Costa came to see my little garden!

We had a local garden competition and our council managed to negotiate Costa from Gardening Australia to be one of our judges!  My gosh - heart palpitations!!!   I knew I had to enter, but was away just before that, leaving the garden in the hands of my non gardening hubby.  Added to that we were in a drought when I returned, and the bandicoots were wreaking havoc in the garden.
I got stuck in, and tidied up, mulched, and planted new seeds in the wicking boxes (which were just microgreens when he arrived!)

The first thing you see when you enter my garden is fruit salad alley and we began to chat about getting kids interested in gardening.  The volunteer tomatoes in the mulberry pot have had a wonderful side effect.  I tied the stakes up into a teepee and this protected the mulberries from the birds., plus it is also fun to go scouting around looking for a plump ripe mulberry.

 The strawberries were also just starting to ripen, since then I have enjoyed a few little garden treats.












Everyone commented how much cooler it was once you got into the side garden and could enjoy the shade of the lychee tree.    I think Costa would like to come back in lychee season and climb that tree!  (he is a bundle of energy) I notice there are a few little lychees plumping up, it has taken a while since we lopped the top off the tree, but at least now we will be able to reach the harvest.

 He commented that the pathway around the tree was a great idea, and I do like that I can reach into all of the garden beds from the pathways.  I also like the fact that he noticed I was growing the same kind of plants as my neighbour, therefore making my garden seem larger.

One big advantage of cutting the tree back is that we now have much more light into the garden which means more flowers. Of course as soon as Costa left we got a night of good soaking rain and suddenly the garden looked lovely and colourful once again.  That is the nature of gardening though.

 I explained that we were right between seasons,  I showed him the worm buckets, but forgot to mention that this area is cleared because I am getting ready to grow ginger here. I explained about how well the wicking beds work, and that the barbadoes cherry provides shade for the veggies. I forgot to mention that I throw weeds onto the weed mat path, and then once in a while (just before a visit from a special gardener!) I will turn over the weed mat, smothering the weeds, and leaving a clean path.

 I forgot to mention that this straggly lemon is one that I keep to practice my grafting.  Hopefully next time he comes back one of my grafts will have taken.

 I also gave him a bit of my peppercorn vine as he wants to try to grow it in his garden in Sydney.  It will have to be in a hothouse I reckon!

My gosh what an exciting time this has been.

What you do if Costa came to see your garden?