October 2023 Garden Roundup

After such a dry winter, with the tanks at the Community Garden running out of water, the weather was still making it possible to enjoy a lovely Spring, today  like yesterday, it is pouring rain, and looks like it will be raining most of the week. The Community Garden of course are very pleased as all their tanks and containers would be full by now.  The 2nd. 10,000 litre load of water to be delivered at $250 mark was cancelled, a great relief on John's part as the first one only lasted a month. 

 

The council though ,finally installed the water connection, last Friday, so that the Garden can now have a water main and several taps around the acre to water from, once the plumber is hired. John once more has been elected President and Treasurer at last months AGM 5th year in a row. I was hoping he would  not take it on, and be home more, but as usual he is out nearly every day, reminds me of the old days when he was teaching full time. I am definitely missing the company of Einstein and Cricket these days.

I planted two Hollyhocks from my best friends seeds in Melbourne and both have put on quite a show, the flowers are just starting to drop off now, but have been very impressive. Certainly I will save these seeds. This plant is on the boundary line for all to see.

 I braved today's rain to take some pictures of the garden now. Quite a few plants are ready to pull out, the Pink Lady sweetpeas are gone, and the broccoli, celery, coriander, some alysum, and snapdragons are also ready for the compost bin.

The area I see from the verandah.

 The recent plantings are some lettuce and some french beans. I am usually the only one eating from the garden now, John likes his frozen microwave meals he can eat in front of the computer. Consequently there is usually way too much for me so I have had to freeze some.

Mizuna going to seed and a struggling Kale under the cover, White Cabbage Moth have been a problem. The lettuce is loving this rain though.

Yet another lot of french beans the 3rd try this time in a different bed.

I did plant some more beans yesterday,  the 3rd lot of seedlings, as to date they have been eaten by slugs or pulled out by birds, or so far this morning they are still intact, as I did change garden beds this time.

This end is cucumber, carrots Parsley and Basil

Two Zucchinni ,wild tomatoes and  beetroot in the middle of this bed.

The Blueberry and Rhubarb buried by Coriander and Paper Daisies plus Alyssum.

 One thing that has been amazing is the cherry tomatoes. I have picked so many and thrown out lots as I just can't keep up. I have also sent them to the Community Gardens where they sell well. Seedlings of course have been through out the garden like weeds.

Yellow Cherry

Yellow Cherry Toms are my favorite and this hangs on both sides of the fence, and more rhubarb in this bed. They grew wild but handy to have the fence to throw the long stems over.

Red cherries again both sides and overtaking a passionfruit underneath.

I moved a plant stand to the front of the verandah as it gets the morning sun and now some of  the rain and mist. It is a great spot for my cuttings and seedling trays.

Finally some nature pictures

Where I park my car this bush is on the dividing line so watch this lorikeet eating the flowers, from the car.

A baby water dragon finding its way to the verandah.

 And Finally, 

Kookaburra just resting on the fence for ages.

 

 Till Next Time.

Spring has arrived

Another month has gone and I think time is speeding up too fast. I have been busy in the garden of course, and it is looking lovely at the moment, I have managed to do some weeding and mulching. The flowers are all out, vegetables growing and well Spring is definitely here.

Side garden

Current Lettuce/Parsley, Celery bed I pick daily for lunch.

Sweet peas have been producing so much that I have been sending them to the Community garden in bunches of 20 and they have all been selling. This weekend is a big Plant Sale they hold twice a year and have sent in 6 bunches this time plus 2 of Rhubarb, 2 lots of single Kale, 4 x 6 Cherry Tomato punnets, and 4 of single Basil. Happy to say they all sold yesterday, so picked another couple of bunches of one sweet peas and they other yellow coreopsis for today.

Change of colour for sweet peas

An interesting effect has happened to 3 branches of sweet peas that now have a mottled pattern, so I have tied a ribbon to the branches so that when the seeds are formed I can grow that colour. 

I picked up a couple of plants from Bunnings this week and yet to plant them. They will go down the back. John has finished the beds and are full of good soil mixture. 

Liked the brightness of these daisies and carnations remind me of my wedding bouquet.

Kalanchoe lots of new varieties I hadn't seen when I was there last week. 

The Community garden has also finally transferred the container from our son's house and is now waiting for a crane to lift it into its proper space. This will be part office and part storage. 

A roof will be joining that tanks and the container, which allows for a seat area between the tanks. 

Tank got this far

Arial view of where it will go.

There has been quite a few new members this year, and all seem to want a garden bed to hire so John has been building  beds in a new area for this. There has been a lot of public events, and this has come to the notice of everyone. The garden is always looking neat and tidy and a credit to the workers there. 

