Returning to the Garden

 It's been two years since I really put any effort into my vege garden.

I started working full-time, with two hours a day travel, while still spinning and weaving and keeping up my small business.  It hasn't left me with a lot of time left over for any gardening.  Add to this, now, I'm also studying online in my own time.

But the world is going to hell in a handbasket and it's easy to feel hopeless about large international events that will impact and are impacting us here.  And the Muppet show that is our current government isn't helping (while I try not to get political normally, recent statements and law changes are steps too far). Someone said to me "Yeah, but what can you do?"

What can I do?

A great podcast that I follow (Do You F*cking Mind on Spotify for any who are interested) is all about mind health, and some neuroscience.  Alexis frequently says to concentrate on the things you can control.  I can't control inflation, I can't control other peoples' poor choices, I can't control what is looking more and more like another major war impending.

I can grow food.  I can ensure that my family and close friends are fed.  I can provide ordinary veges that only cost me time to grow but cost an arm, leg and a kidney in the supermarkets right now.  I can preserve my glut so that all my family have access to soups and sauces over winter.  I can host a regular family dinner that brings everyone together and ensures that they have a good hearty meal every so often.  

I had previously put a lot of work into improving the soil, the weeds loved my work and as a result, it had become extremely overgrown.  We had made a start to it in summer, but a wet and colder than usual summer meant that harvests were pretty dismal.  Still, it gave us a starting place.

I enlisted Hubby to help build the beginnings of planter boxes.  These have all come from the scrap ends of new rail fencing to replace the fences that were crushed under the fallen trees in some of spring storms we've been having over the last few years.  As more fences (and my new cattle yards!!) are completed, there will be more scrap ends and I'll raise it higher again.  I'm getting older and a bit broken physically, so anything we can do to make the job easier is of value to our future selves.

I didn't want to buy in soil to fill the boxes.  I've heard stories of soil that had some sort of poison in that killed anything planted in it and not even weeds or grass would grow there. Plus all the constant stories of oxalis or similar growing rampant in bought soils.  I've been working to build up my own soil.  I'm  composting as I'm planting in it.  Hubby cleaned out the gutters, so I put that in.  We cleaned the chookhouses, so I put that in.  Fireplace ash and lawn clippings.  I'm ensuring that I dig it into the existing soil and mix it up in diagonal layers.  Leaf Litter and roadkill are also going in shortly - the roadkill will be well buried of course.

Hubby built some covered planter boxes to protect my broccoli and cauliflower from the brassica moths a few years ago.  This has worked well, although I have to be careful to pick them before they grow through the netting.  It also keeps my feral hen that thinks she's the dog's pet (long story) out of them too.

The dags and bellies from shearing and the neps and double cuts I find when spinning wool are the base for my path, covered with wood mulch.  Some of the wood that has been mulched is probably too fresh to put directly in the garden, but it can work for this year in the path.

I'm buying plants and seeds in small amounts when I see them available.  I'm trying to keep it manageable to plant and maintain.  So far, my humble vege garden is boasting broccoli, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage, beetroot, onions, peas, boysenberries and strawberries.  I'll plant some beans in the next few months and Hubby's patch is always filled with self-sown potatoes - I know we didn't get them all last year.  Wow.  I didn't realise the variety I had until I typed it in just now.

While I have struggled in recent years to find something to grow that both Hubby and I will eat - as I usually grow too much for just one of us - I am now growing for my wider family too.  This makes it easier to select and makes for some small economies of scale when I'm buying plants.

We are making plans and organising materials for the next stage.  Watch this space!

Returning to the Tunnel House

This year I thought I'd try to repeat and build on the success of last year's vege garden.  I did want to include the tunnel house.  It was something we've discussed over and over.  Ideas, disagreements and all sorts of plans have been made and discarded. I decided to just do what I wanted, sometimes, it's better to ask forgiveness rather than permission.

