I'm off to another Permaculture Workshop today. This time it's Fertile Gardening down at Ranui with Ron and Buffie. I could just walk there, but then I need to bring a lot of tools, food and other gear so it will just be a 5 minute drive in the FunCargo. Buffie was the one who got me onto FunCargo and if I were to recommend any car to a gardener who doesn't want to drive a ute that would be it. I've transported christmas trees, freezers, shelves, plants, sacks of compost and horse manure, straw bales, firewood, sacks of weeds, tools, you name it anything that can fit. Its compact enough to drive over grass without leaving huge tire ruts but large enough to fit almost anything that you want to transport. And if you need anything bigger if it doesn't fit then maybe you are just being greedy.
We are also going to check out the Korero Cafe which is part of the Ranui Community House, having expanded since the library moved across the road. It used to be Tea Tree Cafe but there are no tea trees there so perhaps Korero is a better name for it. Buffie works there as a cafe manager and uses a lot of fresh produce from the community garden in the menu.
I have been watching 'Dream Gardens' an Australian DVD about ten different garden makeovers. I've seen about five and it's very interesting to see what different people do with the land they are fortunate enough to own, and spend bucket loads of money on. The last one I saw was about a husband who lost his wife to cancer yet she had a dream for their slopey site and he and his teenage children decide to put in a garden as a memorial. It ends up costing half a million dollars. It looks pretty spectacular with stone steps, a water feature, a firepit and a wifi enabled garden room.
Another one is where a couple lose their home to a bushfire so they go and buy a neighbouring property, which already has a cottage style garden, to me looks fine just needs TLC, but instead they rip it out and put a lawn in. They also spend hundreds of thousands getting rid of a power pole because it destroys their view of the surrounding countryside.
Some of the dream gardens are not what I would call gardens just outdoor spaces with plants as decoration, where people aren't so interested in gardens but the view beyond to the sea or the space around a swimming pool. These end up costing twice as much as people budget for. It seems the MORE money spent on the garden the less people want to actually garden it.
My favourite so far is the kitchen garden installed out in the bare outback for a mum recovering from an illness so her son and his dad volunteers to make her this garden which they designed themselves with raised beds and a water feature fountain where they can sit watering cans and a shadehouse. The end result is a fantastic garden in which the mum already starts growing plants even before it's finished so she can have fresh veges and herbs. This one is the least expensive garden of the lot!
In other news I now have a garden arch which was delivered yesterday, Mum saw it and then immediately complained I was not to put it up until I 'get my own house'. I just said it wasn't for her. I'm going to give it to the church as I have now fixed up my hardenbergia arch with a few cast off broom handles and cable ties. How do you just 'get your own house' anyway. I am not going to 'get my own house'. Not this side of heaven. What's wrong with the one we are already living in?
