New Year Planting .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

Can it really be 2018? 
The Christmas season for 2017 has come and gone too quickly.  
A wonderful time with family and getting to spend precious time with grandchildren. 

The New Year is an opportunity to remember how very blessed we are, even though it has been a year of challenges too.  

And looking ahead to the New Year unfolding before us I am reminded that gardening is a wonderful metaphor for hope.  As gardeners, we plant seeds in the dark, damp soil hoping that they will sprout and grow. 

Of course, planting a seed is only the beginning.  If we've planned ahead, we know that we are planting seeds that will produce either flowers for beauty, or food for nourishment, or even a tree to shade and shelter us from the elements. 

Sometimes though, gardening can throw up surprises.  Planting miss-labelled seeds, to find that instead of growing vegetables, we've planted fragrant flower seeds instead.  Yet, these aren't wasted. 

Flowers provide forage for bees that in turn pollinate our food producing plants, like fruit trees.  In gardening, sometimes surprises turn out to be just what was needed.  

And planting too many flowers can never be a bad thing!  

So this year, I'm planning to plant more flowers than ever!  

Rose Workshops, Floral Retreats .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

We're planning lots for 2018; Rose Workshops, Floral Retreats, Flowery Morning Teas, Gourmet Petals and Rose Petal Balms!  And we're extending our gardens so we can grow even more fragrant heritage 'n heirloom roses!  Here's what's been happening so far!

It's been a while since I last wrote a blog.  In a topsy turvy year with lots of lovely events, like a new grandbaby, and just general busyness, the rose gardens have been slowly chugging along.  That's it though, just chugging along.  

The general busyness though has been to do with keeping the rose gardens alive during  a long, hot, and very brutal drought. Hand watering the gardens daily, until our newly dug out dam ran out.  My innovative husband came to the rescue and filled a small water tank from council water taps just to keep the precious roses and trees alive.  

It was very hard to see the heritage and heirloom roses struggle, although I told myself that heritage roses are tough.  They've had to be! 
Still, even with all the effort to keep the gardens alive,  I seriously considered mowing the whole of the roses down and allowing the ground to revert to rough paddock.  

But then the rain came and we all in our little nook of the world rejoiced!  And it rained and rained and rained.  And it hasn't really stopped .. yet!  And I couldn't be happier!   
I had purchased more bare-rooted heritage roses earlier in the year in the hope that we'd eventually get rain. And I potted these up so I could water them regularly and keep a close eye on them in the hope it would eventually rain.

Now with all the rain, I could confidently plant more precious heritage roses out in new beds in the rose gardens.  And the gardens are looking better than they've ever looked, albeit with an extra girth of weeds attempting to take over!

So, now we're gathering basket loads of our gorgeously fragrant roses to dry for our gourmet rose petals and use in our rose petal balms. 

And we're planning more floral workshops where we teach beautiful ways of using roses .. 

As well as our lovely floral retreat mornings (or afternoons) where you discover the therapeutic benefits of fragrant roses and gardens .. 

And we're extending the gardens so that we can host flowery morning or afternoon teas for you and your friends, or that special hen's party or birthday party.  

So if you'd like to spend an hour or three wandering around smelling the roses set in the rolling hills of the Sunshine Coast Hinterland, we'd love to host you.  Just private message us on Facebook 'Edgeworth Lley-Heirloom Roses'.  Oh, and we're on Instagram too @lillianheirloomroses.

We'd love to hear from you!  

Creating Beautiful (4) Growing our own Fresh Food and Flowers .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

In the fourth in our series on Creating Beautiful in our every-day lives, I explore just how simple it is to grow even a little of our own produce, both food and flowers.  And you don't need acres of fertile farm land to do this.  A tiny, sunny corner of the garden, or just a few pots, some potting mix and seeds or seedlings will get you started. It's not complicated either because you don't need a lot of expertise or time to succeed in growing even one or two herbs, a tomato plant, colourful flowers such as pansies, or even all of them together in one large pot. Or perhaps a pot of strawberries and fennel flowering and producing lovely soft fruits and fragrant fronds for the dinner table.  (You can even use flowering fennel fronds in cut flower arrangements!)

Once you've started, there is nothing more satisfying than growing even one or two of your own vegetables and herbs.  The fresh snap of a newly picked zucchini, or the sweetness of your own strawberries can't be replicated by store bought produce. And the fresh fragrance and taste of your own herbs is far superior to the usually wilted bunches found in your local supermarket.  



Most of us think this is unattainable with our busy lives and can only be found in stylised life-style magazines.  Yet, the reality is that even one or two pots on your doorstep, or on the balcony, will supply an abundance of home-grown vegetables, herbs and soft fruits.   And with as little attention as keeping a watering can nearby (you may even start a collection of antique watering cans!) for a quick watering most days will reward you with something of your own produce to add a flourish and freshness to your meals.  

