Getting Growing

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We have reaped the rewards of a few fruit and vegetables that were already planted when we arrived here. Lemons and raspberries have been prolific as well as some beans and chard. I recently harvested the garlic that I had planted early in the winter and we are picking lettuce for summer salads.

In the past few days we have taken some more steps to increase the amount and range of produce that we grow.

This citrus tree was languishing rather sadly in amongst some other plants behind the fish pond. GMan rescued it a few weeks ago and potted it in an old plastic bucket as an interim measure. It seems to be coming good. We believe that it may be a lime tree.

When we were in Melbourne yesterday we bought 4 large green plastic pots for the princely sum of $9 each. So the as yet unidentified citrus is now repotted and placed on the north-facing terrace outside the sewing room.

Another pot now holds a relatively advanced Roma tomato plant which we also bought last week. It is at the other end of the terrace.

Our other purchase was two raised garden beds which we have placed just inside the front fence for the time being. The landscaping at the front may change once the driveway entrance is eventually relocated but we decided that we really needed a bit more growing space now. These have been planted out with zucchini seedlings in one and eggplant in the other.

All of these plantings are in a mix of garden soil and organic compost which we sourced from a local supplier in Castlemaine. We have also topped up the raised beds in the back garden and planted out tomato and basil seedlings.

The remainder of the soil will be used to turn the disused fish pond area into a herb garden. More on that another day.

Holiday Learning

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Education comes in all sorts of guises and is not necessarily undertaken in the classroom.

It has been school holidays here for the past two weeks and our granddaughters came to visit for a couple of days.  As always, they enjoy activities which they do not have access to at home.

The citrus trees still had plenty of fruit so they picked 2 buckets full of oranges and then it was time to squeeze them.

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They both had plenty of opportunity to hone their skills and Olivia was also able to cut the oranges.

The weather has been very dry recently and last week was particularly hot so watering the garden was essential.  There is not a lot growing at the moment but plenty of water has ensured that the young bean plants survived the heat.

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It is difficult to think of anything that is more important to learn than nurturing, picking and preparing your own food.  I find it very gratifying to be able to share these skills with the girls and encourage their interest.

Weekend Work

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After spending my weekdays in the office there is nothing I enjoy more than spending time in the garden on the weekend.  I will start with what we actually did last weekend.

We finally finished building this raised garden bed.  There are now 4 beds complete and we eventually plan to have 9 of them.  The cardboard is a large carton that was the packaging from the refrigerator we bought last year.  We always keep any large pieces of cardboard as it makes a great base for the beds and is very effective at smothering the underlying grass before eventually breaking down.  I will cover the remainder of the base with some more cardboard before gradually filling the bed with a combination of fallen leaves, mulch, compost and grass clippings which will, over time, become rich soil.  It will all be sourced from our block.

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We also created a bed for the asparagus.  Since asparagus grows very vigorously and spreads, we wanted to make sure that we are able to contain it.  The Duke dug a trench and buried some offcuts of Colorbond steel to a depth of 320mm to form the border of the asparagus bed.  Here is the work in progress.

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This is what it looked like once we had finished and planted the asparagus.

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The lettuce seeds I planted a couple of weeks ago have not put in an appearance so yesterday I bought some seedlings and planted them in between the corn which is growing nicely.

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The other thing we did today was to start to tidy up around the citrus trees.  Here is the lime tree with a new border of rocks and some mulch.  You can the orange tree behind it and grapefruit to the far right which have been bordered with rocks and now I just need to finish weeding them and put the mulch down.

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We decided to border the other orange tree and the lemon tree in one large area.  The Duke collected up the rocks from down the back near the water tanks.  We have an abundance of volcanic rocks on the property so it is good to be able to use them.

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I have planted more seeds – most expired by several years – so will see how they go.  Lettuce, radish, chilli, tomato and bok choy all went in today.  I am determined to grow more of our own food and am hopeful of greater success now that the vegetable patch is completely fenced.

Simple Pleasures

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I have been absent a bit recently for no reason other than the fact that I have a life to live as well as a blog to write.  I am busy at work and it is a little over 7 weeks until our overseas trip and the days are filling up fast with appointments as diverse as dentist, retirement seminar, work conference, tax accountant, haircut and so on.

I am able to work away from the office some of the time and yesterday was one of those days.  After spending the best part of the day at my desk, I ventured outside in the mid-afternoon.  This is the peak season for the citrus that thrive in our climate.

Citrus trees
The netted tree in the foreground is the mandarin.  The birds do not touch the oranges, lemons or grapefruit but they love the mandarins.  It may be because of the thinner skin but the scrub turkeys would take them all if it were not for the protection that the netting offers.

I picked some mandarins for our lunches and then took an opportunity which was too good to pass up.

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I sat one the step in the winter sunshine and savoured a sweet, juicy mandarin picked straight from the tree.  Delightful!

By the way, this photo was taken yesterday and it has not been edited or altered in any way.  That is really what the day was like – perfect.