Summer has finally arrived at the end of October. It's been hot and sunny just about every day since then. Almost starting to worry we won't have enough water to last the summer, but I don't want to jinx it because I'm enjoying the warm weather so much. It was so nice we even managed to get out to the beach one day.
Finally got some help from the neighbours to put the plow attachment on the back of the tractor and I was able to dig over the vege garden. Albeit much too late, I should have done it a month ago. As soon as that was done I took the plow back off and put the mower back on and mowed the grass which was very, very long. Over the new few days I raked up a bit of grass at a time until the entire vege garden was covered in a layer of grass clippings.
I planted all of last years potatoes back into the garden as they were growing quite nicely in the cupboard. I don't know if they will be any good to eat or not, we will see.
I also bought a six-pack of lettuce and a six-pack of broccoli/ cabbage/ cauliflower. I actually only wanted to buy one of each but couldn't. It is my intention to plant one in the garden each week and hope I can keep the rest alive in their little cell packs until it is time to plant this. In this way I'm hoping I can spread out the time that they're ready to eat. I don't want to plant six lettuces at once and have them all ready at once because we'd never eat them all.
Have also planted six Roma tomato plants along the back of the garden. I've learnt from last year and bought six (instead of two) and have spaced them all quite far apart.
Got given some cherry tomato plants by another neighbour and have planted them in a container on the deck this time around. They grew too big in the garden last year, plus by having them so accessible I hope the children will enjoy eating them more often.
The lavender now has tiny blue buds on it. I mowed the grass in the lavender field for the first time in a very, very long time. I haven't been able to get to it because the neighbour has had his cattle in the other half of the field. The grass was as tall as the lavender in places. But I am getting it back under control now. And I'm sure I'm in for another busy summer of weeding.
Covered the blueberry bush in netting again. Tried weeding the strawberry patch and covering it with something better. Not sure if it will work.
-M
14 December 2010
October
As the weather started to dry out I was able to do some things I hadn't been able to do for a while. Sprayed weeds for the first time in a long time. Weedeated around the rows of lavender which I hadn't done in a very long time. Mowed the lawn which was getting long and used the grass clippings to mulch the fruit trees.
-M
-M
September
The month began with rain, lots of it. It rained heavily in the Tararuas and came down the valley, flooding our neighbours across the road and taking most of their newborn lambs. The waters continued on across the road to the cafe next door to us, turning their parking lot into a lake. We were unaffected, being up on the hill. Even our bottom paddocks seemed to have escaped most of the flooding, thanks in part to my trench that I dug. In the early stages it held all the water and even as the water levels rose over the top of the trench, it still helped to keep the water in that area as opposed to flooding out all over the paddock. The water flooding over the road only lasted for an hour and then it was passable again. We were a bit late for school that day. All the farms and paddocks in the area seemed to have turned into lakes, especially in the Koputaroa and Shannon areas, but not so much closer to Levin. In some places the water was so deep that when it receeded there was grass stuck to all the fence wires, from the bottom to the top. There is one farm on the way to Koputaroa where last summer the farmer had dug a very deep trench (totally puts mine to shame, it is several metres deep). Well during the floods this trench was completely full and flooding out the top. Even a week later it was still very full. The rain lasted for several days but not as heavy as the first night.
The day of the flooding
One week later
Later in the month, when things dried out a little bit, I attempted to put the plow attachment onto the tractor so that I could turn the ground over in the vege garden in preparation for planting new vegetables. But no matter how hard I tried, I could not get it on.
The Foxton Spring Fling was held at the beginning of the month, marking the beginning of spring. While we had some very cold days, this winter feels like it was more mild than last year.
The weather may be getting warmer but we have had a few very cold nights, with a couple of mornings where there has been more snow on the Tararuas than there was on any morning in the middle of winter.
-M
The day of the flooding
One week later
Later in the month, when things dried out a little bit, I attempted to put the plow attachment onto the tractor so that I could turn the ground over in the vege garden in preparation for planting new vegetables. But no matter how hard I tried, I could not get it on.
