Wind Break

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I think I should have taken a lot more flower photos today. A lot more. Cheerful ones. Note to self. Take a bunch tomorrow. ๐Ÿ™‚

Anyway, today we got a job done that I have been wanting to do for ages… put the shade cloth back up at the front of the vegie patch to give the plants a bit of relief from the wind.

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The wind can really howl across this area

Today we cut the shade cloth into sections so we could pull it taut better instead of one long length which we have done in the past.

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Stage one done

On advice from a cousin a while back, when we attach plastic sheeting or shade cloth to something (or anything similar) we use polypipe and wide headed screws to fasten the whole thing.

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Very simple, cheap and effective

We attached the plastic to the hothouse about 4 years ago in the same way and never had a problem with it. At first I thought we would use thin strips of wood and nail in, but the polypipe better for a few reasons. It doesn’t rot like wood eventually would. Its cheap, and you can just cut the lengths with a knife as you go – so minimal waste. Really easy to handle (flexible!)

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Another tick off my long list!

 

Yesterday I cleared out the weeds & tidied my herb garden!

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I evicted many snails

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Everything growing happily and madly

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I found this old pot (Bottomless) on one of our hikes and lugged it back. Now filled with soil, mushroom compost and thyme seeds.

More ticks off the list.

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Annoying photo, but another patch of corn in today.
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This is also a lame photo, but I also planted a row of scarlett runner beans in here in the hope they will use the fence to climb up on.
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Corn making noticeable progress

Wind is still constant, which is drying the soil out… used my sprinklers today and attached to the bore and gave everything a decent soaking.

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We (mostly Jeff) did a lot of burning off today – lots of scraps and weeds

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Aeration at the bottom is a good thing, but reckon this drum is about at the end of its lifespan.
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Bad chook on wrong side of the fence! (She knows she is in trouble, as she is dashing off!)

I did quite a few other odds and sods today – weeded at Ruby’s, started cleaning out the hothouse etc. We didn’t get inside until about 7.30pm tonight!! I think I am about ready for bed!

Hope your day was ย a good one

Cheers

 

 

Ruby Tuesday – Garden Update

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Ruby pleased with her potatoes progress!

Hello!

Today I took Ruby to see the Doc – just a dressing change on her troublesome foot (not that it seems to slow her up much)

I stopped in for a cuppa & a chat, where we talked about our gardens and had a small whinge about the never ending wind! ๐Ÿ˜€

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Ruby is thrilled with her roses which are budding up and blooming

After our drinks, I said I was going to whip about the garden with my camera. Well, Ruby wasn’t going to let me go alone!! She practically bounced out of her chair, grabbed her walking stick and off we went.

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All the essential plants are in – mostly.

Ruby has spent some time weeding and clearing out bits and pieces in the hothouse

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Most of the tomatoes in here are ones that she kept going over winter!

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This is the lettuce that she raids a couple of leaves off each night for a sandwich! Ruby likes to cook herself a lunch, then she has something light for dinner.

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We have a couple of decent days coming up – may be able to get a few hours done in Ruby’s garden – take care of some weeds and plant out the zucchinis.

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As I mentioned above, Ruby is really happy with her first lot of potatoes. She gets up here and runs a hoe through the rows now that they are big enough she can see well enough to know what she is doing.

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The strawberries are starting to flower

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The Christmas Peas are trundling along well

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Everywhere you look there is colour and garden activity

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Ruby said she was convinced she was going to lose the big Gilder Rose tree – the wind had it bent almost double!! But no, it hung on and there are even some flowers left.

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Despite being 100 – Ruby still reckons that if you really want to do something, you’ll find a way. This bowl of flowers for example. ย There was another plant in it not so long ago. It got some disease and died. Ruby, afraid it might spread, decided it had to be emptied into the paddock compost straight away.

This is a heavy container full of dirt – but she managed to get the wheelbarrow around, then manhandled the pot into it, before emptying it up at the compost! Sometimes I am a little horrified that she just doesn’t ask me to do some of these things – I am in every other day!! ย She just grins and does what she wants!!

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Have a lovely day everyone!

Cheers

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Enjoying her hothouse!

 

 

Yay – Corn!

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Yes, I know thats not corn

Hello – late notes from me. Last night WordPress was having a hissy fit about uploading photos so I gave it up and went to bed. Mind you – most of the day was about housework so its not like I had mega-exciting stories for you.

Except the corn…I was pretty excited to go down to the plot yesterday afternoon and see lots of little corn spikes poking up!!

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Amazing since the day before I went over that area with a fine tooth comb and there was nothing showing at all!! ย I also went down in the misty rain last night to make sure there wasn’t a lot of snails/slugs hanging about.

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Need a home in the outside gardens soon!

So pleased that these tomatoes from seed haven’t died!! First time I have gotten seed this far from tomatoes!!

