Garden

Almost been a month since the last garden update.

The veggie patch is going well. Well most of it survived the unseasonably hot spell we had about a week after we put them in. Unfortunately the Spinach bolted and the peas shrivelled up. Too precious for the hot weather. The leeks (top left corner) are getting thicker. The Capsicum (back row) are growing taller. The Salvia (bottom left) are even flowering. And the Coriander survived which was a bit touch and go there for a while.

In their stead however we have planted some baby beetroots. Just yesterday. So they haven't had time to really take off yet. We shall see how they go.

The Grosse Tomato bush that we put in has grown a lot, as have the marigolds that were around its base to attract the aphids and other nasties.

Even the Apple Cucumber plant that Pete put in has got a flower on it. Wonder if I have to hand polinate it.

We've had this Rosemary bush for over a year now, starting from just 1 spring. Unfortunately it doesn't appear to have grown an awful lot this year. I feed it but it doesn't seem to do much. Could be too wet. I'll switch to watering once a week (if it hasn't rained) and see how it goes.

We also had some silverbeet and spinach growing in this pot, it also went to seed, so we ripped it out and put in this pretty Salvia. Its called Salvia Microphylla or Heatwave Blaze. Mum has heaps of them in her garden, she's a Salvia nut, but I must admit they look quite good.

The basil has taken off, so much so that I should probably contemplate making some pesto with it. Mmmm pesto.

The Tomatoberry bushes are going well, even have fruit on them, just need them to ripen now and we'll see how they taste.

And lastly our Lemon and Olive trees. The lemon tree had a stack of flowers on it, however it doesn't look like any fruit has formed. Probably a good thing as apparently a young citrus tree shouldn't fruit in its first year as it stunts the growth.

A Veggie Patch

... well 1/2 of one.





Our backyard gets more sun that we thought it would so Pete went and bought two 1.2m square planter boxes from bunnings that we assembled during the week. Yesterday we filled up one of the boxes (11 bags of soil + lucerene mulch and newspaper for the bottom to stop the grass growing up through it all) and got some plants.

We divided the box into 16 squares of 30cm square each.

Top row left - right: Leeks, Capsicum, Capsicum, Marigolds
2nd to top row: Leeks, Garden Peas, Garden Peas, Tomatoes
3rd Row: Salvia, Cucumber, Cucumber, Marigolds
4th Row: Salvia, Spinach, Spinach, Coriander

For this box it cost us:

$60 for the box
$100 for the soil and plants
Total $160

In the other box The Husband wants to grow Cauliflower, Broccoli and Cabbage.

It will be interesting to see how these patches go in winter when they get minimal sun. If it comes to it we'll grow a tonne of potatoes.

Garden - Old Plants

And just an update on our existing plants - the ones that survived the winter and are now growning again.

The lemon and olive trees that Katie & Andrew gave us are continuing to grow, the lemon even has flowers on it!


And the rosemary which hasn't grown much in a while but I'm hoping the fertiliser that we got today will help with that.


Interestingly, last years parsley and chives are still going strong (well maybe not strong, but are definately still going).

And the rose that we got given when Kim passed away got a trim and is now flourishing with growth again. Can't wait for the flowers. It was getting attacked by Aphids though, so we bought some pest spray today to help it out.

Garden - New Plants

Well its now well into spring and after an unsuccessful trip to the animal shelter (we wouldn't have suited any of the dogs) we went to Garden World. Ahh Garden World, so big! And inspiring! And full of lots of people doing exactly what we were doing - finding new plants for their gardens for spring and summer.

First find was a Cat Snacks pack - Cat Mint, Cat Grass and Cat Nip, all in one container. We have it inside sitting on a plate so that the water doesn't destroy the floor. Whiskers loves it and whenever we go near it she comes running over to inspect whether we have destroyed it. It was on the ground for no longer than 30 seconds before she was quite happily eating the cat grass. Consequently this photo is with the grass a fair bit shorter than it was originally.


Mum always has a pot with Lettuce going for summer salads so this year we figured we'd do the same. This pack had Lettuce, Silverbeet and Spinach. Yum! The pots were on sale for $20 each and looked a lot like cauldrons.


Next was Tomatoes. We saw a new variety on Better Homes and Gardens on friday night, a kind called Tomatoberry, little tomatoes but apparently with a lot of flavour. So we got 2 of these to use with last years trelice. Last years were a bit of a fail, I think we only got like 10 tomatoes from them. Hopefully this year will be better.


Included in the salad pack were parsley and chives so I included them in a long pot with 2 strawberry plants and 2 garlic plants. Should be interesting to see how they go. I have never grown strawberries successfully so this shall be interesting.


We also got mint, which got awarded its own special pot due to its take over nature.


And for a bit of colour we got some pretty colourful flowers that will theoretically be hanging somewhere - once we figure out where.

Backyard Design

I downloaded and installed Google SketchUp which is a free image design tool. With it I produced my idea for the backyard, which was a good idea apparently as once Pete looked at this he was much more open to my idea. Yes this will involve some concrete cutting and paving but I think it looks great.

The green columns will be Lilly Pillys (or neighbours begone) seeing as we have the 4 story building next door. These'll be in raised garden beds to add extra height to them. The red column is a Japanese Maple in a halfwine barrel (which Pete is desperate for).

The black box is the BBQ. The wooden thing on the right is the table and chair setting. On the left hand side will be the water tank and worm farm (if I can convinve Pete of this. His exact words were I'm not touching it or going near it).

Cooking and Gardening

Well its been a while since I updated so I figured I'd post a couple of photos of what has been happening.

I had a 2 week break over Christmas, which wasn't as long as you would think with the preparing for Christmas and then recovering from Christmas. Here is the Ice Cream cake I made by melting down tubs of ice cream, adding things, and then putting into a spring form cake tin. Was definately a high light and has been requested again since.

A friend made a facebook status update saying he was eating ANZAC cookies, and what else was I supposed to do but get a craving for them and make my own.

And finally, here are tomatoes grown exclusively in my backyard. Very proud, though all of them are quite small, must figure out how to remedy that.

Garden

Well our grass is kinda growing a lot and as we don't have a whippersnipper to cut it yet theres not that much we can do about it. Kinda amused at how quick its growing though considering it is supposed to be a drought!

Theres a rose bush in the back garden but I have no idea what kind of rose it is so I took a picture of it. Maybe Mum can tell me.

I planted tomatoes! Now to watch them grow. The ones in this pot supposedly grow up and need the additional support.

While the ones in this pot are supposed to trail along the ground.

Gardening

In the midst of all the crap thats happening in my life at the moment, I've felt a strong pull towards gardening. It could be the warmer weather, it could be the fact that now I have my own garden, it could be that I need an outlet, it could be that I need to connect to the earth more. Regardless, I spent a little bit of time outside in the sunshine today, soaking up the sun.

Below are the beginnings of my own garden. I have 2 planter boxes hanging over the stairs railing, a rosemary plant that will be transplanted into a bigger pot soon, and I just noticed a couple of bluebells in the garden. I love bluebells. Almost as much as I love sweet peas. That will be my next trip to bunnings, sweet pea seedlings and a pole for them to climb up.