Spring is coming!!!

After the last few weeks of feeling uninspired and bored by the lack of action in my garden (honestly the glorious flowers on my Daphnes are the only things that kept me going for a while there) things are FINALLY starting to pick up. And its getting exciting! Let's go for a little wander around...

Our first stop is just outside the front door where some tiny and previously pathetic looking Sweet Pea seedlings are coming out of their coma. I planted them in Autumn, as is customary apparently, and they grew to a few inches high and then stalled for the months since. I'm not very familiar with Sweet Peas, I don't recall ever seeing them before last season when I tried to grow them and eventually threw them out when they weren't doing anything. I hear they have an incredible scent though so I am exercising more patience this time around and am crossing my fingers that they grow and cover the railing on the porch.

Mr. Lincoln is coming out to play...

 

As are some of our warm season seedlings. So far we have a number of Nasturtium, Marigold, lemon cucumber and a Scarlet runner bean seedlings. The rest haven't come up though so I might replant them soon. Odd, considering that over the last season I was constantly pulling out self sown tomato seedlings everywhere from the lost tomatoes after the kids had had their daily gorge.

 This birthday present Hibiscus was my first indication of spring a few days ago

 I'm glad to see that temporary pot-life isn't disrupting the Clivia plants

 And some pretty violet flowers in their new home by the steps. Don't they just smell divine!

 We have a new tomato from one of our out of season experiment plants. The seeds came from the Diggers heirloom mix. I am looking forward to figuring out which variety it is!

 If there's anything that's consistent in our garden it is the joy brought by Alyssum. Always flowering, always smelling delicious. These flowers are tiny, but good things come in small packages right? This one in particular has been growing well and does seem to be getting bigger lately. I hope some of the other smaller Alyssum plants I have will follow suit also.

 The pretty purple flowers of the golden podded peas, which have been a star attraction in our garden, and will definitely be making an appearance again in the future. For dinner tonight I made this recipe and substituted the beans for shelled golden peas from our garden, and the chopped pods, and substituted the dill for chopped parsley and just used tinned salmon. Lets just say my kids BOTH ATE ALL OF THEIR DINNER. Magic.

And finally we have this little daisy plant. It was previously located on the other side of the garden and was neglected last year, but since being moved and watered regularly (It is immediately next to the still-yet-to-bloom Poppies) it has been revived and is getting ready to burst into bloom with its pretty pink flowers. Miss C will be glad to be able to pick flowers in our garden again.

One other plant that I forgot is my pink ruffles Lavender which has begun sending out little flowers. I'm looking forward to these ones also, they're so pretty and I do love Lavender!

Alas, this brings us to the end of our spring season musings and it is now time for me to go and hop into my preheated bed and snuggle in with a book. Winter isn't all that bad... sometimes.

Until next time :)

Winter CAN be lovely...

5 minutes ago I wandered outside in the damp darkness with my gumboots and torch on the hunt for slugs. What I found however was far more delightful. Maybe my nose was compensating for the lack of visual substance. Or maybe daphne really does smell as good as I thought I had experienced! Enchanting, to say the least! I moved the pots to my porch from where I will hopefully be able to enjoy the scent much more easily.

Also, some Ajuga plants arrived a few days ago, and will be getting planted into the ground hopefully before the end of the week. I had already planted out our rear access path... space... with some (and threw my back out shortly after from all the landscaping I had to do to prepare the area) to grow into a ground cover and liven up that thoroughfare dead-space but these got pulled up by some chickens we were minding a couple of weeks ago for a relative. It was disappointing, but expected nonetheless. Nevermind! They will be replaced soon, which is very exciting, and hopefully they'll be able to get some growth in ASAP!

Although we are only, technically, half way through winter, I have my daphne's flowering, and my little greenhouse ready to grow some seedlings, and my thoughts are turning to preparation for our summer garden. It is beginning to feel like we are on the home stretch now to warmer weather.

If only my poppies would hurry up and start sending up some flowers!!!

Thumb twiddle workout

Today I am feeling uninspired (garden-wise anyway. The house is getting a thorough cleaning after being neglected a little over the last couple of days.)
Everything is merely existing, there's not much happening to speak of. The tomatoes have a few flowers but that's it, carrots are taking their sweet time to grow, as are the poppies, the snow peas and golden podded peas are lazily producing some pods, and it is as if the alyssum looks up at me and says "I'm tiny, but still cheery". I go outside to check the Kailaan broccoli for caterpillars every few days (I'll be getting some netting for next year), but other than that there's nothing else going on.