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Anyway – I have to go and decide what to do with the day – gloomy and VERY soggy out there today. I can’t say I am inspired to do much at all!!

Hope your day is great!

Cheers

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Endings and beginnings

Worm Food

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Juicing!

Finally got around to juicing a good number of Ruby’s lemons. Will freeze for later use. ย Those, plus some oranges and other general scraps got put through the gee-whizzer to give to the worms. (Its not just the cat and chickens around here that get spoiled)

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Three of these containers went into the compost – happy worms

Breaking down the compost scraps has really moved the whole composting task along so well. I gave them a bit of a stir with the pitchfork and it looks so beautiful! (If rotting food, mud and worms could look beautiful, then I’ve nailed it!!)

I tried to take a photo of the wind for you today.

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Probably not very successful.

But blah!! It was so uncomfortable outside – the wind was literally pushing me off balance out there. Funnily enough all those cups didn’t get blown into the next paddock – just a few other seedling covers had to be re positioned

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I suppose its hard to see all the lettuce being blown back!!
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A line up at the nesting box – I didn’t fill the other two spots with hay because they all insist on laying in the same one! (and I am short of hay)

I gave up later in the afternoon, came inside and indulged in playing my old X-Box!! Pitfall Harry – Intrepid Jungle Explorer! (We all have to have our little vices don’t we??)

Hope your weekend weather is much nicer than ours wherever you are!

Cheers!!

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Rainbow Chard – after being ravaged by chickens.

End of Another Week

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The chooks spent a lot of time huddling today!

Friday comes around pretty smartly doesn’t it?? I think I ended my week with a whimper rather than a bang.

I ended up in the garden, just pottering about. Put the water on the corn patch (that nothing has happened in) despite the call for rain. Its the wind that dries off the soil, so thought it best to err on the side of caution and water everything. (And yes its not just raining right now, its pelting down! ๐Ÿ™‚ )

Remember this?

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It now looks like this (or half of it anyway)

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Basil! The start of my pesto project.

You should have seen the snails! (Oh thats right, you can)

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Actually these were yesterdays snails. I had heaps and heaps more today

The chickens got quite the feast of broccoli-fattened escargot!

I ended up buying two packs of plastic drinking cups… which really actually goes against my grain because I am not fond of disposables and we really try to limit our use of plastics. ย But I really needed to get a bunch of little seedlings in the ground – it is the last month of spring after all – and I didn’t have enough containers to cover them. ย The cups were the perfect size for the little seedlings – give them some wind protection at the very least, and hopefully against pests too.

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I mixed in a heap of mushroom compost into the other raised bed and put in another lot of the heirloom capsicums. I am not sure how they will go outside, but I have some in the hothouse in case these are too miserable to produce fruit.

For the first time I took time to mound up the earth around a few of the potato plants to see what happens

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Overall I am really happy with how the potatoes are looking!

I have also noticed a bit of a surge in snow pea growth (I am SURE I have) since putting up the wind break for them

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Still no flowers

I was excited to see finally a few bean sprouts pushing up through the soil

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The apple cucumbers look sturdy enough but I am not seeing massive size changes yet

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Same with the pumpkin and zucchini in the duck-yard. Happy enough but not getting bigger. ย I suspect we will really benefit from a good week or so of steadily warm weather (‘we’ – meaning the plants AND me!!)

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They still get tucked into bed each evening

The silverbeet I transplanted in early September has done well

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Two months ago
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The lettuce didn’t make it, but the silverbeet is happy. (I added a few basil plants to see if they would grow here too)

Anyway, the wind was really crazy this afternoon and I finally gave up and came inside to peace and quiet! I just checked the forecast for tomorrow – showers and windy! Sigh. The rest of the week seems to be partly rainy/cloudy. ย I think I should plan to crochet ๐Ÿ™‚

Have a great weekend everyone – hope you have some grand plans!

Cheers

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Rhubarb quietly doing its thing (I love the way the leaves unwrinkle!)

Digging, Planting & Mowing

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Say hi to one of our garden spiders!!

Sorry – thought I would digress from boring you with flower photos all the time ๐Ÿ™‚

Quite a big day in the garden again – I am waiting for my electric blanket to heat up then I am going to be so happy to crawl in to bed!

Jeff’s OCD about the un-mown lawn got the better of him, so he concentrated on manicuring the place

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Fond farewell to my daisies… never mind. I bet they are back in under a week!

