Over the past few weeks I've been mulling over extending the existing herb garden to turn it into more of a cottage/kitchen garden.

Well, I got a burst of energy on Monday despite the temperamental weather and got out there and dug up half the grass! Where I dug into wasn't really a very useful area for anything. The area sloped down slightly and was lumpy and bumpy and a bit rocky (it forms a retaining wall at the edge of our front yard with our fence on it). So I got in there, and from the fence to about 2 metres in I dug up the grass.

Simon then managed to find a trailer to borrow and went off and found topsoil to backfill the sloped area and build up the soil (it was a combo of sand, clay and stones!) - we needed two trailer-loads to do it. I then convinced him to go back today during his lunch-break to bring me back a trailer-load of compost to add in. I then got to work loading that lot onto the garden and have the aching back, arms and abs to prove it. Then was able to pop all my excess herbs in, some sunflower and silverbeet seedlings needing a home, as well as a few sprinkles of lettuce/herb/flower seeds. I divided up some of my existing herb plants to fill in some more space and found a few weeds that I wanted to cultivate. I have plans on putting a half-dozen tomato plants in one area and that only leaves a smallish shady area to fill. While I was at it I dug up my entire circular herb garden, composted that and divided and replanted the plants (I hope they survive!).

This morning I also sowed all my seeds into pots so they can go out mid-late October when the weather is hopefully a bit more stable.

By incorporating the top garden to include the silverbeets, lettuces and tomotoes, it means that my lower garden can concentrate on the bulk crops as well as those that need spreading space (pumpkins, corgettes, etc)

Spring...

The calendar says it is, and it feels like it is...however, I'm still waiting for the Spring equinox in 3 weeks' time to be sure I'm not going to be tricked!

My day started off with a lovely brisk walk before Simon headed off to work.

Then the kids and I got out into the garden. Over the weekend I gathered up several sackfuls of pine needles from a friend's house to lay in the chicken coop to keep the bog down. With the left-overs, I decided to lay them on the paths between the vegetable beds that looked like they needed a top up. It was July last year when I did a major overhaul by digging up the paths, laying down cardboard, and then laying mulch over the top. It worked really well and it's only been in the last few months that it's looked ready for a spruce up. So this morning, after emptying the rest of the pine needles on the paths, I began to dig and turn other weedy areas. We then popped back to my friend's to grab some more and continued to do that later in the afternoon.

I also relocated some more of my herb seedlings into the vegetable beds to try and add a bit of permanence to them (a sage, rosemary, and lemon balm for starters). I've been reading up on potager and cottage gardens and want to integrate that with the permaculture model (and in particular, the model of completely emptying each bed at the end of the growing cycle and reestablishing it) into one where there will always be permanent plants growing within and around the main beds to give more of a rambling and busy look - a mix of flowers, herbs and vegetables.

So, I'm dreaming and planning...

I've also gotten back into some of my herbals studies - at the moment I'm mostly interested in IDing wild weeds/plants/herbs as I come across them. I haven't been doing a lot of reading up on their properties just yet, but figure if I can ID them, then that's taken care of the trickiest bit! I've got my Docks all sorted, Vervain (have ruled out one that I IDed back in late autumn as just being ornamental and not one of the medicinal ones), Sea Tree Mallow (took a bit of IDing, has a few limited external uses) and 5-Finger (has been certainly IDed but ruled out at this stage due to lack of definitive information on medicinal uses) and Stinging Nettles (I think at this stage I have the dwarf annual variety in my garden, but these have the same properties as the commonly mentioned/referenced perennial).