I cut open the back of the tunnel house, partly to make it a natural extension of the vege garden and because I couldn't be bothered walking around to the door through all the long grass.  I know myself well enough to know that it's something that I'd avoid doing and everything I tried to do in there would fail because I don't like slogging my way around to the door.  To be fair, the tunnel house is a bit broken anyway.  The nasty wind storm a few years ago blew the plastic sheet off the netting, weather has taken some of the plastic sheeting off the roof.  The roof support structure was badly made and needs some work. And there were two plum trees growing in there.  There is also the family of blackbirds that return every year to nest in a hole in the wall where a speaker used to be.

A few years ago, I put some chooks in there.  They were some end of lays and injured birds from the egg farm I worked in.  It was a good, gentle place to get them used to being out of a cage and learning how to free range.  Until a family of ferrets visited.

The soil in there had originally been a mix of a bought bio-blend, pig manure and our crappy sour grey soil.  After the chooks, it was a strange pale brown, with sawdust and rat droppings.  A while back, Dad thought he'd help us out sieving the soil.  Until I looked at the stones he was sieving out with his bare hands and pointed out that it was at least half rat poo.  The stones that were in there originally were similar size.

I spent many hours weeding the end where I'd cut the door then sieving the soil to put into the tyres.  I put the stones around to form a path and hopefully keep the weeds down.

I planted as I filled the tyres.  Cucumbers, rock melon, tomatoes, capsicums and chillies.  

I've spent so much time in there, the garden hasn't gotten much attention and is still mostly a jungle of waist high grass and thistle.  The down side to doing so much work on the soil is that the weeds grow very well too when not constantly being removed.

Even half done, the tunnel house has been a triumph so far.  I've grown the best green cucumbers I've ever tasted, my tomatoes are starting to ripen and I've grown the biggest capsicums I've ever managed. They're still green, my research says that if I want sweet red ones, I need to wait until they turn red on the plant before I pick them.

I live in the hope that I'll keep working on the garden around the tunnel house and gradually get it back.

Growing Tomato Plants From Lateral Cuttings

Years ago, someone told me to put my laterals into soil. Just pinch them off as you do and put them directly into the soil and they'll grow.  I tried it and while I got some small plants, life happened and I didn't look after them very well. 

Every year I try to do it, but never really pay enough attention to them.  I'm quite terrible really, I start off with the best of intentions and lose my motivation to do more than water them and pick the tomatoes.  I think there's also a fear of doing something wrong, I never trust myself to actually know what I'm doing.

This year, I decided to really go hard on the tomatoes.  I wanted to grow a lot of tomatoes and determined to look after them properly. The best place to do this is in the tunnel house.

After a fair bit of work, taming the tunnel house, I planted out my tomatoes.  They are all in tyres, filled with a mix of sieved soil, chicken manure and tomato mix.  With some lawn clippings and sawdust as mulch on top to keep the moisture in and the weeds down.

I gradually bought tomatoes and planted them out as I cleared and filled each tyre.  I have Brandywine Pink, Black Krim, Russian Reds and my all time preference, Beefsteaks.  There are also two varieties of cucumbers, a rock melon, an eggplant, two chillies and several red capsicums.

They mostly have strings from the roof to grow up and each day as I water, I've been true to my intentions.  I give them a twist on the string, I pick off laterals and make sure the roots are still covered. 

One of the capsicum plants got broken off (or eaten by something) just above the two first leaves that each plant gets.  It's still alive, it just hasn't done anything more.  So I stuck a lateral I'd just pinched off into that tyre.

I've been hearing from people with all the urban wisdom that laterals might grow but they don't fruit.  This one is now six foot tall and bearing fruit.

So now, I have pots for my healthy laterals to go into.  They are almost all rooting well and several have flowered and are now growing small green tomatoes.

My plan is to see if I can keep the tunnel house growing tomatoes throughout winter.  If I can have a year round supply, it will save a lot of money - we eat a lot of tomatoes. 

Getting Fruit on Fruit Trees

 I've got several fruit trees that had never produced fruit. 

