Things have been chaotic.
Spring > Christmas > Summer > Change of routine > Illness... and a few months of frustrating internet reception, 2 broken lenses, and a boisterous toddler.
Excuses excuses right? There have been things that I have wanted to post about but haven't managed it, so here is my update. Hopefully it will be followed by another sooner rather than later.
Much of what I have so far mentioned has been about my efforts to start a garden. I do intend to expand on this, and incorporate other aspects of the lifestyle I am pursuing. There is so much I want to address, but mental space is such a commodity! So here goes:
Lets start with the garden. Tomatoes, snow peas, Californian poppies, squash, zucchini have all been pulled up. The tomatoes and snowpeas enjoyed a short season after both outgrew their stakes and toppled over. The Californian poppies reached the end of their flowering season, the squash and zucchini succumbed to powdery mildew which I didn't bother combating. Currently I have my 50c pitiful-cum-radiant variegated basil planted in the garden bed, as well as a row of leeks, and the frangipani plant. In pots I have a fabulous capsicum plant with a few capsicums waiting to turn red, an eggplant plant which has been flowering for a week or 2 and now has a little eggplant developing, my lots-a-lemons is still going, our strawberries have recently gone berserk and its now a race to beat the snails to the juicy red sweetness dangling from their stems (ironic).....umm....
Herbs. I've aquired a new mint as my old one succumbed to rust, I've got some aloe vera, the nasturtiums are beginning to look sad, and all the other herbs are doing very well.
NOW FOR THE MOST INTERESTING STUFF...
We are planning to get chickens!!! And we are FINALLY fixing up the "backside" to make it kid-friendly again. To do it as cheaply as possible and to work with the impracticalities of that space without excessive hard yakka we have decided to split the space into 3 sections. In the top section, the flat area, we are going to build up slightly and build a small retaining wall with some pine sleepers, fill it with topsoil and there we are planning to grow grass from seed, selecting a variety that grows well in shade considering it is directly under a liquid ambar tree. This will be the space we intend for the children to be able to play in. Stepping down you would come to a space that will either have grass, fake grass or pavers... whatever works. That space has a lot of crushed rock pieces that are a pain to clear away among the dirt, so we are planning to scatter some grass seed there and see what happens, if it doesn't grow we will seek out a cheap alternative to fill that space. Then at the bottom under the clothes line Jared is fashioning a deck-space out of scrap wood sourced from the tip and anywhere else he can, and as a frame for the whole thing he has reworked and welded the metal skeleton of our trampoline. He is drilling holes into the wood and the metal frame, then using I-forget-the-names to fasten it all together. This will provide a level space for a potting table, pots, the small clam sandpit we have, and a BBQ, where we don't have to worry about killing any grass underneath these things.
It's all experimental, but completely removable if our landlords don't like it when we move out.
Then we have a garden space directly under the liquid ambar tree that is not serving any purpose other than to store all of our things while we are working on the ground. This is a nice sized space and it is here where we will be looking to house some chickens once the grass is strong enough to walk on and we are able to build a home for them. Then after we sort out the chicken area we will be looking to make the garden nicer, filling it with flowering, scented things to mask the occasional drifting sewer waft from next door. Helloooooooo eggs, and a guilt free way to dispose of our food scraps! (Composting isn't working out for me. I'm planning instead to give our scraps to chooks, and eventually a worm farm.)
It was my birthday in January, and my Father in law has committed to helping me build some wood planter boxes to resemble ones that I spotted on a tv commercial a while back (Possibly for an insurance company? I forget), as well as a storage bench seat that was featured on Better Homes and Gardens last year to house my rakes and shovels and things, smaller tools, kids toys etc. In the meantime I am currently thinking about what winter crops I will be planning to plant in the boxes once theyre done, and raising the seeds. Speaking of seeds, my Dad bought me many seeds of different pretty and yummy things for Christmas, I got to pick out the ones I wanted and he bought them for me.
It is time for planting some poppy varieties, which I have started today ;) Oh, how I love poppies!!!
This has been a rushed catch up post, stressful as its been a long time since the last one, but I'm glad it is just about done so I can get back to my regular musing ;)
Next installment... storing things in the freezer
This post is for my benefit more than anything. It's late summer and the 2 flowering plants that I am noticing around are "Naked Ladies" (which this plant, by the way, I find very weird and unappealing, unless they are popping up amongst the foliage of an agapanthus, since they flower after the agapanthus flowers have died and are removed), and the other is the Butterfly Flower/Bush, or Gaura Lindheimeri, which I am finding myself very attracted to. I have visions of one day having a long driveway headed slightly up hill toward my house or some other part of my property with this plant planted en mass as a border. I love it :)