Category: Garden

My day consisted of being out and about & some general domestics.

So I thought I would just leave some images of spring here.

Hope your weekend is a heap of fun!

And the rest just cherry blossoms as I am still over-excited to see it everyday

 

 

Oh – I did do the right thing by my plants, seeds and seedings by giving everything a good water – even though we have rain forecast tomorrow!

Cheers!

 

Yesterday we worked pretty hard in the duck yard – trying to really make way on those weeds!

My main aim was to get one decent patch ready and prep it for putting in the first patch of corn

The chooks are pretty disgusted that we have shut them out of the duck yard now – where all the good worm pickings are!

I also decided to risk putting out my tiny heirloom beefsteak tomatoes into the outside bed.

I of course gave them a little hothouse each

Oh my goodness – I can’t tell you how much I hurt last night… and today probably worse! haha – I knew I was pushing it a bit yesterday, but the end was in sight and I couldn’t leave the job. Serves me right. I am not twenty something anymore!!

So… today I thought I would take it easy.

This is me taking it easy – first step… go and plant 60 seeds of corn

Oh look! I didn’t know I had a pot with celery growing in it!! Lucky. Better plant that in the garden properly

Damn – I really don’t want another massive broccoli plant in the hothouse over summer…

 

Now out in the garden outside where it is looking really unhappy! Oh well… it has to toughen up!

While I am at it, this self seeded tomato needs to join its tomato friends outside too

While I was in the hothouse mood, I figured I could plant out a few of the heirloom capsicums and prep a spot and plant the cucumbers too

A rogue banana-passionfruit had taken root in the hothouse and was growing madly everywhere – so I dug that up too and moved it. Tied it to the fence and it has to take its chances too – sink or swim.

I also had to tie my snow peas back towards the climbing frame, as the wind keeps pushing them forward, not giving them a chance to latch on and climb up.

ooooo – and look! Beetroot!! Self seeded in the hothouse, and little attention from me. Bonus!

By this time I must admit to walking slightly crooked, so had to give up and come inside where I treated myself to a heavenly radox bath!!

Anyway, time for me to head back outside and cover all the little seedlings and say goodnight to them!

Hope you had a lovely day!

Cheers!

Hello!

The promised sunshine continued – so it was another outside, out & about day.  We picked up about 20 free pallets, so now I guess I will have to roam about Pinterest to see what we can do with them all!

So – do you notice anything different about this plot since yesterday?

A small amount of weeding got done, but a ton of rocks got relocated

We will be using them as a border for a new garden at some point. In the meantime I know Jeff will adore mowing around them.

Anyway, back to the never ending weeding in the duck yard. I dug this part of the plot over despite the ‘help’ from many chickens! Its nerve wracking using the fork as there is a good chance of skewering one as she dives for a worm!

Several pumpkin & zucchini now have new homes. I am a bit naughty about the whole ‘hardening off’ process. Meaning I don’t bother.  I cover them in plastic bottles in the evenings, let them out when the weather is nice then gradually forget to cover them up at night. They are usually used to the whole big outdoors by then. Also acts as a barrier to slugs and snails

It just felt good to plant something else.

With more seeds and seedlings in the garden now, I feel compelled to get out there and hand water. So the evening routine is a bit longer, and we are coming in for dinner a lot later these days.

We went into Ruby’s and collected more of the wood from her fallen trees. I’d like to use some of these as seats and some as planters. So not all is destined for the fire

My little flower plot out the back is showing progress! I am seeing all three of the seed types above ground now!

The gilder rose has totally fooffed out in recent days too! (yes I made that word up, but I like it)

Hope your weeks starts fabulously too!

Cheers!

Blue skies ALL DAY!! What a treat!!

We decided to nip down to Ruby’s and fix up her new raised strawberry bed. She also had a couple of trees come down & we wanted to start collecting the wood she has offered to us (apparently its going to be just burned anyway, so it might as well get burnt in our wood fire)

We picked up a half scoop of topsoil to help fill the new bed

The raised bed had been placed in a totally different spot to what we discussed earlier. Ruby had been out in the garden – weeded the new area, relocated some garlic and got Margie to help her move the bed!!! I think Ruby reacts really well to the better weather!! 😀

I offered to plant her strawberries in it for her, but she wouldn’t hear of it! We had to go in for a cuppa and I bet the moment we were gone she was out with her trowel putting them in! I shall see tomorrow!!

