Day 68! Its been a busy Wednesday.

It really, really has!  Once our inside jobs were done we headed up the hill to meet Mandy of Black Tulip Plantscapes.  As usual with garden people we meet... she was lovely.  We bought a dwarf cherry tree for the back garden and a Red and a Yellow Passionfruit.  Thank you Mandy for being understanding when my boys saw your huge Cumquat tree.... they turned into pack rats and are still stuffing their faces now!

On arriving home I called the council... it turns out our verge starts a lot closer to the kerb than we thought and so, even though the Agriculture Department is ordering all fruit tree's off of verges we can *still* plant some fruit trees in our front garden (since it belongs to us). *Happy Dance*

From there on to Midland.... BUN-BINGS... that is Bunnings to anyone not in our family lol... We went with a list... we pretty much stuck to it too! $100 was our limit... I had to donate 80c so we did pretty good :-)

So what does $100.80 get you?
A dwarf Lemon tree; A Greenhouse; An archway; A bag of fertilizer; A package of rubber O rings for the Grey water (I am sick of mopping);

From there we headed home the scenic way then straight out the back...

  In the beginning... Tom emptied the box... then many words were uttered about how many parts and how impossible it was.  "Brandon!"  The lego master was called :-p  Then Tom preceeded to do the majority himself.

 We actually got the Greenhouse up pretty quickly!
Miss Balla Balla approved... The boys are pretty proud of themselves... and the metal shelves fit in there to give us some extra room :-)  So all was good with the world ;-).

 

Mr Brandon checked "his" garden... The Cabbages are growing heaps and the peas are flowering... so excitement plus... 

 
Then (while Mr Tom avoided doing his assignment) Mr Brandon helped my build the Arch that the Passionfruit will climb... with a little help from Rex who just wanted cuddles today.

Then we were done and Balla helped me move the arch onto the grass ready for moving out the front tomorrow... That is it from me today *hugs* Sarah

Day 65... Sunday again...

 G'day, well our Sunday was BUSY!  Ok yes well every day is busy in our house but today particularly!  It began with a trip to Fremantle Prison... it was very interesting!  It is really quite scary to see what conditions were like in there!

 The Royal Blue potatoes shot up in the two days we were gone!  As did the Horseradish... we have several leaves now :-)

 The Sugarloaf Cabbage and Rainbow Chard both loved the rain by the looks of things too... It is amazing the difference a few days make.
Lizzie's Zucchini's have grown too!  I will need to find room in the garden for them very soon.

 What is it?  Curry Leaf Tree seeds germinating and pushing themselves up so everyone please cross your fingers... they are about the hardest plant I know to propergate.  We did bring a heap of Curry Leaf Tree berries back from Nanny and Pop's so we will keep trying with them :-)  I guess I had better get them planted tomorrow!

Brandons Hanging gardens also celebrated the rain while we were gone... The growth is phenomenal! The Lettuces and Nasturtiums will be pickable in no time... the Strawberries are flowering.. the mints... well the photo speaks for itself!  Coriander... woo hooo I see Chicken Chaat sometime this week ;-)

 Even Toms very slow basil is finally showing progress!  I am so thankful!
I believe the strawberries might need to move into some real plant pots too :-)

 My Sublime is still a little on the yellow side... I am still rather worried about it.  Hopefully the new leaves of spring will bring green as the tree has had plenty of fertiliser.

The hydroponic lettuce is still doing well...  The strawberries also have PERFECT fruit on them since moving them away from Cricket central :-)
This afternoon I potted up the Raspberries which I did not want in the ground... and did 4 more lettuce and marigold hanging baskets.

That is it tonight... *hugs* Sarah

Day 63 - Geraldton!

We went to visit Grandpop and got a some Garden Guru advice...

The boys learned a little more about hydroponics, pulled some weeds, picked up some fallen tomatoes... YES Grandpops Tomatoes are still in production!

Grandpop taught us about his Ebb and Flow Hydroponic set up for Tomatoes... I only hope one day we can have half this gardening ability!  Chilli's galore too... Brandon picked some for seeds... and check out the tomatoes... still flowering and fruiting!

Thank you for sharing your knowledge Pop.... the boys learned so much :-)
*hugs* Sarah

Day 60!!

Before we went away I hilled up the Delawares out the front... and checked on the Garlic Brandon planted... both are looking healthy!

In the dark "stripe" that had been watered I planted chives out the front.  So hopefully some will survive and we can have a nice herb garden out the front.

