Festival of the Green

In true Mummy fashion, I started this post early this morning but got interrupted by some more pressing needs that woke up and hungrily wandered out of her bedroom before I could finish. And now it is 16 hours later...


Today is Friday. Which to me usually means scrambling around trying to get most of the cleaning done before Jared's weekend begins come Saturday afternoon so he doesn't feel the need to spend his precious weekend minutes helping me out. And that is exactly how today will be spent, but this Friday feels different. It must be the cloudy coolness of this morning, refreshing after the blaze, haze and heat of yesterday. Maybe it's because my children are still in their rooms and all is quiet save for the odd truck driving past on the highway. I think is also is partly because I am choosing not to stress about my pile of dishes as I have a lovely local lady who has committed to coming over soon to wash them for me, helping to kick me out of the dishes rut I so often get in to - if there is a big pile of dishes, I find it difficult to focus on anything and just end up stressing and feeling battered and flustered and although I spend my time "doing things" not much seems to get achieved. The kids haven't exactly helped lately, I think they're both going through difficult stages at the moment which I have found it hard to cope with on my own.

The light at the end of the tunnel for me, however, has been looking forward to this Saturday. Jared has taken the day off work so we can all go together to the Festival of the Green in Springwood.

I'm very excited. To say the least.

The flyer on our fridge tells me there will be a farmers market, garden workshops, craft and garden stalls, great food and music, an animal farm, pony rides and amusement rides.

Not to mention Costa. I'm not as familiar with him as I haven't watched Gardening Australia in years (why, I don't really know. It's exactly the kind of show I would be interested in. OOH! Which reminds me that I have tonight's episode of Better Homes and Gardens waiting for me...) but it seems like he's a bit of a big deal and it's got other people excited so I am more than happy to jump on the bandwagon :)

 

In a moment of sanity...

Haha!

Reading back over last nights blog post I think it's easy to tell which posts are written when I'm depleted, or feeling like I am behind in blogging. Both are valid excuses for the way my last post turned out!

I'm not too sure what I'm going to do next in my garden. Any suggestions?

Maybe I need to re-visit the Diggers website for some inspiration :)

*Yawn*

A few new teeth and a bunch of infections and time passes oh so quickly. Or slowly. It really depends on how much sleep you get in a given period of time, whether or not you have a stock of childrens Nurofen in your medicine cabinet, and if you have access to coffee when it is required (I have to go buy mine as instant coffee with oat milk from home is oh so gross). Either way the garden has not had a huge look-in of late. Which is more than I can say for the pile of dishes which, no matter how hard I try, will NOT GO AWAY! Ugh.

A midst the chaos however, perusing the garden provided the perfect distraction for Mr S when nothing else would calm him down from his misery filled tantrums (the poor little man has had a ridiculously crappy time lately, I can't blame him for needing to vent). So lots of thinking has been achieved, and just a little doing.

We have experienced an array of weather. There was even snow 20min further up the mountain which we of course HAD to go and check out! No gardening was achieved on that day ;)

Our strawberry plants have provided us with a handful of nice big strawbs lately, only some have been lucky to actually turn red before Mr S plucks them off their stalks (he sure loves his strawberries!) I picked up a few extra plants the other day and bundled them together in a pot with a pedestal they look more "in place" now than they did before. I also had another few potted strawberry plants of a different variety which have been reproducing so I separated them and sent a bunch off to their new home in a friends garden, along with some of my seedlings and seeds I have excess of. This has been my latest achievement. I had been trying to figure out how to get the most out of the pots I already own and so the pot that previously housed the strawberries will be used for a new tomato plant which will be coming from another friend. There's lots of sharing and caring done around these parts :)

We've planted a few new seeds, Alyssum and more Californian Poppies. I'd like to focus on raising some poppy seeds and transplanting them into a sloping garden bed near the street that was previously overrun with honeysuckle. I did try to sow seeds straight into the patch but all but 1 seemed to have washed away with the water run off. My older Cali Poppies are now shooting up flower buds, the first one opening a few days ago to reveal a beautiful, buttery, creamy coloured little flower. It personified (flowerfied?) the image I had had in my head of the flower named Acceptance With Joy from the book Hind Feet on High Places. Thats my favourite part of the book, the part that sticks in my mind and plays out in my life the most.

