Taking the Time

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Posted on April 3, 2016

Today we met the housesitters who will be taking care of our home while we are overseas later in the year. We invited them to come and have a look around, meet the animals and generally get a feel for the place. We spent a few hours showing them around and explaining various aspects of the property. During that time we had lunch on the verandah as it was a lovely day.

As we discussed various things it struck me how much of our home and garden is simply taken for granted or gets forgotten in the myriad of tasks which make up our day to day routine. Time really appreciate what we have.

After our visitors had gone GMan and I spent a while out in the garden. Apart from the mass of sweet potato plants in one of the raised vegetable gardens we also had some which had taken root in an old cut-down water tank which is one of our compost piles. It was becoming entwined with the raspberry canes so we began to pull them out and realised that there were potatoes growing. I started digging and this was the harvest.

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The next job was down by the bottom fence. We planted a new tree which we had bought a couple of weeks ago. It is a tropical birch and according to the label will be perfect for our climate, deciduous with colourful autumn foliage. It is difficult to see but look closely.

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A little further along the fence is a callistemon which has come up self-sown. It was almost choked with wed and entangled in the fence so with a bit of care it will hopefully become established.

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Speaking of autumn foliage, the liquidamber is showing the first signs of colour. A few golden leaves are peeping through the green.

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This is a broader view of the same general area with the liquidamber tree to the left of the photo. Being in a high rainfall area, everything grows easily and well but unfortunately, that includes weeds and unwanted trees and shrubs. Most of the foliage to the right of the liquidamber is not particularly pleasant or useful so we have finally made a decision to have a substantial swathe of it lopped and mulched so that we can replant the area with more suitable plants. Watch this space for before and after photos. Hopefully it will happen before we leave on our trip.

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This is a view of some of the trunks and undergrowth of the area we plan to have cleared.

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Behind the 2 water tanks is a clear area where GMan planted some pawpaw seedlings a few weeks ago. These had been given to us and they seem to be doing quite well. They are difficult to see but there are about eight plants through the centre of the photo.

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Finally, here is the front verge which is a selection of native shrubs which we started planting about 9 years ago and have extended a bit more since then. A couple of weeks ago I noticed some unusual foliage higher than the rest of the shrubs and it turned out to be a tree which we had not planted and already reached a height of about 5 metres. I am not sure what it was but am certain it was non-native and almost certainly an invasive weed so GMan cut it down last week with minimal damage to the surrounding shrubs. It is a reminder that we need to keep a closer eye on what is growing here.

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As always, the garden is a work in progress and we have lots of plans. I hope you have enjoyed checking out a little of our place.

A Weekend Off

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Posted on March 7, 2016

Well, it has been a little more than just the weekend, but I took a few days off from my blog.

Life has continued much the same as usual. During the week I go to work. On the weekend I go shopping to make sure that we have the food that we need. I plan and prepare meals for the week ahead. The washing and ironing and done and so the cycle begins again.

I made another quiche using the rice base that I wrote about last week. This also used up some more of the cream.

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The meat supplies were low so I stocked up. One of the things I bought was gravy beef. I use this to make casseroles in the slow-cooker and one of my favourites is Braised Steak and Onions. I will do a separate post about this easy meal.

While I was catching up on general housework, GMan was busy outdoors. He set himself the task of digging up all of the lawn in the area were we are trying to establish a number of blueberry bushes. They seem to be struggling and I think it is because they are competing with the lawn for nutrients. So all of the lawn around them will go and we will mulch the entire area. As usual, nothing went to waste and the lawn has been re-homed in other areas of the garden.

The chickens really enjoyed the opportunity to scratch around in the freshly exposed earth and found lots of tasty morsels. Digging is their favourite activity and they never miss an opportunity.

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Taking Responsibility

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Posted on February 24, 2016

I stumbled upon this article online today. It is about a study showing the correlation between age, gender, race and political ideology to belief in the reality of climate change and the impact caused by humans. The content did not surprise me greatly, however, I was bitterly disappointed by the following couple of paragraphs towards the end of the article.

“But accepting climate change did not necessarily make you greener, at least in your home life, the study also found.

