garden

A New Bed.

Leave a comment Posted on by Snoskred

Today we created a new garden bed! It was an absolutely gorgeous day out there today..

We began with this –

newbed

We put in the side piece, which is 60cm long.

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While the other half dug out the trench, I started turning the dirt over. Not very far below the surface, maybe two shovels deep, we struck clay. So we decided to lay in some sand and chook poop we’d had fermenting since the rains after we changed from sand to Zeolite & rice husks for the chook pen flooring. Boy, did it stink. That is how you know it is the good stuff. ;)

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And this is how it ended.

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Those are hibiscus which I’ve had for a few years now in pots and they have been waiting to be planted in the ground, so they are happy now. I’ve still got a couple more to plant, we need to get some fresh dirt in for the other end which was grass.

There are also some pansys which I bought the other day. I planted some poppys in the other garden bed today because they needed to get planted quick, they were in very tiny seedling trays.

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Big kitty spent some time wandering outside today sniffing about. She is an indoor kitty and to go outside we keep right by her so she feels safe and comfortable, and so no native animals meet their makers. We have a bit of cat traffic in our yard who leave interesting smells plus some mice. But then a large cockatoo flew over making a heck of a noise and she bolted back to the safety of inside.

garden, kitties

Retail & Garden Therapy

1 Comment Posted on by Snoskred

Earlier today I was rear-ended for a second time, only on this occasion the rear-ender had tailgated me for 20km, at speeds between 80km/hr and 100km/hr. She was so close to the back of my car at these speeds that, had I needed to brake suddenly, someone would have been seriously injured. She also spent some time gesturing inappropriately and swearing at me. When I had to stop at the roundabout, she tapped me..

After I got out of the car, she claimed she had not hit me. Her car at that time was resting on my bumper, still touching it, so her claim was DENIED.

After I took care of my appointment that I was on my way to, I went to the police station to report this woman for tailgating. She had already been on the phone to the police person I spoke to and given them a completely different and untrue story.

Piffle to bad drivers and liars, I say! I have been driving for 22 years now and this week is the first & second time I have ever had an accident, neither of them being my fault.

After that, I felt the need to go to the garden nursery and spend some $$ on plants, as retail therapy. I got a pea, a zucchini, a well developed strawberry and some punnets of flower seedlings. And now, I will post some pictures of my garden.

First, an overview of the garden bed.

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A newly planted Zucchini, Beetroot seedlings and in the back corner Chard.

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Cauliflower seedlings, rainbow silverbeet seedlings, the tall thing down a bit further is silverbeet which was saved from the old garden with strawberries in front of that.

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A closer view of the caulis and rainbow silverbeets

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Strawberries, Kale and newly planted peas.

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The base of the lemon tree surrounded by lettuce seedlings. Something is eating the lettuce seedlings so I have started putting protective plastic bottles made into covers around them. Flat leaf parsley off to the side.

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The flat leaf parsley with a couple of the larger silverbeets saved from the old garden.

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More silverbeet – the chickens adore it.

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The Alaska Nasturtium in the corner. There is some sawdust covering some chicken poop which is composting there.

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The next garden bed to be developed – we took the ugly fence covering down today and killed all the spiders and other creatures living behind it. I’m thinking we can run a bed from where the gate is right down to the back corner of the yard. You can also see the channel we dug out across the lawn for drainage.

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A closer view of the drain. With my white shovel!

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While I was working on the garden the chookys were attacking their brussel sprouts that I gave them, happily tooting and making chooky sounds.

Chickens, garden

General Update

1 Comment Posted on by Snoskred

This past week has been extremely busy because it has rained cats and dogs here. In 4 days we had over 120mm!

The trouble with this is that we live next door to a large football oval which is elevated higher than our place. So, all the run off from the football oval ends up in our backyard. :( This turned the yard into a swimming pool. It looked like this.

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Yes, next to the beige fence is all waterlogged too. Bear in mind the grass is pretty long, it didn’t get mowed and the chooks haven’t been out chopping it down with their beaks.

