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Introduce yourself to the community

Jason
Community Manager
Community Manager

Introduce yourself to the community

Welcome to your Workshop. It is great to have you as a member of the community. We encourage you to say hello and introduce yourself.

 

Please reply to this post and tell us a bit about yourself. Whatever information you feel comfortable sharing is fine.

 

You might like to tell us about your current D.I.Y. and garden projects, your work, your passions, your hobbies, your dreams, what you struggle with, what you hope to learn from this community, and/or your favourite ice cream flavour.

 

And for something truly revealing about yourself - tell us what you call a barbecued sausage served on a single piece of bread.

 

We look forward to your post and getting to know you. Thanks for joining the discussion.

 

Jason

Community Manager

 

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Jason
Community Manager
Community Manager

Re: Welcome to your Workshop

Welcome @MzB and many thanks for introducing yourself. It's fantastic you could join us. I'm sure you will find that our community members provide lots of helpful advice, information and inspiration for your projects. 

 

For your garden furniture project, I would encourage you to click on the Start a discussion button and post in the Outdoor messageboard. You might like to post some photos of similar furniture that others have made so members can see what you're trying to achieve and make more useful and detailled suggestions.

 

Please let me know if you ever need a hand getting the most from the site.

 

Jason

 

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David1
Growing in Experience

Re: Introduce yourself to the community

Thank you @Jason my main project is upgrading the camp kitchen made out of pallets and putting a roof over it all eventually I have already extended the deck here is some photos of the work in progress The dark section near the door is the original deckThe dark section near the door is the original deck

 

Dylan my grandson doing a great jobDylan my grandson doing a great job

 

All finished including a hot water service and build in BBQAll finished including a hot water service and build in BBQ

 

Jason
Community Manager
Community Manager

Re: Introduce yourself to the community

Looks like a great spot to relax @David1. Thanks for sharing. 

 

Great to have you on Workshop. Looking forward to reading more about your projects and plans.

 

Jason

 

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Re: Introduce yourself to the community

@David1,

Outstanding job, you should be very proud of your achievements the work looks first class!!

Cheers,

Barbara

Re: Introduce yourself to the community

@Cassie,

Not sure if I can be of any assistance to you re your garden but I am a keen gardener and love the idea of a formal look.

I'd love to help with your choices with the possible only setback being if you are in a different state or even country, as it means plants that grow where you are, might not grow here, so I might not know much about them to help you but you only have to Google your thoughts on a particular plant or tree and you will get all manner of advice and suggestions there too.

 

My only advice to ANYONE, is not to plant a gum tree if it will be close enough when fully grown to take out your house or property or your neighbours house or property, unfortunately they are prone to dropping a limb when least expected and it's usually a BIG limb!!

Gums are beautiful but they need to be planted in a safe spot away from anything important, also once gums become established you will have buckleys chance of growing plants within the same vicinity, as a gum will take all the available moisture and nutrients away for all other plants including other trees and especially grass for dozens of metres.

If you do want a gum, then my suggestion would be a grafted Ficafolia or Flowering Gum, there are some amazing reds, pinks etc... and are about $60 from most nurseries and for a feature, they are perfect and don't grow past about 4-5mtrs.

Look forward to photo's of your project.

Cheers,

Barbara

Cassie
Getting Established

Re: Introduce yourself to the community

Hi Barbara,

 

Thanks so much for your msg.  What state are you in? I am in Northern NSW 1 hour from the coast, the last 3 summers we have had about a minimum of 20 days at 40+ degrees heat.  There are also some restrictions on what I can do in the subdivision I am in.  No front fence, no large trees in the front yard  (although the next door neighbour has a tree that has matured and council seem to not care).  I have started accumulating Dwarf Powderpuff Lilly Pillys as my Mother gave me 16 that she grew from seed which will give my garden some sentimental value, as well as a screening hedge.  They are native and attract birds, the only downside I can see is they are a bit slow growing.  From the original 16 Mum gave me I now have 45 from taking cuttings, to plant out the back and side fences I will need 80.  I am a bit worried about how many holes I will need to dig!!!!  I have gotten my hands on 2 lovely pandanus palms that I plan to spotlight, 1 for the front, 1 for the back, so I have included a pic for you.. Pandanus, feature plantPandanus, feature plant

Will
Just Starting Out

Re: Introduce yourself to the community

Hi all, my name is Will and I'm an old automotive engineer who began loving to play with wood about 20 years ago.

