*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...

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/