the new additions to our garden

from left to right: a baby chilli plant (for the man), a ready to cut and cook up basil plant, another baby basil plant (i need two because i eat so much basil! i love it!), two cherry tomato plants and a bunch of carrots, and last but not least a full sized tomato plant.

and here they are getting comfy in their new spots :) oh and some seasol fertiliser in an old milk bottle-gone-water can (who needs a fancy watering can when you can reuse old house items??) the carrots and tomatoes aren't in as yet because i'm waiting on some more good soil and sugar cane mulch to build up the garden bed since it's sunk about a foot over winter!
(don'tcha just love my daggy-but-ever-so-slightly-cute floral gardening gloves? courtesy of mum's store... love that place)

here's my beautiful basil, close up. i've already nicked some leaves for tonights dinner :) yuuuuum!!

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garden update: my babies are growing!!

since sunday they have grown new leaves and are looking healthy and strong after their transplant. i am so excited! (which is also due the fact that i will have fresh homegrown basil in my dinners soon!) :)

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30 for 30 days 12 and 13

there aren't any!
i spent today (day 13) and yesterday (day 12) at home! and it was brilliant. the mr and i cleaned the house from top to bottom, vaccuuming around and under everything, getting all our washing done and away, mowing the lawn (mostly a mr job there) and, my favourite part, fixing up the garden! i spent a good part of today with my hands in the dirt, transplanting little seedlings and building the garden bed up for planting. since my last garden foray, we had a new arrival to the family (our puppy), and she decided that the garden bed was a lovely place to dig, so all my previous efforts got thrown all over the place along with the dirt from the garden. i also had a few other things on the go this weekend, including painting my friends 21st present (sorry, this won't be posted as it's a surprise for her!) and making a shopping bag from a singlet. here's some weekend activity photos in lieu of myself dressed up and pulling funny faces or a dorky pose.

 from left to right: baby strawberry bush, cos lettuce and basil

 freshly cleared and topped up garden bed! 

(needs a few more layers yet, but i'm getting there :P)

  

 and of course we stopped every now and again for freshly juiced oj

and beach walks

i hope everyone had a brilliant weekend, because i really enjoyed mine :)

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home grown - my cabbage patch.

garden update!
i did a little bit of work today, clearing out all the eucalyptus leaves and old plants. i also seperated some of the lettuce seedlings that have popped up from when my lettuce plant went to seed, then spread them everywhere throughout the garden.

so this is my starting point! i'm going to take out the lettuce seedlings (in the top left) and replant them in a few pots (that you can see in the top of the photo), then remove the carrots (on the right), eat them, then plant some more. i'll also be adding another layer of potting mix with some cow poo and some more sugar cane mulch, to bulk it up again, and some seasol to replenish the nutrients in the soil.

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home grown (the cold season edition)

 since my recent promotion to full time house girlfriend (finally got rid of the drain on my energy in the form of a soul sucking job), i have decided to use my new found time to be as productive as possible. so i have turned a good portion of my attention towards tossing over our little no-dig garden (a garden that you build up from ground level and surround it with bricks or wood planks as support, versus digging a garden into the ground) and setting it up for winter crops. i'm actually really excited to plant all those little seeds and watch the seedlings pop up from the ground! plus it makes our shopping list smaller and cheaper.

i've researched what to plant for the best winter season turn out. as i live in a temperate zone, the veggies, fruits and herbs i plant will be different from someone who lives in more northerly regions (subtropical and tropical zones), or more southerly regions (cool zone).
i'll be sticking to what we use the most during winter (things like broccoli, carrots, garlic, asparagus, silver beet, spinach and some asian veggies) but you could also plant cabbage, broad beans and mustard greens to harvest over winter.
there are other non specific veggies that survive through winter well,  like parsnips, brussel sprouts, shallots, horseradish, lettuce, peas, and leek, but seeing as i'm restricted by space, i'm keeping my varieties to the ones we use a lot of. this will also help reduce wastage of any produce we don't eat.

i'm also going to incorporate some companion plants to naturally help keep my garden pest free. herbs are really fantastic for warding off pests, for example,

• basil protects surrounding plants from disease and insects. 
• garlic repels aphids and controls cutworms and hornworms in tomatoes. 
• horseradish near potatoes controls potato bugs. 
• thyme near cabbage deters cabbage worms. thyme also attracts bees to tomatoes and other plants, and bees will pollinate the plants, which equals more plants! 
• chives prevent mildew, and deter aphids and green flies. 
• catnip is good for controlling flea beetles (and your cat will be happy!). 
• and marigolds secrete a goo from their roots that destroys root eating nematodes. 

so not only do you get natural pest protection, but most of those plants are edible herbs that add beautiful flavour and body to meals.
another thing that i have to be particularly wary of is that during winter, the sun is lower in the sky, meaning that my little garden will get less sunshine, even when the sun is shining. leafy and root vegetables are best to survive without so much sun, which is brilliant for my winter garden list (if you are looking for seeds to buy, and it says 'full sun' on the packet, it usually means about 8 hours a day).

also, now is a perfect time to be planting as the weather has finally changed to proper autumn (chilly but not freezing), so summer pests won't be a problem anymore, but if i plant now, the chilly weather will prepare my baby seedlings for the coming winter cold. also, i won't need to water so much because there is less evaporation from the sun during winter.

i'll probably be posting heaps more about my garden, because i'm getting excited even writing about it!

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home grown

a few months ago, my man and i got really excited about becoming self sufficient. when he was young, my man came across a show from the 1970's called "the good life", which is about a couple who give up their 'normal' life to become self sufficient... in their suburban home. they set their (quite decently sized) backyard to support different crops, and even some pigs and chickens, and live off their little plot of land.
the show is all about their trials and tribulations in settling in to their new lifestyle, but it is a comedy, so there's lots of laughs along the way.
it's actually completely adorable, and i got hooked within a few episodes.
however, after watching the (entire series of the) show, both my man and i were both so ambitious to become at least partially self sufficient that we had to satiate the desire before we went and did something silly, like buy a cow. so we let off a bit of self sufficient steam by raiding the backyard for implements and using these to set up a garden in an old water tank stand we have in the backyard. we tore apart some old fence palings to partition the tank stand, so we could use about a third of it for our garden. we then went out and bought some organic compost mix, sugar cane mulch and cow poo, and put them in the newly partitioned tank stand layer by layer, until we'd built it up to the top of the brickwork. we then let it rest for a week or so, to let all the new soil materials settle, then planted a whole bunch of goodies, including lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, dill and basil.

so far we've had a few teething problems (i am far from a green thumb), but look at the cucumber that we harvested!

  

it was as long as my forearm!
we've gotten other goodies as well, that i didn't take a photo of before they magically disappeared from the kitchen bench (i'm suspecting into someones hungry stomach), but now as autumn has finally found it's way here, the garden is going dormant over winter. which is probably not a bad thing because i desperately need to do some green thumb studying!

growing your own fruit, veggies and herbs, and even having your own hens (for eggs, obviously) can prove to be massively beneficial not just for you but for the environment. for example, you know exactly what has gone into growing what you are eating (no chemical pesticides or such on your plants or in the soil), and growing it in your back yard reduces transportation from semitrailers, planes and cargo ships down to you walking two feet out your back door and back.
and it doesn't need to be a massive undertaking. just start with simple things like herbs that you use often when you cook (basil, dill, parsely, corriander), and then if you have the time and space, expand out to things like tomatoes and carrots (or even cucumbers!). little things can make a big difference, not only to your body and health, but also for the environment. don't under estimate what one small step can mean on a cumulative scale.

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