Our trip to paradise

What a shock it is to be back in wintery grey Victoria! Having spend 9 days in gorgeous Noosa where we rose each day at 5.30 am and lights out for all by 9.00 pm.  Each day was packed with early morning walks, reading by the pool, bushwalks, Eumundi market perusing, tasting of the Tibetan Momos and home made Ginger Beer, where morning breckies consisted of fresh Pineapples and Strawberries.

Vitamin D was not a problem in sun drenched Queensland as we read by the pool, played tennis on court and surfed in the ocean.  It was super relaxing and I have to say the best times we had up there were free.

Watching the sunset every night at 5.45pm was a big highlight for me, every second day I would do a yoga session by the river on the beach and every morning we walked not quiet to sunrise but close. This year we didn't try and cram in a million activities but rather went with the flow, picnics by the beach, sitting on the ferry enjoying the moment, dinner home cooked most nights on the river. That was probably our last trip for a few years as eldest child's education is entering an important stage so very glad we all had an absolute wonderful time.

So here are some pictures of our adventures. 

Pelicans

Stand up paddling and someone's hand! 

Breckie by the river the compulsary coffee and of course fruit!

Noosa National park - The coastal walk.

Dinner at "Maisie's" absolutely delicious, we had to go here as 15 years prior and pregnant (unknown) with my firstborn we ate here and I wondered why I was so nauseated!  

Gorgeous nightly sunsets, we were never disappointed, every night delightful sunsets.

Planting of the veggie seeds

I have been meaning to plant some seeds for weeks and have been a little unsatisfied with the seeds brought from Bunning's as much as its pretty much my favourite shop in the world I have not had huge luck with their seeds so when I met a new friend and garden helper at the school I was delighted to discover she worked for a seed company and also at the Garden of St Erth as one of their Horticulture experts.  I was able to buy through her and have now planted today the following; 


Golden Bantam Corn
Mizune/Mustard
Pumpkin Walthma Butternut Organic
Black Beauty Zucchini
Evening Sun Sunflowers
Heavenly Scent Sweet peas - to be planted Autumn

I made a mix with potting mix and sand and some sheep manure - I was a little heavy on the sand so I do hope the seedlings cope but hoping to get a lovely amount for the veggie beds.

Here is the link to the Diggers seed company: http://www.diggers.com.au/

The glass sheets on top were donated to me by a guy who brought birdhouses from my son, the white boxes are being up-cycled from Wilsons Fruit shop and the table was made from pieces from our "junk pile" about a month ago.  :)

That handy pile of junk.

Every one has one.  That large pile of rubbish the other half decides "will come in handy"  one day..... expect often that day never comes or if it does the pile has been stacked so badly you can't actually find that handy piece of junk you needed!
Yesterday we lost a rabbit, we have a pen they run in but its not fool proof and occasionally they escape to the paddock and ALWAYS make that beeline for the junk pile and know we can't get them out and its a long waiting game!  I decided we needed to completely overhaul the pile and restack everything.  It took 2 hours and 2 of my helpful boys assisted while we transformed all this useful wood/bricks/aggie pipes and we moved all old useless lengths of wood to a pile to be chopped for firewood at some later stage. First pic is the once pulled apart picture, I wish I had taken an initial picture as it was so messy and I am so proud or the effort the boys put in as I don't lift too many heavy items.   Sadly we did not find the rabbit no sign today of her either.  :(

                                                             
                                                                         During                 

                                                                     During

                                                                  After and tidy

                                                                               Even better!                                       
 

Spring Garden Flowers 2013

I do love Spring but it sneaks up on me!  Just when I think I have done all the weeding - we use no poison at all here so all paths, garden beds, veggie beds and around the fruit trees on 3/4's of an acre,  I look around and see the weed growth is manic and taking over the garden!  I was spending an hour each day for about 10 days trying to get on top of the school garden weeds and one day returned home and realised I need to get serious about my own weeding for a few weeks!  Lucky for me its school holidays so a little more time to dedicate to my garden.  I do all the weeding in this garden as hubby is not a terribly keen gardener but also has his own garden project happening in building a new retaining wall, a lot of work as all the garden plants and fencing around it needed to be removed and will need to be replaced once complete. Its intense and time consuming but all weeds get fed to the chooks and they are finally laying eggs again so the cycle goes on!

