Head in the Clouds – Feet in the Dirt

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!