Category: Garden

Here we are! Friday, weeks end and time to get into a little work in the garden today. Those weeds won’t fall out by themselves!

Actually I like weeding. Its satisfying and its not something I have to make extensive plans with or overheat my brain on 🙂

Wasn’t a bad day – its been rather cool for February though…

It was also lawn day – the chooks get a bit displeased because I lock them up in their coop area while all the gates and fences are open for Jeff to mow and whipper-snipper everything.
The girls are so excited when they are finally set free again!

A decent afternoons work! I suppose I need to go stock up on seaweed again!!

All flowers, not many beans! You can see the potatoes in the background that have really yellowed off. This worries me. I think its way too early for them to be dying off. Suppose I should check my photos from last season to see how they compare. I know I harvested in March last year… just can’t remember how long before that, that they had started dying off.

Cucumber flowers keep coming and going – this one going.

I also saw another couple of man-fern fronds unravelling!

Hope your weekends are awesome!

Nighty night!

Hello! We are stampeding through the week – well, time is… I am meandering and not achieving a lot.
I did start making a collection of some of the seeds around the garden

Carrot seeds are fuzzy and weird!

I will be putting some in the garden soon to start a new lot of carrots growing that will hopefully take us a good way through winter

Mostly the snow peas aren’t dried enough to pick properly, but I did get a few handfuls of seed

I have very much enjoyed these snapdragons… such a rich colour. So def. saving those seeds in hope to get a few more popping up around the garden next season.

A few tomatoes and zucchini were ready to pick today

Of course I had a pocket of beans to munch on as I did the rounds of the garden!

Hope your day was excellent!

Cheers!

Hello!
Well… it was about time I got back into my rock-wall garden and started making something happen!

I’d like to know who the colossal idiot was that buried three barrels of cement here. I’d like a word with them!!

Stage one. Have decided to outline this plot against the barrels and run a pathway over the top of them since we can’t move them without serious machinery and we can’t plant on top of them.  I have this grand idea of a little boardwalk. Currently convincing Jeff what a fabulous idea that is!

Anyway – layer one – thick newspaper, thoroughly wet down.

Then a layer of hay. Yes yes… I am going to totally regret this, but no budget for buying straw right now. I am figuring to pull up any weeds as soon as they show themselves and hope for the best.

I was really pleased to then be able to make use of that compost I have been putting together – for a lot of last year. There seemed to be a really nice mix to use – and just enough for one layer!

Tomorrow I will go and raid the big compost heap for another layer

Anyway, today I finished it off by adding a final layer of hay and watering it in really well.

This is supposed to be an extension of the herb garden but I haven’t thought it out exactly what I want in here. I am sure it will come to me! Time to browse the market stalls on Sunday and see what people are selling!

Lastly, a nice little harvesting afternoon – digging up potatoes and carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, the last of the lettuce and some zucchini!

Cheers!

 

Hello! How is everyone?
Things seem to be going along slowly – I don’t think I have done much that has been interesting really. Lots of mundane stuff like shopping & banking & sorting insurance. Blah.

I did get a bit of  a wander in the garden later today. It rained pretty much all day, which I am sure was hugely appreciated by the garden!

I found 4 beans!

So I ate them raw as I did a garden inspection

Each time I have been in the garden I have been searching for signs of life in my apple cucumber plants. Nothing nothing nothing. Lots of flowers, no fruit.
Then suddenly today (probably by magic) I found these!

The beetroot I transplanted into the lettuce garden have all perked up nicely and are looking very promising!

The lot that I transplanted last week look a bit woebegone, but I am seeing new leaves appear so I am suspecting that they may take hold.

I wonder how many tomato plants I have in the garden?? I guesstimate about 60. That’s just silly.

The cucumbers in the hothouse are mad. Totally mad. I am going to have to get in there and try to tame and train them.

Despite the cucumbers crowding them, the heirloom capsicum are doing nicely

Yesterday we bought 3kg’s of cherries. Jeff especially loves them – but most I will cook up and puree to make into cherry ice cream. I have prepared the first half of the process today. Hopefully tomorrow I will finish the job.

These were purchased from a place quite some way away from us. Our local cherry farm produced no cherries at all this year!! How sad is that? I rang them up and the lady told me that the season was too cold for the bees. They finally got some blossoms and then of course the wind got up and blew them all off!! 🙁 How sad for them!!

Anyway – that’s all from me. Almost bedtime. Got to resist the fresh baked bread I can smell wafting in here! mmmmmm

Have a great week!

Cheers

G’day! Midweek already!
I had a lovely day. Remember my friend Maureen who took my lettuce and sold it for me at her market stall? Well I finally got my act together and popped around to visit her, meet her husband Gerry and check out their fantastic garden.

I’d never been to Maureens home before, but I didn’t have to even look at the number to know it was the right one – no lawn, all plants & pots etc!

A welcoming entrance made by Gerry.

Their backyard is amazing! No lawn again, but so wonderfully organised into areas totally focused on growing food! This is just a regular town plot, but I was so impressed with how productive it was!

There were four of these magnificent trellises – and I admit going a little green (envy not thumb) I am pretty sure I need these in my life! (Jeff darling are you reading my blog today? Just giving out some hints)

Each trellis has about a foot of garden on the end so plants types can be swapped to each side, each season in the interests of crop rotation

Loving the chickens on guard!

