Spring is here

Spring has finally arrived.  It rained every day in September except one right at the end.  But October has started with the promise of a Summer coming.  It has been fine for five whole days.  I have managed to put in a total of seven small gardens now and do some other tiding up jobs outside.

It makes me smile every time I walk (or drive as most of the gardens are alongside my long driveway) past them.  Lots of seeds still to come up but I've got growing:
Raspberries
Strawberries
Peas
Carrots
Garlic
Lettuce
Radish
Beetroot
Broccoli
Potatoes
Onions
Cabbage
Cauliflower
Celery
Cherry Tomatoes
Grapes
Blackcurrents
Boysenberries
Plums
Apples
Fejoias
Apricots
Citrus
Blueberries
Herbs
and Guavas

Doesn't look like much in the gardens, they are still mostly weeds but it feels great to look at a list like that.

Rainy Day Gardening

Guess what!  It rained today.  How unusual, it started with heavy rain and by mid afternoon it was spitty rain.  I am think I might have to start making up more words to describe the rain as I've seen all types all of the time over the last month.

As I have to work all day tomorrow, I decided I'd better do a little gardening today. 

It's my dad's birthday tomorrow and my mum's on Wednesday so I started the day off with a visit to wish them well.  Morning tea turned into lunch and I had an enjoyable catch up with them.  We left about mid afternoon and made a quick stop at the warehouse for some seedlings and seeds.

I have decided to plant a lot of my vegetables from seedlings and not grow my own this year.  But I have to confess I baulk at buying carrots and corn in punnets.  To me these are definitely best grown directly in the garden.  I bought radish, beetroot and spring onion seeds, marigold, mini cauliflower, capsicum (even though it's a bit early), two lots of lettuce and red onions in seedling form.

I have been a bit overwhelmed looking at my neglected and weedy garden.  I have decided that there is only one way to eat this elephant and that is going to be one metre at a time.  While looking for a book for my fathers birthday yesterday I came across One Magic Square.

I have often looked at the one square foot gardening books and thought they'd be good for a read, but when I saw this I just had to have it.  I haven't read it all the way through yet but I am liking what I am reading.  I think it might be just the ticket to get my garden cleaned up one small patch at a time.  So with the principals of this book in mind I planted out the small garden square at the start of my deck and the first section of the garden alongside my driveway.  If the sun ever shines I'll take some photos.

One of the best things about this book is it doesn't advocate growing vegetables in straight rows or big mono crop plots.  This is not my style either.  It also is against killing pests - also my style although I am into total annihilation of slugs and snails (a pet hate of mine).

I'm off to draw up some plans for the next little plot and will try to get it planted over the next week.

My spare hour

While having a quiet day yesterday to get over some of the stresses in the past week I decided to have a weed/harvest of the oldest third of my vege garden. I harvested, strawberries, the last of the raspberries, the first boysenberry, the only carrots I have ever grown (carrots hate me), a couple of lettuces, a couple of broccoli, the first of the red and brown onions,a cabbage, some sweetpea flowers and the first of the desiree potatoes.

Not bad for a strip alongside the driveway. Then of course I had to do something with them. I decided to give some to our front neighbours and say Merry Christmas.I really enjoy the fruits of my labour and one day hope to have a garden that feeds us, our neighbours, friends and family.

Latte gets his stitches out today and my Mum has her operation and gets hers put in. Busy day.

How does your garden grow

This post is dedicated to my friend Hay, just to show her even in mid winter after only gardening for two months I can still get things to grow.
The broccoli is my tea tonight - yum yum (I can hear squeals of horror from the rest of my family). Lettuce we have been eating for the last month. Silverbeet for rabbits and in preparation for the chickens. Radishes, carrots and spring onions for winter salads. Peas flowering, I can't wait to eat them and even Kathryn looks interested. Early potatoes sprouting, these for Liam to cut into his favourite food - chips. Parsley for good health. Cauliflower to horrify my family with threats of it being for tea tomorrow. And finally the single solitary lemon on my tiny lemon tree. I can't bring myself to pick it and will content myself with stealing (with permission) the lemons from my neighbours tree.
Enjoy the photo's and ignore the weeds, it has rained and been freezing cold for the last week or so.
Please no comments on the bad photography.

First frost of the year!

I thought it was a bit nippy when I woke yesterday. One look outside informed me to the reason. We had the first frost of the year. Good way to welcome in World Environment Day, at least with a frost the day was lovely. Sent the kids off to school early due to the extremely high levels of fighting and arguing going on. Peace and sunshine followed.
We'd spent the weekend cutting down the only three trees on our section, two camellias and a flowering cherry. I have discovered that the best way to meet the neighbours has to be to start chopping things down. The comments ranged from - How could you, now you can see into my house - to - have you got a minute to cut mine down too. I have to say that Jim is just not that interesting and we now have made some chutney making friends. The mulching pile is still huge, lucky Craig has next week off.
Anyway back to the garden. I had spent the day before stealing strawberry runners from a friends garden and had bought two apple trees on dwarf root stock and a raspberry. I spent the entire morning putting in plants and pulling weeds, planting seeds and planning what to do next.
Today we have no frost only a cold wind from the south and rain. Think I'll stay inside and plan some more.