Below you will see the partial result of my OMG moment when I walked out the back and found Tom's garden bed had shot up since the rain... there were so many seeds sown in the one bed I had to rescue everything by transplanting root crops (I know it is a no-no)... so parsnips, beetroots can carrots all transplanted into the bed they came from, the plastic tub I was saving for carrots and a bed out the front ;-)
The photo on the right is the "thinned and replanted" bed so you can imagine before!

 

Day 59... Monday...

Firstly, sorry it has taken so long to post... we had a garden party with one of the Facebook groups which we are on... We met some lovely people and I learned a lot.  So a quick update for everyone... Our worms are doing rather well... we found a few "white skinny ones" which apparently is a sign of acidity so the dogs got eggs and the egg shells went to the worms.



The Hanging Gardens of Brandon are looking rather well! Above right you can see the chocolate mint, we still aren't supposed to take the leaves off!  You have to be very brave to try too lol.
The Peppermint from Julie (Left) is going great guns and is already trying to escape its pot... The lettuces (Right) are looking healthy and so far the crickets have not found them up there!
The coriander, nasturtiums, parsley and strawberries are all coming along well along with the Basil Mint from Tinker Bel (Right pic, closest pot).

The Lazy housewife beans are... FLOWERING!!!  Even though we have the coldest weather the wall they are growing against seems to be keeping them alive :-)  So glad for Brandon.  Brandon discovered ant's on his beans so got to work wiping off the aphids they were farming... they had been very industrious!                        Brandon's Carrots and Radishes are still going great guns... so much so we are still pulling out the long radishes... we are leaving the easter egg ones to goto seed... and anyone who pulls them gets a good telling off... and NOT from me! hehe

 Todays Harvest.

 Last week while we were helping Tom with his project I left Brandon with 5 empty hanging baskets and one filled as an example... by the time I got back the other 5 were exact copies!  I think he did a great job :-)  I bumped into the neighbour today and she is quite happy to have some hooks over the top of the fence so we can expand a little more... the lettuces seem to be quite enjoying the morning shade and afternoon sun.

Yesterday we went to bunnings (again) in search of a round garbage bin to use as a grey water catcher... then we had a rethink... $25+ for a garbage bin we got two green plastic giant buckets... So today the boys got busy snaking the hose through the floor drain... Then I suggested to Thomas that it might be nice to have it all neat and tidy going into the two tubs.The lightbulb went on over his head and he disappeared into the garage... next thing there is a T-piece from the reticulation box on the hose... then two L's .... I think he did an awesome job... definitely got his engineering skills from Grandpop! I can see why it is called grey water!

The planter on the side of the kennel with the Nasturtiums we added some lettuces to... lettuces seem to be popping in everywhere !  The horseradish now has 4 leaves... but who is counting?



One of the "potato bags" which we planted Royal Blue Potatoes in has grown (the other one is barely growing at all) so it was time to "hill up".  Brandon and Balla began.... then Balla helped a little too much so Brandy went to play lol... I finished it.. now there were two small shoots that we didn't want to cover so I cut the bottom out of a couple of plastic cups.  Then up to the top with coir then a little Potato E.  Lets hope for potatoes :-)

 When we went and picked up the Raspberries from David he gave us some KangKung which is an asian green.  I sat it in honey water for a the week and it sent out roots so today it went in the ground :-)  Fingers crossed I do not kill it!

Speaking of killing things... we are not getting many strawberries due to big holes in them.... so I have resorted to passive warfare.. Gaffa-tape / Duct-tape sticky side up... On the strawberry planter I put some bait of holey-strawberries (might as well put them to use).  On the hydroponic lettuce box we already caught 1 medium and 3 little ones... thats a start!

The Lemongrass planted infront of the Verburnum is coming back nicely and the SubLime is slowly getting some green back in the leaves... maybe there is hope! :-)  I thought for sure the move from Hedland and the cold had killed it.

The last two days I have worked hard out the front on two projects... hilling up the Delawares which are going great guns.... and trying to rebuild the side garden closest to the bush.  The side garden we finally caught the culprit who was riding bikes over it (not one of mine!) and re-educated him that the garden is not a race track ... Chris strung two fluro builders twine lengths across the gap as a reminder.  All the edging we put in was ripped out.

 After putting the border back in (and giving us a little more room since the car parking gets closer by the day on the sand lol) I planted some of the Fingerbowl Lemon Pelagoniums, a Native Lavender (both from Henriette... so thank you!) and some of the Rosemary that I struck from cuttings (from Aliesha - thanks too!)...  then I grabbed some of the excess bark mulch from around the place (some is so thick the ground underneath is always dry!)  Now the bed looks like it has always been there!

Ok that's it from me tonight... have a great day *hugs* Sarah