Hi again!
Its been a bit of fun taking the time to look back to our first few months in Tasmania.
Starting a proper garden for the first time was awesome – especially if you have good soil – you feel like a champion right from the beginning!
Here are a few snaps from our first efforts (Yes – still with the small camera)
I love having marigolds scattered about in the veggie patch
The first of the scarlet runner beans!Wow – how tidy of me!
I slightly over did it with the zucchinis in our first season. I think we ate them out of the freezer for two years!!
I put tomatoes in here again this season too!! First time for 5 years!PumpkinReluctant model – see my hand holding him in place??
Funny thing about the corn. I only put a few in the first season because Jeff was never super keen on it. (?? I know!! Why??)
Anyway, once the season had ended he requested I put in more corn and less tomatoes! Apparently he had never had home grown before, so once he got a taste of the good stuff there was no stopping him!
Cherry plums
While every season is a lot of fun and each year is different, I think our first season was the most exciting one!
Hello Again!
Just another little look back to when we first moved into our little patch of paradise!
My parents came over fairly soon after we moved in and stayed with us over Christmas and some of the summer! It was a lot of fun – so many projects to get our teeth into!
One thing we learned pretty quickly was that the area really gets a LOT of wind. Sometimes days and up to weeks of it! When it finally goes away after a long stretch the silence is a bit spooky!
Dad working out all the old pins out of the post.
The garden can really suffer – the wind seems to stress the seedlings and slow growth as they are battered about. We decided to put up a proper wind break and do away with the madly attractive bubblewrap!
There was a lot of post hole digging!
I think the shade cloth was a good choice. The sun can still do its thing, but the wind is slowed down a considerable amount.
I think it looked rather smart too!
The garden had a much more sheltered feel.
We have taken it down at the end of each season then re-put it up again in spring. Its looking a lot more battered these days but its still doing the job its meant to do!
I spent a beautifully lazy morning – doing not much at all!
Eventually we had to stir ourselves to do useful things – like empty the car of the unsold garage sale items and make use of the sunny day!
I started by stacking the rest of the wood.
I have decided not to double handle the wood that is in a pile under the Macrocarpas. Its easy enough to take the wheelbarrow down and collect it straight from the heap – and the dense cover of the trees means it doesn’t get too soggy when it rains.
Got the box on the back veranda filled up again, so we are all sorted.
Thought it was time to start pulling the duck yard garden to bits. So out with the mulcher and shovel
We pulled up the rest of the corn (except a few stalks that a determined tomato is still growing on) and put it through the shredder
Who needs a tomato stake when you have corn?
We have the chooks locked up in the coop and duck yard at the moment – giving the main yard a break from their digging.
We also pulled up all the tomatoes, zucchini and pumpkin plants. Nothing much was happening with them.
We’ve made a new compost heap in the corner near the tree. Can’t hurt to have another one can it?
Eventually we will cover the whole area in seaweed – but the girls should keep the weeds down reasonably well over time.
A few green tomatoes and maybe next years corn patch resides on this missed cob! We shall see if I can get it to grow!
The manky chook coop got cleaned out – all the hay and poo got thrown onto our new compost pile.
Making friends
The tomato patches are looking sadder by the day
But still getting a basket full of them every three days or so.
Even though things look messy when you just let things grow where they please… its such an easy way of getting a bit more free food.
I have no idea how this potato ended up in my newest raised garden bed where the capsicum were… but I just let it do its thing
I tell you these were a treat tonight on the plate! New potatoes only half a month out of winter! Steamed and slathered in butter!!
We had a bit of a sunset – but it was over and done with before I went back in to get the camera again. Hoping that indicates another nice day tomorrow.
Todays haul
By this time it was getting dark – it was hot chocolate time along with a side serving of banana cake!
How did it get to be May already? Really!
Still lucky to have tomatoes in the last month of autumn coming along.
I picked some fresh herbs that went into a spaghetti bolognese tonight – turned out pretty nice (with the added advantage of leftovers!)
Hello! Doesn’t this look like great weather? Funny – it went through stages of perfect sun and skies, then in typical Tassie fashion, poured!
Not a great day for getting into gardening, but enough dry spots to get out and do a few things… Like take Pip for a wheelbarrow ride
Seriously – the best 15 minutes wasted of the day!
Apparently this new wheelbarrow doesn’t hold the terrors of the old one! (Which he wouldn’t go near if it was in motion!) We went all around the yard and when I stopped he thought he was going to settle in for a snooze!
However, the purpose of me being outside with the wheelbarrow was to stock up the wood at the back door – so eventually I had to evict him and get on with my work
Then a few minutes to appreciate some autumn flowers
I got back down into town to post a couple of things – notably my Mothers slightly late b’day present that I finished off.
She did tell me not to post it and just give it to her in November when we meet and go to Japan – but I am all excited I finished it and its too difficult to wait that long. So I accidentally put it in the post. In a few days I will get a phone call with a small lecture about not taking notice of my Mum 😀
It took me a while to find the colour wool I wanted. Mum had asked for something with pink in it, but it was hard to find anything that was not ‘teenage girl’ pink. I think this is rather lovely – Hopefully I have chosen right!
