Category: Garden

It was a really warm lovely summers day.
We got a bit more done around the place – the nice thing about seeing such neglected areas is that when you clean them up you REALLY notice the difference!

Jeff and I finally got on to this bottom patch of the extension of the herb patch.

Not being ready with herbs… and being more than ready with tomatoes…. it got mostly tomatoes

These heirloom beefsteak tomato seedlings I had grown from seed, but left in the hothouse during our trip. They were quite ready to get out of their pots.

I like to soak my seedlings in water to disentangle the roots

Thought I might as well get those laterals in the ground too.

Job done. Another large improvement! I also put a heap of sunflower seeds into the top section. (and snuck a cucumber in at the end. They don’t normally do well outside here, but going to give it a go)

The back paddock got slashed while we were away… but the machines cant get so close to the fence, leaving a few feet of tall grass backing our boundary.
Seeds, snakes, fire hazard and generally not looking so pretty… we got out there with some large hacking tools (knives) and went to work

Much better – but still not finished the whole back boundary. Maybe another day.

To finish up with I went to rediscover the beetroot plot.

Its under there somewhere

There was even some beetroot growing/surviving under all that mess! I need to get back in here to replant seeds and mostly start again with it. As well as get rid of all the other phenomenal weeds in here… but by this stage it was late and I still had the watering to do.

And more strawberries to pick!

Its pretty late and I need to get through a shower before bed… I am slightly grubby! 😀

Hope your day was great!
Cheers!

Hi! We had a lovely productive day in the garden. Made some real progress (although I might be feeling a bit creaky tonight!)

I started by tying back the tomatoes while Jeff got to work on the crazy weeds in the pathways.

Next was the long overdue tidying up of the garlic! Happily the recent rain made pulling up most of the weeds not too difficult.

I scraped a bit around some of the bulbs. A lot are forming up nicely.

I had a fair bit of clearing to do in the corn patch to see what corn had survived, since hardly any had come up before we left.
Not too bad really. I decided to move some of the ones from up the top into gaps further down in the garden. Previous experience has shown me that popping in seeds into gaps hasn’t really worked.

That left me with a whole clear area to replant three more rows of corn seeds

Still daylight – so the zucchinis got a tidy up too –

From yesterday to today:

There are a number of little self seeded parsley plants and a couple of tomatoes – all to be moved in good time.

Still daylight – so onto the pumpkin patch… this was yesterday:

This was today:

I think Murgatroid missed me – he stayed by the fence and let me pat his nose without trying to headbutt me! Plus I fed him fresh grass! (and sang him Baa Baa Black Sheep)

It was 8.30pm by then so time to pack the gear away, put the chooks to bed, get inside and scrub off the dirt.

I do like before and afters though…

Quite the improvement!

Hope your day was great too!

Cheers!

 

Well… I achieved my stated goal from yesterday and did not get out of bed until ‘pm’ arrived.
Nothing like your own bed hey?
Eventually I worked my way around to getting outside to really check out the garden.
Wow.

Everything is so bushy and bursting with growth!

Somehow I need to make sense of this!! There is food under there somewhere! I will have to make a plan on what to prioritise… otherwise I will be running in mad circles getting nothing done.

One row of raspberries is going mad, the other row is very half hearted!

There is a heap of fruit on the way and I even got a few to eat!
One thing… I am extremely glad I managed to get that seaweed down before we left.

We seem to have two broody chooks!

I kept dragging them off the nest today to take their minds off it, but they will need locking up in isolation somewhere so they get bored and forget about it all. Dunno what Screecher is thinking! She is too old to be broody!!

This lush plot of weeds was my beetroot patch! Haha… think I might have to start again!

Pumpkins surviving as most of my apple cucumbers are. And growing quite well. Seaweed has helped this patch stay mostly weed free.

Super delighted with my potatoes!

Plenty of snow peas. I didn’t pick them properly though, just a few to nibble on as I went through the garden

Also plenty of cherry plums too!

The main garden looks no better from this angle! Yikes. The broccoli unfortunately raced to seed. Will pull them out and start again.

Happy to see my zucchini doing well, flowers and everything!

Rhubarb is enormous!

I had to get close to see but there is corn in there… once weeded I will be able to see how many plants germinated and survived.

This crazy patch! Supposed to be lettuce. With tomatoes, broccoli and weeds!

One of the more pressing jobs is to weed and mulch the remaining half of the garlic patch. Pleased with the look of most of them anyway.