Well, that's not entirely true. Our first Summer and Autumn there were apricots on the tree. One of the cats would climb the tree and play with the apricots like those dangly cat toys until he knocked them off and then the dog would carefully place them between his front paws and lick them down to the stone. All before they came ripe.

We didn't get any more fruit for the next six or seven years. 

There were lots of theories and wisdom offered as to why.

So one year, as I pruned it, I told the tree it was its last chance. If I didn't get any fruit next season, I'd be cutting it down. 

Next season and each season since, there have been plenty of apricots. 

So I tried the same thing on my feijoa trees this year. I've never had fruit on them in the eleven years we've been here. 

Until now.

It's very late in the season, and I'd given up on seeing anything on them a couple of months ago. 

Hubby and I were going past them on our way to ready the borrowed ram to go back home. As we were walking past the feijoas, Hubby said "what's that?" Pointing to a large feijoa on the ground. 

Looking up at the tree, we saw lots more in various sizes. On both trees.

There's certainly something to be said for threatening fruit trees. 

Zucchini Flour

 There's been a post doing the rounds detailing how to make and use zucchini flour. 

It says that it can be used to replace up to 1/3 of wheat flour in any recipe without any noticeable changes to taste or texture. It also recommends zucchini flour as a gravy thickener. 

It's easy. Cut a zucchini or a marrow is better, into thin strips. Dry it thoroughly, overdry is better than under. Run it through a food processor until finely ground and voila, zucchini flour.

Since I had found two large marrows and already had plenty grated in the freezer, I thought I'd give it a go. There is also the war in Ukraine and the unusual weather here and in Australia affecting crops. Maybe it would be a useful backup to have.

I used a potato peeler to cut my strips and it still took three days to get two whole marrows dried. 

I ran them through the food processor until I had a faintly green tinged dust rising from every little hole and opening in the bowl. 

I poured it through a sieve and the coarse stuff went back into the food processor. It wasn't enough, so I ground it in my mortar and pestle. 

A day of grinding and sieving and grinding some more. Of cleaning the dust from under my fingernails. Of redrying the powder in case it was still a little damp.

I have finished with maybe one cup of zucchini flour. 

I'm not convinced it was worth it. I don't use wheat flour much anyway. 

I tried a recipe for marrow soup today that was delicious. I think it will be a better use for my marrows.

Late February in My Vege Garden

 

After a fairly hellish month, my vege garden is a jungle.  Two weeks of heavy rain, one tropical cyclone, the unexpected passing of my closest friend, a covid scare with isolation and my garden is a place best described as survival of the fittest.

The pumpkins seem to be making a run for the title of ruler of this jungle.  They are smothering most of the competition, all of the paths and also managing to grow some big fat healthy looking pumpkins.

 

The beans don’t think much of this and are climbing the sunflowers to escape.

 

My single courgette plant seems determined to join the uprising and is trying to reach the ground to either take on the pumpkins or join them.

 

The beetroot is still bravely growing under and over the sneaky tendrils, although a rather large pumpkin has managed to jam their transportation.

 

The first lot of peas I planted along the net on the edge of the tunnel house keep trying and frequently show new growth, but they have gotten fairly dismal on the whole. But the second sowing has taken off to be taller than me and growing masses of fat pods with juicy peas.  It’s unclear what they think of the attempted pumpkin coup, but perhaps they haven’t noticed because they’re somewhat removed from it.

 

Most of the tomatoes, cucumber and chillies just don’t seem to care.  The cherry tomatoes are possibly making a run of their own and aiming to close the borders.

 

The carrots in the water trough were drowned in the rain and have surrendered peacefully. Or so it seems, I don’t know if they’re going to just rot or try for a more hydroponic lifestyle. Who can tell?

 

It seems my garden heard my idea of it being a surprise around every corner and took it to heart.

January in My Vege Garden

 Happy New Year everyone. I hope you've had a lovely holiday. 

We never seem to do relaxing. After all the windows and weatherboards were replaced last summer, this year has been about all the preparation and painting. Hubby is determined that we do a very good job so that it will last for years. 

