Lesley Dewar's Blog Posts Tagged 'no dig' (4)

Water repellent soil Having decided to let my Dad, who is 92 and of the scorched earth brigade, see how easy it can be to grow thriving flowers and luscious vegetables, I am on a mission. A mission to restore and revive the health of the sand patches in our garden that are misnamed as…

The first steps in making my backyard desert bloom were exciting. After only four or five days, the white Sweet Alice (alyssum) was flourishing. I felt as though you could almost watch it grow and already its honey perfume was a distinctive aroma in the late afternoon. To…

Beyond the kangaroo paw and red gum, the back garden bed stretches away to the left. It is a desert of grey, sad looking sand. A couple of tough Easter Lilies have managed to survive there and they are indeed an excellent symbol of what is needed: a resurrection; a restoration…

In our backyard, there is a long narrow garden bed that runs the length of the back fence. The fence itself is a horrible mess of sheets of corrugated iron, painted in various shades of green, with hundreds of nail holes of various sizes and undisclosed origins.

A couple of years ago, just before Christmas when it was 40c in the shade, my Dad and I sweated away to cover the fence with bamboo screens. It improved the view immensely and…