Going Potty
So, to my surprise I have a thriving herb and vegetable garden in my teensy courtyard. The reason it is a surprise is that previously to this anomalous turn towards the verdant, the courtyard has been a pot plant graveyard. Amusingly A seemed to think that the stack of pots moldering in the yard were there when I moved in and told his dad as much the other evening on the phone. I had to correct him and confess that they were reliquaries for plants long since dead and that I had been responsible for the demise of each and every one. So you may be able to appreciate my pride and slight disbelief that I have pots of tomatoes 2 foot tall and starting to flower, pea vines complete with pea pods, lush lettuces, fat spring onions, frothy carrots and a pot of lovely leggy parsley, coriander and basil.
A few weeks ago this was all an expensive couple of hours at Bunnings. I gamely planted the seedlings and set up the worm farm and hoped for the best. Well, to be honest I did more than hope, I moved my ass and made sure that I watered the plants each day. The book about gardening in pots I ordered from Amazon was a great help – although as it is written by a US author all the plant varieties are referred to by common names that we don’t use here or are varieties we don’t have here.
The nascent garden has also encouraged me to start to save water. Previously I really had no reason to save water as I had no use for the overflow water or the grey water being produced in the household. Now I have buckets in the shower and in the kitchen sink and I can water all the plants from what is produced on a daily or next to daily basis. This is a relief as the state government is encouraging everyone to restrict their daily water use of 155 litres of water per person. If we cannot keep our water use down then we will move to stage 4 water restrictions which will mean no outside watering at all. So I am trying to ensure that I use waste water when I can – although having buckets in every sink can be a bit of a pain, but it is worth it in the end.
I like to be able to look out the lounge room window and see the green leafy foliage of the tomatoes and the other vegetables. I like growing practical things like herbs and vegies. I can’t wait until we actually get some tomatoes. The pea pods were exciting but I have bated breath for the arrival of the first tomato. I would like a large vegie patch at some point in the future, but for right now I am content to sit and tend to my pots and feed my worms.