It is also a wonderful thing to teach our children and can help to establish a gentle beginning to the evening routine after a busy day out in the frantic rush of every-day life.  In other words, diverting even a few moments to a garden plant or two can help to relax and calm us down.   And we get the benefit of at least some fresh food that has not been trucked and then stored for days, weeks or even months before we buy and consume it.  We also know it has not been fumigated with toxins and packaged in plastic within an inch of its life (or ours)!

In the same way, we can grow flowers for our own use and as gifts for friends and family.  Again, even a pot or two can produce lovely, fragrant cut flowers for our own joy and delight.  And unlike most cut flowers purchased in supermarkets or from florists, home-grown flowers are not sprayed with fumigants to make them last longer than nature intended.  (In fact, smelling store bought flowers is a little risky when you know what they may have been dipped or sprayed with!)

I think there is nothing lovelier than a bunch of home-grown cut flowers (even if a few misplaced weeds find their way into the arrangement .. which by the way is right on trend!) Home-grown flowers are reminiscent of times past where flowers as gifts, or for the house, were always cut from the garden; your own or a neighbour's.  Home-grown flowers have a life and energy that is very different to the stiff, scentless soldiers generally found in the supermarket.  

And home-grown flowers are seasonal, so you appreciate their fragrance and beauty even more as a result.  What a wonderful gift to teach our children and grandchildren about the natural rhythm of the seasons; that there are flowers that flourish in winter and different flowers that grow in spring and summer.  

It's a little bit special watching flowers go to seed so that they can be saved for next season .. where the cycle of life starts all over again. How fun to teach little fingers how to plant seeds into fresh earth and wait for the first green leaves to appear.  Snow peas are perfect for this.  Plant seeds saved from last season's crop in late autumn and wait for the flowers to appear in early spring! 

None of this is difficult in terms of money, time or expertise, yet the rewards are priceless!  

So ... what will you plant in your garden or pot this week?  

Whatever, it is .. enjoy it and have fun!

Creating Beautiful (3) Preserving green spaces in our cities .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

In the 3rd in our series on Creating Beautiful, we explore the benefits and value of preserving green spaces in our cities and urban centres.

While many of us live in densely populated areas, either in our cities or in outlying urban areas, green space is premium.  This is reflected in housing prices, where urban and inner city areas with mature plantings of trees and parks fetch a premium on the housing market.  And yet we often don't appreciate the value that these vestiges of green bring to our busy, often frantic daily lives.

In cities well established with large parkland, such as Sydney's Hyde Park, or New York's Central Park, large tracts of green space are integral to the health and lifestyle of the city and it's inhabitants. In fact, as someone who worked in the city for large periods of time, it would be impossible to think of Sydney without also thinking of it's large park and green spaces that run down to the beautiful foreshore of Sydney Harbour.  

Photo sourced from MattLauder.com.au gallery

Only recently when teaching at Sydney University I recall hearing foreign students exclaim over the beauty of the city; their amazement at hearing birds and being able to see blue sky and walk in large tracts of green parkland.  These things maybe taken for granted by long-term inhabitants of Sydney, such as myself.  Yet, hearing these delighted exclamations by first-time visitors I was reminded of how important an asset our city parks and green spaces are. 

Apart from a lovely place to sit and reflect, parks and inner city green space also support populations of native fauna. I discussed this in my previous post on supporting our local bees and birds.  In addition, they contribute significantly to the well-being of local residents and visitors.  



Trees with mature canopies provide shelter and shade, reducing temperatures reflected by hot pavements and hard surfaces and helping to reduce air pollution.  By modifying temperatures trees and green spaces also reduce the amount of cooling needed.  Similarly, green surfaces minimise water run off that washes litter and pollutants into our waterways and ultimately into our harbours and oceans.  And parks also provide important social spaces as well, where special occasions are celebrated.  

And while these benefits are fairly obvious, there are subtler benefits that we may not recognise.  The sight alone of green spaces can rest our minds. My research is based on environmental psychology, where viewing green spaces can assist our emotional cognition to rest from anxiety and stress filled thoughts without any effort on our part.  Just being near a park or green space can help us re-focus our thinking into a state of calm and ease.  In short, our well-being is improved  if we are able to access green spaces in our daily, every-day lives, even when we don't acknowledge or notice them. That is, green spaces are integral to our health and well-being as individuals and to the health of the cities we live in.  

So how can we contribute to ensuring our green spaces are preserved in our city and urban areas?

First of all, if we're limited by space we can fill pots with plants that we enjoy. These could be herbs that we regularly pick to flavour our food, salad vegetables, and flowers we enjoy.   

Or join a community garden.  Not only will this add to the green spaces in our city but it helps to strengthen our local community by sharing experiences and produce with each other.   There are numerous examples of how this builds community and well-being in densely populated areas.

