The Beauty of Adventure

There are a huge amount of things I want my children to learn as they grow up, and in spite of the day and age they're growing up in, none of the things at the top of my list include technology.
I'm not at all dismissing technology as a bad thing (because sometimes that i-pad is a lifesaver), just as a lower priority!

I want my kids to know the fun and excitement of being outside in the fresh air with nature, before they learn to google answers and read articles about the adventures of others.

The Beauty of Adventure?
 It doesn't always have to come on a grand scale.  Adventure, can be found in the smallest moments, if you only take the time to find it.

 The excitement of new discoveries, and fun in small but significant moments.  Counting the little things as huge, because they are.

Seeing potential in every tree, a fort in every blanket, a feast in every bean sprout.  I want my children to learn about fishing for sprats to feed the cat, and carving something with their own hands.  I want them to play in mud and eat a few snails, try to catch butterflies and collect different sea shells.

Every now and then, I'm reminded of just how special little moments can be, by the light in my children's eyes as they describe something to me, or see something that I would otherwise have over-looked.

When we walk, they point out leaves, bridges, clouds, and they will often include a story about the item that's caught their attention.  A troll under the bridge, a giant in the clouds, leaves coloured in by fairies.  As we garden, bugs are discussed (occasionally eaten) and plants are picked (also occasionally eaten).

When I take the time to slow down and pay attention, their adventure becomes mine too, as they share their delight, and I get to feel the excitement and joy that comes from discovering new things, even if it is for the millionth time.
For this gift from my children, I am so very grateful.

Let's be Adventurers!

Avocado and a Cure for Snails!

*First up, Avocado is not a cure for snails!  I just couldn't find a niftier title for the post!*

Over here in our lil world, we've started working toward our dream of having a reasonably self sufficient homestead...(I know!...we are currently minus the actual homestead...baby steps folks!!)  Part of working towards this dream is maintaining a year round food supply, and so we're slowly working on the art of not killing off our wee vege garden!

We're also learning what it takes to start growing a bigger variety of fruits and vegetables, during different seasons, and how to protect everything from pests in a reasonable friendly way.

We currently have (in our wee urban gardens) Spinach, lettuce, rocket, courgette, cucumber, strawberries, raspberries, blue berries, blackberries and a passionfruit vine.  Our baby trees are apple, mandarin, lemon, feijoa, loquat and coffee!

All are currently alive, although the passion fruit vine and coffee tree are looking like death warmed up a tad under the weather.  Given the circumstances (aka my children and my totally Not Green fingers) they're all doing great!

And so the next challenge...Avocado Trees (Otherwise known as Trees of Deliciousness!!)!
After a bit of googling i found some do-able instructions here!  Did you know that some avocado trees will never produce fruit!?  Me either, and they can take anywhere from 4 to 15 years if they are going to! (Also didn't know that an avocado pit had a top and bottom)

First up, the equipment....Check!

Figuring out top and bottom...I was fortunate enough to have a couple of very obvious pits!!
If you're not that fortunate....ummmm, your on your own?!

Spearing them with the tooth picks....Broke numerous tooth picks and also stabbed myself in the finger...I will never be a hunter.

All spiked and ready to go! (I did mine on an angle too)

In goes the water, and into a sunny spot!!...Now to wait...and hope...

And now, our second attempt at snail prevention!!  We began the snail war by using salt (salt around the plants dries the snails out as they creep over it), which is really quite effective...until it rains...
And then i remembered a wee tip that i read a while ago about using sharp things like crushed egg shells.  The snails can't slither over the sharp edges so they stay away....hopefully.

Olly had other ideas about shell placement....

 and level of crushed-ness....

We got there in the end though!

And now our seedlings look like they were a part of some weird alien crop circle gone wrong....but that's fine...if it works!  I shall keep ya'll posted....'cause seedling/snail watch is certain to have some of ya on the edge of your seats waiting for news... ;)



Renee  :)

The Last Chance Garden...

Yup, as in if this one doesn't work i give up!!  Everything will be dug up and i'll start a snail farm!....Or a weed farm....whichever happens first.

In all my history of gardening (aka since last year) Iv only ever gotten the minimum edible stuff off my plants! (with the exception of the silver-beet and spinach, but honestly, they kinda grow themselves!).  My strawberries have been ok too, spreading like weeds, but still not an abundance of fruit.
I didn't even get to eat any broccoli, tomatoes, or sweetcorn and those were the few plants i really had my eye on!

So this spring, in our new rental home, the gardens have been started, and this time i actually became slightly informed on the subject of vege gardening!

I gotta tell ya, the cats and bugs of the neighborhood must think i'm a freakin' legend!!  My 'Free-for-all salad bar and litter box' was an instant hit.  Not even my planter tubs were safe from the marauding pests!!

It took the slime bugs (this includes slugs and snails) about 12 hours to reduce 1 of my large lettuces to this...

 "Try a beer trap" Screamed an on-line article, so off we (yes We, Hubby gets dragged into all my wee capers!) went, preparing our 'Beer jacuzzi'

That's my remaining half eaten (bug infested) lettuce right there. Just next to the 'jacuzzi'.  (We did catch plenty of slugs and snails in the 'beer jacuzzi', but alas the rest escaped and went on to invite their family to the feast)

My peas and beans were next on their menu resulting in this....

 Then the little buggers started to make a meal of my Cauli's....

"Get some Marigolds, bugs hate them!"  So off i went and planted my brand new 'repellent plant' (You can kinda see it in the above pic, nice splash of color to the garden really!)

