Hello!! Just a sneak peak of a few photos. I am very ready for bed! But wanted to share a snippet of our day!
We want to climb and hike in a number of different places in Tassie over the summer season. Today we drove down to Mt Murchison – then hiked up! I’ll delve into the full story tomorrow (probably haha) It was a tough climb – relentlessly up, unstable underfoot and we lost the track a few times!
BUT – it was stunningly beautiful and worth the sweat and aching muscles. The views were amazing and all the little shrubs and plants were so enjoyable to walk through.
After a couple of hours climbing – we spotted the trig point! The end was in sight!
Anyway – I am looking forward to a nice long sleep and will attack the photos tomorrow and hopefully come up with a story too! Sure made a difference from digging in the garden!
Hi!! Here we are mid week. Thought the weather might be a bit dodgy this morning but it turned out pretty nice! Got a lot of planting done.
I got 50 potatoes planted in here! I promptly mulched because I don’t want those awful weeds to come rampaging straight back.
Jeff did a lot of work along the fence, pulled back the rebar and guttering (?) and got all the big weeds out that were impossible to get to. The chooks had a splendid time ‘helping’
See all the logs of wood? Jeff was filling in some holes with dirt and as fast as he filled them, the girls dug them out with delight! There might have been a few swear words involved haha
Finally finished filling this little bed. Planted it with my collected seeds. Its got sweet pea up the back – with the idea for them to climb the fence. Marigolds down each side and down the middle sections. Rocket all along the front and sunflowers in the midde. Hope that all turns out well! Now… to wait!
The garden beds that have had the conditioned straw in them have lovely soil… so I have high hopes. Planted out the Golden Nugget pumpkins. (Small and yellow ones I think – first time to grow)
And in the interests of having more pesto than one can point a stick at… more basil.
Of course all the new seedlings were tucked up in their bottles for the night
Mulched the zucchinis
Oh – I also planted some nasturtiums in the big Hugelkultur bed. Hopefully soon the butternut pumpkins will be ready to go out there too.
More rocket seeds developing and the bees love this patch.
Dill!! In the herb spiral!! Very exciting times!
The promise of a strawberry!
Liliums about to flower I think!
Anyway, got a big day planned tomorrow so better scoot off to bed. Cheers!
This was the patch I’ve been procrastinating about. I knew it was going to be no fun to dig. I considered making a no-dig garden but I am running out of straw and new soil…. so… Flex the muscles and call in the husband! Jeff helped me out here which was great. Lots of twitch in here as well as a heap of grass clumps that had no intentions of coming out quietly! For a relatively small area – it took a LONG time. The soil is actually rather nice – big improvement on when we first started using the area a few seasons back. I reckon the potatoes will do well in here.
Apart from general watering etc, I didn’t have the oomph left to do any other gardening. So I went inside and made soap – another two batches. Yesterday I made a double batch of the cedar and saffron – its so lovely. Today I unmoulded the dragonfly ones – leaving them an extra day made a difference in the ease of getting them out too.
Such pretty swirls! I am addicted to cutting the loaf soaps haha
I had enough mixture to make a few of the square soaps too.
Hello! What a contrast in weather today! I probably got sunburnt! Glorious! Didn’t do the gardening I failed to do yesterday…
Jeff got stuck in with the chainsaw and axe and cut a lot more wood. I moved a lot of it. We also finished off our day with a lap around the river track too! I might hurt now. 😀
The wood pile still growing. The big logs at the front left for splitting later.
I thought I would start to put together feed bags full of chunky awkward offcuts to set aside then sell as campfire wood once dry.
I filled the big box in the bbq area today – which freed up another pallet to store the bigger wood. Then of the wood that Jeff split today, the drier stuff I stored on the back veranda –
We don’t have a fire every night now – Pip is not pleased since he gets deprived of the warm towel!! But we have about run out of dry wood so it was nice to have another small stock ready for those cold snaps
The heavier wood I just stored under the roof of the hothouse.
I did a little bit of gardening… very excited to plant something in the Huggle Monster at last! My apple cucumber seedlings were not progressing in their pots – time to go out. I put some of that lovely composted straw down first before topping with a bit of the soil mix and planting the seedlings into it.
They got a bit of a watering and of course, covered up this evening. I am really hoping I get some success here – I enjoy trying new things and these have been a long time in the making. The idea will be for the seedlings to spread out and cover the mound.