My membership to the Diggers Club arrived a couple of weeks ago. That was an exciting day! Since then, when I've found some time, I've been browsing the catalogues and highlighting the varieties of plants I want to grow. Did you know there is a variety of poppy that looks like a lady bug? Miss C was pretty chuffed to find that, and is keen to order the seeds for it eventually :)

Speaking of lady bugs, I have been noticing their presence in my garden. I have now spotted a lady bug on three different days so hopefully that means they (or that one at least) are here to stay!

And I ordered some soap nuts to use for my laundry. Apparently you're not allowed to grow them here though which is a shame. I would be great to grow my own but they're considered a weed. Oh well...

So this kind of brings us somewhat up to date I guess :) I'll leave you with a photo of our capsicum...

I've got a little dilemma...

Our little punnets of beans, zucchini and pumpkin are growing quite big now, and are very ready to go into the ground.

The problem is I don't have anywhere prepared to plant them, and if I do manage to plant them there is a good chance that we wont be around to harvest them (the joys of renting). I only have about an hour a day to get outside by myself when I am home and I know that it's unlikely I'll be able to get a nice little garden bed prepared in time to plant them before the seedlings choke in their tiny punnets.

I don't want to just toss them, I'd feel like it would be such a waste.

So... should I put in the hard yards to dig out these Agave, dig out the rubbish in that area, feed the soil and get these plants into the ground, or do I pass these seedlings on to someone else who can accommodate them... or do I chuck them into my compost bin?

As sad as it might be, I think the best option is to give them away and only grow plants that I can contain in pots and transport easily for now.

Gee wiz. I feel like I'm saying goodbye to my children!


UPDATE:

Yay! In a fabulous twist of fate my seedlings are going to be off to the Faulconbridge Crop and Swap! How awesome is that! I can't go myself as we have been invited to a wedding, but a fabulous likeminded local individual will be taking them instead.
I love our community :)

Here's the link to the Crop and Swap: http://cropandswap.blogspot.com.au/

Spring showers and a (hopefully only short) break from 30 degree weather

The view from Miss C's bedroom window, looking west.
I am finding the weather today particularly enchanting... it's our first cool, misty spring morning for the season, laced with the scents of the flowering orange tree next door and the rain refreshing the air, bringing it back to its mountains-y Eucalypt-y glory.
I don't mind a day like this on occasion :)

For future reference...

Just thinking about the plants I'd like to grow in the future, and thought I might make a list that I can add to as I come across specific varieties. Get it out of my head, and on to paper, so to speak. This will just be a wish list of our favourites for now, what is most practical might be a different story all together. Once we get established we might seek to be a bit more adventurous and try incorporating some new tastes into our kitchen garden.

Maybe it would be a good idea to start by breaking things up into groups too so I can have a crack at some sort of crop rotation for those that need it... *scurries off to find books of reference*

Root vegetables:
Potato (I want to try growing these in stacked tyres)
Carrot
Leek
Lettuce
Onion
Parsnip
Sweet potato

Legume and fruit vegetables:
Beans
Snow peas
Capsicum
Celery
Cucumber
Eggplant
Pumpkin
Corn
Squash
Watermelon
Tomatoes
Zucchini

Brassicas (not a huge fan of most but oh well!):
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Broccolini
Bok Choy
Kale

Fruiting plants/trees and vines (many to be stored in pots as is practical):
Passionfruit
Grapes seedless
Mulberries
Strawberries (check!)
Fig
Lemon (check!)
Gooseberries
Blueberries
Naval Oranges
Imperial Mandarins
Pink Lady Apples
Almond

Herbs and other edible plants:
Chamomile
Pansy (check!)
Camellia Sinensis (check!)
A rose specifically for tea making and hips
Sage (check!)
Continental parsley (check!)
Coriander (check!)
Mint (check!)
Nasturtium (check!)
Lemon thyme (check, check!)
Thyme (check!)
Echinacea
Lavender (check!)
Chives (check!)
Rosemary (check!)
Oregano (check!)

Other beneficial plants:
Alyssum (check! I hope it hangs in there!)
Marigold (check!)

Flowering favourites:Cherry blossom
Japanese maple
Port wine magnolia
Jasmine
Daphne (check!)
Honey suckle
Diascia
Paper daisies (check!)
Mr Lincoln rose
Violet (check!)
Crepe myrtle
Hydrangea

Bulbs and annuals:
Poppies, of course!
Freesias buried under a lawn

And for inside:
Sprouts on a kitchen windowsill
Theres a particular indoor plant I'd like who's name escapes me at the moment (living by a highway I am always concerned about air quality, and having some indoor plants would help to ease that for me)

Obviously a lot of these will have to wait a long time until we have our own place, but it doesn't hurt to plan it now :)

Spring things

A few things have been happening in our garden, and then at the same time it doesn't feel like much.

