We Have a (Rental) House!

Happy days! Nick and are about to move into a 3-bedroom house 2 blocks from the beach! We’ve rented our own place, and are now in the process of moving.

The new house has a big backyard with an old bird avery - just the thing to hopefully put a few chickens into in the near future…

So, we have a busy weekend ahead of us, using my parents’ 4WD and trailer to move all our stuff out of the share house and over to the new one - about a 45 minute drive. The new place is a little closer to where I work, and further out of the city. It’s in a nice, quiet suburb near the water, and we’re both looking forward to having our own place at last.

I’m so looking forward to building a home. I had my own home with my ex-partner for many years, so being in a share house again was difficult. Once you’re used to having control over all your space, it’s hard to give that up. The idea of having our own place is so exciting! I’ll have to post some photos once we’ve gotten ourselves organised

The joy of an unexpected harvest

A few months ago Nick and I (well, mostly Nick…) put up a cage (yes, as my regular readers have now guessed - to keep our nemesis possum out) around an old garden bed along the fence next to our driveway. We planted a number of seedlings in the soil, but didn’t have the resources to enrich it very well, so we were sceptical as to how well the plants would do.

Well, a few of them died, but our beans did really well, as did the mung bean plants I’ve mentioned earlier, so we got some harvest from it. Since that harvest, I’ve kinda ignored that garden and focussed on my pots.

However, this morning I was out there, admiring the parsley that has not only survived, but thrived…

…and I actually had a good look at the bean plants I thought were finished with. I was wrong!! Down low, the plants had come back to life, and I managed to gather myself a most lovely and unexpected harvest:

I was so excited by this wonderful surprise. I guess it just goes to show how resourceful plants are. We can learn all about the proper soil composition and nutrients for each type of plant, all about companion planting and crop rotation… but sometimes it’s humbling to be shown such an example of the resilience of plants. They’ve been doing what they do for thousands of years before we started cultivating them, it I guess it’s a good lesson: that we don’t grow plants - they grow themselves. The most we can do is just help them along.

Has anyone else out there had the pleasure of an unexpected harvest? I’m sure I’m not the only one…

No, I’m not a crazy cat lady!!

Today I drove up to the local shopping centre, as my housemate needed my car to get his new elliptical trainer home. While I was there, I remembered that I had run out of milk and wet cat food for Gob. I also didn’t have any bags on me. ‘No problem’, thought I - ‘I’ll just get a tin or two to tide him over’.

But when I got to Woolies, they were having a sale - 20c off each tin! So, of course, I bought six of them - and my three litre bottle of milk.

The first strange looks I got were inside the shop - I didn’t have a basket, so I was just balancing the six cans in one arm while carrying the milk in the other hand. The second look was from the checkout girl when I said “Oh, I don’t need a bag thanks!” (how could I face you all in light of my No Bags Challenge if I took one?). So, once she had scanned them, I took a moment to precariously balance my cans once again (luckily there was no-one waiting in the queue behind me!) and off I went.

Every person who walked past me in the shopping centre did the same thing - their eyes flicked to my arms, then to my face. By the time I got outside, I had a grin - they had all looked at me as if I was crazy! And given the fact I was carrying the cat food and milk - well.

I had my suspicions confirmed when I reached the car, and Cam (housemate 1) said “you look like a crazy cat lady!! Why didn’t you just get a bag?” And of course, I had to update him on my Challenge and that I couldn’t let myself or anyone else down.

So, I have stuck to the challenge so far - no bags taken from any shops! And I’ve gotten a bit of amusement into the bargain. Let’s see how the rest of the month goes.

Bulbs - hidden pleasures

I love growing productive plants, but I have to admit a fondness for bulbs also. I’ve never really grown them before, though I’ve always wanted to. The often simple plants have some glorious flowers!

This year, I found a whole lot of bulbs on sale at K-Mart, of all places, and so I grabbed a stack to plant. Now, not really knowing how long it would be before they flowered, and how much longer I’m going to be living here, I didn’t plant them in the ground.

Instead, most of them went into the soil around current ornamentals in pots. So, at the moment I have random green shoots popping up amongst my other plants - and as I’ve forgotten some of what I put where, I’m really looking forward to the flowers - and the surprise!

I did dedicate a few pots just to bulbs, and here’s one of them just yesterday - hopefully soon to be blooming with iris’s:

As I also mentioned in a previous post, I succumbed to buying some tulip bulbs the other day. Now, tulips are my all-time favorite flower (perhaps it’s the Dutch in me coming out). I’ve never tried growing them before, as I live in a sub-tropical climate that doesn’t really suit them.

But, I’m going to give it a go, even though I know they probably won’t be able to regenerate after they flower.

Has anyone else successfully grown tulips or other temperate bulbs in the subtropics? If so, what’s your secret!

Spraying for freedom… the natural way.

My previous attempt at using a spray to deter our resident possums was reasonably successful. They didn’t eat the sacrificial plants, though there was a pot knocked off a chair, which suggested they were wandering around the plants a bit.

However, we were using a commercial, non-organic spray, which I didn’t like very much at all. So, after all the rain that would have washed away the last spray, I decided on a new approach. My dad, surprisingly, was the one who gave my my latest solution - vinegar. Now, I like this because it’s cheap, not harmful to the environment, and I don’t have to muck around with preparation like I would with a chilli or garlic spray.

So, I loaded the day-glo pink spray bottle up, and went to work. That was a few days ago now, and so far (cross your fingers for me!) there has been nada possum action.

Let’s hope this trend continues!

Lettuce Lesson

Okay, I’ve learnt my lesson - the hard way.

After all that lovely - but heavy - rain, I wandered outside the other morning to see my beautiful bountiful lettuce had been massacred by the rain. There are still some okay leaves, but a lot were pulverised into the soil, leaving me to wait for new ones to grow.

We do have a piece of shade-cloth that fits over the cage, but I left it off thinking it was good to get the rain onto all the plants, plus the fact there wasn’t much sun… but next time a heavy rain storm hits, I’ll be out there to throw it over and protect my poor vulnerable lettuce!

Mushrooms?

I was just daydreaming about the additions I’d like to make to my garden over the next few weeks, and in addition to strawberries immediately coming to mind, I thought of mushrooms. Now, I’ve always wanted to grow some, but I don’t know where to get a good mushroom kit from.

If any of you lovely people have any idea of where I can get one from in Brisbane, I would be eternally grateful!

More fruit trees

Well, I managed to be quite restrained at the Plant Fair - I bought Ruby Red Grapefruit and Tahitian Lime trees to add to my collection, plus a little nasturtium. I like plants that are pretty and edible!

And as of today, the sacrificial plants have not been eaten - woohoo! So hopefully our possums have decided to stay away. This week will be the time to plant out my tomatoes, plus some more bits a pieces. I think we’ll use the cage for our seedlings, just to make sure, but take the chance with the other plants.