With other residents or co-workers plant a green roof on our building. Or green your balcony with vertical gardens. Imagine if every balcony sprouted a curtain of green! There's lots of evidence that shows this helps to cool our cities and contribute to the green spaces available for relaxation and recreation.  

And importantly, we can be vigilant in regard to any development that would infringe on our green spaces and parks, or remove trees or remnant vegetation on our city and urban fringes.  

Finally, we can take advantage of the beautiful parks and green space that are publicly available and share these with friends, family and visitors to our cities. 

If we see our green areas as an asset and benefit to our every-day lives, we are more likely to look after and protect our parks and green spaces.  And ultimately, we all benefit!

Creating Beautiful (2) Supporting our bee & bird populations .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

In the second in a series on 'creating beautiful' we look at another simple way of incorporating beauty into our every-day; (2)Supporting our bee & bird populations ..

While many of us believe in preserving bee and bird populations, we are not always aware that there are some simple ways of doing this.  Even if we live in high-rise apartments we can still help to sustain our local bird and insect life.  

One of the key aspects of ensuring our local bee populations are supported is by providing fodder for them.  Yes, just as cows (in an ideal world) naturally graze on pasture, honey bees also rely on local plants within a 3 km range for food. And essential food sources for honey bees are flowers that have not been sprayed with pesticides or other toxic chemicals, such as fungicides.  

So planting flowering trees, shrubs and flowering perennials and annuals in our gardens is one way to ensure that local bee populations have access to nectar and pollen.  Another way is to allow any vegetables and herbs we grow to flower, so that bees can access pollen and nectar from your vegetable garden.  

This is also helpful in ensuring vegetable plants are pollinated by visiting bees, providing a mutual benefit for us and for them.  Even growing a few pots of flowering plants, herbs and vegetables on our balconies contributes to providing bee fodder.   Vertical gardening ensures an even larger space for plants to grow, producing more flowers in a small area.  

Native bee populations are also important in maintaining diversity in our local bushland fringes around our cities and urban areas.  And planting flowering trees and shrubs help support our native bees, particularly during times of drought when flowering may be diminished in natural forests and bushland. Ensuring that we minimise disturbance of any vestiges of native forest or bushland is another way of supporting our native bee populations. 



For example, the pretty, fluffy little Australian blue-banded bee (Amegilla cingulata) is a solitary bee that lives in hollows and holes near or in the soil. These solitary little bees also buzz pollinate, unlike the common honey bee, which makes it an important bee for agriculture where buzz pollinators are essential to crop production (for example, tomatoes need buzz pollinators).  

However, studies in the United Kingdom and America have shown that many plants sold as bee friendly plants in some popular garden centres have been saturated with pesticides, detrimental to bee populations.  So ensure your plants are purchased from reputable nurseries that can show their flowering plants are pesticide free.   Or better still, buy plants and seeds from organic sources.  

Similarly, with bird populations it is important to provide food and shelter for local native birds.  I don't advocate putting out seeds for visiting parrots, or meat for kookaburras as this can inadvertently become an unreliable food source. Providing lots of trees, shrubs and flowering plants ensures birds are able to forage safely, particularly small nectar loving birds.   And of course, if your garden has an abundance of insects, birds will help keep pest populations in check, providing a symbiotic benefit for both native birds and human inhabitants. Placing bowls of fresh water within the cover of shrubs and small trees helps too, particularly in hot, dry weather.  And it's a lovely little ritual that helps to slow us down, if only briefly, to take in the sights, scents and sounds of our natural environment.  

It doesn't take lots of time, money or energy to create little pockets of safe habitat, just a little planning and deciding on purpose to plant a flowering shrub or two.  Or planting a lovely tree that will help shade the hottest side of your house as well as provide habitat for birds and insects.  Or growing a vine across a pergola, or on your balcony, to provide shade and shelter for human and local bird and insect populations.  

The opportunities are endless and the benefits incalculable.  And it's also fun.   So how will you provide some safe forage and habitat for your local bee and bird populations?

Creating Beautiful 1) Create More Gardens .. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

In this new series, I will be discussing the ways we can create more beauty in our every-day lives based on the list I gave in the last post.  In the first of this series,  I want to explore how we can ..

1) 'create more gardens to nurture and enjoy'.  

For dedicated gardeners this prospect is a joyful process of planning that involves all sorts of possibilities; like drawing garden plans, compiling lists of seeds and plants, exploring social media, magazines and books for ideas, and gathering materials like compost and mulch.

But the possibility of creating a garden is not just for experienced gardeners. Gardens can be any size, in any location and for anyone who wants to have a go at creating one.  Plants and seeds can be very forgiving and it's always fun to see which seeds and plants will grow well for you.  A garden can start with one small pot with a few succulents.  Or it could be a tray of potted herbs on a sunny windowsill. Even a jar filled with seeds for sprouting and putting into salads is a type of garden and fun to do.

