Garlic

Nearly all of the heads of garlic I am buying have a few sprouting cloves. I am popping these in the ground where ever I can. We get Australian garlic and local whenever it is available. I am hoping many of these come up. I have now planted about 50 cloves. That should just about do me for a whole year!!! I can't wait to plait them up!

Starting the summer garden

Well the winter garden is chugging along. I love that when you turn over earth that has been used before all sorts of things crop up! I have found about six lettuces in amongst the other vegies in my winter garden. So I have moved them up closer to the house into the picking garden (well it will be once things have grown). So far in this little area I have six lettuces and some tine baby parsley. I also have a sage that we brought around from the old house. I am keen to get a few more winter greens into it, but just haven't as I am still fighting this nasty bug.

So, how is the winter garden looking? It looks great! I am really happy with it. I have heaps of veg popping up everywhere (none that I can eat yet) and even my parsnip is happy.

Don't look too closely, there are lots of little weeds that I am making an effort with.

So the next step is to start to prepare the summer garden. I was going to put in a crop of green manure, but I think I may have missed the boat. There is, however, still time for me to turn the soil over and put some gypsum down. So I tidied up the area and pushed all the vine back over the fence from whence it came.

I love the fence that was exposed. I really love eclectic items like that! I think I will grow my own vine - but soemthing that will provide food for the fam! So, the plan is to have four meter wide veg gardens in this space. I have been doing a little bit as often as I can. Just getting out and turning over the soil slowly working my way from the back. I have been finding a lot of river pebbles and tossing them over to the side near the shed. If I find enough, I can use them for the paths... Then I hit something hard not quite a shovel depth down. I hoped it was a large rock and tried to work around it with the following result:

As you can see it was a rock - of sorts! A little slab of concrete in the middle of my summer veg garden. Oh, what to do? I am slowly excavating it to find out how large it is. A friend has a jackhammer, so I could break it up and get rid of it. I will just have to see how we go. Of course, the other option is to build a garden up above it - but I really don't like the idea of my little plot sitting on top of concrete. I would so much prefer it to be on the mother earth...! So, I am trying to enlist the kids' help to 'excavate' as I am still so short on breath!

On other fronts, Dan is purchasing a chainsaw this weekend in order for us to gather our own wood. $15 from the state forest or a friend said we could come up to their farm. They have a few fallen trees. The in-laws farm could also do with a tidy up on the fallen tree front. So there are plenty of options for wood.

Now that winter is here and the cold is seeping into the house, I have been waiting for the sun to raise its head to ensure the house and windows are getting max exposure. This was certainly not the case, so I have been trimming the 'hedge' out the front to assist with the thermal heating option. Again, this venture is somewhat hampered by my inability to breathe, but the kids love sitting in the hammock as I slowly expose them to the sun. They love yelling advice regarding which branch is next to come down (usually one I can't reach!). Our house is very daughty, so we are turning our attention to trying to eliminate heat loss. I found the box of curtains and we are looking at putting up two sets at each window. There are a coulple of windows with vertical wooden blinds that I think need more insultation than these blinds are offering. I am trying to come up with a simple and elegant solution.

That's about us for the moment.

First growth

I have had a hiccough in my health lately and haven't been able to get a lot done. A friend gave me some Russian garlic which I managed to find hidy holes for all over the garden. I haven't managed to get the bulk of my garlic in yet though. I am really hoping it is not too late! It will be my top priority once I am up and about.

I made it out to the garden today for a quick look and found several little sprouts poping up. I was very pleased. They are exaclty where they should be in the rows, so fingers crossed they are even something I planted.

I found my watering can but the nozzel had been broken off in the move. A lovely friends offered to take it and get it fixed. So now I can water. Before I had the chance the rain obliged my garden's requirements for drinks. I need to get a rain gaugue to keep an eye on how much the garden is getting....

I have removed a big bush from the area I want to start turning into my picking garden. It looks like it is really nice soil, so I am hoping it won't take much to get going. Fingers crossed for full health to return and I am back into it...