I've been hard at work in my garden. The weeds are an ongoing battle, but not as bad as previous years when I hadn't mulched.

The beans and sunflowers that I'd been lamenting have finally grown. Only three sunflowers, but I'll take it. 

I fixed the drainage problem in the carrot trough. I keep seeing videos showing people putting inverted soft drink bottles with an end cut off into plant pots as a way to water plants. It occurred to me that it could also work the other way.  This bottle has holes drilled in it all around and up and down the length of the bottle. 

The day I put it in, I scooped out the excess water as the bottle filled. I took out at least 5 litres. I also pulled out a lot of rotting carrots. I guess that's one way of thinning them. 

Everything seems to growing rampant. We're starting to pick and eat from the garden. Last night was our first entirely grown at home meal for the year.

Some Success in My Vege Garden

 My garden is still very up and down and the weather has been the same. We alternate between 30+ degrees Celsius and freezing rain and wind. I even had the fire going about a week ago. 

I've just been spending some time in the sun, listening to the bellbirds singing in the oak tree, trying to make a dent in the weeds that have taken off and reflecting on what a lovely and peaceful place it is even so.

I wasn't able to provide fresh peas for Christmas lunch, but I was able to pick four pods yesterday. I did provide some new potatoes. They were carefully exposed and picked without disturbing the rest of the growing potatoes or plants very much.

Unfortunately, all the rain has created a problem with the old water trough I planted carrots and radishes in. I had hoped that the stones I'd filled the bottom with would be sufficient drainage, but they weren't enough for the amount of rain we've had. 

Many of my carrots and radishes have rotted just beneath the surface. I did look at the bung that these troughs have at the bottom. But I don't think this has moved at all since the trough was made however many decades ago and it isn't moving now.

We've discussed drilling it out and drilling holes in the trough itself but no one is prepared to commit to retiring it from possible future use as an actual water trough. 

My tomatoes are doing very well. I've been sticking the laterals I pick off into the ground. They seem to sulk and wilt for a day or so, but the majority look like young, freshly planted tomato plants now. I'm hopeful for a good crop.

Both my cucumber plants (third Lebanese and second apple) are thriving. I have a small maybe 4 inch long Lebanese cucumber on the plant and I can honestly say it's the biggest cucumber I've ever managed to grow. 

I had to take the nets off as the beans were starting to grow through the netting instead of the support strings I've provided. 

I've decided to leave the wild part of my garden alone for now. I'm not keeping up with the weeds in the planted parts of the garden as it is and I don't currently have anything to plant in it. 

December in My Vege Garden

 It's been a while since I shared any of the goings on in my garden, I was asked about it recently by a friend who has been following the story.

There hasn't been a lot to tell really. 

I tightened up the nets since the blackbirds were still finding ways in. I planted more beans and sunflowers. Some of them have even started growing. 

Both my cucumber plants suddenly died. I've been told not to plant another cucumber in the same spot as there may be fungus in the soil that attacks cucumbers. I don't know if this is true, but it's easy enough to plant new ones somewhere else. 

The chilli seeds I planted have shown no signs of coming up. So I visited my Happy Place, as I've started calling Woodend Nursery, a local garden centre. The only chilli varieties they had were Jaiwas, a green chilli I'd never heard of before. I bought two and while I was there, I bought two new cucumber plants, one Lebanese and one Apple. I also picked up some red capsicum plants. 

I've since bought some habanero plants and wildfire chillies. 

Something was still eating my plants. It looked like slug damage, so I spread around some slug and snail bait. 

What a difference that made! In a week my beans doubled in size and grew new tendrils. 

Potatoes are still growing beautifully. I've been struggling with finding material to go into the tyres. We ran out of old branches to mulch and my pile of aged, rotted manure has all gone. I could use some of the fresher stuff from the paddocks but there is a fairly high chance of lots of problem seed growing in it too. Grass clippings and leaf mulch have been in use with some mulch from freshly cut branches. 

