Month: October 2018

Spring is so great! One day, buds. The next? Flowers!
Here’s hoping we will get lots of apples again this upcoming season!
I went off to the doctors surgery today to get my (slightly late) B12 injection.  While I was in the mood for getting stabbed, I asked to get my calcium checked again as I was a little dubious about it being ok. So I offered up some blood 🙂

Jeff did a bit more clearing and burning. It was pretty overcast today, but not much rain, so we thought we would just go for it and put in some posts.

We only had enough cement for three posts, but it was a good start – since we are kinda feeling our way with this project.
The chooks are constantly inspecting our work.
Then they go off for a smoko.

While we were waiting for the first post to set in its cement, I did a little sorting of the back area to the wood pile.

These before photos are a little embarrassing. I have let things get so out of control this year. I am tempted to show you just the cleaned up versions 😀
Oh well… its just life isn’t it? And at least we are working on all the terrible bits to make it better again!

The little bit of wood I moved cleared the path down by the shed so thats helpful. Will do some more of this tomorrow if its not pouring.
Am doubly keen to get my garden shed up.
Did I tell you I bought a shed?? I have yet to decide where it is going to go, but I am excited about it so I can put ALL gardening related tools/objects in one place.
Another job on that List!!

Some of the seedlings are looking like they are about ready to go out!! Argh! Suddenly I am going to have to find and prep space for zucchinis and pumpkin!! (Scribbles frantically on List)

I hoed my potatoes today! They are almost all up now! I won’t get around to mounding them up but I am considering seeing if I can actually mulch them this season for once!

The first lot of snow peas look happy. I have them under a net because a few of them got eaten! So much so I wasn’t sure if it was a possum or enormous snails. So to cover all bases, I netted them and chucked a bit of snail bait down. Turns out it was enormous snails!! Will remove net soon.

Rhubarb already massive!

Suddenly I noticed iris spears!! I love these flowers. They are so elegant! I enjoy having a big vase of them on the dining room table

And of course the cherry blossom continues to make the whole front yard look magnificent!

Hope your day was great too!
Cheers

 

Hello hello!! How was everyone’s weekend?
Monday now done and dusted and got a bit further in the yard clean up.

Not long ago I was whinging about the never ending rain! Look at the ground cracking already!! There has been daily forecasts for rain, but all we get are cloudy skies and wind! But it is warmer! Tonight was the first night we didn’t bother with lighting a fire!!

Yesterday Jeff mowed all the lawns down the back and tidied things up a bit while I looked forlornly at the duck yard garden!!
I took out some of the bigger thistles and weeded the garlic (which is somehow looking great) but will take on board readers advice, slash the lot and cover with cardboard/newspaper and cover with pea straw. The pea straw won’t be available for a while so I might start with some seaweed and maybe grass clippings. I just thought a big bale or two of pea straw would be more time efficient than multiple trips to the beach for seaweed.

As I just mentioned, the garlic looks great! But the plots I noticed very dry when I was weeding them so I put the sprinklers on them for a good soaking.

I baked the chooks a cake!! I had some lard leftover from some cooking so I heated that and mixed in the rolled oats. I also whizzed up a lot of scraps – including some ham, broccoli, bread scraps.

Anticipation was high

And I think I got approval all around!

More pretty things blooming

I think this butternut pumpkin sprout looks like it is singing!

I am excited to see the apple trees are about to blossom!

The cherry plums are getting fatter!

Guess who popped in today!!??
Ruby was down to one egg which was cramping her baking style – so I loaded them up with a dozen and also offloaded some asparagus, rhubarb, parsley and some snow pea seedlings!

We’ll have to go down for a proper cuppa again soon. At the time they dropped in Jeff was halfway to China trying to extract one of the steel droppers

haha – nice undies Jeff!! 😛
Honestly… it took him over an hour to dig down enough to get it up. It went deeper than pictured in the end. We both put our weight behind it to pull it up finally!

Jeff then spent the rest of the afternoon pulling out the bottom section of the old garden fence. Fiddly job with the wire (some salvaged) and the steel droppers although none were as hard work as the one above.
The back is looking better and better!

I decided to keep the two poles. I will run some wire between them and plant some runner beans. The poles are solid – might as well make good use of them where they are.

And what was I doing while Jeff was laboring away?
Digging a trench…

This is the start of the new fence. I needed to get a surface that was reasonably level. Up the top end its a bit deep, but gets less as it moves down. I had the spirit level out to get it mostly even.
The pesty little chooks had a marvellous time!!
Every time I turned my back they were in my trench and kicking dirt back into it in the quest for worms and bugs!

