Almost!

I am almost organised...

The veggies and flowers are looking good, but the garden beds need weeding.

I remembered Mister Music's antibiotics this morning, but forgot to give Possum hers.

The washing is up to date, but not the ironing or folding.

I remembered to put the pork on for tea, but I forgot to add the rosemary. 

I remembered to call about pony camp forms, but forgot to call and order 4 new tyres.

Oh well, it is all a good start, I am still catching up after being away last week.  We visited friends in Sydney, friends in Albury, colleagues in Wagga Wagga, family in Cootamundra and had tea with a friend in Cowra all in the space of 5 days.

Fruit Chutney

To use the tomatoes that we picked from the garden I deided to make chutney.

I had to modify a few reicpes to suit the ingredients I had here and the end result is really good so I will share what I did here.

1kg tomatoes, skinned and chopped

2 large onions, diced

2 large apples* peeled and diced

700g sugar

3/4 cup sultanas

pinch cayenne pepper

1 tbs salt

1 tsp whole cloves

3.5 cups vinegar

Combine all ingredients over a low heat in a heavy base pan. 

Stir until sugar is disolved and simmer for about 2.5 hours. 

Pour into sterilised jars.

*The apples on my tree are still a bit green, so I used apple puree that I had instead.

At my House

At My House we are starting to enjoy our hard work in the garden.  Beans mingle on fences behind roses and bulbs in garden beds that didn't exist when me moved in.  Grass is starting to become lawn, but it does need spraying again now to keep on top of the weeds.

BBQ season has arrived with the warmer weather and longer days and it is lovely to spend some quiet time outside of an evening before turning in for the day.  

We have been busy, but you can see the difference we have made and we are having fun turning this space of ours into our home.

The Edible Garden

I have already shown some photos of the flowers in the garden, but as I am more interested in the edible side of things I thought I should cover that as well.  Half the appeal in moving to this block was that we would have room to grow as much produce as we could for ourselves.  It is more satisfying, healtier and helps the budget too.

These are almonds.  We have about 30 friut and nut trees here and I am really looking forward to working out what is what.  I think a lot of jam will be made.

The spring onions going to seed are beautiful and delicate looking and I love looking out of the house through the grape vine that grows along our front verandah.  More grapes grow along fences and on the side of the workshop.  I hope there are enough for both us and the possums.

We love rhubarb.  It is not something I had tried before meeting the Mr.  This plant originally came from a crown given to us by my in-laws.  We planted it, and have moved it twice since then. 

I have raided it for the rhubarb and lemon cake since taking this photo, but it is the season for growing so it won't be long beofre we get more.

Our potato plants need heaping already.  This year we have 4 varieties in and I am looking forward to harvest time so I can start cooking with them.

We have more veggies in and growing, but these are my favourites this week.

Garden Flowers

 Yellow Iris and Lavender

Phlox and Everlasting Daisy

   Banksia Rose



There is a lot to be thankful for in our garden at the moment and we are working hard to keep making it better.  We are all benefiting from the extra time outdoors as we play and dig and admire.

Cowra Japanese Garden

A recent visit to the Cowra Japanese Gardens.

Their website claims that the best time to visit is for three weeks starting late September so when we happened to be in the area at just the right time we had to stop!

Sorry for the volume of photos in this post, but I had to share the beauty.

We are feeling inspired to creat something wonderful at home, but it will take us a lot of planning and hard work :)

Dirt Boy

We have been enjoying the garden.  Blue loves being outside and he dirties at least two changes of clothes a day.  He helps me pull weeds and he loves running about chasing Sam the dog.  He can say 'Sam' really well but Sam is smart enough not to listen.

I have to keep a close eye on him so he does not trample the veggie beds but so far all is good on that front and I think we will be harvesting greens before we know it!

On a different and interesting note, today's date is 10-10-10!

Spring

I love Spring.

The colours, the new growth...

....and the sometimes temperamental weather.

The Mr. has been putting the chainsaw he won to good use which is lucky because today is COLD!

Perfect Weekend Weather

With the Autumn weather perfect over the weekend we spent a lot of time outside in the garden. 

We had a few visitors too.

The new raised Veggie garden is in place and I planted all the strawberry plants and runners in.  The garden bed edging is right along the back fence now too which does make it neater and easier to mow and look after.

I think Autumn is my favourite time of year.

Special Announcement

The Mr proudly strutted out of the veggie patch wielding 7 ears of corn.  He turned the golden loot this way, then that way, and proudly proclaimed that it was good enough to blog, then proceeded to try to give me photographic advice*...

Given that the first two corn crops the Mr and I planted both failed due to my somewhat fat and spoilt horse getting into the garden and eating them (twice!), I thought I probably owed him his fifteen minutes of fame...

Go on, leave him a comment.  He responds well to praise, and to be fair, it really is wonderful looking corn :)  I hope it tastes just as good!

Normal blog programming will resume shortly.

* I didn't really listen to any advice so claim photo credit as my own.  I mean really, the guy grew corn, it does not make him an expert on my camera!

Work in Progress Wednesday

2 weeks of neglect, 6 1/2 inches of rain and hot summer days.

We came home to a JUNGLE.

The Mr and I spent 3 days whipping it, and the lawn, back into shape.

In addition to uncovering the plants that were there, we planted more lettuce, squash, spring onions, carrot and parsnip. We filled our green waste bin twice over with weeds. The chooks got the spinnach and lettuce which had gone to seed and I added cow poo and some organic matter to our sandy soil. Last season we mulched with 5 bales of straw but our poor soil still needs a lot more work so I tossed out some stinky plant food pellets too.

Given one of my resolutions is to spend more time in, and better use my garden, I feel like I am off to a good start. I just need to keep it up!

Blogtober #18 ~ In the Garden

I have left my run a bit late on the Spring planting so have decided to skip most of the seeds and go for seedlings instead.

We have been preparing new beds this weekend and have new plants to go in this afternoon, as well as beetroot to cook, spinach that is going mad, and the first lot of carrots blanched and in the freezer.

Spring

Spring has sprung, and I love it!

My favourite time of year.

I love the budding plants, the frolicking lambs and the warmer days.

Time to start thinking about adding to the vegetable garden :)