Month: November 2018

Hi! Well… I have a few things to squeeze in before heading out to Ballarat.
We decided that Pip needed a steroid injection since we are both usually needed to give him his daily tablet.
Luckily the vet was able to squeeze us in to give him his shot.
Poor Pip. One look at the cat carrier and he tried to hide in bed.
I got to the vets…he is all alert and wide eyed but calm enough considering.
Well… all that went pear shaped the second I went into the room and put his carrier on the table.
Oh dear.
I went to extract him and got hissed at in no uncertain terms. (Pip hissing at ME!!!) Hmmm…. so I move the cage at a better angle to get both hands/arms in to get a better hold and ease him out.
Oh no no nup nopety nope. We are not going to ease out and we are going to now proceed to yell the house down! He sounded like an alley-cat ready to take down a rottweiler! The vet is like ‘let me try’ and I am thinking, are you sure??? That sounds like a sure-fire shredding machine in there.  Have to give her a whole bundle of credit for sticking her hands in!!
There was an almighty hiss, yowl and what could only be described as a scream. (not from the vet thank-goodness!!)
I am checking her arms for blood as she took them out, asking her frantically if she was ok!!
Poor Pip is now wound up tight as a spring at the very back of his carrier.
Plan B.
Dismantle cat carrier.
Once Pip was exposed we just covered him with a towel while she got the needle ready. Still with the muffled hissing and yelling.
At least he knows how to share his feelings.

The vet was so good, she just got enough towel off to hold him by the scruff and quickly give him his needle then he was done. She thought she should try to check his tummy but the second she touched him again there was another series of awful howls. (Still under the towel!) We decided to give up right then, leave him tucked under his towel and reconstruct his carrier!!
Plus he made quite a dreadful smelly fluff, so thought it was best to exit stage left with my poor little Pip.

Guess how much that cost me? (Besides a bit of dignity)
$13.50!!! Aren’t my vets amazing?

I did feel so terrible for Pip. He was clearly frightened – he knows now a trip to the vet is an injection. We only do it if we have to go away. Normally we are fine with giving him his daily pill.
He has had lots of loves and cuddles today and I think he has forgiven me.

Then I had to recover!! haha

We did a bit more work on the fence and got a few panels on, dug some more holes and cemented more poles in.

I am glad we left this side until last… the step downs are significant with the slope, so happy we have had practice and more or less know what we are doing now.

The rope is keeping us in line.

I am really hoping we can finish this tomorrow!

Cucumbers are getting to be a good size! No tendrils yet though.

One of my hothouse cucumbers is growing nicely.
The other two lost their second leaves and are kind of doing not much… not sure how long to wait before replacing them

All 4 hothouse eggplants are doing pretty well.

And Tentacular is still being splendid!Look at all the fruit tucked away in there!!

I discovered my first snow peas today!! Reckon I’ll be munching on a few tomorrow!!

I mulched the zucchinis with grass clippings to smother the weeds and give them a chance with water retention. They are growing quite nicely… although I am nervous about the hungry night wildlife!

And look at all these cheeky tomatoes growing under the zucchini!!

Clumps of sunflowers that Emma planted for me!

And parsley going to seed everywhere!!

Bedtime for me!
Will leave you with a few snaps of my paper daisies that are looking quite pretty!
Enjoy the end of the week and have a fabulous weekend!
Cheers!

And today in Tasmania’s North West, we are back to sunshine and blue skies!! I swear someone sits up there flicking the weather switch!!

I am rather gloomy tonight. The lovely corn patch above has been decimated by a hungry rabbit. The photo was taken a week or so ago and had progressed even better than that. I was so happy with it!!!
I saw the evil ravager on the front lawn. It also dug up and ate my newly transplanted beetroot and a few lettuce seedlings for good measure.
I hope it gets a tummy-ache!!
I will dig up entire plot and resow. Not much is salvageable and I want them all to grow at the same rate.

