Manic Monday's are almost my least favourite day, Wednesday takes first place though, I just need to be more organised, less chaos, or at at the very least I'll settle for some organised chaos. That is one of my goals this year, along with de-cluttering, and using less resources. It's rubbish day tomorrow, and all of my bins are full with more waiting to go in, so my immediate goal, is to use less, or more importantly, waste less. Buy less packaging, start composting and make sure no food is wasted. I am giving myself 1 month to have this much in place, and putting it up here might help me stick to it. I have already started by not buying dog food, I am making 3 days worth of Murphy food at a time, and he and I are both much happier, no tins for recycling, and yummy food my dog can't wait to eat, it smells better too, at both ends. *grin*
I promised garden updates, so here they are.
I planted these capsicums and lavender on Saturday, after attacking this clay filled garden bed and working through some organic compost and well composted cow manure, finishing off with organic sugar cane mulch. These are store bought seedlings, I had tried to grow capsicums from seeds, and feeling I'd failed bought these ones. Then I read a blog, (I can't remember which one, sorry,) that said, don't stop watering, Capsicum seeds can take a really long time to wake up, So I kept at it, watering the depressingly blank soil, and last week after 6 weeks I have a result!
Only three of the eight made it, but I'll still take that as a win, 1 of them has only just broken the surface, maybe next week I'll have more?
The pumpkins and some sort of melon are growing like crazy, the pumpkins were planted just after Christmas, but as of yet no flowers. I had thought I saw buds, but it was just new shoots, keeping my fingers and toes crossed, and limiting the watering, I've read that this might help.
A tiny melon and cucumber, in the absence of bees I have tried my hand at pollinating, but am also planting some bee attracting flowers and herbs, in hope of bringing them in. Every summer I have had bees all over my wattle tree, I've rarely seen one this year, their absence is troubling when I read about colony collapse disorder, which is why even though I have a white fly problem, I am avoiding any pesticide. I did see two yesterday, maybe the lavender is already doing it's job, but they seemed more interested in my clothesline. I recently dyed my bright blue hair to black as I'm allergic to bees and when I was near them, they'd buzz around my head in a threatening kind of worship.
I didn't have any soil deep enough and completely free of stones for carrots, and am fast running out of garden beds, this 42 litre container seemed like a good solution, the carrots seeds are in the middle with herbs I've grown from seed around the outside. I have three more containers to set up, one for Parsnips, one for swedes, and the other will be brussel sprouts. My spawn love brussel sprouts, my youngest spawnlet begs loudly in the supermarket for them as if they're candy, while surrounding shoppers look at us like we've grown another head or come from another planet.
Zucchini is doing well.
I really did plant all of these too close, in this 4x4 bed I have 9 tomatoes, 8 celery, 8 broccoli, 6 green Mignette lettuces, 8 iceberg lettuce seedlings, and a few mixed lettuce seedlings. Everything seems to be happy, so I'll see how it all grows there may be some sacrifices in the near future, next time I will space things out a lot more.
A tiny little leek, and my first bean!
There has been a little bit of seed sowing craziness, well, maybe a little more than a little, and just about every container I can find has a hopeful seed or 20 with the original goal in mind. Using less packaging, good stuff for the compost bin I still have to get/build, and no wasting food. The benefits will be a healthier family, with hopefully a little more money saved, no running out of room in the bins before rubbish day, and less impact on our planet.
Middle spawn cut her foot checking an aqueduct for Gerome on Saturday, last night we were in emergency as it was a tad worse than first thought. A tetanus shot and some vigorous cleaning were needed and she's fine, but no school today, I'm off to hire some crutches for the rest of this week.
The vigorous cleaning was more like a vicious tickle, middle spawn couldn't stop laughing.
'til next time,
Bek.
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