While those who accept human’s role in climate changes were more likely to take more public action, such as signing petitions or joining demonstrations, that was not necessarily replicated in private action, such as cutting energy use at home and using public transport over the car.”

I find this very sad indeed and downright depressing. It is yet another example of the overwhelming apathy which so many people display. Everybody wants ‘something to be done’ but expect that it is the responsibility of someone else, usually the government, the mythical ‘they’ or in the case of climate change, the global community or, at the very least, another country.

Australia may be a small player in the global sandpit in terms of population but we create far more than our share of mess when it comes to environmental vandalism. Yet, our governments consistently drag the chain when it comes to making real changes that will tackle climate change and benefit the planet. Sadly, government policy by all parties seems to be limited to the interval between the present time and the next election. This is not limited to addressing climate change but policy in general.

In the absence of clear government action, the driver of change must come from each and every one of us. Remember the saying, “mighty oaks from little acorns grow”. We can and should all play our part in changing everyday habits. Addressing the problem of climate change is not just about legislation, coal mines and power stations. It is about each one of us doing our bit.

Can’t afford solar panels? Live too far from public transport? Organic food is too expensive? This does not mean that you cannot make a significant contribution by reducing your carbon footprint. In fact, many of the actions you can take to save money will also save the planet.

Buy second-hand – clothes, furniture, tools, toys
Do not waste anything – use up leftover food, finish the last shampoo in the bottle
Consider re-usable alternatives – cloth serviettes instead of paper, lidded containers instead of plastic wrap, refillable drink bottles instead of bottled water

These are just a few examples.

What have you done to reduce your carbon footprint?

Running Repairs

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Posted on January 6, 2016

Both GMan and I have have some really old clothes which we wear when we are gardening or doing other outdoor jobs.

Last weekend we were busy building a new hen house and we both managed to cause some damage which necessitated some mending. After the clothes were washed today I set about repairing them.

Here are the ‘before’ shots.

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I ripped a 3 cornered tear in the back of my cotton trousers. They are very thin and some would say they are not worth repairing.

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Gman’s patched trousers had a different problem – the stitching of the crotch seam below the zip gave way. I think the thread had just worn out.

Here is a close-up view.

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I started with my trousers and placed a patch on the inside using double-sided iron-on interfacing.

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Zig-zag stitching over the tear plus around the edge of the patch and the job was complete.

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This is the view from the right side.

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For the crotch seam I sewed a seam from the wrong side and then 2 rows of stitching from the right side. Like many of my mending jobs, it won’t win a prize but it is effective and extends the life of the garment.

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Do you mend clothes?

A New Hat

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Posted on January 2, 2016

GMan always wears a hat when he is out in the garden. The one he wears is a cloth one which has seen better days and only has a relatively narrow brim. On several occasions we have looked at broad-brimmed straw hats but they never seem to be quite the right fit.

Today we were in the local hardware store and he tried some on. We found this one which was perfect – except it did not have a chin strap.

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I assured him that I could make a strap without any problem. I was not sure whether I had any cord at home but when I checked my collection, I found some red cord and a toggle that I had saved from the drawstring on a fleece top which had worn out.

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I threaded the cord around the base of the crown on the outside then passed the ends through to the inside, attached the toggle and tied off the ends. The cord sits under the band on the outside so is not visible.

GMan is very pleased with his new hat and very happy with the chin strap which I created in about 5 minutes using things that I had on hand.

Starting Out Small

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Posted on November 16, 2015

We spent the weekend at home and had reasonable weather so were able to get out in the garden.

Tonight I want to share something which is quite exciting.

Here are some white agapanthus. I have a huge clump in the backyard which is now enclosed in the chicken run and these are some that we transplanted a couple of years ago from that clump. They are alongside the path at the back of the house and have really struggled. So to see them beginning to thrive and actually flower is rather special.

My eventual plan is to have the full length of the path bordered with white agapanthus so this is a start. Once they become established they are very hardy and need no maintenance.

These are some I prepared earlier!

These blue agapanthus which we planted about 8 years ago border the driveway and look like they have been there forever. They have just begun to shoot up flower spikes and will be in full flower in a few weeks. One day the plants at the back will be similar. I just need to be patient.