I started this one with no good reason – and I KNOW I am going to regret the ambitious colour changes. Its going to take an eon to sew in all the threads!!!
Other things I have been working on are face washers. I plan to take them to Texas as presents. I just have to weave in the ends and they are done. A friend is doing me another two. I figured Texas was too hot to knit my friends scarves, gloves and beanies, so face washers are useful. Its just the time it takes to do these!!! Forever!!! (Small needles and thin cotton!)
There is a big yarn sale on at a local shop – just acrylic, but its a nice soft one. I couldn’t resist getting some new colours!! Just making some cozy cuffs! The one pictured above is nearly finished as of tonight. They grow a lot more quickly than the face washers!
Most of these projects are worked on in the evenings when Jeff and I have finished dinner and are watching a movie. (Got to multi-task!)
Its an excellent Sunday when you stay in your pj’s all day… sure, I did ‘stuff’ but without style. (Unless pink polka dots are style)
I eventually got dressed this evening because we took ourselves out to the movies! (Guardians of the Galaxy 2)(A bit of wicked fun)
Yesterday I harvested all of my pumpkins… all three of them! Sigh. Quite a disappointing result for how many plants I tried to grow! Oh well… three is better than none!
Of course – there was a time for a little vegetable ‘art’
Bedtime for me!
Hope you have (or have had) a blissfully relaxing Sunday too!
Right now its raining – a lot.
Its really lovely to be inside with the fire going feeling all cosy with the sound of the rain on the roof!
I put my domestic hat on today and did a good number of boring inside tasks.
I managed to go through most of the cupboards and drawers in the kitchen and found a lot of items that I never use to put out of the house and into the upcoming garage sale pile.
We don’t get a lot of autumn colours around here – the bulk of our trees are evergreen. Its really nice when I do find some colours!
Still getting the odd strawberry appearing. Sometimes I am lucky to find one before something else takes a bite out of it!
The hothouse chillies are not showing signs of slowing down!
I planted my passionfruit into the corner of the hothouse. I am not sure its the right thing to do but since I had no luck with them outside, I figured I would see if I could pamper one enough to get some fruit.
It was left in the pot too long but hoping with the feeding I am giving it, it will start looking a bit greener and happier soon.
So incredibly late in the season – but this self seeded jam melon has four little melons on it! I am just leaving it alone to see what happens.
Hello!
What are the weekend plans?
We dabbled in a few around the yard tasks – we put the bore on into the tanks as they were getting rather low with the lack of rain recently. Its nice to have that option instead of in the past having to resort to sponge baths!! 😀
I had a lovely time burning off some of our rubbish – the paper bin was reasonably full so that got sorted
Ruby’s old fence had been sitting there a while – no time to really make a start on building up the kindling with it
We didn’t get a lot done, but it was a nice start to a fairly time consuming job
Hopefully we will be able to sell a bit of this as well – people do pay for bundles of pre-cut kindling!
A few dahlias here and there are still making a bit of a show which is nice
I picked the rest of the apples – no point feeding them all to the possums the greedy beggars!
Still a bunch of tomatoes coming along, not to mention the zucchini’s which keep appearing at a steady rate!
Happily I also got out some bags and bits and pieces that I intend taking to Texas – or thinking of taking to Texas! So its a mild start!
Sadly I had to take my sister back to the airport this morning. We had such a fabulous week of catching up and doing things. And I was very proud of the Tasmanian Weather for being extremely nice to us for the whole time!
Unfortunately Rosemary’s flights got quite delayed this morning due to fog in Melbourne so she was really late home today.
I wasn’t going to do anything… but then felt guilty so I went into the hothouse and started ripping out dead stuff and weeds and trying to make it look happy again
There were dead tomato plants and mostly dead cucumber plants. (and did I mention weeds??)
It took ages to untangle things!
Mad
I left a few strands of cucumber vines that looked like they were reshooting at the end. There are flowers so we might be lucky to get a few more cucumbers off them now that they can breathe and all the dead manky stuff is gone.
I think the capsicum will be happier too as they were being smothered
The later self seeded tomatoes are starting to produce fruit so it will be interesting how long into the autumn and winter we get tomatoes this year!
Yesterday Rosemary motivated me to tie up the tomatoes that were taking over the back veranda. She was probably tired of falling over them!
Still.. they are better off tied up. It was just a ‘gunna’ job that I hadn’t gotten to yet.
Both of these self seeded plants have been steadily producing fruit
And more to come
Impressive really, considering we are over halfway through autumn!
The chooks are still being slack! Between two and four eggs a day from eleven chickens is a poor effort!! I threaten them with being involved in casseroles, but they give me that disbelieving chook-look then ignore me.
Anyway, I am going to attempt an earlier night – Jeff was asking before he went to work about which mountain we were going to climb next!!
Cheers!
