My little helper

Strawberry taster

Home grown strawberries

After

Overview of my vege patch down the fence line

The strawberries are really doing well already - these are the first ones to turn red...yumm. I had tried one earlier in the week and it was so juicy.

Not sure if Miss Aiko is helping or hindering

My zucchini's are doing well, tomatoes in the back

Lettuces are doing well - it was touch and go for awhile there

Dwarf peas, corn and pumpkin in the top right hand corner

These tomatoes are further down nearer to my mothers vege patch - the soil is very rich and dark and they are loving the all day sun

Before

I'm kind of out of order with my posts but that's just how I am. Here are some pictures taken before the winter/spring/summer make over

Garden Hose

For some time now I had been waiting for my husband to fix my garden hose and on a trip to Mitre 10 he ushered me over to the hose section and of course I thought - hear we go...roll my eyes, as it we'll get the stuff and I'll have to put it together...lol.

AND no kidding within a few days it was ready to go - hallelujah!!!!.

Seedlings 26 Sept 2010

This was the day the sun came out to play and gave me a chance to do some planting. Since I took these photo's I brought a few more plants from Mitre 10 - they were too cheap to pass up.

I'm back 2010

hi all,
It's been 7months since my last post and it's been a very long 7months. So what's been happening I hear you ask - well not a heck of alot. The vege garden was taken over by weeds, overgrown grass, bad weather and my lack of energy to follow through with my winter "to do list".

In the last few weeks I've planted a new crop of plants - tomatoes, zucchini, sweet corn, lettuce and dwarf peas. A friend is going to give me some more tomato plants, watermelon and few other plants. I'm also still going to take advantage of the back section, that once again needs a major manicure to get it ready. Hopefully with any luck I can sell the excess at the front of the house and make a bit of cash to put back into the garden and buy a few supplies as well - it's all about self sufficiency especially in these tough economic times.

My dad and I have a few ideas to collect rain water so I'll keep you posted about how this is going. It seems a waste of money to use water you pay for (water rates) when it comes for free from the sky.

I may also look at starting a vege. collective - eg...getting the neighbours together to start gardens in their own backyards, sharing the work, knowledge and produce. Need to do a bit more research with regard to the details but I saw this idea on UK garden show on the living channel.

I also get alot of ideas from youtube, a big thanks to all those people who make videos of what you do and share it with the world. Knowledge is power.

So many things to do with so little time.

Update

We'll my garden is a little worse for wear over the past couple of months with me working O/T at work. So I've had to do quite a bit of maintainance work eg:
1. Weeding - will it never end....!!!!
2. Pulling out dead plants - a kind of weeding
3. Consolidating the potting mix - putting excess into my raised beds and turning it over
4. Stacking empty buckets ready for next year - although I don't think I will need so many
5. The back section - My wonderful father has been clearing the back section and I'm hoping to organise raised beds over winter (when it's not raining or too cold) I figure the ground may be easy to handle if it's a bit soft from the rain
6. Sourcing timber for my winter green house - I've yet to check out the dump but I know a place that has some space timber that one of the tenants is keen to see the back of it. I scored some golf sticks minus the "irons" so they will be my new stakes

Al and I have planned a working bee in a couple of weeks, hoping no last minute event will pop up to spoil the day.

Soooo that's about it for now - photo's to follow

ps: I also sourcing dwarf fruit trees, if you have any ideas of where at a reasonable price, let me know

Relish

I made some relish from my abundance of tomatoes but I forgot one major ingredient - Vinegar!!! But i've decided we will enjoy over the next few days instead of the next few months. I must say - not too shabby.

I'm going to try my hand a plum jam next - so watch this space

It's been awhile, but my garden is growning and bearing "fruit". Check out these pics