I haven't done much more clearing of the wild untouched parts. Partly because of the lack of mulch, partly because I don't have much yet to plant in it and partly because the weather has been hideous for the past few weeks. Any fine days are spent weeding and caring for existing plants. 

I have set up a mini greenhouse for raising seedlings. I had plenty started in it when a nasty storm with a lot of wind threw my little greenhouse and all its contents across my deck. I scooped up all the soil and unsprouted seeds into a large tray. We'll see if anything comes up in that. I rescued the sprouting sunflowers and Kumara. 

My plan was to start a few more brassicas every few weeks in successive plantings. They don't really freeze well so fresh is better. 

I haven't spoken about the drive behind this garden. I didn't want to open myself up to judgement if I failed. 

I've given up smoking. Gardening has been my distraction and my reward. Garden art has also played a fairly big part. I'm painting rocks to put around my garden. I've made a 'Welcome to My Garden' sign, although that hasn't made it into the garden yet.

I've also made personalised similar signs as Christmas presents for family, but you don't get to see them until after their new owners do.

War in My Vege Garden

 I'm in a war with vermin. 

Every time I walk into my garden, several blackbirds fly out. They are getting into the netting through small holes and having a field day.

I have had to replant many of my pea plants and three or four tomatoes. I found the husks of my sunflower seeds and no signs of plants. I have had to buy more plants and seeds to replace the damaged and missing ones. 

Over the weekend, my replacement cucumber suddenly died. It had been growing beautifully for two weeks, then overnight went greyish and fell over.

I questioned everything I had done. I thought the previous one had suffered wind damage so this one was well protected from the wind. It got plenty of sun and I was careful to water the soil and not the leaves. I put slug and snail bait around it. Maybe there was something wrong with the soil? But surely that would have shown up straightaway. 

The next day it was gone completely and there was a small hole where it had been. A tomato plant that had been nearly a foot tall and starting to flower was also missing. I picked up the next tomato plant from the path and replanted it in its spot. 

My peas have had their growing tips trimmed off. Where I'd had a 100% hit rate from my seed, I suddenly found gaps. 

I made windchimes and a rough scarecrow and noisemakers. I fixed up the bigger holes in the netting. I tried leaving a patch of soft turned over soil for them to play in. 

Yesterday, I saw a small rabbit running out of my garden as I went in. 

Today I found devastation in my brassica patch. I also found the hole the rabbit had gotten in through and blocked it up.

It's getting hard to stick to the concept I wanted in this garden. I feel like it's going to turn into a fortress rather than a fun peaceful garden. 

Growing Potatoes

 I've always heard lots of stories about growing potatoes. I'm told my grandfather grew them in 44 gallon drums and had to either chip them out carefully or cut the drum because he was so successful. 

But there are so many stories and different ways of doing it. They need a lot of water, but water sparingly or they'll rot in the ground. Plant potatoes to prepare a plot for future gardens, but not anywhere where you're going to want anything else because they will keep coming back forever. Cover them completely when you mound them up but leave some leaf tips above ground. 

A few years ago I tried growing them in tyres. As it grows, you fill up the tyre and then add another. When you're ready to harvest, tip your tyre pile over and pick up the potatoes. It worked beautifully. 

Dad and Hubby weren't convinced, so the year of the super garden we had both tyres and traditional rows that got mounded up. There were more potatoes in the mounds but they were mostly very small, think golf ball sized. In the tyres, they grew to easily fist-sized and bigger, but there were fewer of them. We still got an excellent crop and didn't need to buy potatoes for most of the year. We also kept Mum and Dad in potatoes. 

I'm doing tyres again this year. Mostly, I'm finding where potatoes are popping up from previous years crops and putting a tyre on top. Some are taking off and some are slower. 

I'm filling the tyres with layers of grass clippings, manure, leaf litter and wood mulch. 

I am curious to see how high I can get some of them before they start flowering. 

California Thistle in My Vege Garden

 When I wrote this morning about clearing the last patch of my garden and how long and slow it would be, I neglected to mention all the California Thistle in there.

