A wet spring

It's been a little while since I showed off the garden, and I have to show off these little linseeds / flax plants. Their little white flowers are so sweet.



There's always one in every crowd, though. ;)



Yep, one single blue flowering flax. We've tied a little string around the base and will be sure to grow more of this one next season!

Our little pond has got even bigger! No wonder we never saw water like this last year.. the plumbing from the stormwater was leaking all under the shed floor! This year it's all going into the water tanks and out the overflow into the backyard..



.. which is a good thing for the poor shed, and an interesting situation for the backyard. I think we need some water-loving plants back here! :)

This wattle doesn't seem to mind, but we're thinking rushes and poa grasses. :)



This is the dry side of the yard, but the picture demonstrates the dead grasses on the council owned property. The neighbour's property looks similarly dead, too.. The area directly behind our property is council owned, too, but they have not sprayed there (yet?). We've been keeping the grass down with a push mower! It's not even that hard..



I take it that this little bird is eating the aphids on the roses. The yellow roses fend for themselves in that regard, but I sprayed the aphids off the roses over the cottage and Spartagus the Asparagus had a few on him, too. (Sprayed with a stream of water, that is! It works a treat.)



I've been planting so many seeds lately, I've ran out of room in my mini greenhouse. Marty was kind enough to make me a cold-frame to house some of them.





I'm so excited! I just want to sit out there and watch them germinate! The seeds in the mini greenhouse were planted in a home-made seed raising mix, and the compost I used was far too alkaline. I'm sure they won't do anything, but I'm keeping them in there just in case. After all, some of the beetroot came up after I over watered them. :)

Until next time!

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!

Real Rain!

We came home yesterday after being up in the "Rich River Country" (Echuca/Moama). Sadly, the visit wasn't a happy occasion - it was to say goodbye to my Uncle, who passed away during the Black Saturday bushfires.

We were woken up early Friday morning to the sound of heavy rain on the roof - a sound we havn't heard for a long time now. Stawell received 9.4mm (0.37 inches) on Friday, and another 9.4mm today so far. It is all very welcome, but the garden could do without the strong winds that are breaking my snowpeas in half and bending over the broccoli! The rain also split some of the carrots in the ground, including the massive purple dragon variety that I was planning on keeping in the ground to go to seed next year. I'm still not complaining, though! :)

The water tanks are just under half full already, and the council-owned channel behind our property (along the train line) is flowing with water - a sight we've never seen!

Here is Marty in the drenched backyard!



..and here's Marty grabbing a ladder to clear the inlet for the water tank. It was overflowing due to leaves blocking it up. Thankfully he saw it quick-smart, and we didn't loose too much of the precious water.



Meanwhile, I was putting buckets under the leaks in the kitchen and cooking a chicken stock for tonight's dinner. ;)

We are told to expect yet more rain before another dry spell. Thankfully, even in the heaviest of downpours, the loungeroom and bedroom remain dry and warm. We will need to get cracking on the renovations/restorations very soon, though!

Until next time.

Plodding along..

Firstly, an updated picture of the front yard now the plumbing has been buried.



Of course, there's always another project on-the-go, so it never stays "nice" for long. ;) We are continuing making the garden bed using old roof tiles, but we needed to remove a concreted-in pole.



Lots of sweat and effort later, we finally removed it - and, not for the first time, curse concrete and everything it stands for. :p

Note to anyone considering using concrete to secure posts in the ground - PLEASE DON'T! (Unless it's a fence or a gate of course..)



So, we've nearly finished the garden bed. We're now adding lots of manure and compost to the poor quality sandy soil. It's now holding water and looking much better.. but there's more work to be done.

The vegetables are all doing well. These broccoli have had a few bites taken from the leaves - so I've put down some eggshells to help keep the white moths away. It seems to be helping.



The white inside the eggshells is suppose to make the moths think there is already a moth in the area, and being territorial, they won't bother landing. (Well, that's the idea.) I used it successfully with the beetroot, but I'm not sure if the beetroot were a big target anyway.

The peas and the snowpeas are up and at 'em. Marty keeps the weeds down.



The sunflowers are fully open, but they're not moving with the sun. One is "stuck" in an easterly direction while the other is "stuck" facing west.



This single carrot has survived the earwigs of spring and the ground being dug over for the beetroot.. it's our largest carrot, and it happens to be a Purple Dragon! They say beetroot and carrot don't get on well, but this one is proving them all wrong.



Speaking of beetroot.. check this out!



The corn is still flowering, and as you can see, the flower spikes are not much taller than I am. I don't think we'll get any corn kernels develop, but they still look great, and they'll add to the compost when their time is up.



The flowers make everything look 100 times nicer. We'll be growing these again next year for sure!



We've since removed the old and very ugly rose "tree" from the last of the garden beds out the front, and we're planning on planting a green manure crop there over winter, in preparation for all the spring veggies we have planned. :)

Until next time!