I’ll continue at times to top up the Hugelkultur beds with compost, manure and straw.
Very excited to discover carrot and beetroot seedlings today!
So far so good on the zucchini’s
Still no second potato patch dug, but these guys are looking happy.
Can you see a little splash of blue sitting on top of my snow pea branch trellis? A lovely wren sat there are tweetled his heart out! His crest was all up too! A few hen-wrens came around attracted to his songs! Was really lovely!
My poor neglected wisteria has some flowers!
The plum trees are amazing! Can’t wait!
I am not sick of standing under the fluffy cherry blossoms and enjoying them!
I hope your day has been at least as lovely as mine – just with less aching muscles! haha Cheers!!
That single spike of iris burst forth today! So lovely. I wish I had of had the time to clear the area to give the other plants a chance. Oh well… can’t do it all!
We planned to at least dig the second potato patch and maybe get the raspberry netting up. Got into the gardening clothes, put the sign and egg table out… and it – you guessed it! POURED! And got cold. Sigh. On the upside, a fellow drove right in and bought eggs haha. I ended up taking the table in early.
New plan. Hothouse.
Tentacular the Passionfruit has started budding up. His tentacles are starting to reach out a bit too. Want to keep him firmly under control this season. I need LIGHT in the hothouse!
Because I am mad keen and determined to have an insane amount of basil this season so I can make tons of pesto… I keep buying whatever seedlings I find as well as the seeds I’ve planted. I found a pot at one of the supermarkets of well established basil. I decided best to leave them in a clump as they were so far along.
I moved the worm farm and popped the cucumber seedlings in the ground and brought in a new trellis for them. They were going nowhere in their pots.
I also planted some seeds – some new pumpkin seeds, (goldilocks??) chilli, thyme and some flowers – portulaca.
Tomato flowers!!
OK… this is what is happening to my strawberries in one of the new patches. I am ruling out over or under watering. I am wondering if the straw is too close to the layer of the soil/mushroom compost mix and is either composting under there and burning them or leaching away some vital nutrient. Never having had issues with strawberries before I am not sure. Perhaps a soil testing kit although I will be in trouble if that truckload of soil mix is dodgy!!
My patch of brown onion and leeks are looking really good!
I reckon it might be time to even use a few of the leeks for something!
Very excited to spy some pears making a start!!
After all the fussing about in the hothouse I came in and made a double batch of soap. I did more of the cedar/saffron fragrance because it was so nice. The new colour mix was great too (similar to last lot but slightly stronger I think) Will be fun to unmould and cut tomorrow.
Today was another of those mad spring weather days. Lots of rain – the occasional hailstorm. I went out and re-covered up some of the seedlings. I opted to stay inside – so made myself useful and cleaned up the house.
Anyway – these are just the latest soaps. The above is cranberry and pomegranate. I do need to get some red colouring!! Oh well.
This one is cedar & saffron. Love the scent and the colour mix turned out great!!
These ones are ‘Woodland Elves’ Not sure what that means smell-wise but I think its a bit herb-like. Reminds me of rosemary a bit…
I might need to pick up more of the dragonfly moulds when I spot them on sale next. I’d like to be able to make more than 4 at once.
Check out my bargain!! These paper plate holders were being sold on FB marketplace – Fiona spotted them for me. $10 for 34 of them! I had borrowed some off Sharon to display my soaps on for the market stall and they looked great so was keen to find some of my own. Now I am set!
I unmoulded these today and they look lovely – and smell great! Applejack Peel!! The ones I am pressing the apple blossom flowers for!
Anyway… thats the weeks soap update!! Enjoy your weekend! Cheers
I know this was on yesterdays blog but it was so pretty…
Hello. Yesterday I might have slightly overdone things!! Hiking 12kms before a long afternoon doing yard work is not the brightest thing I have done all week!! 😀
While Jeff was knee deep in some areas of the garden, I moved stuff out of his way, raked grass and cleaned the chook house
At this time of year – the grass grows madly fast!
Nice to have things tidy again. And we can see the chooks again. 😀
An iris is about to bloom! Not many spikes so far though …
Ten days spring onion growth! Not bad
The parsley is growing beautifully with no help from me. Both the parsley and spring onion went into a potato salad tonight.
Little Moo with his tongue out waiting for some silverbeet!
I didn’t prune the roses – but some are starting to show.
