Out in the garden.

I have been horribly neglectful of my blog lately, sorry blog. 😦

I haven’t just been sitting around on the couch slacking off though! As I mentioned in my last post, winter has been thrown off as quickly as possible and the garden is behaving as if we are well into spring.

Peas, Kale and Oregano all living happily together. 🙂

The peas are growing prolifically, the broccoli happy, the Silverbeet and Kale have exploded and the carrots that are left have such thick and luscious feathery tops that when I went to pull one out the other day I didn’t realize it was concealing a sneaky stinging nettle too… OUCH!

The Man has started calling one of the types of beetroot out there ‘the plastic ones’ because the leaves are so large and shiny they look too perfect to be real.

Don’t start thinking the success of those few plants are indicative of the lives of my normal veg garden inhabitants though. I am more of a hit and miss gardener and it is equally likely they would barely survive, wither and die, or be completely consumed by snails overnight than grow so vigorously.

I have bought a few new inhabitants as well, one was rhubarb upon request of The Man. He planted them in one of the apple tree beds, and next to the strawberries (one of them already has fruit!), because in his mind it will make it easier to gather the ingredients for his favourite dessert once they have all grown. They have already started sprouting so I had better find a pie recipe soon! 😀

Spuds breaking through.

Over the last few weeks we have put in potatoes, (more) carrots, radish, lettuce and I have a new metal garden bed waiting in the shed for us to hack out another terrace on the hill.

Because of this wonderful weather, and the speedy growing of the plants, I have been dressed in my dags and gumboots and wandering about in the garden with Jack every day (she’s no help at all).

I’ve been happily rearranging bits of garden, hauling bags of potting mix, weeding (much to the delight of the chooks) and planting seeds that may well just get to the point of growing beautifully in time to perish when the frosts come next month.

A greenhouse for those who can’t commit to the big picture. 😉

In order to avoid this I have invested in a cold frame* (like a little greenhouse on a table) so I could keep them warm.

Luckily for me, when I was putting it together over the weekend, Number 1 son had a friend over who I suspect is destined to become a mechanic or a farmer. As soon as he saw me pulling the bits out of the box he came out in the garden to join in the construction, unable to resist the lure of using tools to make something for the plants.

We managed to put it together without shouting at each other or breaking anything! The Man had been out for the morning enjoying the nice weather in his own way, on his motorbike, and arrived home just in time to drill the screw holes in the fragile plastic lid so I could blame him if it all went horribly wrong and was ruined…. 😉

Sprouting rhubarb, heaven for The Man.

*A cold frame, a new corrugated metal garden bed, a few hoses to connect together to make watering up on the hill easier, half a dozen bags of potting mix, a bit of this, a bit of that…. I made the mistake of going to Bunnings and actually having some money to spend. 😀