Green everywhere!

Today.. Marty is experiencing the joy of a sharp and nicely adjusted push mower. :)



The scythe is great for the longer weeds and grasses, but the push mower does a lovely looking job. It's the season for lush growth, but come summer it'll all be dead again anyway.

I'm not sure if you'll remember the herb pot I planted out so long ago? I thought I might have parsley sprouting in the top.. well, it was parsley! We're just starting to pick a few leaves now and it's lovely. The oregano on one side is crazy as always, and we have one single chive plant growing in the other side.



The parsley grown from seed are doing much better than the parsley seedling we brought from the local market. The oregano tried to spread into the other openings.. it's a very tough and invasive plant. One I'd recommend for a difficult spot.

I've thinned out the bok choy in the freezer a little, but the rest I'll let set seed. The native bees are taking care of the pollination, when it isn't windy!



View from the front yard..



The peas on the ex-potato cages are flowering already, and the snowpeas (who are a little slow to start) are gripping their first and second string-lines now. They may be a little late in the season if it gets too warm too quickly, but that won't matter - we'll just start growing beans instead. :)

You can see the native grasses in that photo.. they're crazy right now. What may not be obvious is the bamboo, it isn't looking happy. It's leaves have turned an olive green colour. We're hoping it's just a "winter look" and it'll come back again in spring. Crossing fingers! (That's a $65 bamboo there!! That's more than all the other plants put together, I'd say!)

Until next time!

Oh, what a week.

Where did the week go?? Last weekend we did some work at a busy-bee for the SES.. Monday rained like we've never seen before! A massive 55.2mm (2.1 inches) that completely filled the last two tanks and half filled the first tank. (The first tank only collects rain from a small area of the roof.) The good news is that the house didn't leak at all - except some rain down the chimney - the roof and floor in the kitchen remained dry!

Tuesday we worked on the window some more.. I think that's when we turned the compost heap too.. Wednesday I had a chiropractors appointment and I planted some broccoli into toilet rolls while Marty did yet more work to the window.. and today Marty dug a trench for a new telephone line for the shed while I planted 3 more pots of chives...



This is a pic of the bamboo structure we put up yesterday for some more snow peas to climb all over.



The broccoli is ready (if a little early) for picking. It's been a bit warm lately, so I'm told that is why the heads are a little "loose"..



Marty's new trench!



We're nearly done with the window! Marty cleaned-up the louvres, cleaning off the small spots of rust and repainting them with a corrosion-proof metal paint. We've given each piece of wood at least 2 coats of paint, and even painted some of the shed wall too. Nearly done!!



We'll be glad to get the window done so we can move onto the next. The next one should go much quicker since we have everything we need now! Assuming, that is, there are no other distractions. :)

It's greening up

It's been too long since I last showed what's been happening around the house and garden - so I thought I'd do a general update tonight. We've been pottering around doing odd jobs lately, so nothing too exciting!

We can only hope that these are flax / linseed plants! I can't find a good picture online of what they are suppose to look like at this stage, but we're weeding out as much of the other grasses and weeds as we can - and keeping ones that look like this.



By the looks of it, we'll soon find out what these little plants are.



Broccoli is coming along nicely. There are 2 out of the 3 plants that have grown large. I think I planted them too close together though. We've been overly generous with the well matured horse manure, and this morning I gave them a little sulphate of potash too.



The flower heads are just starting to appear. Hey, I didn't notice that big green caterpillar on there when I took the photo!! See how well they hide? Marty and I check them daily for bugs and aphids.



The peas and snow peas are going crazy and flowering. It feels like only yesterday I was covering the new seedlings with shade-cloth to protect them from the too hot weather.



We've left some of the purple king beans on the dying bushes to collect the seed for next year.



The newly planted peas on the ex-potato cages are just starting to poke-through the soil. You just can't have enough peas!



Here's a half-finished project - this is a water tank buried over an old (unused!) septic tank. We dug out the weeds and have thrown some of the Beneficial Bug Blend on it. Both flowers (I hope) and weeds have come up nicely - but I'm only half way through pulling out the weeds.



The big tree has lost many of its autumn leaves, but we're not going to rake them all up. The trees suffered during last summer, so the thinking here is that the leaves will help provide some much needed nourishment for them to recover over winter and next spring. This picture also shows the new water-tank garden bed. It's not yet filled, and we're still considering where to put it - but it's cut, painted and the sharp edge is covered by plastic pipe.



