Vasili's Garden Episodes
Honey I shrunk the Kids!!
Oh my god!!!
I couldn’t believe it, as soon as I walked into Mark’s place I thought I had shrunk in size.
Everything in his garden was just huge, giant Birds of Paradise, Palm trees that seem to reach the sky and Birds Nest plants large enough for a pterodactyl to nest in.
I was left speechless on how everything had grown so well within a few years, but Mark explained clearly that it didn’t just happen; it was a labour of love and a lot of hard digging in the beginning to achieve these great results.
Being such a perfectionist in everything he does, Mark, spent many days researching his plants, learning everything there is to know about tropical plants and their growing needs. Once he had enough info, he went out and dug deep trenches everywhere and then layered the earth with compost, straw, paper and even broken pieces of granite which he explains helps to keep the moisture in the ground. Looking at his garden now, I’d believe anything he said.
But gardening wasn’t always as easy and one 1, 2, 3 for Mark. In the past, he’s had long running battles with the ever so clever and persistent possums, trying all sorts of gadgets and concoctions to control them but at the end I think it came down to a level of acceptance, Mark has now allocated an area for the possums to live in which he calls outside and the other area that he calls inside is where he and his family live, so no more possums in the roof.
After spending a couple of hours touring his wonderful tropical garden I realized that there was no veggie patch to be seen anywhere!
Why, and what’s Con the Fruiterer got to say about this?
Lucky Con or his wife Marika weren’t anywhere to be seen that day.
Marks theory was to design a garden that represented the tropics so that he and his wife could at any time of the day or night wonder outside and feel as if they are in Bali. As he said himself “In the early years we couldn’t afford to go on holidays, so I bought a big banana tree… those with the big leaves, and my wife and I would take it in turns to sit under it in the shade while the other played the servant’s role, feeding grapes and fanning each other.”
“Now who needs to go on a tropical holiday when we have it right here in our own back yard”?
And what a back yard they have too, but it doesn’t stop there, Mark has even planted out the front nature strip will all sorts of flowering plants, which he explains is his way of helping to reduce carbon emissions in the world. Unlike the paying scheme that’s been set up by the government to finance the coal mining companies but has no positive immediate impact on the environment and global warming, Marks theory is to allocate 3% of your land to plantation, this is the simplest and quickest way to make an impact on global warming and help reduce carbon emissions.
What part of your land I hear you ask?
The nature strip of course!
Instead of planting huge monster trees that are high maintenance, requiring lots of water and pruning to protect power lines, with huge root systems that uplift and damage path ways, making them hazardous to pedestrians and ridiculously impossible to grow anything beneath them.
Let’s start planting beautiful flowering gardens with trees that don’t grow out of control, let’s get rid of the grass and fill it with native plants and even productive plants too.
If everyone did this with the support of local council and government in addition to all other schemes, global warming would very quickly become a thing of the past, the streets will be beautified with wonderful plantations and it would bring so many neighbours closer together through the joys of gardening.
Think about it for a moment, it really brings a whole new meaning to community gardens, this can work, it is realistic and it is a positive move towards not only the health benefits of everyone but the health benefits of the environment too, and it starts with you.
So what are you waiting for?
Get out there and start planting today.
Maresi!
Mark Mitchell from Vasili's Garden on Vimeo.
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