The rain started on Tuesday. On Wednesday around lunchtime when the above photo was taken I went out to check on the chookys, the water went through my shoes thoroughly saturating my feet. After I did not have any shoes which would be suitable for going out to the chook coop! Uhoh, what now?

Once I changed shoes and socks, I spent a good couple of hours in pouring rain driving around to local stores trying to find gumboots. You would think this would be an easy task – and it would be if you were a kid. However being an adult, not a single store had any adult gumboots. Just after 5:30pm I found my way to the local fishing store which was closed but lucky for me took pity on me and let me in when they had what I needed. YAYS O YAYS teh gumboots.

I was then able to return home and shut the chooks up for the night but the fun was not quite over yet. We discovered a minor flood at the front of the house where the garbage bins reside. This required a trip to Bunnings to get a hoe so we could build a drain down the side of the driveway. If any human can go to Bunnings and return home with just the thing they went there for, they must be a better human than we are, because we spent $133 and only $20 of that was on the hoe.

The other half then STOLE my gumboots to go outside and make a drain. We have the same size feet, isn’t that funny? Well the next day we had to go back and get a second pair of gumboots so we both have a set.

We spent time over the next couple of days digging various drains in different places to allow the water to run off better. We now have a sludgy, muddy, icky mess. But at least all the water sitting on top of the ground (eg in the below photo) has drained away. There is now a drain right through the middle of this shot, which I do not have a photo of.

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We dug a drain along the front of my veg garden which was running like a stream for the past few days. The garden has loved the rain, my plants are very happy. I was inspired to get a few more seedlings today while at Bunnings, again, to get flyscreen for my mealworm farm. Because as I say you can’t just get the thing you went for. :)

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I have killed 2 Redbacks this week who showed themselves once the water rose higher than where they live.

The chookys have been somewhat locked in this week – even on the days I let them out into their run they preferred to stay inside the coop. But this has inspired a new chooky besides Floppy to lay! It was a perfect first egg, though a little on the small side. With that said it was still big enough to eat. I made up scrambled eggs today with that egg and four of Floppy’s eggs.

We don’t know who it was. I suspect one of the English Game bantams as one of them – purple comb – has changed comb color significantly this week. It is now more like burgundy comb. Same chooky has been approaching me for feather massage and back scratching whenever I have been near the coop so I think she thinks I am a rooster.

I was out in the yard this afternoon having planted my new beetroot seedlings and my rainbow chard plant, in my gumboots having just put down the hoe, leaning on the fence around the garden, watching my chookys scratch around and make happy noises and trumpet about their lactose free yogurt I gave them and the brussel sprouts they demolished while I was at work today.. and they really did demolish them, there was only one leaf left..

.. it occurred to me that as muddy as it was and with new rain starting to spit down around me.. this is the life. :)

Intense contentment.

Chickens, country life, garden

Weeds – Watch Your Plants.

1 Comment Posted on by Snoskred

In one of the local reserves here someone has planted a Maiden Hair Fern. I know this plant fairly well. My Mother tried to grow many of them in our bathroom as I was growing up but no matter what she tried they always died. I think they are gorgeous and beautiful plants but these plants have no place in a local reserve. They are actually weeds there, and some of us are going to have to spend some valuable time pulling them out.

Maiden Hair Fern

It may have started as just one maiden hair fern, but it has spread out over large areas now. This is not a garden escapee, this is a case where someone has deliberately put them there. However plants which might be good in your garden can escape and be a weed in the local environment.  We all need to be careful what we are planting and check to make sure it isn’t a plant which can cause issues for local wildlife if it does manage to escape our own garden.

