an unusually dry summer for us. The reasons for this decision are simple. I have something to look forward to each week and I don't burn myself out. And (women's libbers, don't read on!), someone's gotta clean the house and clothes.

Now, take a look below at the amazing work achieved in what can arguably be the hottest summer I can honestly remember...

Hubby with his new toy.

After realising that digging by hand the week before with Paul was just insanity, the church hired a digger to help prepare for a new slab.

Michael did an amazing job landscaping with rocks in our newest garden bed. I love how they add a new dimension to the garden.

Thanks to Dan and Pete for the donation...and Pete for helping hubby carry and load them.

After the work out front was done, hubby headed out back to landscape the bike track.

My bougainvilleas are growing out of sight, but this is the only flower I have seen for months.

Any bougainvillea growers out there with tips on how to encourage blooms?

My eldest daughter, Lizzy, even got into this digger thing. Here she is, helping clear the creek.

Gotta say, proud mum :)

Hopefully, should it ever rain properly again, the creek won't flood as quickly.

My geranium is loving its new slope position. I've also added agapanthus offshoots to not only help stabilise the slope, but pretty it up too.

Shout out to three amazing men: Pete Wal, Craig Chalmers, and my man, who all worked hard laying mesh ready for concreting. 

Hubby is thrilled to be learning new skills. 

Love his heart.

This man is a living legend!

Poppa Ian Wilkins, 

we love you, 

and are forever inspired by your heart, hard work and wisdom.

This octogenarian is not afraid to step up and volunteer to dig post holes for the fence he himself built!

 

Looking a little underwhelming now, but these hydrangeas will add so much charm to this area when they mature.

I love Gumtree! Hubby found an add for free tyres, and a day later, this wonderful man took time to deliver 2 loads, because we are a community garden.

Now, we have a bike track edging ready to go, and a few spare for planting in.

I am so excited to see this fence go in! Shady cottage garden, here I come :)

Thanks also to my Lizzy for sparing time across 2 days to help out with digging and tyre moving.

Here, hubby is adding rapid set cement to the post holes. 

In no time, this will be a stunning, welcoming entrance garden.

As requested, ten tyres stored up the top ready for me to paint and plant out. 

After much research and brain wracking, I decided tyres were the best option for planting out under trees where roots are an issue, and for some native regeneration planting out back where watering won't be easy.

I'm not sure I would plant edible produce in any, but for other plants, I think they are a perfect, recycled planting solution. 

And there you have it! An amazing amount of progress despite the hell on earth heat we've been experiencing. 

Looking forward to bringing you the next installment! 

Thanks for sharing the journey with us :)

C3 Community Gardens: 1 Year already!

Can you believe it?! We have been working on the community gardens for 1 year! I am blown away at how far two novices have come in that time. 

One year ago, we started with zero budget, an old and very worn hand mower and a very neglected lot. The brush cutter had gone missing too.

We only had 1 worker once a week who was often too fatigued to commit to several hours in a day. In all fairness-that hand mower is hard work, especially in the scorching summer heat and humidity.

We were only really committing to one day a week as well.

And, to be honest, we really had no clue of how to tackle and landscape the area.

How things have changed!

Now, we have:

• several workers across 2 week days
• a ride on mower
• a new brush cutter
• proper tools and a small budget for weekly maintenance
• a huge amount of plant donations to help the garden take shape
• several new garden beds
• 2 picnic table settings
• a bench seat
• a paved walkway with a safety rail
• a chess board with seating
• a stunning entrance way
• a cute picket fence

Yes, we still have so much to do. But the foundations are in place. I am thrilled to see what we have accomplished in one year. And now that I am slowly getting through a very tough season of change and incredible fatigue, I'm even more pumped for how much I can personally contribute to making this coming year bloomin lovely! 

As we speak, I have several new plants awaiting their new home. I personally come alive when planning and planting. Thankfully, being an artist, I not only have creative vision, but can already see the mature garden-and it thrills me to know that people will be enjoying it soon too.

For now, let's look at the newest happenings....

One of the latest sunflowers. The veggie garden has given way to these beauties. It's been just too hot and dry to expect anything else to survive.

Hubby and Mick are leveling off the slope, ready for some erosion control planting.

I donated my fave bright pink, semi trailing geranium to fill the space below the mini lilly pilly shrubs. I also replanted some extra agapanthus, several aloe vera plants someone kindly donated, and some mother in laws tongue I had propagated.

The newest garden bed needed some new plants. Some of these are donations, some are purchased. 

These plants are so easy to propagate. Who'd have thought that some silly persons dumping last year would turn into an abundance of free plants now :)

This garden bed took two days to plant out. After the initial planting, we were once again blessed with a huge number of free plants! I'm hoping the bromeliads grow up the tree and hide the X.

The bougainvilleas are literally leaping out of the ground and are considerably bigger since this picture was taken. Obviously, I need more mulch- it's a big slope.

Another view of our newest garden bed. It's too big to get it all in. It has a new frangipani, 2 grevilleas, countless bromeliads, including a large one pictured to the right, and many, many more plants.

So thrilled, and can't wait to see it flourish.

Just a little collage of my little garden. Sigh. makes me happy to see things grow and bloom.

Can't wait to show off some stunning new colours this coming year!

Watch this space people!!!