Autumn Days - Tinkering

It's my turn to get up early with the kids and whilst on one hand it would be nice to be in my warm bed, if I was, I'd miss this glorious dewey Launceston break of dawn. Sigh. It's the simple things. I have to say life is pretty good at the mo.



Life has calmed down considerably this year for us and I'm LOVING it. No huge renos, just little tinkering kinda jobs and spending lots of time hanging out. I'm able to do more of the little things that "make a house a home". Yesterday's project was to pot a cutting of Mothers In Law Tongue plant that I stole/acquired from my Nan's big plant and put it into a lovely pot that she gifted me.



I had an old black plastic pot in the garden shed which I've used as the inner pot because the clay one doesn't have any drainage holes in it and I didn't want to risk breaking it by drilling some in.





Neck-minute, I have another indoor plant to add to my ever growing collection. A cutting like this will take off, thicken and become huge in no time. That's a savings of $20 for the plant and who knows what for the hand made pot.

Anyhoo, have a good weekend everyone. I'm off to make breakfast for the hungry hoards.

New Garden and Newfound Muscles

Wow, the feng shui is at the top of the dial for me at the mo. I've been a bit quiet on the blog of late because I've been having a few weeks of "getting it done". Some serious finishing of lots of jobs have been happening around here. New gardens created, lots and lots of painting, waterproofing and cleaning/tidying.

A few weeks back when my hubby went to a weekend conference, I was playing out the front with the kids when I decided impromptu to dig up the lawn and create a new flower garden (as you do!)

The front of our house, behind the big wooden fence is one of the last areas that hasn't had a makeover. It's been a bit of a dumping ground, has needed new fences and was the route for all the diggers etc that we've needed to access the all the renos around the back so it never made sense to do much until all that was over. So, now that all the renos are finished around the back, I figured it was as good a time as any to make the front a little more pretty.

I have a small strip of established green at the side of the driveway that needed a bit of sorting and plants divided so once I'd prepared digging the lawn, I took cuttings from my existing garden to put in my new garden. Why not, it's free to do it this way and I love continuity so it made sense to extend the existing garden using similar/the same types of plants.

It took a bit of hard yakka but over a weekend doing an hour here and there, I managed to put it all together. Because I used cuttings from my existing garden, I only had to buy mulch and a piece of pine to make the garden edge. 

The front yard is where the boys have their outside toys set up so it is a lot tidier and safer for them to play now. I'm super happy with how it's turned out. Yes, a bit bare at the moment but once those cuttings establish, it will look lovely.

Apart from the odd little job, most sites of my house are now basically "done" (I use that word loosely cos I'll always find a new project to do). But let just say, if I had to pack up and leave tomorrow, I could feel satisfied that it doesn't look like a building site any more. Hurrah!

A Weekend In The Garden - Mulch Making

This weekend I've been hanging in the veggie patch. It was time for a good clean up, things had got way out of control and I could barely walk along the paths, they were so overrun by pumpkins!



One thing I've learnt in recent years is that mulching the old plants is super nutritious for your garden soil. However when it's still big (not broken up) it doesn't break down as quickly so I came up with a clever little trick that didn't require me to buy a mulcher (have you seen how expensive they are??!!)

Put the catcher on the mower, lay the old plants out and mow away!



Neck minute, mulch! You can sprinkle it on top of your garden beds, add it to your compost pile or make trenches in your garden beds and bury it. Either way, the worms will love it and it will break down quickly, feeding your soil.



Note: don't do this with your weeds, just the old veggie plants. The weeds need to go into the bin.

I have a delivery of pea straw coming this afternoon which I'll start laying over the beds that are going to be empty until spring. Unlike every other year, I'm going to be super organised and not leave my mulching until the last minute. My garden next year is going to be a super oasis of productivity, lol!

Ahh, I love a good weekend spent in the garden. I put on the radio, lather the kids in sunscreen and we go and get dirty. It's good for the soul!

I hope your weekend has been a good one too.

Alex

Faux Plastic Wrap

In July I decided to start cutting back on my household's plastic consumption. There were many reason for it but the crux of it is that I have a environmental conscious but I also worry about what plastic is doing to our health. I can happily say that my house consumes much less plastic since taking on the challenge and I'm always finding new ways to reduce more.

My latest project required me to get a little crafty. I saw an idea for reusable food covers that can be used instead of single use plastic (Glad-wrap) using only some old scraps of cotton material and some pure beeswax.

The idea is that you grate the beeswax and sprinkle it over the cotton (which you've cut into pretty little circles). Then in a low heat oven (I set mine at 80 degrees celsius), you let the beeswax melt over the cotton (I used a little paint brush to help the process to get an even coverage)

Voila, you have reusable food covers which you can use instead of single use plastic. The heat of your hands moulds the wraps over your bowl, cheese, fruit or whatever you're needing to cover. Then once you're done you give them a quick wipe with a cold damp cloth and shove them in a drawer until you need it next time.

