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March 2020

CoastFM The Gardening Gang 28th March

This week Pete Little and Cheralyn Darcey chat all things raised garden beds, starting your first veggie garden, gardening indoors and Cheralyn helps some listeners with tips on removing mushroom fairy rings in your lawn (if you want to) and how to stop your celery going yellow in the garden. 

Listen to The Gardening Gang every Saturday morning from 8am to 9am on CoastFM 963 if you are in the range of the NSW Central Coast or stream online from anywhere join the world at 8am AEST at:  COASTFM


A Plant Print a Day ~ Sturt's Desert Pea (Swainsoma formosa) to paint, colour or create with

A little isolation helping hand ~
Day Three of printing up my old blocks and putting their images up for you to paint or colour with pencils and other mediums. Love to see what you create, tag me on social media with hashtags: #aplantprintaday or #cheralyn and I'll find you!
Sturt's Desert Pea Cheralyn Darcey
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Will assist you in ~
Overcoming situations in which you feel momentarily powerless by enabling you to accept and move on. Support for those who are taking things too personally. Sturt's Desert Pea gives great perspective in all things and offers emotional healing.

Plant & Flower Meanings ~ 
You need to let something go. You may not be able to sustain long term improvement or change so it may be better to count your loses and move on. Be very careful of giving too much of yourself at the moment as you could open yourself up to emotional hurt. You do not know all the facts to a situation.

To give to another ~
"I am sorry for your loss"
"Wishing you well again" (emotional or mental healing)
"I support you"

Gardening Notes ~
You are in for a challenge. I have heard you ""treat them mean to keep them keen" is in order but I like to love my plants so I rather look at this as providing the thought environment which they are used to!
Do not fertile or water too much. Soil should be sandy, open and, well, like the desert! I've grown them once in a pot successfully on a hot window sill. They like it hot and they like it dry. On my list for this Spring in our new home!
Plant in Spring from seeds.

bunches of love, 
Cheralyn 🌻



Quick and Easy No Dig Veggie Garden

At the moment it seems a lot of people are looking for ways to start a veggie garden quickly. I now have in ground and above ground constructed garden beds and this is one way I have tried very successfully in the past. It is quick, easy and will ensure your veggies thrive!

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one of my beds this week

POSITION
Vegetables need sun for best results, but the amount will depend on what you are planting. You can grow things like potatoes and other root crops along with leaf crops with a few hours of sun a day, but you will find that fruit bearing plants such as tomatoes and capsicums will need a lot more sun, at least 5 hours per day.

SIZE
How long is a piece pf string? Some tips to consider are to ensure you can reach into all areas of the garden bed without having to step into it and consider what you are actually will eat, need and are going to plant. You can find the garden area requirements of all plants on seed packets and on seedling tags, in good gardening books and online resources and with your local garden centre. 

CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS
A container of sorts needs to be created to hold the soil and this can be constructed from timber that hasn’t been treated in any way (including painted), as the chemicals will leach into your soil.
This construction is simply a square or rectangle and needs to be at least 30cm in depth, 60cm being optimal for a no-dig garden growing mix to suit the layers I will suggest. 
You can also create an above ground bed with large rocks and even brick blocks. Garden edging could also be used for leafy shallow rooted plants. 

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through my veggie garden gate this week


PREPARATION
Mark out the footprint of your garden. Lay down a thick layer (at least 10cm) of newspapers/cardboard and wet completely. If your garden will stand on concrete then create a layer of dried branches and sticks. Construct your garden perimeter with materials of choice.

SOIL
I’m sharing with you a ‘no-dig’ method of gardening and this means that you have not dug into the earth in your garden. To dig into your garden requires soil testing; heavy, deep digging and usually changing the soils natural composition to suit the needs of your introduced plants. A no dig garden is a great idea for many reasons that suit both you and the natural soil, but you need to understand that you have to add everything needed for your vegetables to grow and thrive. Just bags of potting mix aren’t going to cut it.

You can find a lot of ‘recipes’ out there and suggestions and here is one I have created myself that I’ve had success with in a 60cm deep vegetable garden, adjust for the depth of yours by increasing the individual thicknesses of the layers.

20cm of plain straw
10cm of dry leaves
an even dressing of blood and bone or slow release fertiliser pellets  
10cm mushroom compost

5cm layer of manure
a light sprinkle of lime
10cm of pea straw
an even dressing of blood and bone or slow release fertiliser pellets  
10cm mushroom compost

Top with worm castings

Leave for a week before planting seeds/seedlings

Cheralyn carrots
bunches of love, 
Cheralyn 🌻

For more 'how-to' information on vegetable gardening: 
'The Little Veggie Patch Co' Fabian Capomolla and Matt Pember 
'Yates Garden Guide' 
'Dig' Meredith Kirton
'Grow Your Own' Anger Stewart and Simon Leake 


A Plant Print a Day ~ Pyramidal Orchid Block Print to Colour


Pyramidal Orchid
(Anacamptis pyramidalis
)

A little isolation helping hand ~
Day Two of printing up my old blocks and putting their images up for you to paint or colour with pencils and other mediums. Love to see what you create, tag me on social media with hashtags: #aplantprintaday or #cheralyn and I'll find you!

Pyramidal orchid insta

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The Language of Plants & Flowers Meanings

The coming together of forces and people to take on challenges, build legacies and work together for the greater good. Warrior spirit energy especially connected with leading groups for a higher purpose. You may find an important choice is coming so fight for what you want and believe in and if you are seeking affirmation at present then be assured, you now have it.
Sacrifice of smaller things needs to be undertaken in order to attain larger goals.
The challenges of Pyramidal Orchid are failure to do your part and not working well with others in your current situation. Timidness and fear which polarises and prevents action and failing to work through issues due to avoidance of confrontation. Be careful of any conspiracy, especially one you are drawn into.  



Botanical Profile
The hermaphrodic flowers which vary from pink to purple and very occasionally white are arranged on the unbranched stem in a pyramidal shape which gives this plant it’s name. Reaching a height of between 10 and 25cm, it’s basal are a fresh spring green and grow up to 25cm long. This orchid is native to southwestern Eurasia and is very common on the Isle of Wight and throughout South England.

Gardening Tips
skill level:moderate
Plant out tubers in either chalk, loam or sand based fertile soil and in a semi-shade position. This perennial flowers in mid-summer and although you can let the solid dry out a little it does prefer to be kept moist.


Place
Stonehenge, England
Located in Wiltshire, near the towns of Amesbury and Salisbury, this most well-known of all standing stone circles, is thought to have been constructed from anywhere between 3,000 and 2,000 BC. It sits within earthworks, known as barrows in England, which are artificial changes created by humans to land levels. This is achieved usually by the placement of soil and sculpted rocks. Stonehenge has undergone many construction phases in it’s ancient past and has evolved in appearance and possibly meaning and usage throughout time.

bunches of love, 
Cheralyn 🌻


A Plant Print a Day ~ Gardenia Block Print to Colour

A little isolation helping hand ~

I'm hand printing up my old blocks and putting their images up for you to paint or colour with pencils and other mediums. Love to see what you create, tag me on social media with hashtags: #aplantprintaday or #cheralyn and I'll find you!

Gardenia Print Cheralyn Darcey
Gardenia plant and its flowers will heighten awareness; bring messages to you; assist and support spiritual growth; will help if you are setting boundaries and wanting to disconnect from certain energies and if you are feeling they are calling to you will be sending you affirmation. 

bunches of love, 
Cheralyn 🌻

click on this image to be taken to a full size image and then right click to download. 
It is copyright protected and can only be used for personal use. You can share this post.