Right now, as I'm spending I don't know how long picking thistles out of the soft parts of my hands, that is feeling like quite a big omission. 

On the surface, California Thistle is easy to get rid of. All its spreadability lies in the root system. What looks like hundreds and thousands of plants spread over a patch is actually only one plant. Cut off everything at ground level and it will die. Seeds are not viable, they're a distraction. 

However, in a patch like this, growing in and around the flowering quince that I'm leaving to cut tomorrow, taking it out at ground level is a lot more difficult. 

I've found that a gentle tug on the stem pulls out that stem plus some rootlets, so I've been doing it that way. I'm having to go into it by feel and there's a whole lot of last year's dead and dried stems lying around ready to stab unsuspecting fingers. 

I would normally be wearing gloves for this, but I rather foolishly (and for the first time) left my gloves in the garden last night and it rained. 

I will get there but I'm swearing a lot about it right now. 

My Netted Vege Garden

 After realising that blackbirds were responsible for damage in my garden, I was rather upset. It wasn't helped by the plants they have just pulled out and broken. I've had to replant several peas, tomatoes and marigolds. 

I did the bare minimum in my garden for about a week. What was the point? The gobshite blackbirds were just going to trash it anyway. 

But in the back of my mind, I was thinking of solutions and working through the pros and cons for each. 

I could make a scarecrow, but for how long would that be effective? Would windchimes make a difference? What about a sparkly wind spinner thing?

I've made windchimes out of some old wheel braces and car jack parts, but finding somewhere high enough and strong enough to hang it is waiting on Hubby. It's currently hanging in a nearby tree, but doesn't get enough wind there to ring often. 

It occurred to me on the weekend that I used to net my gardens to keep chickens out. I have lettuces and brassicas netted to stop the brassica moths and any other caterpillars causing pests from doing their thing. Why don't I just net my young plants? Once they're big enough with a more established root system, I should be able to take the netting back off again. 

I also bought more plants and seed over the weekend. 

I was planting more sunflower seeds in the ravaged spot under the net this time, when I found a young sunflower close to breaking through the soil. It still had its seed husk capping the tips of the first leaves. That made me happy, but I also realised that I was finding plenty more but they'd all been broken off just below those leaves. 

I had a poke around the pot where I had planted zucchini seeds, just to see if anything was happening and found one about to break through the soil. So I'm much happier about the garden and more excited to get back into it this week. 

The last bit to clear is dragging out. Or maybe I'm dragging it out. There's a lot of flowering quince to remove and that's slow and frustrating work. 

Flowering quince is all through this garden. We have tried digging it out, but it is very deep rooting and the tiniest piece left behind turns into more. Several different pigs have dug over this patch turning it into a wasteland for a time and they didn't get it all. It throws up lots of suckers and gets quite dense at the base. So I hit Google. Several fora and websites said the only way was to cut and paint the fresh cut with undiluted concentrated glyphosate. 

I went to Farmlands and had a chat with someone there. I came home with a picloram gel product that has the brush top. 

When I clear around the base of a patch, I  leave it until morning after watering as you need to be sure there's no rain forecast for 12 hours after application. I cut and gel. I pick up every last piece I've cut and put it in the incinerator. I'm burning this stuff, I won't risk having it come back again. 

Then I have to leave the blue painted tips undisturbed for the day. I don't want to risk accidentally poisoning anything else. So I have to find a different spot to work in. 

The last part will be slow but I'm feeling motivated again. 

Heartbreak in My Vege Garden

 Peas and radishes are growing beautifully, potatoes are taking off and delicate carrot fronds are definitely a thing. So where are the beans and sunflowers that I planted?

Where I thought I had bean sprouts, I found they were more potatoes. There might be some baby spinach plants in among the puha that's coming up. It's too early to be sure. 

So I did some digging. When I found a bean seed, it had a hole in the side and the rest was either hollow or rotten. Something has been eating my seeds. I went all along the rows and it was the same everywhere I'd planted them. 

There was an entire packet of Kentucky Pole beans gone.