No Waste

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Posted on June 13, 2015

One of the challenges of growing your own food is dealing with the gluts of produce which invariably occur.

The issue today was passionfruit. We planted a passionfruit vine about 18 months ago and in now covers a large section of the perimeter fence of the chicken run. For several weeks now I having been collecting and eating passionfruit almost every day but today I decided to store some for when there are no fresh ones available.

My efforts yielded 2 trays of passionfruit pulp to be frozen and stored for later use.

The vine appears to have 2 different types of fruit on it. One of them is a common purple passionfruit but the other are much larger and are yellow when ripe and the pulp is a very bright orange and has a somewhat different flavour. You can see the different skins in the compost bucket in the following photo.

These will go back in the compost and eventually be added to the garden beds to grow more food.

Salvaged and Spread

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Posted on April 18, 2015

Now that the weather has finally moderated it is a great time to be out in the garden.

We took the ute up to the neighbour’s place to collect the first of 2 loads of mulch that they had kindly offered to us. This was from when they had some trees trimmed and mulched about a month ago. Although we have had some light rain in the past day or two the ground was not too wet and GMan was able to bring the ute close to where we wanted to use the mulch.

The newspaper collection has been replenished somewhat, thanks to the generosity of friends and also some that GMan collected from his office.

Once again, the newspaper and mulch covered pretty much the same area. We now have more than half of the front garden deeply mulched.

Here are the first of the sweet pea seedling peeking their heads through the soil. There are also some almost microscopic seedlings which I suspect are the snapdragon or heartsease that I sprinkled in front of the sweet peas. I am very excited at the prospect of growing some old-fashioned flowers.

These are some of the flowers on one of the hibiscus shrubs in the front garden. It is in the part that is yet to be mulched.

It was 4.30pm and I had just finished photographing the garden handiwork when I noticed that this sunshower. It is the regular rain and relatively warm climate that we enjoy which keeps everything lush and green. Of course, the rich, volanic soil helps, too.

Permaculture Principles or Plain Commonsense

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Posted on April 6, 2015

Whatever you want to call them, there are things we can do in the garden that will save money and resources.

Here are a couple of projects we have been working on this weekend.

When we came here there were numerous shrubs/small trees planted close to the front verandah. They provided some screening and privacy from the road. Over time we planted a screening hedge of native shrubs along the boundary so the ones closer to the house became less important from a privacy point of view. We extended the area in front of the verandah and slightly reduced the amount of lawn. The shrubs have been pruned several times to try to keep the blow the level of the gutter.

Last year I decided on the final format for this area. We will have a selection of flowering hibiscus in front of the verandah. We bought 5 hibiscus at the Garden Expo in July last year and they have been progressing well. However, one of them was beginning to struggle and we realised that it was being shaded by one of the grevilleas. We cut down the three remaining shrubs, mulched everything that was small enough to go through the mulcher and cut the bigger branches into manageable lengths.

While Gman was mulching Istarted laying out newspapers (usually about 6 sheets at a time) and hosing them down to stop them blowing away. The we piled the mulch we had made at one end.

This shows a close-up of the small logs that we used to create the back edge of the area to be mulched.

Here is the mulch spread out. It was convenient that we ran out of mulch and newspapers at about the same time. We are going to bring home whatever newspapers we can collect from work in order to continue our project. There is still quite a bit to do as you can see from the next photo.

You can also see some of the hibiscus. They seem to really be enjoying the full sun now that the overhanging shrubs have been cut down. We have been offered a huge pile of mulch from the neighbours so that will go towards completing the mulching of this area. The next job will be to buy some more hibiscus.

Finally, I wanted to show you the garden bed that I started last weekend. It is now dug over, edged with rocks and seeds planted. We have no shortage of rocks as they are everywhere on the block in all shapes and sizes. I have planted sweet pea, snapdragon and heartsease seeds in the hope of having a border of colourful spring flowers. The sweet peas are in a furrow close to the fence which will do double duty of keeping unwanted animals out of the vegie garden and being a trellis for the sweet peas.