The Foxton Spring Fling was held at the beginning of the month, marking the beginning of spring. While we had some very cold days, this winter feels like it was more mild than last year.
The weather may be getting warmer but we have had a few very cold nights, with a couple of mornings where there has been more snow on the Tararuas than there was on any morning in the middle of winter.
-M
August
This month I finished my work digging the trench in the bottom paddocks. Our neighbour in front has mentioned a few times the tree stumps in our bottom paddock which borders his but it just hasn't moved high enough up my priority list. I had a go at it a couple of months ago but it is hard work with just a shovel and my own strength. He mentioned he had a friend with a digger, and the friend came over and dug some big holes and buried all the tree stumps. Just like that. Took a day or two, compared to how long it would have taken me with a shovel. And just 10 metres away was my little trench which I had been feeling pretty good about, and now it feels pretty insignificant being the width and depth of a shovel, compared to what a digger could have done.
For the last year and a half we have been diligently burying all our food scraps in the compost bin. And in a year and a half the pile of compost has grown by exactly nothing. It is still the same it was a year and a half ago. I think we must have created a pretty good worm farm but not a very good compost pile. Heard somewhere about layering horse manure and grass clippings in the compost, both of which we have in abundance. So I spent an hour or so one day shovelling up horse manure from one of our paddocks (from our neighbour's horses) and raking up grass clippings after I mowed. Too soon to tell if it'll make any difference or if I've done it right.
Ate some of the cherry tomatoes and zucchini I pickled last year. Both turned out very nice and very zingy.
-M
For the last year and a half we have been diligently burying all our food scraps in the compost bin. And in a year and a half the pile of compost has grown by exactly nothing. It is still the same it was a year and a half ago. I think we must have created a pretty good worm farm but not a very good compost pile. Heard somewhere about layering horse manure and grass clippings in the compost, both of which we have in abundance. So I spent an hour or so one day shovelling up horse manure from one of our paddocks (from our neighbour's horses) and raking up grass clippings after I mowed. Too soon to tell if it'll make any difference or if I've done it right.
Ate some of the cherry tomatoes and zucchini I pickled last year. Both turned out very nice and very zingy.
-M
July
Twas a very cold month with us lighting lots of fires and shivering in the mornings and evenings.
My big assignment for the month was to dig a trench in our bottom paddocks. The water flows downhill from our neighbours (and probably at its source from the Tararua foothills), through one paddock, under our driveway, through another paddock and off to our neighbours who are pretty much at the lowest point. As the water goes through our paddocks it seems to pool and make the ground all around very muddy and boggy. As we had had a few weeks without rain, I attempted to do something about it. I dug a long trench going about halfway across the lower paddock, following the line of water. I dug it about a shovel head wide and deep. Any more than that was just too difficult, especially when tree roots got in the way. It took me a couple of weeks to complete it. On the other side of the driveway, the slightly higher side, I didn't get very much done because it was still too wet and too overgrown. However, when it did rain my trench worked well and filled up with water in the trench only and not all over the grass.
Early in the month the first jonquils began poking their heads out of the ground, and I saw the first of the spring lambs. Noticed a couple of Kereru birds hanging around the house.
-M
My big assignment for the month was to dig a trench in our bottom paddocks. The water flows downhill from our neighbours (and probably at its source from the Tararua foothills), through one paddock, under our driveway, through another paddock and off to our neighbours who are pretty much at the lowest point. As the water goes through our paddocks it seems to pool and make the ground all around very muddy and boggy. As we had had a few weeks without rain, I attempted to do something about it. I dug a long trench going about halfway across the lower paddock, following the line of water. I dug it about a shovel head wide and deep. Any more than that was just too difficult, especially when tree roots got in the way. It took me a couple of weeks to complete it. On the other side of the driveway, the slightly higher side, I didn't get very much done because it was still too wet and too overgrown. However, when it did rain my trench worked well and filled up with water in the trench only and not all over the grass.