I'm looking forward to learning and sharing with the Workshop community.

Re: Introduce yourself to the community

@Cassie,

Lovely to hear from you so soon.

So I'm in Vic and right away the plant in the photo is one of those I mentioned that can't be grown here but I googled it and have found out the following;

P.gemmifer - Pros:

Can be potted and effectively kept dwarfed

Can be kept indoors

Cons:

Has profilic offshoots so you might find it difficult to prevent it constantly spreading?

P. tectorius - Pros:

Leaves can be used to make hats, mats and baskets

Can be trained to grow as a shade tree instead of clumping by removing the bottom leaves

No cons mentioned

P. cookii:

No real pros or cons but points made about this variety is:

It has stilt roots

It can take 12 months to germinate which isn't an issue for you as you already have a specimen

Each seedpod has 3 seeds

Summary:

These palms must be planted in  FULL sun and if they are not, they will literally find their way to a sunny position but walking their stilt roots along the garden, so for me I would be very concerned about the location being perfect otherwise the palm sound like it could be quite invasive!!

All Pandannas are either male or female and the edible variety is P.amaryllifolius which of course might matter if you want fruit, meaning you may need a female in the front yard for example and a male in the back yard unless there are other plants in the vicinity but I don't know how close the pair need to be to effectively germinate the female flowers?

For example I have a green guage plum and even with a graft on the same tree of a guage but a different variety for diversity, I had no success with fruit until I planted another type of plum just a few mtrs away and the reason it worked better than the graft is that flowering was at or about the same time whereas the graft unfortunately flowered later!!

Sysygium wilsonii ssp. wilsonii - Dwarf Lily Pily - Pros:

Informal screen/shade tree

Helps with erosion control

Pipe friendly, in other words not invasive

Fast growing

Playground friendly

It is suggested they grow to a height of around 5mtrs and a width or approx 3mtrs so you probably only need to plant them about 3 mtrs apart minimum but perhaps up to 3.5mtrs - 4mtrs apart, depending on how much you want them to touch?

Seems this tree has no cons and is fast growing although you mentioned you though it wasnt??

I can see how your yard would look stunning when all these trees start flowereing and will of course look quite formal being all the same.

It is so nice to have some plants that give you sentimental value, as I too have plants that my mother had before she passed away, so they are still alive and regularly remind me of her.

Whilst I don't have a traditional "formal" garden setting, I do have mainly perimeter garden beds and then a few trees dotted around so most of the area is predominantly lawn and I like this look as I feel it resembles a "park like" theme.

Below are before and after photo's showing anything is possible with time and effort and the world is your oyster as the saying goes!!

Best get to be, it's half 12!!

Cheers,

Barbara

Front lawn plants.jpgfront Lawn no 4.JPG

 

 

Jason
Community Manager
Community Manager

Re: Introduce yourself to the community

Hi @Will,

 

Thanks for introducing yourself. We have lots of keen woodworkers here in the Workshop community so I'm sure you'll find plenty of like-minded people to inspire you and learn from. Welcome aboard. 

 

I'm looking forward to seeing some of your work - perhaps you could share some photos on the Gallery?

 

Please let me know if you ever need a hand getting the most from the site, or have any feedback about how we can make Workshop more useful for you.

 

Jason

 

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Cassie
Getting Established

Re: Introduce yourself to the community

Hi Barbara,

 

Thanks for the research, I don't know if the plants that I have are male or female.... Something to investigate.  Your before and after photos are amazing.  Very inspiring.  You have inspiried me to draw up the plan that I have brewing in my head.

 

Your right I might have to keep my pandanus in a large pot even if I hide it underground.  They are incredibly slow growing (the Pandanus) which is why a larger specimen than the 2 that I have cost about a thousand dollars each. 

 

Thanks again for your research, happy gardening!

 

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Workshop is a friendly place to learn, get ideas and find inspiration for your home improvement projects