So even if you've never really gardened before, it's never too early or too late to try.  My journey with gardening started with growing herbs.  I was encouraged by a neighbour who was far more knowledgeable than I was about gardening at the time.  Growing herbs actually became addictive, because I was able to learn about their history and how people used herbs in food and for medicine over the centuries.  So I began to collect books on herbs as well.  And I learnt by trial and error; how to grow them from seed, which herbs liked full sun, and which herbs would grow well in shade.  And then I wanted to learn more, so I did a few short courses and finally combined my love of horticulture, its history and therapeutic uses with criminology and environmental psychology for my doctoral research.  And it took me to Rome, Venice and London amongst other places! And there's still much more to explore!

While not everyone will want to take gardening to the lengths that I have, there are lots of short courses available.  And gardening also involves other areas of possibility to explore.  For instance, making a garden is a creative process that uses colour, shape, texture, fragrance much as an artist does.  In fact, I read somewhere that garden design is a little like painting in 3D.   

But don't be daunted by my story.  After all, small children can garden.  Simply pushing a seed into a small pot filled with potting mix and watering it, placing it in the sunshine on a balcony is a fun way to start a garden.

Gardeners are generous people and there is sure to be someone in your community who will be delighted to share their expertise.   After all, that's what gardening is all about.  Community gardens are a great place to start.  And a wonderful way of sharing a love of growing beautiful plants, whether they be vegetables and herbs, or native plants and trees, or shrubs and flowers!  The possibilities for creating a garden are endless.  We need only to look at the natural world around us to know that nature loves to garden and is generous in the beauty she creates!  

So while my journey with gardening started off by growing a few herbs in pots and ended in growing heirloom and old-fashioned roses, who knows where your journey of gardening might end .. and what adventures you might have along the way!  

How Nature's Beauty Transforms.. AT MY ROSE GARDEN

We all know the sense of awe and wonder when we see something that is beautiful.   And yes, in our instant social media landscape we can see photos almost endlessly in various formats at any time. Yet, invariably these images are references to the wonders of nature. Even man-made works that are recognised as beautiful, whether it be the work of an artist's painting, the architecture of a building, or the span of a bridge over an expanse of water, almost always reference the natural world.  

I think the ability to admire beauty is born innately within us, something that brings an inner peace, if only for  a second or two.  Who hasn't been caused to pause at the sight of the beautiful in nature;  a glorious sunset,  a view of beautiful mountains, a clear night sky filled with bright stars, a small child's delight at handing over a fist full of weedy flowers?

  

And sometimes beauty that is incongruous with its surroundings causes us to stop in our tracks; as with a single flower blooming in the midst of a jungle of weeds, or one, lone tree bravely growing through a crack in concrete pavement. And viewing that beauty can quiet our minds and cause us to rest our thoughts. For even a short time-frame, we are finally 'in the moment' and at peace.  

But what is it that attracts us to the beautiful that distracts our busy minds and causes us to pause?

Studies have shown that previously unkempt neighbourhoods, riddled with poverty and crime, are transformed when beautiful gardens are created.  Not only is the neighbourhood landscape changed, but the inhabitants are also changed with less crime and an improvement in neighbourly care for each other.

And by now, most of us have heard of studies that illustrate how even just a window view of trees can bring about substantial healing for hospital patients.  

We know from environmental psychology that viewing and interacting with the natural world can improve our emotional health, and even increase our cognition.  The rise of 'nature play' programs with increased focus on the natural world is due to better understandings of the multiple benefits for children of safely interacting with nature .  

In a world where there is so much information that focuses on events of terror and strife, perhaps it is more important than ever that we search out the beautiful.  To on purpose focus our minds on the beauty all around us, in our gardens, our park-lands and any natural green spaces surviving near our cities.

And the desire to bring a little beauty into this world is why I grow old fashioned and heritage roses; flowers that are universally seen as beautiful.  

Our minds are  refreshed when we are able to re-direct our attention to the beautiful in our every day.  In this way, we not only transform our own lives, but are inspired to improve the world around us by;

• creating more gardens to nurture and enjoy, 
• growing more flowers to preserve local bee and bird populations and spraying less toxic sprays, 
• preserving green spaces in our cities, 
• allowing our children to walk barefoot on grass, 
• growing more fresh food in our own backyards and on our balconies, 
• buying locally grown food and flowers that have not used up even more fossil fuels to travel to us, 
• keeping our water-ways free of plastics and rubbish, 
• recycling and composting ...

So many ways to see and enjoy beauty in our every-day, walking around lives.  
What can you do today to see and share a little beauty in your world today?