Still Working on the Garden.

Ahhhh… flowers on the tomato plants in the hothouse!!

Its very exciting. Just have to make sure no mousie mouses get to them first!

I’ve planted more seeds that are in the hothouse waiting for germination.
The weather is doing ok… warm, but then will slip back to some cold winds and rain of course!

I found a punnet of basil… and in the interests of oodles of pesto, bought it, and separated the clump of seedlings. I just went and checked earlier and they are all sitting up nicely! (Bottom left is celery (aiming at celery salt)

Jude gave me some Japanese Mustard seedlings so I bunged those into the soil in front of where I’ve planted some cucumber seeds.

I am also suffering from lack of pickled beetroot since I never got around to planting last season.
SO… in go the seeds!

Jude also gave me a couple of zucchini seedlings which I have put in near the new apple trees

And due to changeable weather and chooks, I’ve built them fort knox

So far they are both doing really well.

We had a clean up day…

I have no real before photos.. the poor old BBQ area was such a mess again! So we pulled everything out, sorted, cleaned and discarded.
Two trips to the tip later…
Jeff was annoyed at how much stuff had accumulated, but I think it made sense. We started not doing dedicated trips to the tip once every three or four months. Usually its me having to drop off the household rubbish when I am in town. I am usually doing a heap of other stuff so I don’t go on a trip around the yard gathering old odds and ends to throw away like we would do with a dedicated tip trip. And things build up!

Leaves and debris get into that area a lot making things messier than they need to be. So we had the idea to shade cloth in part of the structure.
Luckily for us, my Fabulous Favourite Uncle had sent us some great shade cloth offcuts and this piece was perfect for the job.

Jeff cut back a lot of the branches too and now the rain wont blow in here too much either.
Hopefully it will help keep the place less manky

It was a really good job to get done – it was really bugging me but I knew we needed a full day or so to sort it out.

The chooks are laying well!
I’ve been making some biscuits lately…

The trick is trying to keep the choc chips out of Jeffs tummy before I get around to making these things!

Anyway, they were yummy.
Emphasis on the past tense!
There is a bowl of chopped up choc bits sitting there now waiting for me to transform them. Currently a packet of choc chips cost more than buying a packet of choc chip bikkies so it doesn’t make it a financially sensible option. So I got the cooking choc bar and gave Jeff the task of chopping (He might as well take part in the whole thing.)
I suppose where you are all from, supermarket prices are just going up and up like petrol? Its getting insane.
A good reason for me to keep plugging away at getting the garden in full swing.

I made some jam drop bikkies too…

And in a fit of kitchen activity… some tomato sauce for Jeff who was about to run out!
I used the tomatoes in the freezer that he had picked while I was in Japan!

The oregano and lemon balm is incredibly lush.
I’d been out a few times with the basket and scissors to gather the oregano to dry, but its rained every time!
Finally got to it yesterday!

I can’t even see in the patch where I picked it all!!

Oh… I saw something on a FB reel. Someone made a plant hanger. They’d bought some craft hoops and used zip ties, but I thought I could make it using all natural stuff from the garden… and tied it together with the flax I’d made cordage out of! Pretty excessively rustic but I like it.

Ok… enough rambling from me. I am heading back to the fire.
Trying for an early night tonight as I am booked to have a market stall out at the Rhododendron Gardens tomorrow!
Hope you all have a lovely weekend
xxx