Of course I couldn’t resist a little weeding as I went around. These tomatoes have gone well… but they need staking and the small self seeded tomatoes in here that are popping up need to be dug up and moved elsewhere… or put into pots for sale.

Carrots – also a little weeding done.

And hello hothouse!

The tomatoes are reaching the roof and have plenty of fruit. They just need tying up and back and getting under control again.

The tiny basil plants that I put in just before we left are doing well too.

Cucumbers are making an appearance.

BUT… here is the most exciting thing found today:

After killing all previous passionfruit vines, I put this one in the hothouse. I went searching for flowers today but found actual fruit! I love passionfruit so I am over the moon that I have a good number of fruit already showing up!

Other treasures included a bowl of strawberries and some pretty flowers!

Well… thats all from me. I am fading fast, but will be up earlier tomorrow in the hope the weather is brighter so I can get the gardening duds back on and dive into it!

Hope everyone had a splendid Sunday!

Cheers

 

Last full day before hitting the road!
Let me start by relating the first drama of the day.
We have been giving Pip tablets morning and night since his vet visit. Not being able to get our house-sitter to continue this, the vet offered an injection to cover the time away. Being Siamese and a little high strung (lets not talk about ME beings slightly high strung over my cat) we thought since we had a nurse in the house we could give him the injection without dragging him back down to the vets.
No worries. Got the needle, instructions….
Let me quote to you from Jeffs facebook status:

“Thought giving a cat a pill was hard (Lisa & l are pros at this). Pip needed a steroid injection today. Poor fella…practically hit the ceiling and farted like no one’s business in the process . I only managed to get 0.2ml of 0.5ml into him. I totally suck as a cat nurse. So now it’s to the vet (which we were trying to avoid that stress)”

Sigh. Our gorgeous vet – bless her cotton socks – sorted Pip out and I was able to pick him up within half an hour. (AND she didn’t charge us anything!!!!! I was thrilled by her kindness) Pip was fine with me but it took a number of hours before he forgave Jeff!!!! (They are now snugged up in bed so I think all is forgiven.)
I do hate leaving him though… you can’t explain to animals how long you are going when you leave.

Back to the garden to do what I could with the time I had left.
First stop – hothouse:

A few weeds and dead chilli plants to pull and a few other seedlings to plant

Dodgy Brothers climbing frame made… putting in mini rock melons here

Also wanted some basil in the dirt too

So tiny… wonder how big they will be in a month (if they survive)

Then it was on to the duck yard garden to get the Apple Cucumbers in the ground too. The normal cucumbers dont seem to do well outside – I have those in the hothouse, but hopefully this season the apple cucumbers will go crazy again.

Another Dodgy Brothers climbing frame created!

No time to dig the whole patch… holes dug, mushroom compost shoved in, seedlings planted, covers put on! (And watered)

Pause – admire potatoes

And snow peas – that look a lot happier with being tied back and shelter

The three mystery pumpkins I planted the other day are looking splendid!

ooooo – and check out this parting present from the strawberry patch!

Mind you, early in the season I am always fighting the millipedes for the first ones!

OK – that about wraps things up! Must get on and do my final little tasks before bed.
Next time we speak it will be from the Land of the Rising Sun! (I hope)

Cheers!

 

 

 

Nearly at the end of the week! I started my morning with a bikini wax… after which I was thoroughly awake! (I need to do a proper leg shave too… want to go have some Japanese baths next month and the Hobbit-Feet have to go!)(Snicker)

Anyway – good news. The new travel cards arrived. Just have to activate them tomorrow morning – if I can’t manage it I will dash to the bank so they can hold my hand through the process!

We did a tip run today. It was good to get rid of all the rubbish and start new with empty bins. On the way home we diverted by the beach and filled up on seaweed grass as I wanted to sort out the raspberries before leaving the country.

Annoyingly, Jeff said he had unstitched the netting at the end of last season, so I got it back out and stitched it back up.
Only to find it in no way fit and the other netting was the one we used (Happily already stitched) (Lesson learned: Wrap netting and LABEL)

But that is the story of my life lately… every task taking way longer than it should! (I did roll my eyes a lot though)

Finally got the right netting on and pinned down.
Next – newspaper & seaweed

It took up a good portion of the day, but I am really happy that is done. The grass and weeds should be minimised so we won’t come home to a feral jungle!

I had promised my pumpkins that I would relocate them… enough daylight left now to keep pushing on.

They were really starting to burst out of their pot!

The seaweed here (no newspaper) has really kept the weeds to a bare minimum.

All done. Of course they got tucked up in their protective ice cream containers and sprinkled with a little snail bait just in case.