I dug up a lot of ‘treasures’. I am a bit sad we haven’t come across anything really cool – like a tin box with jewellry in it for example.

Got high hopes to cement in the first of the posts tomorrow.

The day was getting on, so we packed up the tools and did a lap around the river track (a shade over an hours hike)
I confess I am really really really sore tonight!! The bending and digging must be responsible…
Should have seen me try to get off the couch after dinner! Hilarious! Very dramatic!

Speaking of dinner – check out these little beauties!! Remember those two potatoes I found back in June and I just popped them in the ground in the hothouse? I dug the entire plants up today.
New potatoes in October!! Heaven!

Anyway, I need to puddle away and get into bed. Apparently I am on chicken wake-up call duty tomorrow.
Have a fabulous day!
Cheers!

 

Lets start with something pretty!! Kirrily very good naturedly let me drag her off for a snap in front of the cherry blossoms when she got home from work today! Poor thing hadn’t even gotten into the house yet!

Jeff and I braved town today – tulip festival was on so there were a ton of cars and people in tiny little Wynyard today. We didn’t go join in… we were just trying to escape from the supermarket. We also picked up some more supplies for our fence.

We then did a two hour hike around Anniversary Bay because it had been a while and we needed to stretch our legs!! I didn’t get the camera out, but you know what it looks like anyway 🙂

I turned this mess into the less mess below (Jeff also helped with some of the weeds!)

Even a small part cleared up really gives me a boost and makes me keen to get on with all this! Although rain is forecast so we might not be cementing any posts in tomorrow!

Jeff spent some time filling the kindling box with thin split wood – It smells amazing!! And it burns like a demon! Because its still green and full of resin, it really boosts up the fire!!

He also found something we thought quite amazing… he uncovered one of the steel droppers from the pallet fence. You can see side by side an untouched dropper- the sheer force of the tree falling on it has driven it so far into the ground we will need a backhoe to uncover it!!! The one beside it has been hammered in by us and is in a fair way but it blew us away to see how far in the other one was!

Well… time to put Pip to bed and me to follow suit (except I won’t sleep in the laundry)

Hope your weekends are fabulous!
Cheers

Wall Fruit for the chooks!
I found all these living in my sweet peas!!! (She says a little bit indignantly!)
The girls were very excited to get a plate of slimy crunchy goodness!!

At least there are patches in here that actually look like I mean to have a garden!
Today we drove up the highway to pick up 20 sheets of corrugated iron and a couple of gates – also some wire.
Tomorrow hope to get some posts and cement as I would really like to make an actual start!
I settled for roping out the entire proposed boundary.

I did start pulling up this fence but didn’t get so far. Maybe tomorrow. The first gate I want at the top here… thats a bit of an issue as there is a lemon tree right there at the entrance. But really – it hasn’t done anything in the several years that its been there… so… maybe its time to give up on it.
Sigh… I know its going to look better soon. Everything is so manky tho!

I whacked in a few steel droppers to outline with rope the area. Gave me a good sense of how much space I will be getting!! (You know, because I can totally keep up with what I have already!!!)(not)

I think I will be filling the area bit by bit with raised beds and killing off the grass. But in the meantime, the garden will be accessible to the mower to keep it under control as I get organised as we won’t be able to afford to do it all at once.

Anyway, I suspect with one thing and another, we have a busy summer ahead!
Hope everyone has fabulous weekend plans!

Cheers!

(Pear blossoms)

Another day – another plot!! 😀
I weeded & ‘cleaned’ out the dirt from the crushed raised bed and topped this one up.

It was a bit of a slow job, but worth saving the decent soil.

I got some sticks out of the big kindling box and a garden stake to make a nice neat plot – as opposed to my usual helter-skelter approach.

Liking it!

(So grubby!) I put in 4 rows of carrots and the rest in beetroot.
I also left a space at the end for a few more snow peas

I’ll put a little trellis at the end there once they grow up a bit.
To finish it off I salvaged the netting supports and popped the net over the plot. Because, you know, chickens!!!

Tomorrow I am hoping we get to drive over to Shearwater and pick up some fencing supplies. The start of the garden fence!
I have to remeasure and check their stock and how much we can fit in our trailer as I think I need about 20 sheets of corrugated iron!
Here is my plan…
This is sketch of how fence was before tree crushing.

I figured since we were making a new fence I might as well expand and put in a few more gates… gates that are wide enough for a wheelbarrow!!
Move the compost up against the shed and make three bays, and fill extra space with more raised beds.

