Dreaming of walking on grass in bare feet...

I calculated it's going to take 267 bucket loads to move this from A to B. Lucky time isn't in short supply being a stay at home Mum!

GASP!

DO YOU SEE WHAT I SEE???

Could it be a flower bud on this poppy plant?!

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.