Monkeys and Marvellousness

Here are three monkeys I found around the house. And here is Dave's first ripe strawberry that I found this afternoon.

I Love My Garden!!!

Guess what? Tonight we are having Spinach (okay silverbeet) impossible pie and salad for dinner. The Silverbeet is from the garden and everything in the salad apart from the tomatoes is from the garden too. Isn't that great? I think its wonderful!

This is only a part of the results of my weekend of weeding!

Yes, these delightful plants are my potatoes poking there lovely heads above the mulch! I am just waiting for them to get a little bigger and then will hill them up!

Vegie garden numero uno

Everything is looking so good and I love being out there so much I have been neglecting the housework. I spent hours weeding on the weekend and now only have a small bit to go. Well at least in comparison to what I had to do. It was my own fault as I had let it go for a few weeks and with all the rain we have had everything is growing well like a weed!

Here is Dave doing the edges, I am watching to make sure no plants accidently get a haircut. Not that I am overbearing but we did have an incident that involved Dave, the whipper snipper and about a dozen garlic plants.

The apple tree has leaves! Spring has sprung.

There is one sour point in my garden at the moment and that is my tomato seeds are not germinating nor are my capsicum or chillis. Hmmm. Maybe I am not getting enough warm days in a row?? When the new garden is in I am going to try direct sowing. I would buy a couple but I am stubborn!! I will persevere for a few more tries before giving in!

Around the Grounds

Turkish Turban and Jap pumpkin seedlings

Golden Nuggets, Lebanese and Richmond River Cucumbers and Zucchini Seedlings

Lavenders from Mum and Herbs

Amelia's reduced punnet

Broccoli

Blossoms - look lovely but smell like a corpse!

Snowpeas

Potato Rows

Raining Again

It raining here again. I just braved the downpour to read the rain guage and we have had about 24 mm overnight. The water is just laying on the ground as we have had so much that it just doesnt have anywhere else to go. I see the river has started creeping up again, I use this to see the river level.

I have to work all day today, so I am hoping that it rains all day and then we have a lovely sunny and warm weekend.

Gardening and Other Things

I have had the BEST intentions to update the blog but just haven't managed it til now. So here's whats been happening!

Last weekend Katie, Megan and Annie came to stay. Kate had to do a TAFE day here, how lucky was that? I had a lovely time with them and while Kate was at TAFE Meg and I made some Onion Marmalade. It is divine. We think you could put it with just about anything (except maybe cereal) to make a meal that little bit more fantastic!

Wes had his 13th Birthday on Monday and was spoilt rotten! He got the stuff he wanted and money, which as of now he hasn't spent, though with tomorrow being Saturday I am sure that will change! He ordered homemade pizzas for dinner and we had ice cream cake.

Here are Dave's strawberries in their new home. He has put the net on to stop birds eating them. There are some on there now just have to redden up.

Don't the sweet peas look good? Finally!

This is the potato rows before we planted the seed potatoes. Two rows of Desiree and two of Atlantic. I will take another pic of them in their hilled glory as per Peter Cundall! Amelia is watering in some cow poo I think.

This is one of the flowers that are in the vegie patch. I must say I have had only two caterpillars so far which I dispatched, so maybe there is something to the plastic moths and silhouette theories.

We got this worm farm to take care of some of our scraps as well as for the worm poo juice. I have to order the worms over the Internet as Mitre 10 don't sell them anymore as they had too much trouble with escapees!

Finally, when we went up to the Tree Tenders last they gave Amelia a punnet of daisy from their reduced table for free. She planted them and is very excited that we have had one bloom.

Seeds

Today I sowed the first lot of seeds I got from Eden seeds, their website is http://www.edenseeds.com.au/ Here they all are sitting in my greenhouse.

I sowed:

• Mignonette lettuce
• Richmond River Apple Cucumber
• Beetroot cylindra
• Silverbeet Rainbow chard
• Jap Pumpkin
• Turkish Turban Pumpkin
• Melbourne Early beetroot
• Jalapeno chilli
• Capsicum Californian Wonder
• Roma tomato
• Jubilee tomato
• Break O Day tomato

Some of them will find that their new home is just below - well nearly, Dave will be done by this arvo and then it will just be the dirt to come!Look's like the sweet peas are finally going to bloom. The non-dwarf ones have not grown to their full height so I will have to see about another spot next year. The camellia has bloomed and it is lovely. The flowers are HUGE on it, like bread and butter plates.And here is where the roses used to be! They all went to new homes though. I am thinking of putting purple, blue and pink lavenders in here. Mum said she has a couple for me.

Weekend News

David's sister Julie and her son Hugh came to stay on the weekend, it was a really nice visit too. She had been to visit friends in Nundle and drove up from there. They are thinking of moving up this way so Dave took her for a drive around to see what there was to see!

On Sunday we took her to the markets. I got some green tomato and zucchini pickles that are yummy. I am currently out of pickles/relishes for our lunches and these are lovely and the lady who made them comes from Bundarra. I also go a bunch of rainbow chard for $1. I really really love there colour. I have four of these seedlings planted in the back garden.

I transplanted my snowpeas today so I am hoping they shoot off and start growing like weeds! The lettuce is just about ready to be picked so I hope this is a sign of things to come. Sadly my Eden seeds didnt arrive today so more than likely tomorrow will be the day. I cant wait to start raising them ready for spring - I got my green house ready!

The fairy garden looks so fantastic - the picture does not do it justice! I love going out there but will have to put in the next lot of flowers soon so it still has colour after the primulas die off.

Did a bit of cooking this weekend too. I made lemon butter, passionfruit butter and mixed berry jam (raspberry, strawberry and blackberry). I made a tray of muesli bars and maybe the best loaf of bread I have ever cooked!

Other big news in our household is that Miss Amelia lost her FIRST tooth yesterday! Dave spotted the gap after she ate her lunch....and her tooth! But not to worry she wrote a very nice letter to the Tooth Fairy letting her know all about the situation and left it in her tooth bag under her pillow. Luckily the Tooth Fairy must encounter this all the time because in her tooth bag this morning she found money!
Lastly I got the ginger beer bottled. I am leaving this lot a bit longer as I want a good strong fizz this time. Cross your fingers!