Independence Days Update

Well, moving along closer to Spring!

I received some more seeds so hopefully have all that I need for now.

We only had one day out in the garden this weekend and managed to trim hedges to create material to go through the mulcher. While Simon was doing that I continued to dig the paths around the vege beds, lined them with wet cardboard and then layered on the mulch. It looks quite neat with all the different coloured cuttings.

On Saturday I took the kids down to the local markets and once we'd done there we wandered across the road to the beach. I thought it might look quite nice to place some seashells along the paths, so we gathered up a heap to take home. I arranged them around the pond and in a swirl going down the centre path.

I located my 5 large pots that I will put some of the tomato plants into when the time comes and they will be positioned against the far fence which has a platic trellising net mounted on it that I will tie them to. I then dug out another area that has a trellised fence against it for another 10 tomato plants. I widened the bed from last year so I can interplant amongst the tomatoes.

We planted our new apple tree.

I've decided that we will make a bean teepee similar to the one below in one of the old garden beds that is no longer included in the "grid". The soil is still good and nicely dug over ready for planting into. Around the outside I think we'll scatter a packet of wild flower seeds I have that are due to expire soon.

This year I'll put random sunflower seeds into each of the garden beds as well to create height and colour. We may even make a sunflower house as well.

The garlics are looking good with their tops all through and growing quite speedily.

I have about 3 broccoli heads forming now. Not sure that they will grow very big though as one of them seems to be growing sprouts already and it's only about 3cm in diametre. Will leave it in though since there is no point picking it the way it is!

The compost bins are nicely compressing down but doubt they'll be ready in time for me to use them when time comes to planting out my seedlings.

Have still been foraging a lot of chickweed for including in our meals when leafy greens are called for.

We had a fairly productive weekend.

Continuing to make lots of plans for creating permanent areas in the garden which should give it a bit of height as well a sense of shabby, organic and productive.

In the upper area next to the kids sandpit which is mostly sand-based soil we made a raised bed for 20 strawberry plants. With a mix of homemade compost, surplus soil from digging the sandpit a year ago and organic fertiliser we rolled it all up in some weedmat. Cut holes and planted strawberry crowns in.

Simon then set about constructing a frame next to the strawberries up on the retaining wall to put some grape vines in towards the end of August. We found some wild blackberry growing once we'd cleared all the weeds away so draped the tendrils over the edge of the retaining wall to do their thing down the other side (NO idea where they came from!). We should be able to chop them back if they start to get out of hand, but they are also positioned in a place where the garden is of no use (ie. the soil below the retaining wall is "dead" and it also does not get very good sun).

We bought an apple tree (to add to our other tree we bought last year) and should have a staggered harvest of apples. I then discovered today while pruning back our wild hedge that the apple tree that fell down last spring has sprouted from the trunk. I'm hoping that they will also start to produce fruit this year.

I have noticed blossoms on our plum tree already. Last year we had no plums, but this year should be a bumper again.

I have been given an archway to go over one of the garden paths to put a couple of passionfruit vines up towards the end of August.

I put up a tray of seeds (broccoli, cauli, onions, spinach, ruby silverbeet and leeks) and they are living on my bed during the day which is the warmest in the house and then at night they go under my bed lol.

We decided on where to put a garden shed. This will be where we house our emergency food, camping gear, bicyles and garden equipment. At the moment they are all in our (very old and rickety) garage which is positioned under our deck, so in the event of an earthquake they may not be accessible. We have plenty of corrugated iron from when we replaced our roof a few years back so Simon is keen to design and make one over summer once we have the garden all sorted.

I shifted and sorted a pile of branches, mulch and weeds from below the retaining wall so Simon could shift the soil around and level the ground out. I then rebuilt the two compost bins - they were a disgusting, stinky, slimy mess that really hadn't broken down well. I have really been very lazy about adding in plenty of brown material, but hopefully with my mulch pile now positioned next to the bins it will solve the problem.

The coming weekends will see us pruning back overgrown hedges and shrubs to create plenty of mulch material (will borrow my parents mulcher) so I can continue on with digging up the paths and then make the terraced steps leading down into the garden.

More Spring prep

I was on a roll today.

The sun was shining and there was no wind so don't mind the cold when it's like that.

I was out there at 10.30am and started to dig over the paths between the beds (just turned the weeds and grass into the ground). Then overlaid them with cardboard that I had soaked in the water trough. Simon arrived home with a wool sack full of mulch that came from my parents house and he set to work re-making the pond as I then spent most of the day digging and laying mulch and topping up one vege bed with surplus soil that was quite low. I had so much energy to burn (after being cooped up in the house all week with awful weather for the most part) that I think I did a week's worth of catch up.

I finally came in about 4pm and got stuck into the housework!

My poor, poor back is going to suffer tomorrow I suspect going on how I feel at the moment.

Anyway, I'm really pleased with the results of what we did and I had a few neat ideas on how to develop the garden further to make it seem more permanent. I've always felt that it's lacked definition and boundaries (despite being within a fenced yard) and I've really got a thing for gardens that have vertical structures within them. I need to take into account that the chicken coop gets moved around.

