Day WWOOFing - work experiance on a Melbourne balcony garden

A lovey Rose Came over on Thursday to help tend and beautify my garden.

Rose plays violin.This led me to expect excellence, sensitivity to beauty,
and attention to detail.Yes, that's what I got.

It was so enjoyable and helpful for me, and a chance to learn lots for her, so I've now planned 'Day-WWOOFing' days, once a week, for people who want to come and have Permaculture fun with me. New gardeners can learn from my gardening mistakes, rather than their own.

Here is what Rose did.

She tended the balcony garden. She chased away spiders, examined the plants for health. The Roses, Loganberries and Peach had some fungal troubles, so we mixed up a batch of Eco-Rose and Eco-oil, and gave them a squirt. If you don't know what to do when things look crook(we don't), if you don't anticipate, have a remedy at hand, you will use magical thinking. 'It will get better" you will say. But it won't.
Grown from seed, a Silvery and frilly-leaved broccoli, center, Sept 2008.

We talked about how I usually have pairs of plants, one in the big back garden, and one on the balcony so I can compare their progress. For example, in the limited balocny sunlight, the broccoli only produced a 1cm edible flower, yet I would plant it again, for its silvery-frilled beauty.

She Revitalized a shabby wheelbarrow garden with left over paint from my Front door
And like all good compositions, the day included lots of rests.
("Cecilia!", she is saying. "I'm working hard down here")

We tried to make cupcakes:

Tricked you. That's the compost Heap.

She turned the compost, with the idea of getting the 'made' compost to make another wheelbarrow garden for sowing rocket, my number-one favorite urban edible.
We discovered the heap was rather barren - someone had filled it with exhausted potting mix, a filler which just doesn't contribute to the fermenting process. Now we know, just put the old potting mix in the garden..
She removed the sunburnt Ferns from my back courtyard, ready to replace with something more useful on the next Day-WWOOFing day, Monday March 16 2009 (coming?)

Lucky for me, Rose was still here for a dinner in the huge, shared back garden - Soba salad with wasabi dressing AND Yuzu dressing (I'm indecisive).

Thank-you for coming, you were a blessing!