In a small twist of irony, we started working on the last side of the fence.

This has suddenly become rather pressing and urgent!!
(Apart from the fact I am booked to fly out to the mainland to do some photography for a friend on Sunday  haha – nothing like squeezing in an extra job before our next visitor)

So I have a lot to sort out in the next 48 hours!

The butternut pumpkins have taken their sweet time to start producing new leaves after being transplanted. There is hope (And I am keeping them covered at night and will probably put a net over them eventually since they are in the duck yard garden.)

In much more cheerful news, the early purple garlic is starting to die off. So I had a little fossick about  in the dirt under the mulch to see if there were good sized bulbs.

I am a bit chuffed with these!! Looking really fab! I reckon by the time I get back home they might be ready for harvesting!!!

The white garlic are also going well but will need a bit of extra time to form up. They really haven’t started to die back yet.

Plums anyone?

Anyway, I need to go write a list of ‘things to achieve before Sunday morning’ (And before anyone thinks I am rather unorganised (ok, generally yes I am) but I only found out today that this was a thing.)
But thats my friend Rachel – we can be a little spontaneous!! At least next week that will make for a rather different blog story!!

Have a great day everyone! (Hope its naughty-rabbit-free)
I am off to dream about stewed corn-fed rabbit….

Cheers!

Well, I think I get to hang up the gloves for a while… at least when it comes to the raised beds.

I finished off building and filling the last two.
Now we just need to complete the last side of the garden fence and we have taken care of most of the major tasks. Its great having the extra room and I like the orderly (if slightly wonky) new beds.

The carrots are looking so great!
Lots of tomatoes hiding in this patch!

I actually took a lot of these seedlings out today – before they got too big and took over.

There are some really nice seedlings in here. I think I will put a number of them in the patch I cleared the other day up behind the rhubarb.

A number of my beetroot plants came up with two seedlings in one spot. I can only surmise I must have been drinking when planting the seeds!
Anyway, I dug up a number, separated them and replanted. The extras went into my new plot. And promptly fainted.

I am confident they will eventually perk up! (eep – I hope they do!!!)
The whole patch is now planted. Beetroot, a row of basil seeds, two rows of silverbeet (chard) and a couple of rows of the cos lettuce

It really doesn’t look exciting does it?? I do hope in a few weeks the updated photo will look a lot better
ooooo – and guess what I got in the mail?

A box of fabulous hand crafted ceramics from the one and only Mavis from One Hundred Dollars a Month!!!
Since I planted basil today I took the opportunity to mark the row in a more aesthetically pleasing way than a paddlepop stick with some pen scribble!
I have to get the herb garden tidied (and plant chives) so I can display the rest of the markers. There are also a few Christmas ornaments too so I am definitely putting up a tree this year!!
They look so amazing and I love them!!

The tomatoes from laterals are starting to look less wilted (yay)

And the L shaped patch! Actually I think I will be placing that big stump of wood in the crook of the L as an official place to sit and have lunch or a cuppa while I am working outside. I moved it a little bit since it was sitting in the way of this patch… yikes. Nearly did myself a mischief! Its insanely heavy. Best wait for Jeff to help me out there. (In the interests of me being able to walk again)
Anyway, I decided to give capsicum and eggplant a go in an outdoor garden since Tentacular has claimed most of the hothouse.

There are a few in the hothouse anyway, so will be interesting to see how they compare.

In this sideways H I have put rocket seed in.

At the lower corner I have put in marigold seeds and above right-ish I have planted cumin. No idea what to expect there. First time growing them

There is still a bit more space in this plot for something else if I think of that ‘something’
My list of food in the ground is actually now quite considerable.
I spent a lot of time watering everything, not to mention the covering up of so many plants as they get used to their new outdoors life.
Mind you, there is still lots to do, but apart from the last side of the fence, most of the critical stuff is done.

Hope your day has involved moving less bricks!!
Cheers

What is in the ground at our place?

