So, I’ve always been pretty sucky in the garden, I mainly put it down to only really having gardens in pots and no time to really this about it. I’d put it in the dirt and hope for the best… I was (and probably still am a bit) super great at over and under watering plants. Like I’ll remember to water then for a week then forget about them for a month. So when we first moved into our house I saw this garden as my personal challenge.

The garden here stared as a Yukka dust bowl but I want to create sensory garden, with lots of secrets for people to fine. Something that you look and think ‘that’s nice’ then you look harder and see something different with each look.

The dirt was dry and dusty so my first plan was to work out how to improve the soil but without spending a heap of money. So, I began to compost.

I didn’t and still don’t have a compost bin or anything like that. I just collected kitchen scraps, dug holes in the ground and put it straight into the ground. I do want to purchase one but for now this is working great. I knew that getting any improvement in this garden was/is going to take at least a year or two. It actually hasn’t taken that long for garden to start showing signs of improvement. There were several ‘dead’ stumps in the garden that have actually started to grow again, I have had a pretty good crop of tomatoes, broccolini, kale and lettuce. plus all of the potted colour plants.

I began at one end of the garden bed once the new fence went up. I dug down the soil added the compost and waited a week or so before planting. as I went down the garden some of the soil began to pile up so I used rocks that I found in our front yard to create some rock garden hills.

Now that I’m working from home, my gardening skills are improving. I have made the garden a part of my day to day, as well as adding it to my family day care plan. So, as I teach the children about the benefits, I’m learning with them and actually managing to keep some of the plants alive.

For things that can be composted I found this image really helpful.

Join me as I continue my learning journey.