Early in the month the first jonquils began poking their heads out of the ground, and I saw the first of the spring lambs. Noticed a couple of Kereru birds hanging around the house.
-M
01 July 2010
April, May, June
Winter is now in full swing, having had several frosts around here and snow on the Tararua Ranges. Some trees started losing their leaves in early April and were bare by the end of April. Others still have red and yellow leaves on their branches now.
It has been very wet for the last several months so I haven't done a lot of anything in the garden. I finally sprayed the weeds all around the property about a month ago. Went through 15 litres of weedspray all up. They are slowly dying.
The zucchini finally stopped fruiting at the beginning of May and we ate the last one last week. Still have heaps of frozen, pickled and dehydrated fruit to use so don't think we'll need to buy any for the rest of the year. The cherry tomatoes still continue to bear fruit, although the other tomato plants haven't produced much at all. I picked so many cherry tomatoes we couldn't eat them all and a lot of them went off. I tried pickling some. Not sure how it turned out as it is still maturing. The six broccoli I planted in March never really grew very big. I picked two of them last week for one meal. The ones I grew over summer were several meals in each plant.
We have had a lot of feijoas off the tree this year although not sure if it was as much as last year. I made a batch of feijoa jelly as we'd run out of last year's apple jelly. It is alright but not as good as apple jelly.
We have had about half a dozen passionfruit grow this year and none of them have ripened. We had another pumpkin plant grow wild out of the compost. But no pumpkins grew on it. I think it was too cold.
The celery is growing well. The orange and mandarin trees are fruiting again.
Have spent a lot of time over the last few months shifting logs from fallen trees. The bottom paddock is still full of debris from the big storm two years ago. I've been shifting and tidying as much as I can but it's a lot of work and the big stuff is going to need a chainsaw before I can shift it. Also a few months back some contractors from the power company came and topped our trees as they were growing too close to the power lines. They conveniently cut the branches up into small sizes but left them all lying in the paddocks, so I've been slowly shifting them too.
We have been using the fire a lot lately. It has been working better than it did last winter. Discovered a large part of the problem last year was bringing the firewood directly in from outside and putting in on the fire. It was too cold / damp to burn very hot. This year we've cleared a large space near the fireplace and are bringing in about a weeks worth of firewood at a time. We're going through it very quickly though which worries me.
We got a new dog a couple of months ago. Another Border Collie, a girlfriend for Tim. Now we have two dogs, two cats and two kids. A full house.
Other than that the main activity around here has just been one of maintenance. Keeping the grass and weeds down as much as possible, which is difficult when it is so damp and too cold to dry out. And for now my main priority is just keeping warm.
-M
It has been very wet for the last several months so I haven't done a lot of anything in the garden. I finally sprayed the weeds all around the property about a month ago. Went through 15 litres of weedspray all up. They are slowly dying.
The zucchini finally stopped fruiting at the beginning of May and we ate the last one last week. Still have heaps of frozen, pickled and dehydrated fruit to use so don't think we'll need to buy any for the rest of the year. The cherry tomatoes still continue to bear fruit, although the other tomato plants haven't produced much at all. I picked so many cherry tomatoes we couldn't eat them all and a lot of them went off. I tried pickling some. Not sure how it turned out as it is still maturing. The six broccoli I planted in March never really grew very big. I picked two of them last week for one meal. The ones I grew over summer were several meals in each plant.
We have had a lot of feijoas off the tree this year although not sure if it was as much as last year. I made a batch of feijoa jelly as we'd run out of last year's apple jelly. It is alright but not as good as apple jelly.
We have had about half a dozen passionfruit grow this year and none of them have ripened. We had another pumpkin plant grow wild out of the compost. But no pumpkins grew on it. I think it was too cold.
The celery is growing well. The orange and mandarin trees are fruiting again.
