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Your Lockdown Entertainment Guide: The Gardening Edition

22 April, 2020

There are plenty of reasons to smile at the moment, despite these uncertain times.

You may have seen that we have started a Lockdown Entertainment series – we’ve published our Arts Edition and Music Edition so far. The Gardening Edition is for anyone with a bit of a “green thumb”. We’ve got plenty of ideas for how you can indulge in your love of gardening during lockdown.

Some of you will be fortunate enough to have a garden to call your own. Others may have a balcony or indoor plants. No matter what you have access to, we’ve got plenty of tips and tricks for those who love all things bright and beautiful.

Be sure to come back to our blog each week for a new Lockdown Entertainment guide.

Glossary

  • Virtual: You won’t physically attend an event, it will be held online.

  • Pop-up shop: A shop that’s only available for a limited time.

  • Online workshop: A workshop or class delivered over the Internet.

  • Smartphone: A phone with the ability to use the internet, watch videos and see images.

Attend a virtual indoor plant sale

Creating a relaxing environment indoors is one of the best things you can do during isolation. Indoor plants offer a wonderful, relatively low-maintenance way of doing this. They’re also ideal for those who can’t go outside, or for those without a traditional garden.

The Jungle Collective is a pop-up indoor plant sale. This means it’s a plant sale that’s happening for a short time only. Usually, the sale is held in their warehouse, but this time it will be happening online.

The aim is to inspire you to create a “plant paradise”. On the day, there’s an on-site horticulturalist, plus, you’ll even hear jungle-themed music in the background!

The next Jungle pop-up plant sale will be on Sunday, April 26. Various time slots are available at the time of writing. Attendance is free, but many slots are now “sold out”. Please follow this link now in order to secure your spot. Please note, you will need to use a credit/debit card to make purchases. Delivery is only being offered to those who live within a 25km radius of Sydney CBD.

Indoor plants, featuring a palm and a cactus - Virtual Indoor Plant SaleAttend a free online gardening workshop

Sustainability is so important for the future of planet Earth. My Smart Garden Events offer insight into creating practical – yet beautiful – gardens. Their aim is to help you reduce waste, and produce your own food. By turning waste into valuable resources, you’re being “smart”.

Workshops are free and typically held in the western suburbs of Melbourne where My Smart Garden is based. But a positive outcome of our current situation is that they’ve moved their workshops online, making them available to everybody! Gardening enthusiasts from all over Australia can attend the virtual workshops from the comfort of their very own home.

The next workshop to be held online will be the Food Gardening Online Q & A, on Saturday, May 2 at 9:30 am.

The second is Design Your Edible Oasis, which is also online, on Saturday, May 16 at 9:30 am .

You could be growing your own fruits or veggies and helping in the fight against climate change in no time! Please click here to register for free tickets.

Strawberry plants and strawberries in baskets on a bed of straw - Online Sustainability Workshop Create a herb garden

Whether you have a garden or a balcony, a herb garden is a fun project that you can tend to all year round. You do not need a lot of space to create one – a wooden planter or a few pots should do the trick.

Herb gardens are both fragrant and practical. If you enjoy cooking, you can use the herbs that you grow to create delicious dishes. As winter is coming in Australia, some good herbs to plant include coriander, thyme and rosemary. However, as the climate is rather mild here, you can get away with most herbs year-round.

For a full tutorial, you can visit this page. It talks you through different considerations, such as the care of the plants and how to get started. Plenty of herbs are available to purchase at Bunnings. Read on for information about buying from Bunnings during COVID-19.

Potted herbs and green plants, including rosemary - Create A Herb Garden tutorialDrive & Collect Bunnings essentials

If you have a current, valid driving licence and it is safe for you to do so, you may want to use Bunnings’ new “Drive and Collect” service.

You can use their website to order the items you want for your garden. All you have to do is go to “Drive & Collect” when you make a purchase. Rather than getting out of your vehicle, all you have to do is select a time slot to pick up your order, and drive into a special bay in the car park with your order confirmation number. The full process is detailed on the “Drive and Collect” designated page.

Please note that official government advice states that you must not leave the house unless it is for essentials. Please only visit Bunnings if there is one locally. You should also consider planning your “Drive and Collect” at the same trip as doing a food shop. This will limit the amount of times you are leaving the house. A family member could go on your behalf to drop things off outside your door. Remember, official advice is not to invite even family inside, unless they live with you or they are your primary carer.

If you have ANY symptoms or you have underlying medical conditions, you should not leave your home at all.

A wheelbarrow in a green garden with colourful flowers in the background. Start your very own garden diary

Time at home can be used as a time to reflect. If you’re particularly keen on gardening, and you have a nice one at home, why not start a garden diary? We adapted this idea from Gardening Australia’s Costa Georgiadis.

If you have a good camera, or a smartphone, you may want to take some photographs. Alternatively, you could press some flowers into a scrapbook. You should also make observations.

  • Can you see any insects? Which plants do they like? What is their role?

  • Do you have a colour “theme” in your garden?

  • Look at the birds visiting you – do you recognise them?

  • How does the garden differ from night and day

  • How many different kinds of flowers do you have?

  • Do you grow anything you can eat?

By doing all of this, you will be cherishing the value of your garden as a living space. It’s important to appreciate the wonderful job that nature does in keeping us alive (and happy).

Close up image of plants and lilac flowers, featuring two butterflies - Start a garden diaryGet inspired this fantastic TedTalk by Tobacco Brown

This lovely TedTalk by Tobacco Brown speaks to the relationship between gardening and human connectivity. It’s particularly relevant in a time like this. Evoking lovely images of the gardens she has created across her personal career, she links the way we nurture gardens to the way we nurture relationships.

You can watch the full video here – it’s some real food for thought, and it reminds us that all living things face adversity, often coming out stronger.

Contact Us

If you are an older person or a person with disabilities requiring assistance at this difficult time, you can contact us on 1300 941 750. We offer a wide range of services relating to in home care, including private in home nursing. We can even help you with social activities, including gardening or learning about garden-related activities online.

Stay informed with COVID-19 updates by regularly checking our COVID-19 Updates page.

Feeling worried? Remember that this, too, shall pass. Right now, COVID-19 is bigger than all of us. Stay healthy, stay safe, and stay home.

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