I’ll do another sketch soon to explain how I want to build the fence. Basically it will be tin at the bottom and chicken wire at top. I think it will look better than what I just made it sound like!! 😀
Have a great Friday!!
Cheers!

Hello!
How is your week going?
The cherry blossom has started fluffing out its flowers! In for a pretty few weeks ahead.

Time to make another plot. Just taking out bite sized pieces to work on otherwise I will just not get anything done or planted.
(Check out the size of that rhubarb already!!!)

This little staked out section I earmarked for some corn. Naturally I want a lot more than this, but it seemed like a good start.

As well as the weeds and leftover Macrocarpa branches and seeds, I dug up a lot of parsley. In the past it hasn’t transplanted happily… but I might try. I don’t know why. I have more parsley than you can point a stick at!

And a lot of worms!!

I got a nice little spot cleared, made some rows and got my seed.

The advantage of breaking it up into sections is that I will have done ‘stagger planting’ Yay me!

I also took out the crushed runner bean trellis. Soon I need to be pulling up all the fencing so we can start again. Don’t know why I have the fences anyway. I spent most of the day throwing chooks back over it. And one is a bit bitey and drew blood from my arm!! Charming creature! Amazing how strong their beaks are! She was probably the one that bit me the other night when I had to go find her. I now have chook-bruises!!
Ahhhh the perils of country living! Its not all sunshine and raspberry jam you know…

Pulled a bucket full of twitch back out of this plot! Then raked all the soil up one end as much as possible. Planning to weed and move the cleaned soil from the crushed bed to top this one and the other raised bed up.
I think I’d like to put the beetroot and carrots in here. The seeds need to go in soon and since this bed is nearly ready… seems like a sound plan.

Back in the hothouse, the zucchini and cucumbers are looking fine!
I even have a tomato up!

I’ve not grown cumin before – but its spindly little sprouts have appeared.

Some other things have started to show but I failed to get decent photos.
Some basil, watermelon, capsicum… its nice to see things appearing.

Not long before some of my lettuce will be able to go out!

Very excited to see a LOT of passionfruit flowers!! I will be ecstatic if I get heaps of fruit this season! Plus the flowers are so pretty when they bloom.

The Geum are starting to flower too so it will be looking very cute and cottage garden around here.

I had my stall out the front again.
Good news: Sales were up. $10 today.
Average news: Just sold two dozen eggs to the same fellow so no seedlings sold. 🙁 Oh well…

Hope your day was fabulous! Time for bed for me!

Cheers

 

Look at the jobs waiting for me!!!
I had a lovely week with my friend, Cherie! Its always fun catching up with people you haven’t seen in an eon!
I drove up to Launceston yesterday to drop her off at the airport, so it was a long days driving – a few fun stops on the way too.

Back to staring at the garden!!
I wrote a looooong list of things I really need to get into!

I started today by – sleeping in!
Then I figured I’d put some stuff out the front to sell.

Er… not the best choice of day. The wind was diabolical! (At least it helped the laundry… two loads dry in a flash!)
Still… Made eight bucks! Yay. On my way.

I’ll wait and see what the wind is doing tomorrow before putting it back out again. Hopefully it will have calmed down.
I worked outside all afternoon and the constant wind makes me quite skittish.

So – the other half of the strawberry patch! Ugh. What a mess. The sorrel really took over. I heard it likes an acidic soil too so I am not going to use the pine needle mulch this time.
It took ages to separate the strawberry plants and painstakingly pick up the occasional exploding balls of oxalis!
Maybe tomorrow I will dig through the compost and replant the strawberries.

I now have 9 trays of strawberry plants!

Bedtime for me!!
I have plenty more on my list to tackle tomorrow!

Cheers!

I have named the passionfruit vine ‘Tentacular’
Clearly I still have not done anything about its wandering ways!
In the other corners of the hothouse, seedlings are doing well

Some of the cos lettuce is developing well!

A bit slower in the egg cartons

Of my new seeds, something has appeared! A cucumber and almost a zucchini!

Outside, the potatoes continue to pop up.

Oddly enough, its been a bit dry here so I may even have to water these!!

The pear tree has some lovely blossoms this spring!

The cherry blossom is so close to blooming!

Most things are on the cusp

Other flowers are properly doing their thing!

Tomorrow’s plan is to drive Cherie up to Launceston to catch her plane. We want to stop in to some places on the way, so heading out after brekkie is what we are aiming for!
Then I probably have a full week of frantic gardening ahead!

Time for bed! Hope your weekend has been spectacular!
Cheers!

End of the road for my tulips!!