 That's the remainder of one of my Marigold plants.  And in the midst of all this, i also had to regularly fish multiple cat poops out of my garden, and try to mend/replant the veges they broke or uprooted in their digging!!  Not impressed!!  Now i know the answer is pretty obvious.  Bug bait and a cover, but i was hoping to teach Lachy to 'help' in the garden!  I even planted the strawberries in the front because then he could reach them on his own, and eat them once ripe (or bash them with his spade, you know, whatever).

But now, however, it's totally Game On!!

Plants are being replaced/ replanted one last time, cats will be shut out, bugs will be slaughtered (in the nicest possible way...i think) and my child will be safe!  I spent the day yesterday (whilst monkey was hanging with his cousins at my sisters zoo farm) re-fertilizing soil, laying weed mat (cats can't scratch in dirt that's not there) laying stones, replanting new plants, and caging my raised bed!  (That last parts a lie, Hubby did all the caging, i held a piece of the chicken mesh at one point though so that makes me co-creator)

Check out my newly complete, pest proof (bloody better be anyway!!) garden!!!

My Courgette and Capsicum plants (weed mat and river stones)

Broccoli (Nothing, these guys are growing great!!)

My strawberries!  Newly contained in my raised bed!

Cucumber plant! (weed mat and river stones)

Corns (Weed mat, haven't got enough riverstones yet!)

Tomatoes!! (Weed mat, no stones yet)

The Garden Cage!!!

There is also a gate on the front of this now too :)

Meet Quash!  Recommended to me by a work friend that doesn't want to kill off the birds that enjoy her garden! (Also safe for kids and pets).  This has been used liberally around my gardens (except the broccoli) and my fingers are now crossed!!  Even though it's says safe for kids, i'm going to try to teach Lachy that it's not good, just in case he starts to think he can play with/eat any bug bait! In reality he's never out there alone anyway, so it's not such a drama really!

So here's hoping for some garden magic!! It would be so nice to finally serve up a meal with my very own vegetables!!!

Stay Tuned.....

Ps:  24 hours since the overhaul and nothing has touched my fledgling garden!!  YUSS!!

Pps:  Did i mention that we currently have 23 different vegetables and fruit beginning to grow around our home????  Super proud!!! :D

Toodles!!  :)

'Live for a Life without Regret'

A Garden Again!!

So i'm not sure if iv even mentioned that we moved house about a month ago??  We found a bigger house in a nice wee area that's a bit closer to work for both of us, so we're pretty happy with it!  One problem we encountered though, was how the heck to move my planters from the old place!!  (I still have no idea how we're going to do it!)  And so i'v been a month without a garden of any sort!

Yesterday all that changed with my wonderful sister arrived armed with half barrels and a trailer full of dirt!!  Me and Hubby went on a wee garden spree and bought a couple of planter bags and some plants and compost and this weekend a garden was made!! (How poetic!)

We've finally fulfilled our dream of planting a fruit tree, and now have a mandarin tree and two feijoa trees in large planters!!  (In a few years time this will be awesome!!)

We have two smaller planters with strawberry plants in them, cause lets face it, you can never have too many strawberry plants!

Why yes, i am gardening in my pj's....don't you??

In my first planter bag is my broccoli, and in the second bag is my lettuce plants!! I decided to start the lettuce and broccoli  as plants instead of seeds just because of the cold (In spite of my beautiful sunny day photos it has actually been freezing cold!!) and i don't really have time to be transplanting vege's, and Lachy was just the hugest help flattening them into their places :)

I had two big planter barrels left over for planting Carrot seeds!!  I'v never attempted carrots before so im very excited to plant them!!  Iv even set up some string so that i know where they're growing and don't accidentally weed them out!!  Feeling pretty crafty!!

So now i have gardens!!  Yay!!  And as soon as i figure out how to move my planter boxes il do that too, until then i hope the landlords there enjoy spinach and silverbeet!!  

And just for cuteness sake, here is my boy and his lemons....

Toodles!!  :)

'Live for a Life without Regret'

Oh my Gaaarden, Clementine!!

".....Now she's lost and gone forever, dreadful sorry, Clementine!!"

Did i ever mention that me and gardening dont get along that well??  We dont.  And now, after a magical summer, my garden is rebelling! 

Oh wait, so i should probably quickly catch you up on my garden!!  Outside, my silverbeet, spinach and strawberries are still going strong (kinda growing like weeds really!) and my leeks and chives are...well, i wouldn't call what they're doing thriving, but they're standing!!  My bean plant only has one remaining stalk, but that's still sprouting magical giant beans!!  

So that parts going well, however, the indoor garden i started is not.

I decided that we should have broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce and carrots for winter, and set about tinkering with what i call my 'indoor garden'.

So far i'v replanted everything twice.  The lettuce three times.  It's just not happening.

All of my attempts have ended up looking like this.  It's very sad!  (I should mention that the carrots haven't even left the seed packet yet!!)

I'd like to just add a picture of one of the reasons i'v been away from my garden for long periods of time....

I hate these critters!!!  They're horrible and icky and they watch every move you make!!  It's just not a happy time when i see them in the garden.

So i'm gunna have one last attempt at creating a new section of garden, crossed fingers and prayers for the health and safety of my plants are welcome!!  I promise to update in about a month about how my wee seedlings are doing.....as soon as i remember where i put them....

Toodles!!  :)

'Live for a Life without Regret'