ON THIS DAY...

It was lovely to have a coolish day today to open up the house and get some scrapbooking done in my planner.  I went for a wander up into the patch, it's so good that I am picking something every day now, that makes me so happy.

I've started following a few new blogs and on The Life Of Clare (sorry having trouble linking) she had a post on on gardening journaling.  This is right up my alley and over the years I have keep gardening journals so it's time to start another.

HARVESTING

* Zucchini
* Tomatoes
* Pickling gherkin
* Bush Beans
* Herbs - Chives, Parsley, Bay Leaves
* Eggs

PLANTING

* Beetroot
* Carrot
* Broccoli - in trays

TO DO

* Preserve Excess
* Keep Up Watering
* Weeding
* Tie Up Tomatoes
* Clean Around Beds
* Find Space For New Beds
* Clean Out Chicken Beds
* Take Off Netting
* Clean Up Herb Beds
* Make Use Of Pots

I LOVE MY GARDEN

I have been picking heaps of beans from my Gormet Delight and Cherokee Wax bush beans. Freezing them has been the best way to deal with the glut but fresh, they are oh so yummy!  I am now letting a few beans mature on the plant to collect the seed.

My very first tomatoes for the season, YAY.  They are small but will be delicious I'm sure.  I'm pretty sure they are Tommy Toe that self seeded from last year.

My first pickling gherkins were picked also, time to find another yummy recipe for them and the girls are as always giving us lovely fresh eggs every day, not to mention eating all the scraps from the kitchen and weeds and snails from the garden.

My efforts are well and truly paying off this year, it also helps that everything is behind so I'm actually home to care for my patch instead of running around the countryside with my son's cricket.

A GOOD DAY

With hubby on holidays, it was the perfect time to get out in the garden this morning and do quite a bit of cutting back of trees.  A big job but it had to be done.

This afternoon saw me in the kitchen.  This year has not started well for our family and we are finding ourselves only just getting by financially at the moment.  What a perfect time to get back to basics and make a true effort of cooking from scratch as well as cutting back in other areas.

Today I made;
Sponge Cupcakes
Chicken and beef sausage rolls
Cheesymite rolls
Bacon and cheese rolls
Quiche
Meatloaf

With an abundance of eggs from our girls, it was good to use quite a few up today.

LIFE'S LIKE THAT

It's funny how blogging seems to take a back seat when it comes to social media.  I have been working so hard on trying to get my little home business up and running that I totally neglected this blog in preference to other outlets.

I don't know if anyone even visits anymore, but I would like to keep this blog the same as what it always has been, simple living and sustainability.

So much has happened since I last posted, yet so much has stayed the same.  I let my garden grow over, losing all interest in growing my own fruit and vegetables.  I let the soil become poor and neglected and it's only now that I am beginning to reap the benefits of my hard work and time in getting it all back to where it was 1 1/2 years ago.

On the work front, I now work limited hours outside the home but do work a lot on my home business Eco Aarde.  I have the knowledge to make a real go of simple living and over the last couple of months have gotten back to cooking from scratch, preserving and maintaining my vegetable patch. I look forward to sharing it all with you once again in this space newly named Brown's Hill.

AROUND HERE.....

Gosh time seems to fly by lately, I'm now working out of our home more than I would like to but now that Lachie has been selected into the State Cricket Training Team, we need more income to support all of the travel.

I took a little wander to my neglected vege patch today, well not that neglected as we've been picking lots of tasty cucumbers over the last couple of weeks and made some yummy pickles that I can't wait to try.

A couple of weeks ago I worked out that there was no way I was going to have enough tomatoes for sauce this year, so it was off to the farmer's market to buy a box.  My trusty Squeezo made it's annual appearance and now the tomato pulp is sitting in the freezer ready to make sauce this week.

My eggplants are coming along nicely but I'm afraid they may not get any bigger due to the cold weather we are now having, I might cover them tomorrow to try and keep some heat in.