Have spent a lot of time over the last few months shifting logs from fallen trees. The bottom paddock is still full of debris from the big storm two years ago. I've been shifting and tidying as much as I can but it's a lot of work and the big stuff is going to need a chainsaw before I can shift it. Also a few months back some contractors from the power company came and topped our trees as they were growing too close to the power lines. They conveniently cut the branches up into small sizes but left them all lying in the paddocks, so I've been slowly shifting them too.
We have been using the fire a lot lately. It has been working better than it did last winter. Discovered a large part of the problem last year was bringing the firewood directly in from outside and putting in on the fire. It was too cold / damp to burn very hot. This year we've cleared a large space near the fireplace and are bringing in about a weeks worth of firewood at a time. We're going through it very quickly though which worries me.
We got a new dog a couple of months ago. Another Border Collie, a girlfriend for Tim. Now we have two dogs, two cats and two kids. A full house.
Other than that the main activity around here has just been one of maintenance. Keeping the grass and weeds down as much as possible, which is difficult when it is so damp and too cold to dry out. And for now my main priority is just keeping warm.
-M
17 April 2010
February and March
Well, summer is now over and autumn is here. It was a very short summer. It lasted from mid January to mid March. As well as making me sad because I lover summer, it has also meant production of some things has not been as much as last year.
The vegetable garden is doing well. Still mostly filled with low-lying weeds but the few veges I have planted are doing well.
The two broccoli I planted grew large enough to eat (and then some) so we picked them. What I didn't realise at the time was that we also picked a lot of green cabbage moth caterpillars. Didn't discover this till halfway through our meal. Gross!!! Have totally been turned off the idea of eating our own broccoli. The two plants we harvested continued to grow more little broccoli heads off the side but I couldn't face eating them and let them go to seed instead. However that didn't stop me from planting six more small plants. This time round they have all survived, although the leaves are all full of holes from either the caterpillars or the moths. They'll probably be ready in another month or so.
The zucchini just continue to produce and produce and produce. The fruit can double in size in a day. I've been getting about one a day. We have eaten a lot of zucchini over the last two months. I have also pickled some, dehydrated some and frozen some. Consider it a bit of a test to see which way works best. Think next year I'll only need to plant one zucchini plant.
The one cucumber plant that survived has produced three and a half cucumbers (a half because the last one was very small). They were nice. Think next year I'll need to plant more than that.
The tomato plants are doing really well. Have grown very tall, over my head. The lesson I have learned though is to space them further apart because they are growing together and it's hard to find the fruit. There is a lot of fruit and I'm getting about a handful each day. Lots and lots of cherry tomatoes, which we are eating either as snacks or with dinner. Not as much of the regular toms or Roma toms. Which is a shame because I was planning on bottling them. Can't bottle cherry tomatoes I don't think.
Spent a lot of time in February weeding the lavender fields and have now harvested it. The yield was quite a lot down on last year. Last year we got 7 and 2 litres of oil (from the two different varieties). This year we got 3 and 1 litres. Think it was probably due to the wet spring and lack of sunshine. Have also made contact with the Lavender Growers Association and met some other members and learnt a bit from them.
As well as the lavender, the passionfruit and feijoas also seem to be suffering from lack of growth this year. There are virtually no passionfruit on the vine this year, whereas last year there were so many I couldn't use them all. No sure if this is because of the weather or because I cut the vine back so much late last year. The feijoas aren't ready yet but of our three trees only one is really fruiting at all.
The blueberry bush has done very well. Last year we got nothing. This year I covered it in bird netting and have gotten several cups of blueberries and enjoyed blueberry muffins and blueberry cobbler.
The strawberries have pretty much stopped production for the year. The plants on the weedmat produced lots of berries compared the ones without weedmat which produced hardly any fruit but lots of weeds. Will have to extend the weedmat before next summer.
Still continuing to drink homemade lemonade and eat homemade bread. Still continuing to mow the lawn with the tractor. Have run out of weedspray so the weeds around the property are growing quite high.