We also swung by the local hardware shop to see if they had pallets they wanted to get rid of. We picked up a boot load of offcuts – don’t have a plan for them, but I am sure they will come in handy.

(BTW Boot=Trunk in case some North Americans hadn’t heard that one before) 🙂

Anyway – back to a few more hours in our duck yard – here is where we started today

This is where we quit

I guess there is a difference!!!

We had Pip out for a while – he has spent way too many days buried under the doona. Today he channelled his inner Siamese and howled a lot!! But I think he enjoyed himself!

I think at about 6.30pm, Jeff and I decided to quit looking for weeds and enjoy being nerds for a while. We got out the metal detector to see what we could dig up… which was a lot of nails. and a nut. 🙂

Time for me to crawl into bed – weather is meant to be great again tomorrow so no lolling about whinging about the rain for me!

Hope your weekend has been brilliant!

Cheers

Nice to sit on the back veranda and enjoy a little warmth for a while! I even let my indoor seedlings out for a stroll!

I bought some apple cucumber seedlings yesterday. I have had success with them in previous seasons – meaning I have been swamped with bucketfuls! Since I plan to sell excess food this season, I figured they would be a good addition to the vegie patch

The parsley is still a little out of control – but I figured I could transplant a few to make some space – and dig up the rogue potatoes

I found some fence thingy that had been left here on the property that we have used in the garden before. Today I planted it in the spot where the cucumbers were to be planted. Hopefully they will be happy about climbing up it.

Time to get the beetroot in the ground too

I also started to plonk in a few of my marigolds around in the vegie patch. Hopefully will attract bees and ward off bugs

I also finally got on top of the weed situation at the entrance of the main vegetable patch – its been bugging me for ages, but really not a priority, as other places we needed to weed to plant food. This area is mostly just aesthetic.

All in all, I feel like I have been reasonably productive and pretty happy with how things are progressing.

Hope everyone’s weekend is great!

Cheers

Had to start with something pretty! Two of the iris graced us with their presence!! They look lovely in the garden outside our kitchen window!

Guess what? A FULL day with no rain! Mega exciting. On with the gardening clothes again and out into the duck-yard (the yard that has never had ducks) to get stuck into the weeding

The weeds in here are so small and fiddly! It really takes forever to dig them out – and mostly we are surrounded by squabbling chooks, looking for worms.

I want to put some runner beans along this fence. And maybe some passionfruit

This was the point I called it quits – Jeff continued on for a while, but I had to clean up and duck into the supermarket. I very much want this sorted out so we can plant our corn ASAP

Todays treasures??

With luck we will be able to get back to it tomorrow – I am about to check the forecast!

I will leave you with a few more iris photos and bid you goodnight!

Cheers!

 

 

My friend, Rachel, left in the morning and the day wasn’t too bad, so  got back out into the garden this afternoon – in between rainfalls!

Time to clean up the raised garden bed that I had earmarked for tomatoes. The seeds from last seasons self seeded broccoli are going to be an ongoing thing – I saved some, but pulled up everything else and dug a bit of compost into the areas each tomato seedling was destined for.

The wind is still a bit unkind, so I didn’t bother with the seaweed mulch (would have been blown all over the paddocks behind us I reckon!) and covered them with some slightly redesigned ice-cream containers

My other heirloom tomatoes from seed are going along really nicely! I am thinking I may even have some success finally, with some tomatoes from seed!

At times I had to duck back into the hothouse and do a couple of tasks in there as the rain would pelt down for a short time, then switch itself off

I decided to uproot one of the broccoli that had gone to seed and give it to the chooks for a treat. I don’t mind leaving things like this flowering in the hothouse – attracts the bees.

Then I figured I should do something about my bean patch

I had to weed out the twitch from among last seasons bean plants. Twitch is so annoying. Its so long and ropey and gets in between other plants which makes it really had to pull up without digging up the entire plot

I added in some topsoil that we dug out the other day, as well as a couple of buckets of my home made compost (and a ton of worms)

Now they just have to grow like crazy and climb up and over my arch!

More flowers are showing up, although the iris are taking their time about blooming!

Hope you have had a fabulous day!

Cheers!

Hello!

This was a well deserved cuppa at the end of the day. It was t-shirt warm for most of it & no rain!! Super! We shoved two loads of laundry through – we were so far behind on sorting all the linen from when we had a houseful so it was good to get that done!