First things first, we've hit our first string of 30+ degree days (woo!) and its been glorious  :)

The seeds I planted a couple of weeks ago have slowly been sprouting. Most of the snow peas have popped up and seem to be growing well, as well as the squash seedlings. The beans have been fascinating to watch; first nothing, then the arch of their necks were exposed first, then after several days suddenly their heads popped out of the dirt and they've been growing more rapidly than I would have expected. They're quite entertaining little plant characters! The eggplant have fiiiiiinally sprouted and are still tiny, and we have one teeny weeny purple lettuce seedling. The zuchinni seeds are still sleeping. I bought some yellow zuchinni, butternut pumpkin and leek seedlings from Bunnings earlier in the week which have continued to grow. The capsicum plant has had a flower on it, the marigolds have been flowering though the plants are still small, and the 2 lemon thyme (I splashed out on a second, slightly different one since I appreciate these little beauties so much!) are as lovely as ever.

Snow peas!

Seedling city :) In the 1st and 2nd big tubs are squash, the red pots have eggplant, the 3 punnets to the left of the pots are my Bunnings bought seedlings, and the rest are my others 

Beans looking happy. Only half of them have sprouted but I'm chuffed nonetheless

Our tomatoes are continuing to grow and we now have some that are turning red... very exciting!!! Miss C will love picking these soon! My Californian poppies are still growing bigger and bigger too.

On the other side of things, not much else seems to be happening. So many plants seem to be stalling, the nasturtium and rosemary in particular although I have heard that rosemary likes to take its sweet time. The lettuce are taking forever to grow to a harvestable size also. *sigh* I don't know if I just need to be more patient or if there's anything I should be giving them to aid their growth. It is so hard to keep track of things like soil preferences, water requirements and suitable foods for each individual plant. Next year I will definitely do more to prepare the garden beds. I didn't bother with any manure or compost or anything, just aiming to work with the plant food I already had on hand.

Also, we have had a small presence of aphids in our garden, as well as spotted cucumber beetles. The beetles are apparently an exotic species and hard to control which is a huge pain. I discovered them yesterday on the alyssum I bought last week after noticing that the plants weren't looking too happy. I did a bit of research to find out what they were, and when I went out an hour later to do my best at hand picking them off they were all gone! The aphids sucked dry a viola plant that I tossed over the weekend, as well as attacking my old thyme plant that I wanted to replace anyway. I haven't seen them anywhere else yet which is lucky as I still haven't found a insecticide concoction I want to use.

Alyssum

A few happier things have been happening though. I'm a fan of Better Homes and Gardens, and a while back they mentioned a dwarf variety of lemon tree called Lot's A' Lemons that could be grown in a pot. My mother makes a fab lemon butter but always has to scab lemons from other people as for some reason hadn't been able to grow a lemon tree of her own. I wanted to buy her this particular lemon variety for Christmas or some other occasion but was unable to find it and had to settle on a different one (which is now flowering happily in her front yard). I have been searching locally for pretty little Diasca plants and stopped in at the nursery at Winmalee on my way back from the shops on Wednesday to have a peek there. I was unlucky with the Diasca but I did stumble across a Lot's A' Lemons :) Enchanted by its scent and the bees humming around it... and the price tag, I decided to risk getting in trouble from Jared and snapped it up while I had the opportunity! No regrets, the smell of the flowers is incredible!

Lot's A' Lemons

Mr Buzzy Bee working hard

I have also recently purchased a Camellia Sinensis, which is the variety of plant that black, white and green tea come from, so I can make my own tea!

Camellia Sinensis

And I joined the Diggers Club :) I'll be looking forward to collecting some heirloom varieties next time I'm after seeds, and I'd also like to look into getting some chamomile and echinacea and other tea/medicinal plants eventually. I might give the credit card a break for a little while first though.
http://www.diggers.com.au/

Over the weekend we got outside and did a small amount of clearing the wasteland. Jared dismantled the trampoline (to be turned into a go-cart or something in the future), mowed the lawn, and we cleared away some rubbish and piles of pruned branches and things that have been sitting around for a while. I also discovered that Jareds parents have a whole lot of off cuts of pine sleepers, chicken wire, pavers and other things I've been thinking about acquiring for the garden so Colin (Jareds dad) brought around a bunch of those things for me, which are currently dumped in the back side to be used in the near future (I hope!) I love recycling! Still haven't tackled the agave yet.