Parsley (by the tonne!)
Oregano
Thyme
Lemon Balm
Rosemary
Cumin
Fennel
Basil
Zucchinis (4)
Strawberries
Cos lettuce
Snow peas
Tomatoes (everywhere)
Eggplant
Capsicum
Cucumber
Passionfruit
Chilli
Potatoes
Celery
Rhubarb
Corn
Asparagus
Beetroot
Carrot
Silverbeet (Chard)
Pumpkin (Large)
Butternut pumpkin
Watermelon
Rocket
Garlic
Raspberries
Plums
Apples
Cherries

Wow… I am a bit impressed actually! haha

G’day!! Quite a beautiful warm day out there today! A lot of it was spent running about moving ‘stuff’ for Jeff to get around the yard with the mower. I was also saving a lot of the clippings to use as mulch and in between doing other little tasks – like watering 🙂

We got ourselves down to the irrigation shop today to pick up three lengths of poly pipe to finally get those raspberries under cover!
Once the lawn was all trimmed back I banged in some steel droppers.

They make such a big beautiful frame!

There will be plenty of space for me under the netting this season!

We have resorted back to the original style of tent pegs and various lengths of timber to keep the netting down.
Happily the 10×10 metre net was absolutely perfect!

Even though the row on the right isn’t as fab looking as the left, there are still berries on the canes. I think they have done pretty well so far considering their move a couple of months back.

The chooks are another step closer to wider pastures! haha

While we had the trailer on, we stopped by the plant place and collected a load of topsoil/compost. I only got to finish filling this bed, but maybe tomorrow I will be able to plant something in it, then finish my L shaped bed!!

Well… thats me done for the day!
Cheers!

Hello!! My first lillium burst open!! Its a strange pale colour but still rather pretty!

I thought it was going to be all nice and sunny… so I went to tackle the wood pile… and it started to rain!

I didn’t really want to stack wet wood, so cooked up the chooks some spaghetti, since crook-chook still seems to like it.

Anticipation…

The newly planted corn seeds are up and looking sturdy quite quickly. I have a feeling I planted the others too early.

Later on in the evening it was really rather nice weather – I was going around watering my seedlings, then ended up on a bit of a weeding mission.

Reckon I could dig this up and think of something to plant here…

Anyway, its another couple of barrow loads of weeds not in my garden

I’ve had to replace a couple of these tomato plants. I suspect the blackbirds nipped a couple of them off and dug one up to boot!!
If it had of been a chicken or possum there would have been a lot more damage, so I am assuming blackbird!

Some of them are doing very well… and lucky I have PLENTY of extra tomato plants to replace everything twice over at least!

Putting the babies to bed!
The whole area is slowly taking shape but, as usual, things still need a lot of work. (And a thorough tidying up!!!)

Jeff has a couple of days off but not sure if we will get into finishing the fence or not. Will see how he shapes up and where his enthusiasm level lie!

I very very very very much need to sort out the netting… we nearly have pickable raspberries!! Mondays plan I think! (When the shop for the big polypipe is open)

Enjoy your weekend!!!
Cheers

These (above) plus Those (below) are destined for a milkshake. I think a perfect before bed snack…

Today the wind and rain quit howling and carrying on, so I abandoned inside domestics and played about outside.

I chose 8 of the best performing Black Russian tomato laterals to put in my new raised bed.

Probably slightly squashy but not too bad

I took the lower leaf off and planted them fairly deep.
Within an hour they were all looking so woebegone!!! Never mind. They usually perk up within a day or two (hopefully)

I was in the middle of planting some other tomatoes and a couple of new Jehovah Witness ladies turned up! The younger lady was all keen to give me a card with a number so I could call to find out more, (because I have so much spare time) but I forestalled her with ‘Sorry (yes I tend to appologise) but I don’t believe in the supernatural’
Surprisingly she gave right up on the spot and said ‘Oh ok, we’ll get out of your way then.’ So I kept them around for a bit longer to chat about gardens because thats what happens to people when they enter my space. 😀
Mind you, I sent them on their way with a big bunch of parsley and no hard feelings 😀
Anyway, back to my dirt!