I started the day with a bit of bartering. A friend dropped by as she wanted some seeds/seedlings – and I have more than I can sensibly use, so I like sharing the ‘food’ around!

Anyway, Sharon gave me these gorgeous soaps and I loaded her up with whatever seeds she needed, and some seedlings (like the lettuce, self seeded silverbeet & some parsley)(oh and strawberry runners). We both felt very happy with our deals! And her two-year old Lottie, helped me collect the eggs! Super effort – only one cracked! LOL

Onto my flower garden project – out the back where the strawberries were I wanted to create a colourful garden of flowers – encourage bees and for general enjoyment.

We took the old parts of Ruby’s strawberry bed home and I thought I could grow sweet peas up it. It had some manky netting that I figured the sweet peas would happily cover.

Did I mention at some point in the past about me being aesthetically relaxed?? OK well I am, Jeff – not so much!

The netting came off, chicken wire put on, and then he painted it bright red!

This was yesterday. Today it was dry so I put it in the little patch that I dug and added compost to.

I had some seeds soaking – the sweet pea which I have now planted all around Hal, so hopefully when grown up and over, the red peeking out of the green will look rather good. We shall see…  I also had some marigold and sunflower seeds soaking and I have scattered them around in the rest of the area. Time will tell if this is a disaster or not!!

So – on to the raspberries!!

Remember that super bit of polypipe I found at the beach last month? (Story here)

I am thrilled with it and totally want more! Two steel droppers and voila! Pipe over top, and you have a very sturdy structure!

Time to sort the netting. We had to ‘sew’ two nets length ways. Using a wool needle and fishing line!

This basically took forever – ask my Mum – I am SO much better with a stapler than a needle! 😀

Finally we were done – ok I quit just before the end and have dubbed the unfinished part ‘the entry’

 

The netting went over fairly easily, despite the wind starting to kick up again.

Now I can get in and weed, mulch etc without the chickens coming in to redesign my mulching techniques!

Oh – and we found a hole.

I stepped on a part of the yard that totally sank like a mini sink-hole!

It was amazing how easily digging into this spot was – and how far down the shovel disappeared!

We (ok Jeff) took the grass sods off the top, dug out the area (yay – topsoil for me) and then we (me) refilled it with the dirt we have from when the bore was dug – packed it down and regrassed.

Well – happy to have achieved lots today! Best be off to bed – girlfriend arriving tomorrow on a spur of the moment weekend trip to Tasmania! I love random events! I wonder if she likes weeding?? 😀

Cheers!

 

Hello! Today the stretches of sun were noticeably longer and more encouraging than recent times!!

This morning I made up 10 litres of my laundry liquid – we had run out completely, and I didn’t want to waste that sun and gale-force breeze!! 🙂

If you want to see how I make this, just click here

I was interested to note that that batch of laundry liquid was made in April – I don’t think I have made any since, so that has lasted just on 6 months! Not bad for half an hours work and a huge savings at the supermarket!

It was also time to get out the gee-whizzer and sort out lunch for the worms

I was curious to see the bottom layers of the compost – just to see how things were going. Well, to me it looks pretty good! Worms were popping out everywhere!

I gave both of the compost bins a good turn with the fork

I think processing the scraps small has really helped this along. I am wondering when I can just dump some of it in a garden bed!

Speaking of garden beds – a quick overview of the main vegie patch. Its slowly slowly coming along. Its easier to pick out where the potatoes have come up now.

And the snow peas are hanging in there

Yesterday, in between rainstorms, hail and visiting Ruby, I managed to get some carrots in the soil

I know you are not supposed to overdo the fertilising for carrots, but the topsoil I put in here didn’t look very inspiring – and it does need something! Hopefully its enough. I will add a lot more to the other side, where I will try to plant my heirloom capsicums.

I have some carrots still in the garden which I will let go to seed. In the meantime I scrounged up some seeds from last season.

I’d just like to add its tricky trying to plant carrot seed in strong winds. (Cue mystery carrots popping up in strange places!!!)

I did go out and splurge on a punnet of tomatoes to put in the outside garden now – so I have my three in the hothouse which are forging ahead, then I will have these next ones coming along – they will be slower in the main garden, but they can act as a forerunner to the little seedlings above (if I don’t somehow kill them)(I am being very kind to them, so fingers crossed!)

I am really hoping tomorrow will be a much more sensible spring day (with sunshine and minimal wind, preferably no hail) so we can do a bit of catching up.

Cheers!