I'm pulling the last of our carrots and totally stuffed up and haven't planted more as yet.

and the last of your very small amount of tomatoes this season.

So that's my life in the garden around here.  I hope it's nice enough weather for a bit of a tidy up in the patch tomorrow and some seed planting.

THIS WEEK

Sophie got to eat the first apricot from our tree.  We won't be getting very many this year thanks to my over zealous pruning in winter, you live and learn I guess.

When weeding the herb garden, this little guy kept me company, so beautiful.

AROUND THE GARDEN

What a lovely day we had today and I didn't need any other excuse to get out into the garden and plant some of my wonderful Eden seeds that came last week.

Just a few photos from around our place:

The herb garden is slowly filling up thanks to some awesome people from our Permaculture group that I've been swapping herbs with.

My quince seems to like being espaliered, lots of gorgeous flowers all over it.

While inspecting my plum tree that I've threatened will be chopped out if it doesn't produce this year, I've found that it has indeed got some fruit setting.  It also has a mass of aphids and heaps of these lady beetles on it.  Maybe they are full because they don't seem to be doing their job.  After consulting our Permaculture group once again, it seems they are good lady beetles and should eat the aphids, so I'll just wait and see.

Now back to those seeds.
I was busy pricking out some of these tomato seedlings, I can't believe how many I have this year, I'd say that's because I'm making a conscious effort to water them twice a day in the hothouse, usually I get busy and the trays dry out and then I wonder why I don't get many plants LOL

....and lots more yummy veges are now planted, the wire is over the top to stop our pesky cat Hugo from lying in the trays.

I pulled out the dehydrator for some quick dried chard and broccoli leaves.

 All pulverised up ready to add to casseroles or green smoothies.

That was my day, hope yours went well.

PLAYING

We have had the most beautiful weather for the beginning of Spring, I've spent most of it out in the garden preparing beds, weeding and sowing seed.

There are trays of seed in the hothouse holding tomatoes, capsicum, basil, eggplant and brassicas.  I've planted dwarf broad beans, sugarsnap and snowpeas and lettuce seed in the raised beds and over in the herb garden I've weeded and thrown down some parsley, chives and oregano seed.

Here's what I picked yesterday and ate for tea, the first of my asparagus and some yummy broccoli.

See my plan of our back garden, this is how I keep account of what has gone where and when.

My seed box, I love my seed box, it will be very full once again when my Eden Seeds order arrives.

What's happening in your Spring garden?

IT'S ALL SYSTEMS GO.....

Today I watched as trees in our yard were cut down, when we planted them 20 years ago we had not idea they would get so out of control and end up in the power and phone line.  I can't say I sad to see them go but I will miss the privacy they provided.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

We also had our huge Liquid Amber cut back by a couple of metres.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

So that's another big job done, I look forward to having a lot more light and the opportunity to re-design the garden down the front.

WANDERING......

While I was in Adelaide last week the chooks got out of their yard while Darren was at work and decided that my vege patch was fair game.   Usually they walk right past the raised beds and on to the front yard, but not that day.   I lost all of my seedling I had grown from seed including tomatoes, cucumbers, zuchinni and pumpkins.  They left the carrots alone and stomped all over my garlic which now looks a little flat but everything else is gone.   Oh, then they took a liking to my herb garden and dug up all of my newly planted plants and some perpetual spinach I had growing as well. Sigh.....

So here is a peek at what our front yard is looking like.

 

 

Our passionfruit is flowering for the first time this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our apricot tree is loaded this year.

AROUND HERE.......

Pancakes - Nigella style
with organic maple syrup
lemon juice (from our home grown lemons)
organic panela (we no longer use sugar in our home)

Chicken stock fresh from the canner.

The second crop of peas are flowering

Sweet little wild strawberries are picked daily

Beetroot are nearly ready to pick and preserve

The bulbs think it's Spring (not sure why, it's freezing) but such a welcome site.

My poor garden bench is a little overgrown, a job for next week.

What is happening around your parts?