Nice weather for gardening

We've had enough rain to test out the water tanks, and the one located in the front yard looks like it's ready to be dug-in! I put a sheet of corrugated iron down just in-case the bamboo decides to do some exploring in that direction. It's completely covered now, as are all the pipes! Hooray! It looks much better.

We did some general tidying up of the garden, and have nearly finished the garden bed made of roof tiles. It's looking great, but I'll have to take a picture in the morning light for you! The lovely cool weather means we can work out in the garden as much as we want.. and now the tanks are all installed, all rain is welcome!

Hopefully the last testing of the water tanks will be done tomorrow, and we can be sure that nothing else is going to go wrong (at least for the time being), we'll bury the rest of the pipes in.

Yesterday we picked-up a free chest freezer from someone advertising on Freecycle, and we'll be happily using that as a raised garden bed for lettuce and other water-loving plants really soon.

The projects never stop. ;)

Rain and computer issues...

After a few computer problems and a major upgrade of my software, I'm back with more pictures and updates on the Old Miners Cottage! (It really shouldn't have taken this long.. *grumbles*)

Taking an idea off Aussies Living Simply, we used old roof tiles as a border for the extension to the garden bed out front. It will create a lot more garden bed, and it will look a lot nicer than the old, rotting away railway sleepers.



Not bad for only 20c a piece, saved from landfill by the local tip-shop.



At last, we have a flower blooming that isn't pink. :)



Not forgetting the sunflowers, of course. One is just starting to open up. It's just lovely! The other shouldn't be too far off. You may be able to see from that photo that we have, indeed, had rain. Everything in the garden is looking a little better for it.



The mini-corn has corn cobs starting. This will be interesting. We've had plenty of wind to pollinate them during the last few days, and the bees are enjoying the flowers too.



The water tanks are still not operational as yet - just 3 more leaks to go! One popped-up underground where we weren't expecting it, and the others are fairly small - Marty and I will fix them tomorrow with luck. :)

The worms have had a boost as of yesterday. We purchased 1,000 more worms. There are Reds, Tigers and Blues now making their home in among our existing worms. We're planning on ditching the "Can 'o' Worms" as soon as we get the worm-bath set-up. They should be able to maintain a more stable temperature in a cast iron tub.

Until next time!

In expectation of rain..

I have a plan - if anyone asks - I'll say it's miniature corn. ;)



In the background there you can see the gates we put in a few weeks ago. We took out the single gate (which supported peas just before summer hit), and made room for all 3 gates we've been collecting. The soil is well prepared with compost and sheep manure and ready for this pea (Greenfeast) and snowpea (Goliath) crop.

The beetroot is an amazing vegetable. It seems to work best if we cover the root with mulch as it develops - otherwise the root stays a little small. This one was covered, and is the best beetroot I've ever seen! We've recently planted plenty more - so yummy!



The plumber came around today - hopefully everything is fixed now ready for the impending rain! There is a 90% chance it'll rain tomorrow, best odds I've seen all year. ;)



The bad news is that it means there are even more trenches to walk around. Crossing fingers this is the last time, and we'll be able to reclaim the garden and the path once again.

I may have neglected to tell you that I pulled-up the lino in the bathroom on my Birthday this year. (What an odd thing to do, I hear you say!) Well, today I gave the old wooden floor some linseed oil treatment today and it came up lovely. There are paint spots along the side of the wall, but hopefully we can get it off.



The weather has become all calm tonight, and we're expecting some very strong winds with the forecast rain tomorrow. Everything has been put away and we're as prepared as we can be. With luck, the tanks will get some of the rain! (Mind you, it would help if we fixed the leaking gutters next. haha.)

;)

Until next time!

Rain!

Less than 1mm (0.039 inch), but rain none the less! Marty went to an SES training session this morning, and I told him I'd attach the taps to the water tanks if it did rain. So, of course it did rain and I ran around attaching taps. Only problem was, I cross-threaded one of them, and couldn't undo it. Not wanting to loose any rain we could possibly get into the tanks, I rushed down to the local hardware store, and they solved my problem using a vice. Argh! Don't tell Marty!! :)

Most of the plumbing has been completed with the tanks - the only remaining thing is to attach the last two tanks to each other. That will have to wait until the store opens again on Monday. This is how the front looks now - a little messy and ugly, but it's only temporary!



We'll leave it like this until we know for sure that all the sections are glued properly and water isn't leaking anywhere. Then we'll cover it all over and paint it. It'll look nice again!

Most of the trees look like it's Autumn - although the leaves are actually burnt, and the trees are dropping them prematurely. We're a little worried we could loose some of the bigger ones including this one, and the rose bush we were going to transplant to Mum's house this winter.



The rains brought out some beetles and I caught this skink making the most of the situation. :)



Stay safe and here's hoping for much more rain and cooler weather.