Slugs, snails and puppy dog tails!

This weeks ingredients to our super salads and soups! 

 Slugs and snails required a very beery party this week along with some multiguard pellets - these turn into iron for my plants so are the only ones I will use now.  This beer trap had been down less than 12 hours!  Apparently slugs are not very picky (Swan Draught was bought for them by Hubby!) but not one of the giant snails that have been appearing in the middle of the lilies!

I went into the worm farm and came across more than a bargained for!  A new potato plant - still not sure how a whole potato made its way into the worm farm though.  The worms are looking extremely healthy and numbers are up too... ready for the new worm farm expansion.

I found a much better use for my ironing board on a rainy day... to hold up the 6 meter lengths of storm pipe while we used the hole saw every 15 - 16cm's!  Obviously with it raining I had LOTS of help.

  My furry helpers!

 As the weather fined up I started work on the new wicking pots for the Grape vine, Bay Leaf Tree and Fig Tree.   Corrugated pipe joined together then pierced with a pvc pipe for filling the reservoir.  Covered with 2 layers of weed mat to stop the reservoir filling with soil.  I then popped some sand in to act as the wick.  Now I just need the energy to fill the rest of the pots but we will get there :-D

The PVC pipe is cut on an angle at the bottom so it wont seal against the barrel or pipe.  In the second one I inserted the PVC pipe into the corrugated pipe and closed the other end with weed mat (yes it is a little messy but no one will see once it is done!

Super Salad and Soup ingredients for this week!

 Parsley, Coriander leaves and flowers, lettuces and mints (common and basil)... Kale, onions, chives, chive flowers and broad beans!

 Rainbow Chard, Nasturtium flowers, snow peas, dragons tongue beans, oregano and most importantly two of Grand-pop's Super Tomatoes!  Our very first for this season!  There are lots of purple sage flowers and leaves, a little rosemary, english spinach and nasturtium leaves.

Watercress, thyme and native violet flowers.

As we aren't using chemicals for the caterpillar problem we now not only have ladybirds and praying mantis' but also a steady supply of green caterpillars, crickets and other insects for our black faced wood swallow to eat!

So in the end we had a huge bowl of salad - I had to upgrade bowl size twice... this is my biggest mixing bowl!  I also, after making salad, felt like something different so made a vege soup :-)  

Happy Gardening!  *hugs* Sarah x

An outing and a visitor brought carnage!

Dear Hubby took me shopping today to Bunnings *swoon*... so I could get two brackets to sure up the  new arches and a roll of corrugated drainage pipe to go into my wicking pots for the trees.  We also stopped at the bottle shop to get a beautiful bottle of ... Swan Draught *chuckle* fear not!  It is not for us but for our slugs and snails that have been extremely busy pruning my plants.  It seems we should have got several other bottles as I ran out after filling the first 6 traps!

On our return I walked out the back to set a cup of beer in the worm farm for the slugs that have decided to squat in there I came upon carnage... pipe fittings; hydroton (round expanded clay balls); pipes and mess all up the back corner... and two very, very excited dogs.  Well I followed Rex who made it quite plain he had found something... I am actually quite relieved this little bobtail was whole and unharmed but probably had several nose prints on his back as the dogs investigated his obviously interesting odour!  

Ice-cream container to the rescue and a quick walk out the front and this lil garden buddy got to go explore under the cape gooseberry bush... so I guess its now the season I better start wearing shoes in the garden as the snakes will start coming out of the conservation land!  

Now I know that technically I should not harvest my rhubarb this year however it was so crowded at the top of the fence I decided I better thin it out and taste test... yet to taste but so exciting.  So Strawberries from my garden (big ones) and hydroponics (little ones), cape gooseberries, broad beans and snow peas. Not a big harvest but every little bit helps :-D

I enjoyed my afternoon watering with seasol and aquasol... hoping this is the pick me up some of my plants need to survive the onslaught of the never ending caterpillars, slugs and snails.  Anyway that's it from me tonight..

Happy Gardening!

*hugs*
Sarah

Photo bombs!

Well my boys make me laugh even when I don't expect it!  Today I dug the potatoes that B planted in the Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep Shade before we went away in April... It is not the biggest harvest, nor the biggest potatoes but they will make beautiful new potatoes for Nanny's Potatoes. :-) (Boiled potatoes, olive oil, garlic and parsley from the garden).

Yes I was photo bombed!  hehe Thanks Mr B!

My IBC arrived today - Thank you Derek!  It was previously used for the water based resin they use to seal tiles and fish pond!  This will be my water reservoir / pond for my aquaponics which will be along the back fence.  Yes photo bombed yet again :-D  but if there are weeds to be pulled they disappear hehe.

This will hold 1000 litres so we might not keep running out of water this time!  The task for tomorrow is to get it into the back garden... I think the fence may have to come down!!!

I'm going to have to cut the top out for access... or draw a line and mention "power saw" to T and then it will be done O:-)

 Spring flowers!  Carrots - so pretty and Rosemary.  My garden is bursting with life.

My blueberries got dug up from the sandy soils and popped into pots with Azalea potting mix (acidic).  They are already looking much much happier.  

 
 Now after searching for green caterpillars because my kale and cauliflowers have holes I discovered I need more snail baits as my holes are being caused but slugs and snails!  Oh and I have tomatoes popping up all over the place! :-D

The two asparagus plants that had died down for winter has sprung for spring!  No harvest this season... another year and we might get a few spears in the kitchen!  The bigger of the two plants is flowering so I am contemplating collecting the seeds.

 The super short (late) Broad beans are flowering.  I don't expect many beans this year but hopefully enough to keep my dear Husband happy :-) .

The rainbow chard I popped in the front is starting to look quite happy!  We use so much of this versatile plant... it ends up in salads, with roasts, in stir-fries and often is just munched by us while on the go!

Thats it from me for now... Happy Gardening *hugs*

Sarah