Have had a couple of families of pukekos (or pooky-yo's as V calls them) hanging around the lower fields for the last couple of months. It has been interesting watching the babies grow and develop their blue feathers. They're not particularly frightened of the car, but as soon as you open the door and they see you, they run or fly away very quickly.
-M
The vegetable garden is doing well. Still mostly filled with low-lying weeds but the few veges I have planted are doing well.
The two broccoli I planted grew large enough to eat (and then some) so we picked them. What I didn't realise at the time was that we also picked a lot of green cabbage moth caterpillars. Didn't discover this till halfway through our meal. Gross!!! Have totally been turned off the idea of eating our own broccoli. The two plants we harvested continued to grow more little broccoli heads off the side but I couldn't face eating them and let them go to seed instead. However that didn't stop me from planting six more small plants. This time round they have all survived, although the leaves are all full of holes from either the caterpillars or the moths. They'll probably be ready in another month or so.
The zucchini just continue to produce and produce and produce. The fruit can double in size in a day. I've been getting about one a day. We have eaten a lot of zucchini over the last two months. I have also pickled some, dehydrated some and frozen some. Consider it a bit of a test to see which way works best. Think next year I'll only need to plant one zucchini plant.
The one cucumber plant that survived has produced three and a half cucumbers (a half because the last one was very small). They were nice. Think next year I'll need to plant more than that.
The tomato plants are doing really well. Have grown very tall, over my head. The lesson I have learned though is to space them further apart because they are growing together and it's hard to find the fruit. There is a lot of fruit and I'm getting about a handful each day. Lots and lots of cherry tomatoes, which we are eating either as snacks or with dinner. Not as much of the regular toms or Roma toms. Which is a shame because I was planning on bottling them. Can't bottle cherry tomatoes I don't think.
Spent a lot of time in February weeding the lavender fields and have now harvested it. The yield was quite a lot down on last year. Last year we got 7 and 2 litres of oil (from the two different varieties). This year we got 3 and 1 litres. Think it was probably due to the wet spring and lack of sunshine. Have also made contact with the Lavender Growers Association and met some other members and learnt a bit from them.
As well as the lavender, the passionfruit and feijoas also seem to be suffering from lack of growth this year. There are virtually no passionfruit on the vine this year, whereas last year there were so many I couldn't use them all. No sure if this is because of the weather or because I cut the vine back so much late last year. The feijoas aren't ready yet but of our three trees only one is really fruiting at all.
The blueberry bush has done very well. Last year we got nothing. This year I covered it in bird netting and have gotten several cups of blueberries and enjoyed blueberry muffins and blueberry cobbler.
The strawberries have pretty much stopped production for the year. The plants on the weedmat produced lots of berries compared the ones without weedmat which produced hardly any fruit but lots of weeds. Will have to extend the weedmat before next summer.
Still continuing to drink homemade lemonade and eat homemade bread. Still continuing to mow the lawn with the tractor. Have run out of weedspray so the weeds around the property are growing quite high.
Have had a couple of families of pukekos (or pooky-yo's as V calls them) hanging around the lower fields for the last couple of months. It has been interesting watching the babies grow and develop their blue feathers. They're not particularly frightened of the car, but as soon as you open the door and they see you, they run or fly away very quickly.
-M
04 February 2010
December and January
Well, so much for posting monthly. I probably should have posted at the end of December but it is a very busy time of year and I didn't get around to it.
Things have been going well on the property and in the garden. Sometimes struggling to keep up to date with all the chores that need doing. December was a very wet month. The first half of January was kinda wet, kinda windy and not all that warm. Summer weather probably only really started in mid January and boy is it summery now. And I'm NOT complaining. But the sun can be harsh so we've spent a lot of time inside anyway. The temperature inside has been around the 26 degree C mark most afternoons. Meaning that outside is even hotter. I'm finding it quite comfortable :-) K and V got a trampoline for Christmas so in early Jan when it wasn't raining we spent a lot of time on it. Now that the weather is a bit too hot we haven't used it as much.
