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/

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...

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 :)