Then a bit of weeding

I also took time to throw a little mulch around the snow peas, then planted out some marigolds beside the potatoes

And to happily finish off a lovely productive day, I spotted some colour on the strawberries and the first of the corn up!

I hope your day was lazier than mine! I am ready for bed!!

Cheers!

Pip’s daytime resting place of choice!! Not that there isn’t a squishy comfy couch three feet on the right or anything!! Cats!

We got a lot of our bags packed and organised. Presents mostly sorted.
I am feeling less twitchy with some tangible progress.

It was a lovely lovely day out there today. I enjoyed going out to water and attend to a few tasks in between holiday organisation.

My second lot of seedlings have mostly come up pretty well. The chives are the only thing still yet to make an appearance.
Got watermelon, more tomatoes, more basil, thyme, chilli, onion & leek

I have promised the pumpkin (that is up the back of the photo) they are to be planted out tomorrow! They are getting way too big for the pot!

Happy with the tomatoes!

Lillium budding

This girl is a bit poorly. I give her first go at the porridge before the other greedy-gutses get into it. We don’t have the luxury of time to bring her in to nurse her… I hope she will come good on her own.

Snow peas sprawling all over. With the wind they haven’t had a chance to latch onto the fence. So I finally got around to giving them a helping hand and tied them back against the fence. They can do their thing now

Of course the minute you do something interesting in the garden a pack of stickybeaks come around to investigate. And eat your tasty new snow pea leaves!!

Chooks thwarted!

Forget that blue & green never to be seen rubbish! They are gorgeous colours together!

The pear blossoms came and went quickly. Lets hope for pears this season finally??

The cos lettuce are doing amazing – just need to get in and do some weeding. Also in here are lots of self seeded broccoli and tomatoes. Hoping I can relocate them before I leave.

The little tomatoes I planted out are quite happy. Still under containers at night

The rhubarb is clearly really happy!

The lovely iris are coming out! So happy to see some before we leave.

And while the cherry blossom is doing its thing, you are going to see more photos (because I can’t help it) haha
Hope you are having a great week!

Cheers

I love the apple blossoms!
Hello! I am having a day of panic organising, since we are a week out of flying off to Japan.
Every task over the past month that should have been simple/straightforward has given me the runaround, so I am feeling slightly twitchy right now!!
Today I popped into the bank to order some Japanese Yen in cash to start us off. Normally that’s about a 2 day thing. Nope. New suppliers to the bank mean “It’ll be in Monday or Tuesday”
Arrrgh! We LEAVE Tuesday. Since the bank also gave me the wrong information about the reissuing of my travel cards for the bulk of our funds I am also still waiting for those to turn up. This is NOT a relaxing thought.

So I ordered the cash from the post office who promise Monday, but seem to think it will be in earlier.
I started packing my bag today. Put aside most of the clothes I think I will take, but probably over half the contents will be things I am taking for friends. But it felt good to make a start on that side of things, then I can check the weight and balance it all out between the checked luggage and the carry on.

Yesterday after our friends left, I buzzed on down to Ruby’s and planted some things for her – more lettuce, some replacement cucumbers as a few of her existing ones got eaten. A capsicum and four butternut pumpkins.
That left me enough daylight to get home and plant my butternut pumpkins out.
The herb garden extension is not doing anything at the moment, so I weeded it up and put the remaining 8 seedlings that I had left in there.

I always have a bit of company when I do anything out here

This is Murgatroid. He is a bad tempered head-butter with a baa that sounds broken. But I think I am winning him over.
I don’t actually think he has a name but he just looked like a Murgatroid to me.
He was bought for the sheep but he knocks them over so he is stuck in solitary.
I think he is lonely, so I have told him its all in the attitude. He lets me kinda poke him in the nose and almost scratch his head at times.
I feed him grass which he loves, but then he forgets himself and tries to butt me through the fence! Its pretty funny. I am sure he is just misunderstood.

Murgatroid overseeing my work.
I am hoping to be able to train these pumpkins into areas where they won’t smother other plants.
Another gardening task ticked off the list.

I think seeds explode rather than emerge. These watermelon seeds were non existent in the morning, but all there in the afternoon!

Finally some of my basil looks positive!

A few sunflowers popping up. I am still hoping to squeeze in a whole patch of these somewhere!

Yesterday a couple of the iris looked like this. Today they bloomed! I am sure I will get out there with the camera tomorrow.

Apple blossom tree has also sprung into action (just an ornamental)

Hope everyone has had a lovely day!

Cheers