Andres from Ecuador plants a tree: L to R: Xavier, Helen, Beth, Andres, Sarah, Harry, Michael

Gardening today was sensational.

There were ten of us a-road-gardening on Friday: Xavier (let’s put an “x” first for a change), Helen, Janet (who took this photo), Harry, Beth, Andres, Sarah (who comes all the way from Marrickville and is one hell of a quiet achiever).

As Andres is returning home to Ecuador (well, he may get there via who knows where . . . ) we ended the gardening with Andres planting a pomegranite, so the bloke has some roots in Australia.  He has named the tree, Arbolito – in Spanish that’s Little Tree.  Cute, hey.

Harry suggested we start a facebook of Arbolito and take photos of it, so Andres can watch it grow, and have a reason to come back.  Ahhh, dontcha love it.

We:

• put out four wheelbarrows of compost
• made a road garden bed beside the pomegranite to give it some good soil
• mucked out the chook run to get the chook poo laden mulch for the pomegranite to give it a boost from its first day of planting
• planted a tyre raised bed garden with some salad plants given to us by Janet
• filled the mulch bin with branches and heavy debris unsuitable for composting, including the sugar cane mulch branches from the cafe that makes juice from it – it’s simply too fibrous for the compost bins
• put some pure eucalalyptus oil around the edges of the Peace Park compost bins to rid the bins of cockies at that point and to give a good odour
• Beth pruned ‘that friggen pomegranite’, and Got Rid Of The Onion Grass with Sophie

But the really important thing was we laughed, talked, contemplated, and gardened inside ourselves; yum.

High pressure spraying brush box leaves

Two trucks with sprayer between

While gardening two trucks went up and down both sides of Myrtle and Pine cleaning up fallen leaves from the Brush Box trees.  The truck in front sprayed high pressure water on the footpath and under cars to move the leaves to the centre of the road.  The truck behind sucked and swept up the leaves.  This is part of the cost of Brush Box trees.

Then came the next day.

In less than 24 hours a neighbour about three houses from the the tyre had removed it and replanted the salad greens we’d planted in the road verge on the corner of Myrtle and Pine.  The neighbour left a note saying she didn’t like the tyre and would maintain the greens.  Great work by V; thanks.

I  love it when people take ownership of their ‘patch’ and adopt and care for it.

So, let a thousand flowers bloom . . .

On the issue of theft, perhaps the Council’s Rangers need to be briefed on theft of road garden plants and their advice obtained about an action plan to stop it.

Over in Surry Hills, in the beaut garden behind the car wash in Cleveland Street, some Urban Galah (the flea-infested, verminous and odiforous, gangle-hearted, bilious and sour beaked type) has stolen  many citrus and other plants.

May the gardens be inside you, and may the Urban Galahs become extinct, transformed as if by magic, into road gardeners and become people who love our lovely torn Earth.

Michael