Smart Garden Watering Website- http://www2.smartgardenwatering.org.au/

This website that we looked at during class is quite a useful tool.

Yet, for the extreame green thumbs, or environmentally concious this website gives people a good insight to how to create a water friendly sustainable garden, by looking at all aspects of the garden. It looks at creating a waterwise garden, ways you can help manage existing gardens, irrigation systems and plant selection as some main topics.

The website also has some negatives: if you didnt have a good idea of what the website is trying to promote, it would be extreamly hard to understand what the point of the website is. Also, the website does not seem to be made for the every day person, yet it seems to be made for the keen environmentally friendly and extreamly water concious gardener.

The website only seems to have a small target audience, with a website that does not seem to be easy to navigate, and is not something quick and easy to just look up information, rather it is for someone that is looking to promote their own garden or to make sure that they are doing all they can to make sure they have a waterwise garden.

http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

hopfully this link works, it shows where my house is located, and the location i talk about in my previous post. also if you look at memorial drive, you will see the street trees i also have talked about

Subjective view of gardens in and around my home- 20/5/2011

Where I live, in the south eastern suburb of Narre Warren North, it is situated in a unique area. The view on one side is looking over the suburbs of Narre Warren and Berwick, which is very developed and full of estates and street lights. The other side looks out over rolling hills of Narre Warren East over towards Belgrave and the suburbs surrounding Cardinia reservoir. It is a unique contrast living here, when you can drive 5minutes one direction and be in suburbia, but if you drive 5 minutes the other way, it is as if you’re in the country side. It really brings to mind the phrase, ‘the best of both worlds’.

 I also live on a long road, which goes all the way up a hill, yet unlike the street trees found in the inner suburbs which consist of many of the same species of tree, my road doesn’t not have these ‘street trees’, rather each property has different species of trees which they have decided to plant.

 There are all different types of native and exotic trees, many different types of eucalyptus trees and if you take the time to take notice of them, it can give you many different ideas of what type of plants you enjoy and what plants you think do not look good at all.

In the main street of Narre Warren North it is called Memorial Drive, which is a very old street over 60 yrs old and it is lined with big old oak trees creating a canopy along this road. It reminds you of the old streets in the city, even though its 45km away from the city. In summer the canopy is so dense that it is completely shaded and it is just nice to drive past and take notice.

There are many people that walk around the local area, yet it would be interesting to know how many of them actually take notice of the diverse area of flora that is around the local area. Personally I find it extremely pleasing that my area has this type of diversity in plants, and really gives me an insight to what type of plants I enjoy looking at in peoples gardens, and the different uses for certain plants in different gardens.

Poor photo, but hopfully you can see where it crosses from farmland to housing estates from the view from past my backyard

Home Vegetable Garden - 19/5/2011

At home, I have a decent vegie patch. It’s had a good summer crop and produced lots and has only just stopped producing recently. Because of this, we haven’t pulled much of the old crops, and have only planted a few broccoli, lettuce, leek, and pea seedlings. Because a lot of the vegie patch is overgrown and has heaps of weeds in it, I’ve decided to take Chris up on one of his suggestions, to cover a plot in mulch and compost and plant broad beans and other legumes. With the mulch and compost it will break down over winter and create a fertile soil along with the legumes it will nitrogen fix the soil, which will create an even more fertile soil ready for a spring crop.

Also, by doing this hopefully it will mean that I wont have to weed the vegie patch, because it will create some sort of a short term, no dig garden with pea straw on top to help insulate the compost make sure that it breaks down quickly ready for spring.

Also, by turning half the vegie patch into a no dig dormant garden, it will give me more of a chance to plan areas for spring, and maintain the outside parts of the vegie patch.

Overgrown Vegie Patch

Basic idea of layering on no dig garden