Thursday, June 3, 2010

A little bit of green

Well, I never did get around to showing you the rest of my holiday down south and (yikes) I can't believe it's June already. Winter's just beginning over here and I've got the croaky voice to prove it. No wait, yesterday it was croaky. Hubby said sexy, but I thought I sounded more like Selma and Patty of the Simpsons. Definately NOT sexy. Today, I can't speak above a whisper hence the doctors appointment in an hour.

Even though it's getting cold, my garden has been doing surprisingly well. For starters, I finally got a start on the vege garden I always wanted just over a month ago and it's like a jungle now. Yippee! I don't kill everything.

As you can see, it really is a wilderness behind it, but my aim is to clear the cats claw and weeds in plots and build vege gardens, one by one. As the ground has lots of roots, I knew I'd have to build a raised garden bed but didn't want to pay too much money for edging or soil.

My solution was to use recycled iron from the dump for the sides which were then nailed to posts of pine sleeper. Conveniently, there is building going on up behind us and they dug up a lot of soil that is just sitting there in huge piles. Bucket by bucket, in the dead of the night (okay, on the weekend when the builders had gone), I shifted soil to my new garden  and layered it with manure and lucerne hay. Total cost: $24 for the iron, sleepers and manure. I'll just have to try and build my next garden before they cart all that soil away.


I'm trying to grow things on a permiculture basis and the results have been fantastic. I've picked lettuce, beans and bok choy, and the girls have been taking lebanese cucumbers to school for snacks. I've also got potatoes, carrots, shallots, tomatoes, brocolli and herbs growing.

My flower garden in the front is going nicely too. It's slow going because I'm hand-digging up the lawn to make a garden up the path and along the fence. The final picture I have in my head is grandiose, but I'll get there if I chip away, bit by bit.


I love the colour combination of blue/purple and red/pink that I've chosen, with a splash of white which goes with everything.


The last thing I've done is finally clean out our pigsty of a shed. And I mean really clean out, down to sitting up late at night, watching bad TV and sorting out the hodge-podge of various nails and screws into piles to be put away in containers. Anal, maybe, but I'll sometimes go past and open the door to have a look and smile and give myself a mental pat on the back. Aaah, a little bit of control can lift my mood magnificently.  

During my clean-up I found this old ammunitions box which I think belonged to my grandfather, possibly from the war???? I was going to throw it out but decided it would make a great planter.


It's now sitting against a blank bit of wall on a makeshift shelf made from our old tankstand and I love it. What do you think?


Get to know me

  • I love the smell of cinnamon and vanilla.
  • My favourite flowers are daisies.
  • My favourite trees are pine trees.
  • I always like to have the bickie jar full and a cake on the cake stand. I know...not that healthy, but so good to look at.
  • Autumn is my favourite month, although I do wish we had more of a change of colours up here in Queensland.
  • I love Anne of Green Gables and Laura Ingalls Wilder. They started my love affair with "old-fashioned" stuff.
  • I'm a boots and jeans kind of girl, but also love vintage skirts and dresses.
  • I like sewing and am in love with quilts at the moment.
  • I love reading. (I have a weakness for archeological thrillers and historical romances, but not Mills and Boon-type ones.)
  • I love old houses with character. No new estate houses for me. (Sorry Rosie.)
  • I love vintage/cottage/farmhouse decorating and pretty pinks and blues, with a splash of red for colour.
  • Polka dots can make me sigh with delight.
  • I have 4 chooks. They are MY pets. Another tick on my dream-come-true chart.
  • I don't eat dessert much any more. I'm not dieting, I just don't want it. (Does that mean I'm growing up if I say no to an icecream cone?)
  • I'll still always say yes to chocolate though!
  • I like to sit on the front stairs in the sun, to drink my morning cup of tea, while I contemplate what to do in the garden.
  • I've got the gardening bug again recently. It comes and goes with the weather. I'm envisioning cottage flowers in pink, blue and white to go with my green picket fence.