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.
Funny you should say that, even though it is cold here too, my garden is doing extremely well. Hope it continues.
ReplyDeleteI do really like your ammunition box planter! Quirky and rustic and much better than a new one that you can buy - good idea.
ReplyDeleteWell done on your veg beds - its surprising what you can grow if you just give a few plants a chance.
Lastly I want to say a personal thanks on the comment you left on my blog when I was feeling particularly low. Thank you very much.