I have a container of bean seeds that I'd harvested quite a few years ago. It was a mix of the pole beans and two colours of dwarf beans. 

I also had a paper bag of runner beans and purple beans from about 20 years ago. I've been meaning to give them to the chickens. I'm not particularly fond of runner beans unless I pick them when they are really small and tender. 

I decided to float them to see if they were still viable, with a very few exceptions, they all seemed good. 

I've planted them out in much heavier concentration than before. If anything is going to eat them, hopefully they won't get to all of them and the odd ones will grow first.

I still have some left in case it doesn't work. 

While I was planting them out, I noticed sunflower seed husks scattered around where I planted the sunflowers. The seeds are gone and the husks have been broken up and spread around. Even the ones coated in fungicide. That was three packets of seeds.

I'm blaming the blackbirds for that.

I think I might have to start seeds in pots and transplant them out. I didn't want to do that because I don't usually manage to harden the plants off very well and forget to transplant them in time. 

I'm a little gutted.

My Puntastic Vege Garden

 As I'm planting lots and lots of seeds, it quickly became clear that some signs were needed, so I could be sure what I'd planted where.

Who wants ordinary signs though? Let's have some fun with them. 

I set a challenge for the spawn to come up with simple and fun vegetable puns for our signs. Normally, my son would be all over anything to do with puns, autistic kids are very talented at them, but this time it was the oldest who contributed the most. 

I also went searching online to see if there was anything we could do with broccoli and cauliflower that wasn't beyond my artistic capabilities (Barack-oli) or needed explanation which misses the point (Broc n Caul - Rock n Roll). But not even punpedia (yes it's a real website, look it up) was much help there.

Three days of gale force winds, torrential rain and snow on the mountain gave me time to start making signs. 

Some are music inspired: 

And some are just wholesome, heartfelt messages for anyone wandering through my garden:

There are still more to come. Watch this space.

My Barren Vege Garden

 Gosh, that sounds a bit dramatic doesn't it.

My garden isn't actually barren, it just looks that way right now. 

I've cleared probably four times as much ground area as I had done last week. I've layered beds with lawn clippings, mulch and manure. I've made lovely paths, also with mulch. I've shifted pots, driven posts and with Hubby's help, shifted a large concrete water trough. 

I have boxes and boxes of seeds. Some were left behind by the people we bought this place from, some were ours. Every year I think I get this idea that I'm going to start some veges from seed, some years I even do it, but who can seriously resist the 3 6-cell vege plant punnets for $12 that you find in hardware stores at this time of year. 

I decided this year, I would use this seed. If it grows, great, if not, I haven't really lost anything. To be clear, one of the packets of seed I emptied this week was "good for growing season 2000". Most are more recent than that, if not always by much. 

The down side is, since I've planted out so much seed, there's nothing to see yet. There's nothing to cluck and fuss over, nothing to tidy or check. 

For the most part, I look at my garden and it seems like a barren wasteland of mulch, posts and planters.

My Surprising Vege Garden

 So I posted about my vege garden, how I want it to be surprising and random and an adventure. 

It would seem that my garden (or the spirit of my garden?) heard and approved. 

An hour after posting last time, I found sprouting potatoes in the garden. 

The year that I left Hubby to it, he planted potatoes down this end. He dug trenches in the stony, sour soil, planted spuds and pretty much ignored them after that. There were minimal efforts made to mound the growing potatoes and when those efforts were made, he just used more of the same soil. The few spuds we got were small and unpleasant and we'd pretty much forgotten about it. 

So I've moved these few into tyres and started building it up with grass clippings, manure and mulch.

Not too long after my pleasant spud surprise I found onions.

I planted them a year or two ago, I really don't remember. They didn't seem to do very well and Hubby kept pulling them out with weeds, so I had assumed they had all gone.

I was wrong. Some are clearly last season's onions, most of the small bulb has rotted down but there's new growth coming from it. Others are new, at least one of last year's must have flowered and dropped seed.

Now I'm carefully inspecting every handful of weeds I pull up.