Hello! I'm Daniel and I have a project happening in the front garden of the Alphington Farmers Market.
Starting in August of '23 I had the idea of growing a garden predominantly for the insects, birds and the wildlife in the area.
There have been many ups and downs.
I planted a crop in of Paper Daisy (or 'straw daisy', 'native daisy ' or botanically, Brachyscome cv.) late in the season and saw only a few blooms but managed to collect enough seed for the crop of '24.
I'm fairly new to flower gardening so it's been a bit of an experiment, but I'm learning a lot. I grew many varieties of wildflower, sewing them in tubes and raising seedlings only to find it was better to sew them directly!
Then, over the summer and the heat wave, most of the delicate wildflowers I planted dried up and died due to me not being here to nurture them 24/7.
Anyway, I've been tiding up with fresh intentions, getting the irrigation sorted, and preparing the soil with the help of mycelium mulch from next door at the Sporadical City Mushroom Farm (@sporadicalcitymushrooms). I’ve put in a few random fairytale inspired flowering plants to keep the garden presentable before the mass planting this winter.
This autumn the plan is to get more things in and make everything as lush as possible using the micro-biome oxygenated compost tea I've been making.
I love being in the garden at the Alphington Farmers Market and pottering about. It’s interesting, beautiful and fun. I like to listen to 'flower power' music as I work away in the garden on Saturdays, it sets the scene.
With all the trouble in the world, flowers sing healing songs.
I'm at Alphington Farmers Market most Wednesday afternoons and sometimes on Saturdays, so please come chat!
And if you have any flowering plants you’d like to donate, it is much appreciated.
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Check out Dan's gardening website at www.gardenerdan.com.au and follow his gardening at MFM on his facebook page and his Instagram.