Maiden Hair Fern

Please, don’t ever put your garden waste in a local reserve. It does not belong there, and it may cause serious havoc for our native animals, not to mention the people who take care of the reserves..

garden, wrong world

The Geisha Girl In Bloom

5 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

There’s this company which visits regional towns in Australia with a truck load of plants and sells them off over the course of a weekend. Usually Thursday to Sunday. They send out flyers before they turn up and by the time Sunday is done they usually have an empty truck. If you can wait till Sunday they often sell the plants a little cheaper. My Mother bought a lot of plants from them in Tamworth and not long after we moved here a familiar flyer arrived in the letterbox, so we went to get some plants. The majority of these plants are still alive and kicking almost two years later.
Geisha Girl
One of the plants we bought is known as a “Geisha Girl“. Little did I know when I bought it that it would become one of my favourite plants. The flowers are stunning. I can see it from my computer room window and on windy days like today I don’t get a lot done because it keeps distracting me. The flowers bob and sway in the breeze.

So I guess this is a roundabout way of saying I haven’t got a lot done today. ;) You know how people say they are away with the Fairies? I’m away with the Geishas.

garden

Garden Photos & Water Feature Installed!

9 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

On Tuesday we fixed the balcony. We used the high pressure spray to clean it and then put our plants in groups to create little ecosystems – as suggested by River – also because there are drains in the balcony where the run off water goes so it was better to group them near the drains.

Water Feature

We installed the water feature as well. The palms around it got a little too much sun where they were, I’m hoping the new spot will be better for them. In front of the water feature you can see my herb garden in a much more convenient spot to pick the herbs. In the below picture you can see my office window – I can open the window and hear the water which is lovely.

Water Feature With Buddha

I was reading on A Spot With Pots the other day about ladybirds. I’d noticed since we planted the herb and tomato plants we seemed to have a lot of ladybirds appear seemingly out of nowhere. I thought it was cute. Now I know they are eating my plants!

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The Hibiscus have begun to flower again. These are some of my favourite plants. I’d like to have about 20 more of them because they are available in so many colours and variations.

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The fuschia is so beautiful right now – this is another plant I would love to have more of.

Fuschia

The jasmine is flowering and it smells gorgeous!

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So there you have a little garden update. I hope you enjoyed it!

garden, photos

Speaking Of My Balcony

13 Comments Posted on by Snoskred

I went to test out the new lens and have a few pics for you.

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My new lavender plant, which I have had for maybe three weeks and it has taken off like a rocket. Does anyone know, if you want to cut off the older lavender heads is there a certain place you should snip them?

wisteria

My wisteria – it is a pink version called “summer wisteria”. I’ve had it for almost a year now. I love it!

herbs

My new herb garden which seems to be quickly outgrowing the pot it was put into – I did not expect it to take off quite so much. There is basil, italian flat parsley, chives and a capsicum tree. It smells incredible and I have used the herbs in my cooking twice now. Right behind it you can see one of my two tomato plants which I surrounded with chives because I got an 8 pack seedling tray. Both the chives and the tomato plant have doubled in size in just over a week!

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The second tomato plant. Both tomato plants are already flowering, I think this is a good sign? I have been inspired by some fellow bloggers who have been growing their own foods. I decided to plant herbs and tomatoes but now I have a stack of pots without anything in them, so I may expand my new hobby. ;)

fuchsia

My dwarf fuchsia which has been repotted and is very happy by the look of things.

We have re-potted maybe 75% of our plants and we have gone through 6 bags of potting mix! We still need to get a few more pots and potting mix to finish the job. I go out every night and water the plants just before I cook dinner. It is such a peaceful time for me. It is just starting to get dark, I can smell the sea breeze drifting my way and the stars start appearing – and you can see them so clearly here without all the big city lights.

Tonight I am going to give them a good dose of fertilizer when I water them. They always enjoy that. The plants seem as happy by the change in location as we are. All the plants have new growth and the ones that can flower have buds all over the place. They get the morning and mid-day sun and miss out on that painful afternoon sun, which makes them happy I think.

Just so I know, do you prefer thumbnail pics so the page can load faster and then you can click on the ones you would like to view closer? Let me know in the comments..

garden, Home, move to the beach