Life just has a habit of thowing stuff at you.

So, here was the plan,
1. Buy two more bins and put them together for 2 more gardens.
Check
2. put some cardboard down to kill the weeds.
Check
3. Get No1 son to take a day off work, organise the soil and put it in.
NO!

Sadly we had a phone call and had to take our son to hospital.  He had put his hand in a food processor.  The kitchen was like a crime scene, now I know what them mean by blood droplets.  Anyway, food processor vs. man...... man lost.

Next day, off to the hand hospital - who knew we had one!  There they did an operation to fix the damage.  There will be no moving of soil this year.  Way too much of an infection risk.  We will have to wait until winter to fill the bins as my husband can't do it on his own, and I can't help as I have damaged my shoulder recently.  The physio would have a fit if I started shifting soil.

So, plan B.

1. buy some compost and manure to top up the existing beds
2. Take out any current leeks and broccoli left growing.
3. top up the beds and plant tomatoes
4. In the other bed, put in peas, cram in some lettuce and cucumbers.
5. Buy bags of soil for the pots I have bought, and send off for the plants I want to extend the potted herb garden.
6. Plant the herbs in the pots.
7. Maybe buy some plastic bags/pots and soil for growing some of the other vegies I would like to try.

That will have to do this summer.

How to get started on pinterest

A dear friend of mine said recently, "I am on pinterest, but I don't know how to use it."  I have used pinterest for several years, and here is how to get started. (my way!)

My favourite plant

Thai Basil is my special favourite in the garden. 

This wonderful plant flowers all summer and all winter, bringing the bees for its pollen. that is why it is my special fav!  I just grow it in a pot, and keep cutting back 1/2 a plant at a time, that way it does not get too woody, but there is always basil and flowers to be had.  If you are looking for herbs to grow, then this is my first recommendation.  Easy to grow (it has to be in my garden) and very forgiving.  Plant some now.

Thai basil

Red wine out of carpet!

Who knew?  The red wine was all over the kitchen and into the dining room thanks to an errant mixer.  But Windex took the red wine straight out of the woollen carpet.  Just spayed it on and wiped it out!

Steam cleaning recipie

 Just so I never lose it -  here is Shannon Lush's recipie for steam cleaning carpets:
Use :
half the manufacturer's cleaner plus
2 cups of each of the following - bi-carb of soda, white vinegar, methylated spirits and
2 teaspoons of each of the following glycerine and eucalyptus or lavender oil.

 

 

Overnight disasters in the garden.

Well, Sydney has been quite warm, and dry, but something obviously changed on Friday night because I came out to:
A very sick frangipani with red/yellow dots on the back of the leaves, and falling leaves.
It looked like frangipani rust which looks like this

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frangipani rust

Lessons from summer 2014

Some lessons I learned this summer:

• Snap and sugar peas do not like mulch or too much water
• Zucchinis don't like humidity
• Everything likes worm tea
• Best tomatoes were black russian, sweet bite and sugar sweet
• Herbs grow well in pots
• Keep cutting rocket for sweet leaves.  Old ones are horrible!
• Mini Cos lettuce is great
• Mint is fickle

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Autumn update

So the last of the tomatoes have been taken off and the bed has been upgraded with lots of compost.  I  also harvested most of the basil, but found that the rain had brought in a pest who had munched on a lot of it, and made a home in one of the leaves!
But there was still quite a bit to cut up and freeze in ice cube trays.  You can do the same with parsley and other herbs, I pack them into zip lock bags once they are frozen - great for soups and stews.

A little comfrey goes a long way

So I am about to embark on attempting to grow comfrey.  Why? you may ask!  Well comfrey is a fantastic plant that takes the nutrients out of the soil and into its leaves so you can use them for fertilizer or mulch, or just to make much better compost. It is deep rooted and in permaculture terms known as a dynamic accumulator as it mines nutrients from deep in the ground and draws them up to the surface.

Salad for lunch

This is what I love about my garden, In 5 minutes I picked these peas, rocket, lettuce, mint and basil for my salad at lunch time.  Add one of the tomatoes ripening on the window sill and I'm in heaven.  The taste of the peas is wonderful, and we should have planted more of them - next year I will.

Now, my free lettuce is growing quite well.  All you do is CUT the lettuce once it is ready, after that you will continue to get leaves you can pick.

And the free tomatoes are looking OK, but no actual tomatoes yet.  I am not staking these, to see how they go over the side of the bed.  You must experiment if you are a gardener.

 

 

My latest plant is a native ginger, which seems to be settling in very well.  I will be interested in what the berries taste like.

 

 

 

 

But my very favourite plant in the garden is the Frangipani.  The fragrance is divine.

 

 

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Free plants

I'm for free plants! 
A great trick I learned about tomatoes, is that the laterals - they are the ones that grow in the middle of the good branch and the stalk - are great new plants.  All you do is let them grow a bit - about 4 inches seems to do the trick, and then take them out and plant them.  Free tomatoes!