Spring in the garden

Lately we have been enjoying some beans from the garden and some fresh salads - we have, rocket, mizuna, mustard and some other salad varieties. A lot of things are getting eaten by the possums, the spinach is especially popular! Just when I think it's almost time for spinach pie it gets whisked away! Never-the-less we do get to eat some things. We also have corn and tomatoes on the way.

Carnations from the kids Grandmother "Marnie" by the cubbyhouse. On our to-do list - oil that cubbyhouse!

My little garden

Since these photos were taken the lettuce and parsley have been eaten by the local possums. They are just resprouting now.

Currently in my winter garden I have:

strawberry plants

oregano

(recovering well)

sage

(going crazy)

lemongrass

(re-potted today)

mint

(sad, re-potted today)

parsley

(nibbled by possums)

perpetual lettuce

(nibbled by possums)

mizuna greens

(looking and tasting good)

garlic chives

(yummy in corn fritters tonight)

onion

(experiment)

A sprouting store bought onion which I planted in a pot to see what it would do.

I have never used sage in cooking before so I'm looking forward to trying this. Feel free to send me any of your favourite recipes with sage.

Growing our own food

Recently I have been reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver and watching "Gardening Australia" and "the Edible Garden". I have been inspired to grow our own fruit, herbs and vegetables and have so far started planting a small amount of herbs and salad greens. We have been happy with the results, enjoying salad from our own garden most days. It tastes so much better when it hasn't been sitting in storage for awhile, and it saves us buying a massive lettuce or bunch of herbs and wasting what we don't need.

Above is the Mizuna which is a Japanese lettuce with yellow flowers which you can also eat. We also have mustard greens, perpetual lettuce and sweet rocket (which is a delicious spicy flavour). In the herbs we have rosemary (established), lemongrass, oregano, continental parsley, mint, lemon thyme and garlic chives.

I have two types of strawberries, one type has white flowers and they were a gift from a friend, the other has pink flowers and has green fruit now. My white flowering strawberry plants have produced two ripe strawberries so far, but they where nabbed by birds before I could get to them. I might have to put netting over them so I get to try one this season!

Spring in the garden

Catching up on some posts... I have been otherwise occupied having my spring baby! I'll update on that soon. Meanwhile all the flowers and bees are out in our garden. When it rains you can hear frogs chirping happily from their leafy homes, and the bell birds tinking away at the tops of the trees. I love this time of year.


Autumn Garden

In summer it is a bit hot to hang out in our backyard too much but lately it has been cooler and lovely out there. We have got Ethan some more outdoor toys so he is loving it out the back too. Now we are looking for a little cubby house to put out there.

Our chillies have been turning red too, these ones are really spicy hot.



In the garden



These native violets I planted in the front yard when we moved in, they are flowering like crazy now. I'm hoping that soon we will have carpets of these between the other plants. I think I will move the ones in the pot to the back garden and plant my strawberries in the pot. These plants love a bit of precipitation, they go a bit nuts after the rain, but they also do ok when it is dry. I love them.

Visiting friends

On the way to and from Queensland we stopped in on our friends in Coffs Harbour. Going by what fun two days we had, I think we should have stayed there the whole time we were on holidays!!

Steve and her husband went fishing whilst we took the two boys to look for soldier crabs. We didn't find any crabs, but the kids and us mum's loved splashing in the water! Then we had a little picnic and played on the play equipment. When we got home we filled up their canoe for the boys to splosh around in. We threw in some beach toys and empty water bottles for them to play with. Then I decided we should do some painting so the kids did some painting, and then hopped back in the canoe pool to clean off. Fi's husband makes homebrew beer, very good ( a bit like bees knees). Fi made 100% fruit sorbet with mango, banana and peach. The kids loved it too.

Fi sent me home with some vegies and some orchids she grows in her garden. While we were there she was sundrying tomatoes on the washing line. I admire Fi's energy and resourcefulness in everything she does.