The BEST news by far this week is that Jared will have more time to spend with us next year. He is a diesel mechanic apprentice and has been working 60+ hours over 6 days each week for the last almost 2 years. It has been very hard, and he's finding that he is on the path to burning out, so he has organised to work part time next year, continue his theology course that has since been pushed to one side, and will hopefully finish both around the same time in 2 years. Jared hasn't had much of a life with the hours he's been working so it will be great to have more moments we can share with him where he's not tired or working and it will generally make him happier, which is always a good thing. I am looking forward to being able to work alongside Jared in the garden and have it be "ours" and not just "mine". I miss having a deeper relationship with him. I miss sharing passions with him, and gardening and creating beautiful spaces is one of them.

Finally, I found this yesterday. It looks pretty darn cool :) Check it out!
http://www.fruitsaladtrees.com/

Much Agave about nothing

Jared and I took a stroll around the wasteland yesterday to discuss how we could utilise that space. Currently it contains a pile of grass clippings, the remnants of our firewood from winter, a wattle and a gum tree, and several spiky, lethal plants. While perusing one of my current favourite gardening blogs shortly after I discovered that these spiky things are called Agave, and they are natives to parts of North America, and they're apparently quite a statement plant to have in your garden. Whatever. Since I almost fell into one of the bigger ones once and ended up with a massive bruise surrounding the puncture in my thigh I'm pretty sure they're not on my list of plants I'd like to have in my dream garden. In our mission to prepare the space for productivity we will be seeking to remove all of those plants. We will be chopping up the bigger spiky offenders before we dig them out, but as for the smaller ones we will be looking into passing them on to anyone who wants them. There are a few larger ones and at least a dozen, if not more, 'pups' up for grabs. We are hoping to get outside over the long weekend to do it, although we have a wedding, a birthday party, an appointment and Jareds birthday happening over the weekend also, so hopefully the weather will turn it on for us so we can get out there and maximise the amount of time we do have! Drop me a line if you want to claim them :)

A little lesson about germination today

With my wander and water this morning came the joys of discovering that some of our snow peas have sprouted. New sprouts are always an exciting event for Miss C :) In order to distract Mr S from crawling around in the puddles and sitting on our plants (many a plant has been nursed back to health so far), I usually hand him a little pot and some kids gardening tools to keep him occupied while I water the garden. Today we discovered that the pot I was about to give him also had some little snow pea seedlings which had been unearthed (C must have planted them while I wasn't looking!) So Miss C and I examined and discussed how our little green pea seeds had begun to grow into little plants.

It really is fascinating and pretty mind boggling how within a seed, many much much smaller than snow pea seeds, is the potential to grow and gift us all the wonderful sights and tastes and smells that we so often take for granted.

Upon venturing back inside I was considering how amazing it also is that if we cared enough to, we could live virtually waste and expense free, or at least dramatically cut down the cost of living and the amount of rubbish we send to the tip each week. For example, a seed will grow into  a plant that will produce fruit for us to eat. All that seed needs is water and sun and the right type of soil, which is all readily available, and water is can be collected. The fruit from that plant will nourish our bodies, and any waste from that plant can be composted and fed to the soil and will nourish future seeds in that plot. Or, if you kept chickens they would eat those scraps, provide you with eggs to eat (you can compost the shells, or break them up and use them to keep snails away from your plants, apparently) and their poo could be used as a manure to feed the soil to grow your plants. Or if you had a worm farm you could feed them the scraps and use their wee as a fertiliser to feed your plants and their casings to feed the soil. There's plenty of different scenarios that are equally as good as the next and can be adapted to most situations and living circumstances.
And for those who are unable to compost or use their organic scraps as feed, many councils have the option of a green bin and collection service. And then I get all irritated because THE BLUE MOUNTAINS DON'T HAVE THAT OPTION!

HELLOOOOOOO! We live within a world famous, heritage listed national park, surrounded by green and nature and stuff, and we are supposedly proud of that! It's a horn that regularly gets tooted by the council. The logic for not providing SOMETHING along those lines, even on an optional basis, is lost on me.