Before (well, a few months ago)

The kids kept themselves busy doing a bit of this...



Where it's now at...

I intend on mulching down the path from where I'm standing to take the photo and create a few terraces as steps going down (after slipping over today I thought up this idea!). I also will create a mulch border all the way around and complete the wide central one down to the pear tree. At the top left hand corner of the vege beds I will make a lowish (60cm) fence from some sticks we have to give it a nice organic look (running down the left hand side and across the top of the beds). I may then also plant some herb borders. I will continue to work on the food forest at the bottom - it only has the apple and tamarillo trees at present, but intend on adding to this over time.

During the week I got some seeds into the seed trays with help from the kids and have that set up in my bedroom to do its thing.

I did it

Last month I decided to get enough groceries to last a month without needing to purchase any extras. We did well, and even took pantry and freezer food with us when we went away for the few days. Friday is shopping day but I will do the shopping tomorrow night (Thursday). The past 3 days I've had to get a little more creative with putting together a well balanced dinner, but we made it without dipping into emergency supplies or running the pantry down too low.

It certainly helps that we get our weekly box of fruit and veges delivered (although did run out of potatoes in the last 3 days and the pumpkin we had wasn't a very good alternative as they were a bit watery so made things a little more challenging). We also ran out of "greens" from the vege box so I was rapt to get the opportunity to use some wild weeds from the garden (we'd depleted our silverbeet and spinach from the garden as well) so grabbed a large handful of chickweed and fresh herbs to throw in tonight's meal. We are still "grain free" so there was no rice, pasta or bread items to fall back on.

Monday's dinner was a lentil and tomato sauce served over roast veges (carrots, yams, parsnips)

Tuesday night's dinner was Borscht soup which used up some left over vegetables - beetroot, cabbage, onion, garlic, carrots followed with a pear and apple pudding.

Tonight's dinner was a mince sauce meal with left over lentil sauce stirred through and veges (chickweed, tomatoes from the freezer, onion, garlic) served over roasted parsnips, carrots and yams.

(The parsnips make me laugh as I recall an online friend buying *masses* of parsnips on clearance and took it as a challenge as a means of going frugal and making as many things as possible and something significantly parsnipy for dinner the whole week. Her kids had great fun coming up with "other" uses of the parsnips.)

The pantry still has a bit of surplus in some items that I bought, so I can see that the grocery bill will be less this month and will start to see some savings overall.

Garden Planning

Well, Spring's still 7 wks away but with a break in the rain and a few warmer days has me thinking of my garden and what I can plan for now in advance. I had out my local gardening calendar that has been a great little resource to help me remember when to do what.

I noticed the garden beds had lost their definition and that I hadn't really thought about how I was going to rotate the veges this coming year. So this afternoon I cut in around the beds and moving a few along. Since several had become overgrown it meant I could "recut" the bed where I wanted it. (The chickens were pretty happy to see me back working in the garden and jumped with glee on the bed I was digging to snaffle up the grubs and insects and the kids were pretty happy observing all the worms in the soil). Now I have 8 nice 2x2m beds (4 of which have things currently growing). There is also plenty of room to dig up and put the potatoes in without needing to re-use the same area as last year. We had mulled over whether to put in some raised beds, but then that defeats the purpose of having the chickens in the tractor weeding and fertilising for us (not that much of that goes on since they free range all day lol) not to mention a bit costly to set up when I have my soil in a good condition where it is.

Over the next few weeks I'm going to re-read my Linda Woodrow Permaculture Home Garden book to figure a few things out. I also intend on using her idea for the paths by digging up all the weeds, laying thick cardboard down and laying mulch/sawdust on top. I did this during my first growing season and it looked really nice and kept things tidy. So Simon's going to head to my parents place tomorrow and help out mulching up their hedge and bring it home for laying on the paths.

I sorted through my seed packets and checked if there were any packets I don't have (after having lost my big bag of seeds last year). But I seem to have all the basics and I think I'll stick with that this year rather than branching out too much. I just want to get back to continuous planting which I didn't seem to pay much attention to last year.

I have a few packets of seeds set aside that I will get going into the seed trays in the next few weeks.

My poor tamarillo tree is looking a bit sad - it was doing well when it had the frost cloth over it, but one night the cloth blew off and suffered as a result. It may bounce back perhaps, so hoping for the best.

Mid-winter

Well, we've been away for 3 days having a bit of a mid-winter holiday (actually our 9th wedding anniversary). We headed directly across the country from our lovely coast on the West to the lovely coast on the East to a place we hadn't been before. The weather was wild and stormy but there were enough dry spells to get out and enjoy ourselves the same as if it has been sunny weather anyway! We stayed in a cosy little cottage on a large sheep station right next to the beach.

Anyway, here is the ragrug finished before we went away (just need to slip stitch the end). It could easily be twice as wide in diameter, but I think I'm *done*. It is a perfect little size for Danielle's room and the colours look lovely with her things.