(no subject)

[stellar_muddle]

After much shopping with alpha_angel, I have mint, thyme and rosemary plants and a cherry tomato. And leather gardening gloves, safety glasses, earplugs, cheaparse hand trowel and fork (bends a bit too much), potting mix (half of which is K's), a birthday present for Mum (Hi Mum :)), lemons, a lemon squeezer, icecube tray, plastic measuring cups, buckets, scary top and comfy trousers. And stocked up on Whitticars Dark Ghana while it was on special for 2 for $5 (Woolworths, NZ) for chocolate coating strawberries at a later date.

And after a bit of work clearing part of the back corner, I have a cleared area with a tomato plant and space to put other plants, and the mint, thyme and rosemary repotted into hanging baskets on the back porch. There is one spare hanging basket and another if I can reach it down the back of the porch (way, down).

So what other plants would be good? Edible is nice, but ground covering so I don't have to weed is really appreciated. Like smell :)

Time for a shower (starting to itch...), more laundry, dishes and a bit of lemon cordial making before dinner.

Comments

[wootduosmaster.livejournal.com]

Loads of rosemary?

It grows everywhere and is both nice-looking and smelling ^_^

[teffania.livejournal.com]

Working on the edible herb garden theme (and sticking with tough and low maintenance):
english lavendar, savory, thyme, oregano or marjoram, sage, violets, potted topiary bay laurel,

semi annuals that are fairly tough and come up again well (so not so great on the weed supressing):
parsley, borage, rocket, tarragon,

Extra rosemary plants (takes well from cuttings, even ones direct into the ground), will unify things a bit and give you something to remove (without guilt) years later if you want more space. The same applies to most of the above. Most of the above list also take well from cuttings - so ask about your local gardeners if they have some.

Consider a lemon tree? dwarf varieties are niceer - you can actually reach the lemons. Some varieties have less thorns too, although you might need a grafted one.

[basal-surge.livejournal.com]

There's already a lemon tree about, it just needs a bit of rescuing from the undergrowth. Basically we're trying (well, stellar_muddle is trying, as I'm currently still in Darwin) to create a lowish maintenance garden of hardy, bushy things that can be brutally chopped into shape with wheedwhackers and similar tools, and also are vaguely useful, and tend to crowd out the weeds. I'm pretty keen on the 'cover all non-lawn spaces with rosemary and its ilk' idea at the moment. Particularly as most of our section is at thirty degree or greater slopes, so things that can grow on cliffy bits are good.

(third time lucky on using the right syntax)

[teffania.livejournal.com]

That was sort of what I was figuring. The perrenial plants I've described should all fall into that category. But I'm guessing on climate - I'm on hard clay shade and with minimal rain here, but at least a good portion of the list should work.

Savory, time oregano, margoram are ground covers rather than bushes, but should work nicely in combination with the bushes, and may not require much trimming at all.

I haven't grown bergamot or hyssop, but they probably fall into the category, and curry bush I have and it definitely does. Kafir lime might be good? I havent grown one though I'd like to.

french lavender is pretty too, but the english is the one you'd want to eat.

[teffania.livejournal.com]

Also nastursiums. The weedwacker will be needed, but it's fast coverage, and pretty easy to trim back, even by hand without tools. (be careful about disposal though - will regrow in compost heaps)

And with rosemary and it's ilk, despite the temptation to let them grow as fast as possible,trim (hedge)early in life to encourage more branches to grow from low down. Otherwise you can end up with straggly plants later. And it does tend to bounce back well, almost quicker, from a trim (like hair)

[basal-surge.livejournal.com]

Our climate is very much wetter and cooler than yours. Poor clayey loam soil weathering immediately off fault sheared greywackes, so little/no good topsoil (from the NZ sense, better than anything you'll see in Oz, though). Rainfall, well, probably between twice to three times as much as Melboune, but a bit cooler. Hardy bushy thingss that don't mind wet feet, and also likely to survive wet, cold winterss (but not much frost or snow)

[teffania.livejournal.com]

Well the things I've suggested have mostly been tried in everything except the added wetness. I expect for most of them it will just make them grow faster, but a few might wallow. Experiment, or look around at what's growing well locally.

[astemudfoot.livejournal.com]

Chamomile makes a nice ground cover. Just make sure you get the low growing ground-covery type as opposed to the upright bushy type, which I think is dyers chamomile.

[teffania.livejournal.com]

It's often labelled "lawn cammomile". It gets a bit straggly in a shady spot, but I hear no hint of that being a problem for you.