I was pretty happy with my brick garden idea, so I made another one!
This one I filled with mostly my own compost and a bit of the post hole soil and topped with mushroom compost.

I wanted a space for some pumpkins… and because I like living on the edge – I am trying watermelons again!

I figure I can train them to grow and run about in the places I want them to go. We shall see…

I gave Tentacular a bit of a trim, watered some stuff, did random weeding, replaced a couple of the poorer performing yellow tomato seedlings and fed the chooks spaghetti.
Remember I said we had a chicken that wasn’t doing well? I have been trying to get her to eat for ages… she was just sitting about fluffed up, puts herself to bed about an hour before the other girls. She’s not so tame so won’t eat out of my hand and if I throw her special food she is so slow and ‘meh’ that the other greedy girls come and guff it. Separating her didn’t work either. I thought we might have to… you know.
Anyway… I found something she really goes for!! Spaghetti!! ?? So I cooked up a big pot, put in some stock for flavour and have been putting it all around and she actually runs to try to get in and snatch some. She’s not out of the woods yet, but its a definite improvement.
Tomorrow I need to cook up some more for them!

Last on my list was trimming the oregano and filling the net herb dryer!
Honestly… I picked so much and the patch doesn’t look at all like its been touched!

It can just hang there for a while and do its thing!
Anyway, I am thinking about that milkshake!!
Hope your week ends fantastically!!
Cheers

Funny weather. Yesterday was as gorgeous as the day before was miserable. Today it dove back into rain and cold! I ended up deciding I had no good excuses not to stay inside and attend to some housework. I suppose it has to be done sometime!

Tentacular is due for another trim. He just keeps getting wilder. At the moment he grabs my hair when I am walking about in the hothouse!
On the upside… seems to be lots of fruit which I am mega-excited about!

Lots are small and just starting but there are some good sized ones in there too!

Getting in and out of the hothouse is becoming more of a challenge!

Seeing a lot more flowers on the tomato plants… but no baby tomatoes as yet.

Both lots of laterals I had in a jar are doing rather well. Time to plant out!

I think I am seeing daily changes in the cucumbers too

This little plot is looking pretty good. I am hoping I have bought my last lettuce for the season… (Maybe?)

Also pleased to finally see some snow pea flowers!

Plenty of baby apples on the trees

The sunflower seeds that Emma planted the other day have popped up too!!

I took advantage of the sunshine yesterday to do a bit of a tidy up in the main garden. The corn I think is woefully slow. I might just be being impatient. Still, I gave it a good weeding.

I had left the second snow pea patch a bit long… the plants were a bit tangled in the net. Hopefully they will grab on to the rebar and get going again.
I weeded the rest of this patch (again!!) Still no idea what to do with all those self seeded tomatoes.

The celery is going to seed so I took a heap of stalks off to cut and freeze for later use.

At the end of the day I got a bee in my bonnet about making a new garden bed. I haven’t seen the fellow at the market for ages who I wanted to buy new beds off… so I thought I might make one out of bricks.
We got a load of free bricks an eon ago and they really haven’t been put to much use yet.

I didn’t quite finish the job as it was getting late in the day, but I need to put another barrow load of mushroom compost in it (at least). I used a lot of the soil that we dug up when digging post holes for the fence. (Lucky our topsoil is deep)
I have plans to put those laterals in here… Think I might be able to squeeze in eight of them!

The paper daisy plants I put in a while ago are looking really sweet!

Anyway, it sounds a bit wild out there but tomorrow could easily be a beautiful sunny day. Always the surprise here (especially if you don’t bother looking at the forecast!)
Have a lovely day everyone!
Cheers!