Something I learned today (actually I should have taken a notebook as there were lots of amazing things I learned today) – see the end of the bean shoot has been pruned off?
We have had a very distressing lack of bees this season. Once a branch had produced enough beans, Gerry clipped the remaining flowers off and threw them in the compost. His reasoning is that there were plenty of beans and the few working bees didn’t need to be unnecessarily pollinating those flowers when they could be doing good else where.

Speaking of compost… Maureen and Gerry have theirs tucked away behind the garage.

Interestingly they do not dig or aerate it! They just keep throwing new composting materials on top. Gerry told me that when he wants to use his compost, he forks out the top layer into that small section on the right, then gets into the good stuff below! The front tin lifts up like a roller door (without rolling) and what I could see of the bottom layer of compost was divine!

The raspberry patch was literally bursting out of its netting. There are plans to move one row (the one we can see here) a foot or two away from the other so there is more space to work between the rows when picking.

They don’t bother thinning the carrots – they just grab a big handful to pull up at once – wash and cook!
All the gardens are mulched with pea straw.

Sparrows and other birds have been a real nuisance  picking off seedlings so Gerry has made up a series of bird proof cages to use on their plants at different stages of their development.

These were also effective against the cabbage moth but not another bug, so I was happy to share my information about the vegie netting I use. They are keen to find some and make use of it!

And a really simple way to store them – a nail on the back fence! (No really Jeff – are you taking notes?? I like these!)

Maureen and Gerry went overseas last year and this was a fantastic solution to watering a large potted kumquat while they were away! A simple water slide was created to catch any rain water and direct it into the pot.

Oh – and I also have ‘Outdoor Tomato Envy’

Gerry telling me this spare spot had broccoli and beans. (eaten) Also the potatoes on the right are a recent planting! I am now wondering if I am too late to put in a few more plants! (Probably)

This garden holds so much! Zucchini, beans, peas, rhubarb, eggplant, herbs, pumpkin, leek, garlic (done) lettuce and probably a ton more I have forgotten to list!

We went inside to enjoy a morning tea/lunch and a chat. The biscuits (crackers) were made by Maureen and of course home grown tomatoes & cucumber!
Maureen is an AMAZING cook! She has been selling baked goods, jams, sauces etc at the markets for years. Sausage rolls were her specialty. (She has decided to slow up on that recently!!)

Today she had two types of zucchini loaves to sample – one with ginger and apricot and the other with dried fruits. They were sooooo goooood!
I brought along my banana/raspberry loaf to add to the fun and they really enjoyed that too (whew!! Hard to take baked goods to the expert! haha)

Maureen is one of those special people that make you feel like you have been friends for years after only meeting for 10 minutes! She has an infectious laugh and is full of energy!

She is always potting up and nurturing plants for the market… She sells them at super prices as she reasons that the more people getting into gardening, the better the world will be! (I happen to agree) 🙂

All sorts of fun things lurk about her garden

It would have been fabulous in spring!

I am quite inspired to get back into my garden now and put a bigger effort in!! I really enjoyed seeing what they had been doing and they were both so generous with their time and information sharing!
I hope you have enjoyed it too!

Cheers!

 

 

 

 

 

Hello! Monday has to be a great day when you pick 1.7kgs (3.7lb) of raspberries!
To be honest… I hadn’t gone down to the patch in a number of days because I thought they would be cactus with the amount of wind and rain we have had (except the last two days)
This was a pleasant surprise.
I have a taste for some of that banana-raspberry loaf, so I went down to the local fruit and veg shop to see what I could find

Yay!! Will smoosh and freeze most of this – and make my loaf!

In other pleasing garden news – my corn has started to do something!!!

Seems my self seeded tomatoes in one of the raised garden beds is really taking over the basil. Perhaps tomorrow I should stake it back. Looks healthy enough 🙂

One of my hebes has burst into flower! I love the colour!

The lions ear is also looking amazing… even one or two bees buzzing about! Despite all the amazing flowers we have, bees are hardly to be seen this season which is a huge worry! Very seriously contemplating a hive.

The chooks are doing well. Greedy as always… laying reasonably well.
This girl is funny – she does the ‘Squat-Waddle’ when I go near her – kinda crouches with her wings out and paddles her feet. I can’t resist giving her a pat while she immobilises herself!

We nearly lost her a few months back – I separated her and forced her to keep drinking… eventually she bounced back. Sometimes you have a win!

Hope your week starts fabulously!

Cheers

 

Hello! How is everyone’s weekend going?
Cousin Jeff dropped off a load of firewood yesterday, so thought I might stir myself and get it stacked. We figure its a good thing to slowly get properly stocked up over the summer months – so its not a rush when the weather changes and the job is harder in the mud and rain.

Our lovely new wheelbarrow (thanx Mum & Dad) made the job a doddle. It fits a lot in and the spongy proper tyre goes over the bumps with ease

So – while in the mood of flinging things about, I thought I should do something about those umpteen bags of seaweed

I like checking up on my outside tomatoes… I think all around there is a distinct lack of bees on the job this season. I have plenty of flowers on everything but the fruit isn’t happening as it should…

The outside beetroots are going along alright. Not quite as impressive as my hothouse one, but not bad!
They really needed thinning out and weeding… so I did

Some that I pulled up that looked promising got transplanted into the garlic patch. I just realised I forgot to water them in! Oopsie. Better do that first thing tomorrow!

Again it was BBQ steak, new potatoes and salad for dinner. It will be a while before we get sick of that menu!

Cheers