Shake it off...

Our first "bad bug" experience

I discovered aphids on a potted viola this afternoon after noticing that they have been looking a bit sad the last couple of days. I don't particularly care a great deal about that plant, and I am glad that they are on that one and not one of the more productive ones. Now I'd like to set about concocting a home made insecticide, and while I am at it I will make some cleaning products also. I used to make my own cleaners for a while but fell out of that habit after misplacing my copy of 1001 Natural Remedies. I found it after (what felt like) a long time, but not before purchasing a second copy.
I will post the recipes I settle on later :)

On a somewhat related note, has anyone seen the NZ show "Get Growing" on Foxtel? I am a huge fan of season 1, I watched and recorded it last year when they played it and still have it stored on our IQ. I missed the first episode or 2 so the minute I find they put out a DVD of the show I will be snapping it up. You can view the episodes from season 2 online. I haven't watched much of season 2 yet as our download limit won't allow it but I'd really like to watch it. Its a great show for beginner veggie gardeners, taking you through all the things to do to establish a garden, to cultivating, to preserving and storing things, to pest control, beneficial and companion plants. It breaks down all the overwhelming information and basically spoon feeds it to you with each episode. I have the link somewhere...

Ah. http://www.primetv.co.nz/Default.aspx?tabid=295

Memo to me: herbs for health

Just a quick note to myself...

I've gotten to the point where I pretty much already have all the different herbs I would use in cooking, and yet herb collecting is somewhat addictive and I have this compulsive feeling that I don't have enough ;)
So I'll have to remember to source out other plants beneficial for health and well being, so I can have a crack at making my own teas and things. I love tea, and I'm all for (inexpensive) natural remedies!

This is my inspiration, hands down one of the most valuable books in my collection (In fact I even own 2 copies):

Did Jack's beanstalk need a support structure?

This morning warranted a trip to the shops, and we came home with some bean and eggplant seeds, among others. I'm trying hard not to get too carried away with the things I want to plant in the garden, we really are limited on functional space. Enter the beans! We bought a packet of "butter bean" and another of "purple king". Missy Moo and I decided to plant them into punnets for now, I was thinking of distributing them along a stretch of fence in our waste land and putting them in punnets gives me a chance to find and prepare an appropriate spot.
Eggplants.... I'm not too familiar with their growing habits. Are they more of a compact plant or do they need a lot of space like zucchini? Either way, they got sown into small pots until they're big enough to transplant also.

One thing that has particularly struck me over the last couple of weeks has been how much I am looking forward to next winter! Shocking! Here we are, in the midst of all the glories and promises spring holds, and I am eagerly anticipating the next cold, drab season...
Mostly because winter is the season of renewal; preparing the garden beds, building things (I want to fashion a structure to store firewood) and basically being able to get stuck in to the hard yakka and get it done without getting too hot and bothered, plus its one of the only cheap and effective ways to stay warm without going stir crazy! I am also looking forward to having a little more experience up my sleeve, being more familiar with the limitations of my space, what works and what doesnt, and having much of the inital set-up work already done and spaces prepared. This year has been a little expensive buying tools, pots, seeds and soil, but next year will hopefully be more about profits than expenses. And it will be awesome learning about eating seasonally... more lessons on making the best we can of what we've got :)

Beginnings

Welcome :)

Here we have my little corner of the blogosphere. I'd like to use this blog to collate all of my musings and mental notes as they come to me. You might find the vast majority of them will be about my attempts to find a way to turn our outdoorsy space into a (somewhat) functional one. Our location is not terribly ideal you see, we are on a slope, the high side of the street, our block is small with the house in the center of it. To the left (east) of our house is the "wasteland": a space big enough for an underused trampoline, a wattle tree, a ridiculously spiky bushy thingy, and an ankle deep swamp when it rains due to the run off from further up the hill. Beyond the fence is a highway. To the right (west) of the house is the "back side": an enclosed courtyard-type space with artificial grass to make it kid-friendly and garden beds shaded by a mature liquid amber tree. At the rear of the house is a dumping ground, a hot water system, and some stepping stones leading to the back side. The front of the house is north facing, sloped, open, and is the location of the only really currently productive space... but if we end up having an El Nino summer I'm not expecting much of my plants to survive as it gets hot there.
This year is my first serious attempt to grow some things, mainly herbs, some veg, and poppies and other flowering favourites (at this point anyway). So far so good... fingers crossed!