I, on the other hand, decided to start doing something about the garden in front of the pallet fence

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Yesterday I picked up a trailer load of mushroom compost
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Today I started divvying it out
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A number of things in pots had been there far too long
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I found a little lavender bush (front left) and running up the right are portulaca
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I have been looking for a spot to let a hydrangea go mad. This is it.
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My cousin Fiona gave me this. Going to now have to ask her again what ‘this’ is!! ๐Ÿ™‚
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Jeff finished making the front of the house tidy

I moved on to the empty garden by the back veranda

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Slightly neglected
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Mushroom compost and a few more seedlings – hopefully wont take long to look a bit more impressive
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You can see the sweet pea growing up pretty well… will be nice when things start flowering. Strawberries look happy too

Meanwhile, Jeff has finished the back and started clearing out weeds between the Lions Ear bushes

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Lion’s ear. Free – the one at the front of the house self seeds well and they are easy to transplant and really hardy. Eventually I would like to trim them square – kinda hedge like…

And what treasures did I dig up today? The usual glass & crockery, the obligatory nail and most excitingly – a pair of scissors!!

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While I was watering and covering my seedlings back up, Jeff arrived on the scene with a pathetic bundle of fuzz. The blackbirds think nesting in our light fittings in the carport is the best place to bring up a family. This little baby took a tumble.

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Now all of you in the know about blackbirds in Australia and pest species etc etc please look away now.

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Very unsure whether this was a good idea – the parents won’t like the smell of human… But Jeff wasn’t going to start chewing up worms to feed baby birds, so chances had to be taken!

And one more creature from today… I went looking for a flower and found a dragonfly

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Anyway, it was nice to get some of the non-food related gardens sorted out.

I reckon my bed will be nice and warm by now!

Cheers!

PS Occasional Extras on my Facebook Page

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Whitewashing The Chicken Coop!

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Look what finally bloomed today!! Thought it would be nicer to start with an image of that rather than my grotty chicken coop!

It was really past time to clean it out – so after running about with several errands in town, I got home and into the gardening clothes to make a start.

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Blah!

Safety first – all that chook-poo dust and following using lime, best find a mask…

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I have been dying for a reason to use this! (Yeah – I amuse myself)

Took a bit of digging and scraping to get the coop back to some semblance of reasonable. The main compost got a boost of poo & hay!

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The whitewash is easy to make – one part lime to two parts water. Apparently you can put salt in it too, but I didn’t bother.

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It goes on really thin – its amazing how much it whitens when dry!

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Door, not done, wall done but not dry
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Door and wall done and dry!! Difference!
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A work in progress… but I didn’t finish the whitewashing today

Even though I still have more to do, at least its been cleaned out. The whitewash helps kill mites and other bugs. I put a load of fresh hay in – it took theย chickens a couple of hours but they had kicked half of it out the door by the time I went to lock them up!! Little snots!

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Much improved

I like adding fresh herbs to the coop and nest when I have lots.

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Like a herb potpourri

Jeff said its like we are pre-seasoning them! ๐Ÿ˜€

Ruby told me she got into trouble for whitewashing the dunny (toilet) when she was a young teenager. Apparently painting it bright white was a no-no as going to the loo was all very hush hush in those days – the toilet out the back needed to be discreet!

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Anyway, it was messy and fun and the chooks looked fabulous tonight up on their roost – all the black ones standing out beautifully against the white backdrop! Will have to take a snap of them tomorrow!

Hope you have had a great day too!

Cheers

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Rocks & Seaweed

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An indoor day for Pip

Hello – I didn’t catch up with Ruby today, but I will tomorrow, so hang tight, belated Ruby Tuesday coming.

Cousin Jeff dropped in with a ute full of rocks!! Cooooool!

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During some work with his Pop, Cousin Jeff came across a farmers rock-stash and asked him what he was going to do with his pet rocks ๐Ÿ™‚ Happily for us, they wanted to get rid of them!

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Of course its so tempting to dive right in and start a new project straight away… but some grain of common sense filtered through my brain and I left them well alone for now.

I went about town and delivered 4 dozen eggs. It was an off and on again rainy day, but in the end, a longย ‘off phase’ let me get a start on the raspberries. (Right now its bucketing down again!)

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Lots of weeds/grass growing unchecked in among my beloved raspberries

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I must say this was a tough job today – but only because of the wind! It was hideous! Does anyone else get totally skitty when working in howling wind all day?? It was driving me doo-lally!

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One side done

Luckily the seaweed was fairly wet, so it didn’t just blow away as soon as it was out of the bag… keeping the newspaper that is underneath in place was a challenge! I might have said one or two swear words today…

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Its a pretty thick layer – should kill the grass and slow the weeds

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Its not finished – I ran out of seaweed (and patience)

I am sure I will get back to the beach within the next week to stock up and finish the job. Just happy I made a good start.

I then took pity on my poor little snow peas! I had tied them back to try to get them to latch on to the rebar and grow up – but the wind was whipping through them like nothing else, so I found a bit of scrap shade cloth and made a bit of a wind break for them. It made an instant difference – they ceased getting flung all over the place! Now maybe they can concentrate on growing up and producing some flowers!

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Small thing – big difference!

Hope your day was (or will be) excellent

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Some of the cherry plums still hanging on despite the wind!