Atooley's Profile

My name is Amy and I live in Australia. Gardening has become my life... quite by accident. I work for the New South Wales Ambulance and live in a very small rural town. As part of my duties I am required to be on-call and available 80% of my life day and night. To avoid going stir-crazy I had to develop an interest that allowed me to stay close to station and ambulance and ready to respond almost immediately.

I live in a old home next door to the station with a large flat block. When I bought the house the "garden" was literally a jungle of leaves, vines, rubbish, snakes and spiders. After many hours of clipping, cutting, removing and swearing, I was left with a "clean palatte".

My approach has been to transplant useful "keeper" plants and grow the rest from seeds and cuttings. My aim is to have a cheap, private, stunningly beautiful garden that allows me self sustainability. I have special focus on recycling and edible plants and flowers.

Two years on I have developed numerous garden areas, including a slate edged, homemade fish pond where I am experimenting with native water plants. The kids have their own fish and penny turtles and the frogs join in with delightful evening choruses. I have created a variety of garden edging made from rocks and old bricks and timber found around the place and a beautiful shady entertainment area with natural screening where we spend most of our time. I have a natural cubby house built by my children, and doggy day care based around a sandy area with buried toys and bones to encourage pets to "garden" in appropriate places!

My vegetable patch is not only supplying my families food requirements, but also looks great. It is highlighted by a raised garden bed made from recycled timber in a log-cabin effect. I have built a shade/green house for propagating and climatising my plants. I have a mulching/compost area which supplies me with all of my organic soil for raised beds and potting.

Pretty much everything I have has been created from cuttings taken on walks around town with my trusty scissors and a plastic bag. People in town enjoy walking past and watching "their clippings" grow in my garden.

My garden is my solace in stressful times, a place to play for my children and pets and most definitely a fantastic way to pass hours of time on-call.