Haven't planted anything more in the vegetable garden. Other than last years spuds which have been growing in the cupboards and are now growing quite successfully in the garden. Meant to plant corn and capsicum in January but have left it a bit late I think. Tried to plant some carrot from seed but haven't seen anything come up yet.
Most of the vegetable garden is covered in low growing weeds. The areas where I have planted veges I have kept free of weeds but not really bothered too much with the rest of the garden. I've almost encouraged the weed growth around the lettuces so that the rabbits won't notice them. Actually I think the rabbits are happy enough to eat the lawn, which doesn't worry me. As I was clearing weeds one day, though, I discovered a zucchini plant I thought was dead, and a cucumber plant I thought was dead. I also found another broccoli but it did not survive my attempts to uncover it. So that brings the total number of plants to:
Potatoes: Heaps
Strawberry: Heaps
Tomatoes: 5
Lettuce: 2
Broccoli: 2
Cucumber: 1
Zucchini: 2
Celery: 6
Rhubarb: 2
The potatoes are in various states of readiness. It's great to be able to walk out to the garden and dig a few up when needed. Still also in various sizes too, with the majority being small.
The strawberries are fruiting well. I did some major work to weed around them early in Jan and decided that perhaps I should have laid weedmat down before I planted them. So I've now laid weedmat down under a third of the plants. I haven't covered the whole bed as it's a bit of an experiment. I'm not sure if the black plastic is going to be good for the plants or bad. It may make them ripen too quickly or maybe even burn. I know there were some I saw from a distance that were ready but by the time I picked them a couple of days later they were a bit past it. I ended up making muffins out of them instead.
The tomato plants are growing large. The fruit is still green. I had to put stakes into the ground to hold them up. I'd bought bamboo poles for another project and that made me realise that we have bamboo growing on our property. So I cut a few stalks down and had instant stakes for the tomato plants.
The two fancy lettuces we have are not growing very big. I had been warned that if they don't get enough water they turn bitter. I didn't heed the warning and didn't water them, and they are indeed slightly bitter tasting. Not too bad but not the greatest either.
The two broccoli we have are growing very large. Stupid admission time - when I planted them I didn't know how many broccoli vegetables grown on a vegetable plant. Given how large the plants are, I'm a little surprised that there's only one vegetable on each. However knowing that I wish I'd planted a lot more plants. Mind you I did plant six but only two survived. Putting crushed eggshells around the plants has really made a difference. We had a period of time in early Jan when there wasn't much rain. Then when it did rain, the plants nearly doubled in size in a day.
So I found one of the cucumber plants when I was weeding. It has had a few flowers but is still rather small. I'm not sure if we'll get anything off it or not.
The zucchini plants are the big success stories. There are (at a guess) 6-8 zucchini growing on the large plant and 4-6 growing on the smaller plant. I didn't know at what point the fruits(?) were ready for picking so I let them grow and grow. Now I know that it's best to pick them at the size you see them in the supermarket. I picked our biggest monster (25cm?) tonight and cooked him stuffed with tomato, onion, garlic, raisins. It was delicious. But, as I'd been warned, the skin was very tough and inedible, even after baking for 45 minutes.
All 6 of the celery plants are growing strong. The one vegetable I don't care about. Ironic I suppose. Looks like some of them are ready to be eaten. Ants on a log for the kids next week I guess.
Haven't touched the rhubarb again since early December. Should probably make another crumble before they die off.
The fruit trees are doing alright. The mandarins left on the tree are past it but the oranges are still good. Have got loads of lemons. Have noticed a couple of apricots(?) growing but think the birds will probably get them before we do. Have covered the blueberry bush with bird netting this year so that the birds don't get them. Last time I looked the fruit wasn't ready yet. The passionfruit vine has been growing back after I trimmed it back quite a lot last winter. It's nowhere near as big as it was last year. Have seen some flowers and fruit developing. Likewise with the feijoa trees, it is still developing.