The apple blossoms are so pretty! I am pressing some in the hope once flat and dry I can use them on top of some soap as a ‘garnish’
Still beautiful – now petals are starting to fall so it looks a bit snow like on the ground!
Anyway – hope your week finishes well and you have a super dooper weekend planned! Cheers!
Hello!! Gosh – long time since ‘Ruby Tuesday’ And honestly it was a bit of a fluke! I wanted to go down and take some rhubarb and some plants for Ruby’s garden. I’ve also been waiting for a nice day when she was feeling in tip top condition so she could come up home for a garden tour as we have done so much since she was last here. Sorry – I only took snaps under the cherry blossom tree, but they are lovely ones!
She’s been enjoying the ‘lay down’ chair (poolside deck chair) at home in this lovely weather, soaking up the sunshine like a cat! She is certainly slowing down a bit these days – gets puffed out easily! She’s still quite miffed about it too! Hard to slow up when you’ve been such a busy person all your life. She chuckles and says she walks up the garden, then has to come back and sit down… “and do this” she says, holding her wrist…. After a moment of puzzlement I realise that ‘Nurse Ruby’ is taking her pulse so she knows when she’s ok to get going again!! I laughed so much – but so sensible!!
She came up and walked the entire garden with me, checking it all out and all the new things we have going on. As long as we were going slow she was fine.
She was mightily impressed with the new gardens we are building out the back with the herb spiral etc! We sat on the back veranda for a while and chatted before driving back. (Via the photo shoot under the blossoms) I planted the spare strawberries I had in her patch – that had spare space, popped a couple of cucumber seedlings into her hothouse and put in a couple of zucchinis that I also had extra – and a bin of coffee grounds into her compost.
We had lunch and another cuppa before I headed back. It was really lovely! Wouldn’t I love to be so spritely and photogenic at 103!!!
Hi!! What a beautiful day! T-shirt weather and a hat too! Even did some laundry! I put the eggs out front early but sadly… again no-one stopped!!
So…. what first? The next strawberry patch since I went up to Sharons yesterday and collected all her excess plants.
Several trips to the soil pile later… and I have the bed ready
My snoopervisor wasn’t taking all that much interest in my activities! Lazy Pip!
Such a warm day – so a good idea to put some seeds in. The herb spiral needed to be planted out.
Some seeds and some seedlings. It all looks rather underwhelming but I hope it all grows successfully and in time looks amazing.
A bit of a layout of where I have put stuff…
My rhubarb really is a thriving plant!
One hundred and twelve corn seeds planted. (According to the row layout anyway) Do you think its enough? 😀
Then I wanted to plant my edamame soybeans – and made this cool trellis only to actually do some research AFTER I planted and it seems they don’t need a climbing frame. Oh well… looks cute.
I unmoulded my espresso soap – I did a double batch. The moulds had the ground coffee bean scrub – they look good but I didn’t take a snap. I also made a loaf of espresso soap sans scrub and cut it today. Loved the results
Before quitting for the day I did an all around watering – the seeds needed watering in and the new plants. Also after dark when I locked the chooks up I went on a bit of a slug raid. My snow peas were getting munched on too much. I did a lot of slug smashing. Bleaurgh.
Anyway, its a mild night… I didn’t even put the fire on!! I am coping but I don’t think Pip is, who is currently swaddled up in a rug on my lap.
Wow – todays weather was… well, it was very ‘Tasmanian Spring’! It was superb earlier on… blue skies and warm. We were just heading out the door for a river hike… and the heavens opened! So – on with the wet weather gear… only to sweat a lot and had to remove them. Then put them on. Then take them off… We even got hailed on a bit! Anyway, did a double lap which helped work off the apple crumble and ice cream.
Because today was a hopeless outside garden working day, we decided to put together the shelves we bought a while back to sort out the appalling mess in the shed. You are just going to have to imagine the ‘before’ shot. It was pretty bad. I didn’t sort out any of the box contents – the point was to get them all tidy and accessible. Then, when the mood strikes me, I can pick a box and make some choices about keeping or getting rid of. Its too hard to do it all in one go. And negatives!! What does one do with thousands of negatives? I think I am highly unlikely to go trawling through them to get a photo printed but throwing away negatives in my mind, is right up there with book burning. I just can’t put my brain in that space! Anyway – thats all for Future Lisa to worry about.