The lettuce bed is still going strong - we've put more Beneficial Bug Blend seeds into the garden bed around it. We're both looking forward to the winter flowering plants that will hopefully germinate.



We havn't had much rain lately (although, we're expecting some on Friday), but we've been using the water from the tanks since it did rain. We havn't used town water for the garden once since then! That'll save us a little money off the bill - and it means we can water whatever we want, whenever we want to. (Stawell is still on Stage 4 restrictions.)



We're looking forward to eating some parsley soon - and we've been lucky to have all the oregano we could ever want. :)



The chest-freezer garden bed is doing great! I finally got rid of the weeds (once I'd identified them, that is) and now the bok choy and other seedlings are going crazy.



Here's just a small selection of bricks found in the soil when we were planting trees. They're everywhere! Also, the local magpies are great. They're a bit like having wild chooks - but without the eggs. ;)



We're trying to get organised with the wood storage. Marty and I knocked-up this wood storage in an afternoon. Now we just need some proper wood!



Did anyone say bricks? :)
We've been collecting these whole bricks for a long while now - I think there's just about enough for a BBQ next summer. haha!



Here is the pile of broken bricks we have yet to deal with. We've got a few ideas on what to do with them.. you'll have to wait and see!



Until next time!

The garden update I promised you...

A while back, I planted some herbs in a herb pot we had lying around, and there is one herb that has gone crazy. Oregano. I have to tip prune it, we really don't use enough of this stuff. Very flavourful too. There are a couple of chive plants on each side (although they're really small still) and maybe, just maybe, a couple of parsley plants in the top. You never know, they could turn out to be weeds yet. :)



This garden bed is made out of an old chest freezer we were given for free. It was in too terrible a condition to be used for much else. ;) The bottom is filled with bricks and sand (two things we have plenty of here), and the rest is a traditional no-dig garden bed of pea-straw and horse manure layers. We also have two drainage holes drilled into the side of the freezer, part way up. I've been reading a little about wicking beds, and maybe I can use this garden bed in that way. We'll soon find out. Anyway, I'm hoping to grow water loving plants such as celery and lettuce in this one. The area around it will hopefully have a range of beneficial flowers to attract good bugs to the garden.



This is the progress report on the round raised garden bed we made earlier. It has a mixture of lettuce, carrot and pak choi in it (plus a few weeds I'm sure). I usually have a stool near-by so I can sit down and pick out the weeds easily. I'm hoping to plant some flowers around this garden bed as well. (For the beneficial bugs, that is.. ok, yes, I admit they look pretty too.)



The bamboo in the front garden is looking really healthy. The grass around it are Japanese Blood Grass.



Finally, the Poa we planted! It wasn't easy, but it was worth it.



More updates to follow!

The ever growing garden

The garden continues to grow, so here's an update on the latest.

I felt for sure the little bright green basil plants wouldn't survive the hot conditions of the garden, but I was wrong! They've turned a darker green, and grown! Spartagus the Asparagus is happily growing along with them, too.



The corn are all looking good. They are certainly hardy. If the weather stays warm enough, we may even get some corn cobs from them.



I planted another row of carrots last Friday and used a plank of wood to cover them and keep them moist. Today I uncovered them as some have sprouted (I think!). I planted them on the appropriate moon planting day for root crops, so it'll be interesting to see what (if any) difference it makes to the crop.



The companion flowers have bloomed. Hmm, pink isn't exactly my favourite colour, but even I have to admit, they're quite pretty.



These beetroot were planted last Thursday (also a moon-planting) and they're going crazy. There are 40 paper pots and all have sprouted at least one plant. Of course, I'm going to have to thin them out - but that's a lot of beetroot!



I wasn't really expecting many to sprout, because the seeds I have were cooked after keeping them in the garage during the 40+ weather, so that's why I planted so many. The broccoli, on the other hand, obviously suffered from the heat. 30 broccoli were planted on Friday the 6th (moon planted once again!), and only 3 have sprouted.