Have started back down the self sufficiency path again, making our own bread and lemonade. Have been a lot more successful with the bread than when I last tried it in winter. The only difference I can see between then and now is the air humidity. Then I was getting small windowless buildings but now I've got nice big fluffy loaves of bread. The only problem with my bread and lemonade is that we are going through it too quickly. I've been making about three loaves a week and seem to run out of lemonade after a day or two (and then don't get around to making more for another day or two).
The lavender field is in full bloom. It is also in full weed. Have had troubles with the weedeater and the grass alongside the lavender is taller than the lavender. Had some friends come over for a day in January and we all attacked it together, weeding six rows. I'd already done two before they came over and have done I think four since then. That makes twelve down, fifteen still to go. Just from observation I think the plants started flowering later this year than they did last year, so I'm guessing that harvesting will be later too. I certainly hope so because I've got a lot of weeding still to do. The problem is that the weeds are in underneath the plants so I have to go along on my hands and knees pulling the weeds out from the base all along the whole row and it is very time consuming.
We have had troubles with fleas this summer, thanks to the cats and dog. Touch wood things seem to be getting better this week, following spray bombing and constant vacuuming. One difference I've noticed from last year is that we don't have anywhere near the number of flies we had last year.
Tried to get the swimming pool into a useable condition. Bought all kinds of chemicals to get the acidity and pH and whatever else to the right levels. Found the filter and have been running it daily. Been keeping the chlorine tablets full in the floater thing. The pool looked great for a day or two. Then it turned green again. So we haven't gone near it since.
All in all December and January have been quite busy months. On top of all this has been the usual maintenance of mowing lawns and spraying weeds. At least this year I have a bit of a better idea of what I'm supposed to be doing.
-M
Things have been going well on the property and in the garden. Sometimes struggling to keep up to date with all the chores that need doing. December was a very wet month. The first half of January was kinda wet, kinda windy and not all that warm. Summer weather probably only really started in mid January and boy is it summery now. And I'm NOT complaining. But the sun can be harsh so we've spent a lot of time inside anyway. The temperature inside has been around the 26 degree C mark most afternoons. Meaning that outside is even hotter. I'm finding it quite comfortable :-) K and V got a trampoline for Christmas so in early Jan when it wasn't raining we spent a lot of time on it. Now that the weather is a bit too hot we haven't used it as much.
Haven't planted anything more in the vegetable garden. Other than last years spuds which have been growing in the cupboards and are now growing quite successfully in the garden. Meant to plant corn and capsicum in January but have left it a bit late I think. Tried to plant some carrot from seed but haven't seen anything come up yet.
Most of the vegetable garden is covered in low growing weeds. The areas where I have planted veges I have kept free of weeds but not really bothered too much with the rest of the garden. I've almost encouraged the weed growth around the lettuces so that the rabbits won't notice them. Actually I think the rabbits are happy enough to eat the lawn, which doesn't worry me. As I was clearing weeds one day, though, I discovered a zucchini plant I thought was dead, and a cucumber plant I thought was dead. I also found another broccoli but it did not survive my attempts to uncover it. So that brings the total number of plants to:
Potatoes: Heaps
Strawberry: Heaps
Tomatoes: 5
Lettuce: 2
Broccoli: 2
Cucumber: 1
Zucchini: 2
Celery: 6
Rhubarb: 2
The potatoes are in various states of readiness. It's great to be able to walk out to the garden and dig a few up when needed. Still also in various sizes too, with the majority being small.
The strawberries are fruiting well. I did some major work to weed around them early in Jan and decided that perhaps I should have laid weedmat down before I planted them. So I've now laid weedmat down under a third of the plants. I haven't covered the whole bed as it's a bit of an experiment. I'm not sure if the black plastic is going to be good for the plants or bad. It may make them ripen too quickly or maybe even burn. I know there were some I saw from a distance that were ready but by the time I picked them a couple of days later they were a bit past it. I ended up making muffins out of them instead.