Indoors my current project is making the kids some library bags after our train/library excursion on Monday made me realise they don't have any. I found a great backpack style design that I'd like to have a crack at so once my home smells a bit better I'll be whipping them up (toddler permitting).

I am eagerly anticipating some flowers from these poppies, and the sweet scent of our daphne to begin wafting it's way around THEN I'll be excited about my winter garden again :)

"I can eat a rainbowwww, eat a rainbowww, eat a rainbow too"

Lucky we are in the cooler season, as with my huge break from blogging not too much has been missed ;)

We are smack bang in the middle of winter which has so far consisted of about a month straight of rain and a week of glorious sunshine. The days are mildly cool where we bask in the sun and soak up its warmth, and the nights are chilly since we are out of firewood. But that's ok, tis the season for snuggling!

Garden-wise, we have been growing some dwarf snow peas, kailaan broccoli, an out of season tomato experiment, purple dragon carrots, POPPIES (!!!!) and some other annuals, and golden podded peas.

I have also been spending a great deal of time repotting and thinking about the layout of our patch for the coming growing season, trying to make the most of our space. While thumbing through my new Diggers catalogue I came across some new seeds I'd love to try. Namely Painted Mountain corn which are a rainbow of kernels on the same cob. I had been trying to be a good girl and not buy anything new BUUUUUUUUUUUT.... I don't have any corn seeds yet and all the bright colours made me dizzy with excitement :)

Which brings me to some other ponderings I have been entertaining lately. Recently in a conversation about purple carrots I was asked "But can you EAT them???" which has since sparked many minutes thinking about how standardly bland and BORING the hybrid varieties of fruit and veg being sold in our supermarket are. No wonder kids don't like eating their veggies! How bizarre that we have become accustomed to our produce being a certain size, shape and colour, and that anything out side of those specifications is considered to be mutant or abnormal, and something that should be treated with caution or not to be consumed at all. When you open a Diggers catalogue and learn a little about heirloom varieties and how many there are (or were), my first thoughts are that our attitudes are laughable, and secondly I am disappointed at the range available to me and I feel that we are being deprived of something wonderfully amazing and exciting. I find joys in the little things of life. The day I discovered purple and white sweet potato varieties is forever in my memory, and then the looks on my family's faces when I served them up some purple sweet potato mash at dinner put more smiles on my face. So I have always enjoyed bright things, sparkly things, and novel things. Which is lending itself to my gardens personality in all the bright and wacky varieties I am choosing to grow there. Hopefully this coming growing season will consist of a kaleidoscope of colours and fun. I'll be growing my purple dragon carrots, painted mountain corn, tiny mixed mini capsicums, tommy toe, zebra, and rainbow beef steak mix tomatoes, a mix of bright beetroot varieties, sapphire and cranberry red potatoes, lemon cucumbers, and Rosa Bianca eggplant, and of course my spotty variegated basil (if the seeds I kept grow, fingers crossed!).

And, YES! They are all very much edible.

Butterflies in my garden

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 :)
http://www.burkesbackyard.com.au/factsheets/Flowering-Plants-and-Shrubs/Gaura-Siskiyou-Pink/1691

The first day of what will hopefully be a long and happy life of natural food preservation!

Tonight I have begun, for the first time, endeavoring to store what seasonal produce I can access and fit in to my freezer as part of the next step of growing a garden: Preserving your produce.

I have a few kilos of cauliflour, broccoli, some leeks & mushrooms that I picked up cheaply from my local green grocer, and a red capsicum from our garden, and have so far blanched the cauliflour, capsicum and broccoli with the intention of freezing them and using them while cooking over the next few months. I intend to do this regularly with what I can find cheaply and seasonally without compromising quality, and eventually what i can grow myself, and stop buying prepackaged frozen veg!

I have also collected a few handfuls of mint and basil. Apparently these can be frozen, whether it be as is, chopped and mixed in butter, or frozen in ice cube trays. I've rinsed them, allowed them to dry, and placed them in rigid containers and frozen them this way. I also have an abundance of oregano and thyme I want to look into freezing if possible, and next season I will be harvesting my sage also. I would try drying herbs if it weren't for the fact that I don't seem to have anywhere very appropriate for them to hang while drying. I would however like to perfect this art and maybe Jared will let me take over the garage a bit next season for storage ;)

Then I could make my own teas once I've got my chammomile growing too!!!

PHEW!

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