Planted the winter garden

My stash arrived from Diggers and I very excitedly went through it all:

I had wanted to get it in the ground straight away, but a comedy of errors prevented me from doing so until today. I wrote out my guide with some help from a friend (who actually knows what he is doing) and my new comanion planting chart:

All my seeds are tucked away under some fine earth stolen from the chook pen, and I am being very patient waiting for them to grow. I know they will take more than a day - but I will look anyway!

Tomorrow's priority one job is to get the dog fence up to make sure Bonnie doesn't decide my lovely winter garden is a good toilet or spot to bury her bones...

We are planning to form the beds for the summer garden and pop in a row of broad beans - as that is about all that will grow there in winter. I am going to have a go at growing oats as a green manure. Hopefully they will keep down the weeds as well.

I wanted to form up the gardens with some off-cuts from the local saw mill (Bowerbird) but they don't do it on Saturdays (I had thought they DID do it Saturdays and had been waiting all week....). So we have used what we can find and will make bigger beds next year. I will do the summer gardens with the timber this week while we still have the use of a friend's trailer.

I still have a heap of Nashis to dry/poach/stew. I poached some the other morning and they were delish! I am keen to get the bottling happening while I have the loan of a friend's Fowlers set. I have ordered a container of seconds' tomatoes as the school garden did not put out the huge number of last year. I need to get my Passata and relish stocks done before I runb out of time!

Winter Garden

I recently had some help with the positioning of my winter garden. Good thing to - where I was planning is good for braod beans, but that is about it! So, I have put in two teraces and mixed mushroom compost in with the clay I have for soil. I am now waiting for my Diggers order to arrive and I can put it all in the ground. I will have to get a few local seedlings, but the rest I should be able to get in before it is too late.

The chooks are safe. My daughter is quite happy to report each morning that 'Foxy Loxy went hungry again last night.' I am now working on getting the tractor organised so that I can move them around the garden. I want to get them onto the lawn as there isn't much for them to eat in their fenced area (except for mozzies!). I am keen to get them out and about in the garden, but it will be a slow introductory period until the dog gets used to them.
I am still watching the birds get most of my fruit. But the lungs have recovered and I am hoping to get out and collect as much as I can.
The Nashis have not kept in the house well. I didn't get them under the house though - so it might be different if they went straight into cold storage. Next year we will be ready!

Sick and sorry

Well all my good intentions got wasted by a nasty little cold that is moving through the school at the moment! I have hardly enough energy to get out of bed. I was watching the peaches fall off the tree when I thought to ring a friend. She came around and took most of those ready on the tree to bottle at home. I then got the kids to pick up all those on the ground. I sat at the kitchen table and cut out the good bits and put the rest into the chook bucket. We had beautiful fresh peaches for desert and I am stewing the rest. I'freeze this lot and use them for crumble next week when the folks are here.

Well, Foxy Loxy got to the chooks. She had a huge dinner of three! One of our Isa Browns and two baby silkies. The up side to being sick was the other half had to stay at home to look after the kids - so the chook shed is now fox-proof. Foxy Loxy went hungry last night, and hopefully for many more nights to come (or at least she might turn her attention to rats or something...).

So, the Nashis are being eaten away byt he birds. I stil look out and wish I had the energy to pick them all and then, at least, slowly stew my way through them. Nashi crumble is amazung!!!

Fingers crossed I am better by Friday!

Wow - dried Nashis

We were so impressed by the dried Nashis! They are amazing. So sweet. The Nashi crumble got a thumbs all up at the working bee today. I even managed to pick up a stack of the apple storage trays from the local fruit and veg shop. All I need now is for the other half to make me the shelf to stack them all on. The birds managed to get inside my netting, so I am going to have to just pick the remainder and get them processed in one way or another as quickly as I can.

Chookshed - still not done! I am picking up three new chooks tomorrow. I now have to decide between the felting circle tomorrow, beating the birds to the Nashi tree and fox-proofing the chookshed....???