The tomato plants are growing large. The fruit is still green. I had to put stakes into the ground to hold them up. I'd bought bamboo poles for another project and that made me realise that we have bamboo growing on our property. So I cut a few stalks down and had instant stakes for the tomato plants.
The two fancy lettuces we have are not growing very big. I had been warned that if they don't get enough water they turn bitter. I didn't heed the warning and didn't water them, and they are indeed slightly bitter tasting. Not too bad but not the greatest either.
The two broccoli we have are growing very large. Stupid admission time - when I planted them I didn't know how many broccoli vegetables grown on a vegetable plant. Given how large the plants are, I'm a little surprised that there's only one vegetable on each. However knowing that I wish I'd planted a lot more plants. Mind you I did plant six but only two survived. Putting crushed eggshells around the plants has really made a difference. We had a period of time in early Jan when there wasn't much rain. Then when it did rain, the plants nearly doubled in size in a day.
So I found one of the cucumber plants when I was weeding. It has had a few flowers but is still rather small. I'm not sure if we'll get anything off it or not.
The zucchini plants are the big success stories. There are (at a guess) 6-8 zucchini growing on the large plant and 4-6 growing on the smaller plant. I didn't know at what point the fruits(?) were ready for picking so I let them grow and grow. Now I know that it's best to pick them at the size you see them in the supermarket. I picked our biggest monster (25cm?) tonight and cooked him stuffed with tomato, onion, garlic, raisins. It was delicious. But, as I'd been warned, the skin was very tough and inedible, even after baking for 45 minutes.
All 6 of the celery plants are growing strong. The one vegetable I don't care about. Ironic I suppose. Looks like some of them are ready to be eaten. Ants on a log for the kids next week I guess.
Haven't touched the rhubarb again since early December. Should probably make another crumble before they die off.
The fruit trees are doing alright. The mandarins left on the tree are past it but the oranges are still good. Have got loads of lemons. Have noticed a couple of apricots(?) growing but think the birds will probably get them before we do. Have covered the blueberry bush with bird netting this year so that the birds don't get them. Last time I looked the fruit wasn't ready yet. The passionfruit vine has been growing back after I trimmed it back quite a lot last winter. It's nowhere near as big as it was last year. Have seen some flowers and fruit developing. Likewise with the feijoa trees, it is still developing.
Have started back down the self sufficiency path again, making our own bread and lemonade. Have been a lot more successful with the bread than when I last tried it in winter. The only difference I can see between then and now is the air humidity. Then I was getting small windowless buildings but now I've got nice big fluffy loaves of bread. The only problem with my bread and lemonade is that we are going through it too quickly. I've been making about three loaves a week and seem to run out of lemonade after a day or two (and then don't get around to making more for another day or two).
The lavender field is in full bloom. It is also in full weed. Have had troubles with the weedeater and the grass alongside the lavender is taller than the lavender. Had some friends come over for a day in January and we all attacked it together, weeding six rows. I'd already done two before they came over and have done I think four since then. That makes twelve down, fifteen still to go. Just from observation I think the plants started flowering later this year than they did last year, so I'm guessing that harvesting will be later too. I certainly hope so because I've got a lot of weeding still to do. The problem is that the weeds are in underneath the plants so I have to go along on my hands and knees pulling the weeds out from the base all along the whole row and it is very time consuming.
We have had troubles with fleas this summer, thanks to the cats and dog. Touch wood things seem to be getting better this week, following spray bombing and constant vacuuming. One difference I've noticed from last year is that we don't have anywhere near the number of flies we had last year.
Tried to get the swimming pool into a useable condition. Bought all kinds of chemicals to get the acidity and pH and whatever else to the right levels. Found the filter and have been running it daily. Been keeping the chlorine tablets full in the floater thing. The pool looked great for a day or two. Then it turned green again. So we haven't gone near it since.
All in all December and January have been quite busy months. On top of all this has been the usual maintenance of mowing lawns and spraying weeds. At least this year I have a bit of a better idea of what I'm supposed to be doing.
-M
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