I may have to buy new seeds, or keep planting the seeds that I do have in hopes of getting a few more. It's all experience.. I now know not to store seeds in the garage. :)

We took a short trip to Melbourne on Monday and Tuesday and came home with a couple of new additions to the ever-growing plant family. :)

This is Bamboo. He's a 6 metre hedging (clumping) bamboo known as Bambusa textilis "gracilis". We're planning on planting him in a buried water-tank that already exists beside the house. I've been reading about using them for garden stakes, and it just seems to make sense to have one of these beautiful plants already growing in the garden.



We also just had to get these crazy plants. This one is Cephalotus follicularis, aka: The Albany Pitcher Plant, native to Western Australia, quite unique. Little ants and such will go crawling into the pitcher and the lid closes and the ant will be digested slowly. Neat!



The other plant is actually two plants in the one pot - one is Sarracenia and the other is a Drosera (Sundew). Both "eat" insects, too.



We don't have an insect problem as such, just a growing interest in these unusual plants.

Until next time.

Spartagus is back!

I think Spartagus likes his new friends (or, maybe the extra watering and attention they bring) - he's grown two new spears!



Looks tasty, but we won't be eating any of Spartagus until next spring. For now, he can enjoy being with his basil buddies and grow strong and healthy for next season.



Oh, and guess who else is back? The plumber! This one seems trustworthy - even showing up on time! Of course, the weather people have taken away the rain that was due on my Birthday (damn weather people!) so we're not sure when we'll see the tanks in action. It can't stay dry all year. :)

Yesterday, two very generous people Marty met through the local SES lent us their tandem trailer - so we spent last night filling it up ready for a trip to the tip! It looks as though it'll take quite a few trailer loads to get all the rubble taken away. Next time, we'll have a trailer available before we remove any more concrete floors. ;)

Until next time!

Cool-er change

We've had a little relief from the heat last night and today. Believe it or not, it rained today! Not enough to register as rain or even make anything wet, but enough to give us hope that it may come again soon. According to the weather reports, it could be as soon as this weekend! Crossing fingers!

The garden isn't looking too shabby, either. The corn almost seems invincible! I'll know to plant more next spring for sure.



Next to the corn there is an awkward spot, so a week or so ago I planted it out with a mixture of flowers. Dahlias, Marigolds and Zinnia. I planted them quite close together, since I wasn't expecting many (if any) to actually come up. Surprise!



The beetroot seem pretty tough. Despite looking sad on occasion, they spring up again when the weather cools off. These are almost edible!



The flowers I planted near the beetroot are doing well. They're one of the three flowers (Dahlias, Marigolds or Zinnias), but I can't remember which one. Never mind, they look like they will be providing some colour soon!



Sunflowers are amazing. What seemed like delicate little seedlings to begin with have grown strong and healthy. We only have these two right now - the others succumbed to pests or lack of water - the soil there is almost completely sand - so these ones are tough!



The carrots are also surviving quite well without any shade-cloth or any mulch!



This pic shows the sunflowers on the left, beans in the middle, and you can just see some beetroot on the right. Behind the beans are the carrots.



Same veggies, different angle. :)



On Saturday we went to the local market and brought some more plants. We just couldn't go past the basil. Basil like being with asparagus, so Spartagus has some new friends! I had to add quite a bit of sheep-poo, blood and bone and mulch to the dry sandy soil. Basil is an annual herb that tastes great, deters nematodes, and repels flies and mosquitoes!



(Ah, yes.. Spartagus is looking a little worse for wear.. I assume it's the heat and the end of his season anyway. Lets hope so!)

I also planted the rosemary we got from the market. Rosemary likes to be with beans and carrots, so I placed it right between the two. Rosemary is suppose to repel moths and flies, it's liked by bees, and again, tastes lovely.



Given the lack of rain (and the possibility of rain later in the week!) we are getting impatient waiting for plumbers (we've been told by two separate plumbers that they will do the job!), so Marty and I have begun the process of hooking up the water tanks ourselves. So far, we've taken off the section of old downpipes from the side of the house, and reproduced the section in plastic. This is done so it can be sealed to force the water down then back up into the water tank. We're hoping to finish this first section tomorrow so at very least, if it rains, we can collect it in the water tank in the front garden.



I'm sure this is one of the few times we can feel confident about having no downpipes on the house for the time being. :)

On that note, I'm off to paint the new plastic pipes green (the same colour the old pipes were). Until next time!