 On the other hand we are waiting for a landscape gardener to come, he is so busy we had to make a booking, to give us a quote for the artificial grass out back plus maybe the gazebo roof, and pool renovation, fingers crossed for that. John has more or less finished.

There is now three smaller beds at sitting height filled with cow manure/mushroom compost., currently covered to keep the bush turkeys from scraping it all up. A couple piles of dirt have been left in case it is used for the base. Whether the paving will go I am not sure yet.

I will probably plant bush beans and maybe a cucumber vine and brightly coloured flowers so I can see easily from the verandah. There are still 3 long flower pots behind the RHS middle bed. The Pottery flower pots I will arrange somewhere together I think, and  also paint the fence again, most likely the grey. Maybe also a couple of hanging baskets off them as well. 

 

 One last look at the front garden.

 

New roses I have picked for this week.

 

Till Next Time .

Time to Clean up the Garden

 We have been having some lovely weather here, cold in the morning then sunny and around then by lunchtime 20C mark give or take. Perfect for garden work. 

Flowers and Roses.

I started on the front first, 2 weeks ago,  pruning the roses, digging, weeding, fertilizing then finally some mulch. It is going to take a while, especially as I had a busy week with  the dentist twice, the chiropractor, and 2 art groups, this week. I last for about 2 to 3 hours, have lunch and then start organizing the house and getting it back to normal again, and re arranging everything as I go. My craft stuff is everywhere.

I have planted a few more winter veg. then covered them against the white moth.

Of course there is still plenty growing, beetroot,capsicum, parsley, bok choy, carrots, snow peas,cherry tomatoes, as well as all the seedlings from 2 weeks ago.

The blueberry patch now has a rhubarb transplanted from the back garden into one of the pots where a blueberry had died. I also put in various flowers around the spaces. I divided the rhubarb into 8 and another two are planted in the corner near the glass house, so 3 will be growing hopefully. The rest I sent to the Community Garden.

Blueberry and now Rhubarb Patch.

 The lemon and Mandarin trees are just about ripe, as we have had a few  2 - 7C degrees, very early in mornings, which is perfect for sweetening them. I am also still picking avocados off the tree out the back, there were 12 on it.

Mandarin

Lemon

 I am hoping to make lemon butter/curd, which I recently read freezes very well and is back to normal once it thaws. Wish I had known that when the kids were home. It only keeps 2 - 3 weeks in fridge due to the eggs. 

John has started putting together a new shed we have had for ages and never used. It is only very small. He also put together a new dresser for me. Everything seems to be in a Mecanno type set, these days.

The New Shed, maybe for fire wood or tools.

The Poinsettia as well as the Orange Agave plants are out.

 The top garden behind though is still a mess. Some of the soil has been moved. I will get on to this when the front is finished. As yet need to find a Landscape guy for the Artificial turf, and the Gazebo roof is still not done after 5 years of asking, as well as the pond and given up hope they will ever be done.

Artificial turf in the middle of all this, raised beds on sides.

My little tropical garden is doing well also.

Plus the Alexander Palms from Lord Howe Island are growing nicely. When they are big enough I will put 3 into a pot. They like to grow together.

I bought a Pink Chrysanthemum and put it where I sit for lunch if its not too cold. Eventually I will plant it out somewhere. The flowers are holding on for weeks.

The twins, our youngest grandchildren turned 10 yesterday, so I have been making them a card each, the years are certainly going fast,

  It is such a nice time of the year at the moment, and  I hope everyone is enjoying the cooler weather.

Till Next Time.

Yet more Beans & Art Classes.

It has been a strange week, John has had a cataract  removed, formed due to the operation he had last year, so no need for the other eye to be done which usually happens. He has had to be very careful this past week, with drops, and dark glasses and a plastic dome patch for night. He has used all this free time applying for another grant which has taken up most of this week. 

 

 The Commuity Garden though, have had a major bi-annual plant sale, for this weekend, and have had to work it out on their own for once. The garden though is looking lovely.

https://www.facebook.com/SouthCoffsCommunityGarden/ 

 

  My garden, on the other hand, is  ploughing on, despite all the nut grass, trying to work it every day for an hour.

 

Unbelievably I have had to pick another basket of  beans, both butter and blue lake, even after Miss P picked every one she could  8 days ago.

 More Kale for my smoothies which saves me $6 every time I do it, and which I freeze,plus another zucchini I missed. It is still fairly hot outside after 9 so I am not going out for  too long the humidity is exhausting.

 

I did process them and they weighed 800grms, ready for blanching.

I also froze them individually on a tray, then vacuum packed them in the freezer bags. The tomatoes from the garden are in my new vacuum fridge bags.

