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  :)

Starting out!

I have to admit i didn't stop and think how hard it would be to get a blog started!lol. Thinking of witty things to write doesn't come naturally to my baby addled brain...actually, thinking in general doesn't come naturally anymore! But i'm getting there slowly, and the pages will be completed eventually! I'm still figuring out how everything works too, it's a constant Discovery channel!

Anywho, im feeling quite successful today! My buba had two 3 hour sleeps over night and then napped on and off till about 8am! Yay! We also managed to exercise today! Another big yay, cause it also meant Lachy slept in his pushchair for the duration (just over an hour!). And i managed to get a roast on for dinner, and for once my crackling was Perfect!!

It made me feel quite domesticated as well. Takeout has been pretty high on our dinner list lately and iv been feeling gutted, because i like the idea of being able to put a nice (reasonably healthy) meal on the table for my family!

I even did a pudding!...ok, so it was instant pudding but that's still good!

As for the walk, i loved getting outside in the sunshine and actually doing something! Sitting at home on my bum is only fun for so long and its hard to try to get healthy when its raining and cold and walking with a pushchair is the only exercise i can do with a grumpy bub!

I cant wait till i can get my zumba on again, with the size of the lounge we have i'm bound to break something! I love doing zumba, i always feel slightly coordinated right up till they start dancing and then i look a bit like a jellyfish stuck on an electric fence! Its freakin awsum i tell ya! At least there's no one to watch....although theres nothing wrong with making people laugh!

I took more fotos of my scrumptious wee lad today!! He's so delicious!! I cant believe how amazing our child is!! He spent part of his day (when i'm sure he was s'posed to be napping) 'chatting' to his daddy and just generally looking gorgeous!! Sigh, i LOVE my wee family!! They make me smile and feel so in love every day!!

Ok, bed time!! I promise to myself that i'l work more on this tomorrow!!