Much Agave about nothing

Jared and I took a stroll around the wasteland yesterday to discuss how we could utilise that space. Currently it contains a pile of grass clippings, the remnants of our firewood from winter, a wattle and a gum tree, and several spiky, lethal plants. While perusing one of my current favourite gardening blogs shortly after I discovered that these spiky things are called Agave, and they are natives to parts of North America, and they're apparently quite a statement plant to have in your garden. Whatever. Since I almost fell into one of the bigger ones once and ended up with a massive bruise surrounding the puncture in my thigh I'm pretty sure they're not on my list of plants I'd like to have in my dream garden. In our mission to prepare the space for productivity we will be seeking to remove all of those plants. We will be chopping up the bigger spiky offenders before we dig them out, but as for the smaller ones we will be looking into passing them on to anyone who wants them. There are a few larger ones and at least a dozen, if not more, 'pups' up for grabs. We are hoping to get outside over the long weekend to do it, although we have a wedding, a birthday party, an appointment and Jareds birthday happening over the weekend also, so hopefully the weather will turn it on for us so we can get out there and maximise the amount of time we do have! Drop me a line if you want to claim them :)

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...

Our first "bad bug" experience

I discovered aphids on a potted viola this afternoon after noticing that they have been looking a bit sad the last couple of days. I don't particularly care a great deal about that plant, and I am glad that they are on that one and not one of the more productive ones. Now I'd like to set about concocting a home made insecticide, and while I am at it I will make some cleaning products also. I used to make my own cleaners for a while but fell out of that habit after misplacing my copy of 1001 Natural Remedies. I found it after (what felt like) a long time, but not before purchasing a second copy.
I will post the recipes I settle on later :)

On a somewhat related note, has anyone seen the NZ show "Get Growing" on Foxtel? I am a huge fan of season 1, I watched and recorded it last year when they played it and still have it stored on our IQ. I missed the first episode or 2 so the minute I find they put out a DVD of the show I will be snapping it up. You can view the episodes from season 2 online. I haven't watched much of season 2 yet as our download limit won't allow it but I'd really like to watch it. Its a great show for beginner veggie gardeners, taking you through all the things to do to establish a garden, to cultivating, to preserving and storing things, to pest control, beneficial and companion plants. It breaks down all the overwhelming information and basically spoon feeds it to you with each episode. I have the link somewhere...

Ah. http://www.primetv.co.nz/Default.aspx?tabid=295

Memo to me: herbs for health

Just a quick note to myself...

I've gotten to the point where I pretty much already have all the different herbs I would use in cooking, and yet herb collecting is somewhat addictive and I have this compulsive feeling that I don't have enough ;)
So I'll have to remember to source out other plants beneficial for health and well being, so I can have a crack at making my own teas and things. I love tea, and I'm all for (inexpensive) natural remedies!

This is my inspiration, hands down one of the most valuable books in my collection (In fact I even own 2 copies):

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 :)

Beginnings

Welcome :)

Here we have my little corner of the blogosphere. I'd like to use this blog to collate all of my musings and mental notes as they come to me. You might find the vast majority of them will be about my attempts to find a way to turn our outdoorsy space into a (somewhat) functional one. Our location is not terribly ideal you see, we are on a slope, the high side of the street, our block is small with the house in the center of it. To the left (east) of our house is the "wasteland": a space big enough for an underused trampoline, a wattle tree, a ridiculously spiky bushy thingy, and an ankle deep swamp when it rains due to the run off from further up the hill. Beyond the fence is a highway. To the right (west) of the house is the "back side": an enclosed courtyard-type space with artificial grass to make it kid-friendly and garden beds shaded by a mature liquid amber tree. At the rear of the house is a dumping ground, a hot water system, and some stepping stones leading to the back side. The front of the house is north facing, sloped, open, and is the location of the only really currently productive space... but if we end up having an El Nino summer I'm not expecting much of my plants to survive as it gets hot there.
This year is my first serious attempt to grow some things, mainly herbs, some veg, and poppies and other flowering favourites (at this point anyway). So far so good... fingers crossed!