I noticed today that I should pick some more beans, despite giving 2 big handfuls to the neighbours, I am getting sick of them.  I also noticed, especially yesterday, when I defrosted the freezer and realised how many bags of carrots and beans there were from the garden, as we are mainly eating salads. Winter should sort that out hopefully.  

 

 

One of many oil paintings I did in the early days that sold.

 The past year I have been planning to go back to my art, and yesterday visited the local art centre for their casual day, meaning no classes. 8 painters were there and I liked the set up so will be joining them at two weeks, after I actually join officially. I have also decided to check out the journal, bookbinding  group Thursday as I shall be experimenting in small art books so can easily join in there as well for extra time to work. 

I have also organized  a few online classes, which I have looked at first and now collecting new paints and water colour brushes, so I can actually start the lessons. I usually paint in oils.

 

Abstract class in acrylics,  I will be doing which is very different.

This is a Watercolour class.

 

 It is all very exciting, and I am still getting things together to start.

 

 In the midst of all this I am also continuing to  photograph miniatures for my Etsy shop, yet to open.

 

I think I have finished all the furniture and now starting on the fiddly bits, which  at the moment isrocking horses.

I don't want to be photographing while stuff is hopefully selling at the same time, well not until I have most of it uploaded. Then it will be a case of packing and posting.......maybe.

I feel I have not done a lot this week, except  lots of research on the computer, that is quite tiring. 

Easter Daisy amongst the nut grass.

Till Next Time.

 

New Vacuum Sealer & Autumn Weeding

Well it rained this past week and what a relief to all the hot weather, it gave us a couple of days respite from the heat. In between times we have managed to clear and fill 3 1/2 beds, so there is no more soil in the trailer. The flower beds on the edge need weeding, but they will get a layer of  hard mulch rather than soil. Still 3 more small vegetable beds to go though.

 Planted seeds of beans, carrots and beetroot, and seedlings of kale, lettuce,rocket and bok choy but the heat after rain, was a bit much although I covered them, some have died. Will try direct seeds instead.

A tangle of green beans and cucumbers.

Miss P came over Saturday, and we partially weeded the back rose garden, while the shade was there, with a reminder on how to prune them, and the hydrangea bed and path at the back steps, filling the wheely bin for Monday.

 

 Before she went home picked beans and more carrots to take back. There is just so much we can handle. Also 2 large cucumbers John bought home from the gardens. As the family have chickens and I get quite a few of the eggs, if nothing else it can all go to them.

 

Yellow Butter  and Green beans from two different Trellis's

I think there is probably one more go of the carrot bed. They are small and lots of fine roots growing from the carrot itself is  proof  I showed Miss P,  that they had stopped growing, most likely due to the heat as some plants won't grow if the weather is a certain temperature, and been in too long. Still ok to cook for meals. 

Semi cleaned carrots

John cooked up half of the chillis, also from the Community Garden, and made a hot  Sweet Chilli Sauce. It is a bit hot for me though, unless it was a tiny bit, but the purchased sweet chilli is more my style.

 After sadly  reading the last post on Down to Earth with Rhonda Hetzel, as she is retiring from writing, I found on her cooking for one series that she had purchased a hand held food vacuum that uses bags. 

2 weeks ago I vacuumed 2 jars of grapes, to keep fresh from the kilo bag of them in our grocery order. They go off so quickly and this was opened yesterday as fresh as we bought them. The trouble is I have to drag out my big machine to do this, so once opened I don't bother to vacuum it again. 

I also have vacuum bags that can be put in the freezer such as the carrots and beans I did recently, or meat in a sauce like John's kangaroo meat he loves, and vacuuming bulk flour, sugar, tea etc to keep it long term.  

I decided to buy a not very expensive one on Amazon, and below is the  tiny hand held vacuum, about as big as my hand, with 2 cucumbers sealed in the bag system. It goes over the blue dot after closing the bag with a double  zip lock. 

The good part about this system is that I can keep it on the bench or shelf, ready to re seal the bag quickly, as when I take out one of the cucumbers for example.

 

 I have had pumpkin, cucumbers, tomatoes, and lettuce go off before we can finish them. Testing these cucumbers out, but I keep them in the fridge still. This system won't take any liquids and  bags aren't to go in the freezer. The unit is easily charged same as a phone.

As long as the product doesn't go past the blue dot, I see no problem with this so far and look forward to testing my home made bread next time, rather than freezing it. As from using my big vacuum machine I know it will keep biscuits, cake, muffins, fresh long term also. Nowadays I always freeze half the cake or slice, so when I cook next will test that out also. 

The Frangipani is so full of flowers this year.

Thank you to the two subscribers who joined recently, it was a such a lovely surprise.

Till next time.