Bigger is better?!

As you can imagine we were super-impressed by the gigantic "Russian Garlic" at a recent farmers' market. We had to have one - and true to form, Vaughan selected the biggest available to bring home!

I've used some of the cloves since but wanted to try growing a couple.  The two pictured are smaller - that is only about 4-5cm wide and 6-7cm long!  I told you they were impressive!

So far all my pots have been made using a half-sheet of newspaper.  That size didn't give the garlic much room and I pondered what else I could use.  It took a while for inspiration to hit.  I was a bit frustrated with myself for not seeing the obvious solution earlier.  By folding a full newspaper sheet, I made a pot that was sized just right.  (Goldilocks would be pleased)!

Mind your Ps and ?s

I'm quite chuffed with my efforts today. I made over two dozen little newspaper pots and planted 42 in total - as well as six toilet rolls! The peas are in the toilet rolls. It seemed (in)appropriate!

What else did I plant?  Well, there were the P1, P2 and P3 pumpkins.  I saved the seeds a while back but neglected to label them, hence the Play School style numbering!

I planted tomatoes, zucchini, two varieties of sweet corn, some purple carrots and possibly two types of capsicum.  I say possibly because I also saved capsicum seeds earlier in the year.  Or praps they were chilli seeds.  Yep another mystery, hence the question mark!

The potting mix was in the storage container and the seeds were either saved or left-over from previous gardening attempts.  The seedling trays were another find at the dump shop yesterday.  They were not costed separately but rather included as a bonus, given our other purchases.  I do like the dump shop!  (I also found some plastic pot saucers that should work as compost bin lids).

For beginner gardeners such as myself, Gardenate is a fabulous resource.  The site provides planting guidance for various climate zones - in Australia and around the world.  I've been signed up to their email reminder service for longer than I'll admit to - but am finally acting on the site's advice!

Musical chairs!

I'm one step - or eight seats - closer to my plan of having an outdoor movie setup at Hamby Home(in)stead! 

I spotted these seats at the dump shop last week.  There were four rows then but only two left today. 

Obviously she who hesitates is lost - or loses out on movie seats.  As we already had the trailer in tow (collecting garden fencing), I enquired about the "movie seats". Special price for me - $30 for the two sets. Bargain! These days you'd be lucky to get two tickets to the movies for thirty bucks! All right - my eight seats aren't perfect but are much more comfortable than they look and will work out very well for my cinema under the stars scheme! 

While at the dump shop today I also spotted some heavy vinyl banners that I thought might be adapted as a screen for the storage container.  My technical adviser wasn't convinced though, citing the fact that I don't yet have a projector for my movies - and that item may well influence the type of screen required.  More action required!

Recycling the news(papers) ...

We don't get much junk mail.  Nick sometimes picks up discarded newpapers from work, which are used for fire-lighting (and lining the bottom of Keegan's cage).

I was lucky to find a few sheets of paper to try these origami seedling pots.  Vaughan and I followed some YouTube instructions and soon had completed several pots each, grinning at our success!


I made quite a few more pots while watching a David Attenborough documentary, before my modest newspaper supply ran out.  Our local library generously donated more newspaper to the cause last night - that is, the librarian was happy for us to rat through the recycling bin and take what we wanted! 

I found quite a few seed packets when sorting through some boxes this week - and discovered some potting mix in the storage container too.  My plan is to use items on hand and start off some seeds (from packets or saved from other vegetables), while waiting for the garden fence (and garden) to be constructed.

Capsicum security?!

I've been thinking more seriously of starting a vegie garden. In the past, I've successfully grown cherry tomatoes and various herbs in pots.

Although I've made a few attempts to grow proper vegetables, my efforts haven't been greatly productive. However, in the spirit of "if at first you don't succeed ...", I'm going to give the idea another go.

Given the chookies scratched out my raspberry canes yesterday, Nick and I decided a fenced garden would be necessary. We headed up to the dump shop today to source building materials (having already picked over the backyard for anything useful). We were super-impressed with our trailer-load of stuff - which included a few long pieces of timber, strapped to Elmer's roof. $55.00 for a garden fence. That's gotta be a bargain!

Garden hen-dering!

Our chookies are very lucky. Not just because they live here. Lucky that I like them as much as I do. Particularly after today's efforts.

Three of my raspberry canes have been scratched out. I am not at all impressed.

I'll replant my raspberries tomorrow - and plant some chicken netting, to discourage further hen-vestigations!

The grass IS greener!

What a difference (almost) six months makes!  The  paddocks were super-dry when we arrived.  There were deep cracks in the ground too. 

Many people said the grass would grow when the rains came.  It is fair to say we were ... sceptical!  It did happen though.  Eventually. 

The rains took longer than the oft-quoted three months but now we have green grass.  Far too much of it!
 


Nick has been mowing sections with our hand mower and today borrowed our land-lady's ride-on.  The house paddock is looking much tidier as a result of his efforts.

Tea is steadily munching in the front paddock - and today one of our land lady's bulls came to spend some time in our larger side paddock.   I'll have to take some photos of him.  He's not as large as Tea's Dad but he's still a very impressive fellow!