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