That aside the good thing about forced gardening and being on you knees tugging the weeds out is that you can inhale the scents of all the pretty Spring flowers.  Time can stand still as you smell Freesia's and immediately the Olfactory system kicks in and your transported back to childhood where my home garden had literally hundreds of Freesia's in bloom.  Or the waft of Boronia hits you from 10 metres away and you stopped by the intensity of it and search for the plant which is often quite a distance from the sweet perfume.  There is a Buddleigh in flower near a park I walk around, you can smell the scent for a good 500 metres away, its delightful and an old variety no longer available in Nurseries.  I seem to have planted lots of different Daffodils, a surprise as I don't remember when I planted them!

Here are some of my favourite flower pictures, enjoy.  :)

Potato Planting

smwalker1970's photostream on Flickr.

Today we decided to plant our Potato's a different way and use the wire method. I saw this on Gardening Australia or possibly Better Homes & Gardens anyway its a fantastic way to save space and grow a crop of Potato's. I had my eldest child search the yard for 3 steel posts, I found the chicken wire - in the chook pen and I already had straw and potting mix, and Sheep manure. I had previously brought the seed potato's and there were 14 in the pack so I will be interested to see how many we get once harvested. Basically you build you Potato pen, lay some manure at the base then straw and then a bit of potting mix and manure, then your seed Potato's, then more potting mix and cover with straw. As your Potato's grow you keep up the layering and water as required. It took about 20 minutes to build I am super happy with the end result. :)

The 30 minute garden blitz

After saying in my last post that I have a lot of time I actually manage to fill it pretty well and although I would LOVE to spend an entire day gardening that rarely happens as I LOVE exercise too and have dogs to work kids to tend too and well I don't need to explain life to anyone we are all I the same boat! But the weather has been divine for Victorian Winter and I have been determined to get in 30 minutes of gardening the occasional morning and 30 minutes every night sometimes its right before dark but never the less I grab the opportunity and usually have a plan of what I want to achieve and its amazing what I can get weeded in that time. I have my garden tools out all over the yard for easy access although sometimes remembering where I have left them can be a bit tricky! A couple of days ago as soon as I exited the car before I went in side I managed to hoe little drains in the front beds then hoe the paths and rake the leaves off the path and it looked fantastic! I usually weed most afternoon 30 minute slots as I can try and get all the Vitamin D I can from the sun - its so rare in Ballarat Winters! I have included some before and after shots of how much you can get done doing little bursts of gardening. :) Also I posted this a month ago - now the weather is arctic but still if its not raining I can often manage to get out there after the kids get home from school for at least 30 minutes.

Bunny Chick Liqued Poo Tea :)

I have had much time on my hands with 4 weeks forced leave of massage work! So I have been able to do things I've had little time to do for years and Chick Bunny poo tea is one of them. My father in law taught me this one as a farmer from years back, I am altering the method slightly as I don't want any chance of contact with the poo! He used to get very technical with the ratios of poo to water and use a hessian bag to strain the poo, I don't do this and I feel my way is much easier. Basically I have gathered large amounts of poo from the chooks - easy to do as they aren't terribly bright and instead of laying eggs in their nice hay filled lay boxes they kick all the warmth out leave it bare and sleep there leaving copious amount of poo behind so easy to gather transfer to a large bucket fill with water and leave for about 10 days. I then pour the lot into a open ended watering can - forget the ones with spouts it gets too blocked, you then use liquid as a tea for my newly planted veggies. Its the same deal with the bunny poo, as a rule the rabbits will always poo in the one spot making it easy together, most of the time its directly put on either Roses or the fruit trees but the tea works well directly poured over the leaves for a easier uptake for the plants. I probably wouldn't do this right before harvesting....its really just to kick off growth, anyway its working well and plants are thriving. I have a picture here of our Bok Choy and this was planted about 5 weeks ago and is getting harvested now so it really does make for very fast growth.