I'm totally loving mine and when I look in my fridge every day, it looks sooo pretty! One note, it's not recommended to use them on meat but everything else is ok. They should last up to a year if you care for them properly. They were cheap to make too so lets hope that not only am I doing my health and the environment a favour but my hip pocket now that I'm no longer buying plastic wrap or bags.

Here's the original link to my plastic free blog post if you missed it as well as the link to the Mommypottamus blog that I found my instructions on. She has much prettier pics than I do! LOL

Produce Scavenger

Lately I've been scavenging fresh produce (no "bin diving" required!) as I've discovered a few resources which have given me access to lots of FREE produce.

Firstly, I discovered an urban map (online) of public access fruit trees in Tasmania which I used to locate myself some very yummy figs in a local park.

Also, on the way to our shack I noticed that along the side of the roads there were various varieties of apple trees. So yesterday I stopped and picked a huge bag (I could have picked trees and trees of them there were so many).

Lastly, via good old Facebook, I've discovered a page called Launceston Fresh Produce Swap. Through that I've been able to swap my own excess produce for other people's excess produce (fruit mainly cos I don't yet have many well producing trees myself). Even when the person offering their produce didn't want anything of mine, we were able to come to the agreement to swap some pantry items for what I wanted of theirs (nashi pears - yum)! If you're not a Launceston local, I'm sure there would be a similar type page in your area if you do a search.

So along with my own veggie patch and the awesome friends-family who have let me raid their gardens, I've barely had to buy fresh produce for months. It feels so good on many levels to be able to grow and eat our own home grown food. I'm still getting baskets like this every day so the freezer is overflowing. I love my urban backyard farm!

I stole this from the Gardening Australia Facebook page. I love it!

Flowers for the Garden

We have an old rental house which has a formal garden out the front. Whilst lovely, it has had been neglected for a long time. The other day I spent a few dollars ($80) to buy forty marigold plants which I mass planted in between the standard roses and box hedges. It has uplifted the whole front of the house. Best of all, these flowers are self seeding so next year, there should be an abundance of happy balls of gold and I won't have had to pay for them.

Simple, inexpensive and by keeping to one colour of flower it has made a bigger impact. The 'ol gal' looks pretty good I reckon?

Now that's done, I can concentrate on something I'm uber excited about; the renovation of downstairs at my house (which is in the planning stage). Stay tuned!

My New Veggie Garden

I've been working hard in my back yard for the last few months in particular, getting it ready for the Spring/Summer veggie garden. It is a new veggie garden as we moved into the retro house less than a year ago and had other priorities before tackling " the jungle".

A photo flashback shows you what I had to deal with...

The fruits of my labour (or veggies in this case) are paying off as today, less than two months after I started planting out the new garden beds, I've picked my first growth.

It's obviously a fairly large veggie garden in urban living standards but I was happy to sacrifice a good majority of my backyard for the ability to live a little more self sustainably. One third of the yard is veggie garden, another third fruit trees and chooks/ducks and the last third, a clear strip of grass for my kids (although we have converted the front yard into outdoor play area so they don't miss out!)

Today's loot is rocket leaves and radishes. Coupled with an avocado, cucumber, feta, toasted sesame seeds and a basic salad dressing (recipe found in a former blog here), I've made a yummy salad for my tea.

I can't wait to see what my veggie garden delivers me next...

Fancy a Fruit Tree?

This time of year our local nurseries sell off their last bare root fruit trees before the weather gets too warm. You can pick up fruit trees for 30-50% cheaper than usual and it's the time that I always buy my trees.

This year I have a new house and lots of sunny corners in the yard to fill so I've gone and bought six new trees. All the basics, a pear, apple, nashi pear, plums and one I'm super excited about; a fig tree.

Needless to say, I'll be working the garden spade hard this week to dig all the holes but it will be well worth it. If you have a spare yard corner and fancy a tree laden with fresh produce then hop to it, now is the time to buy.

Asparagus Growing

Lately I've been all consumed with creating my new vegetable garden. Our back yard already had an established veggie patch and fruit trees (to a degree) however in recent years it was neglected and pretty much resembled a jungle.

"The Jungle" pre me getting stuck into it.

Over the last few months, I've been clearing and rearranging what was already in the yard. Roge has built me some giant veggie beds and I've been sprouting seeds as well as collecting cuttings from all my friends and family to fill it.

One of the most exciting plants I've introduced is a row of asparagus.

Asparagus is notoriously fussy to grow but once established, almost impossible to kill. It required me to dig a trench and within that, make a hill for each asparagus crown to sit on with it's long "tentacle" roots draped down each side.

I had to add sand for good drainage and cover it all with a good layer of cow manure and thick straw.

My "inspector" gave me the tick of approval

It will be 2-3 years before I'm allowed to pick any of the asparagus shoots as it needs that long to establish a good root system. It's going to be hard to resist but ever so satisfying once that day comes.

Much to my delight, two months later I've found my first asparagus sprout and I'm super chuffed. Only two more years and I'll be eating these delightful stems breakfast, lunch and tea. Bring it on!