10th July 2007

There has been a break and I am sorry for it - caused by frantic work on a project to get it finished, and then a complete upgrade of all computer equipment and software. And the one thing I forgot to transfer over was the information needed to connect to the remote site. Oh well. Hopefully this will work. I'll try the transfer and if all goes to plan I should be back within a couple of days to update the site. (New software ... can't get the rotten fonts right!). I have lots of new trees and plantings ...

17th July 2007

Enough procrastination. I must bite the bullet and get used to the new software.

So to the garden. Over the past few weeks I have been getting the garden ready for spring. In the main vegetable garden I have dug over the main bed, composted and manured it, and covered it over with pea straw awaiting spring planting. I did, in one corner, plant the year's crop of shallots (plant on the shortest day of the year, harvest on the longest day). The other two beds currently contain cauliflowers, cabbages, a rogue patch of rocket and a very large crop of onions and leeks - the leeks being almost ready to pick, the onions still a good few weeks off, but I hope they will be an early spring crop for me.

In the rest of the garden I have been weeding and mulching - this weekend's garden blitz involves a very large bed containing many perennial shrubs which have largely died back over winter. So I have been pruning heavily, and tearing a few out so that I can use the foreground of the patch as this summer's pumpkin field - the back will keep its shrubbery of laveteras, buddleias, giant sages and salvias, angel's trumpets and camellias.

I have also been planting trees. Lots and lots of trees. From my very local nursery (New Town Station Nursery) I ordered and obtained nine more mop-top robinias to form a formal guard of honour up the front path to the door, and also to form a sky hedge to block out the less than beautiful view of the purple block of flats one door but one away. I have also planted out 3 apple trees (a Granny Smith, a Red Delicious and a Gala) and a couple of lemons.

About fifty strawberries have gone into pots, and I have just had delivered six huge terracotta pots to use for this year's tomato harvest. My seeds from Diggers have arrived for the vegetables this spring and summer. I have planted out some sweet potato but feel it is still far too cold for them. I have my seed potatoes - King Edwards and Pink Eyes -for the potato cages.

In the kitchen - have discovered I can make my own vanilla extract! I bought one hundred absolutely delicious vanilla beans from ebay (for the knock down price of $30!) and have several large bottles standing in the pantry, each filled with several beans and covered to the brim with vodka. I have to say it all smells delicious and every day I head into the pantry several times and lift down the bottles and admire the deepening colour, and then take off the lids and inhale slowly ... yummy. It will take some 4 months for the beans to flavour the vodka ... and once that is done then you may expect me never to be coherent enough to add another entry to this diary.

I have purchased a large upright freezer in which to store my produce.

And that must be it for this week, I am afraid - that shrubbery beckons ...

23rd July 2007

Well, I got the entire bed weeded and pruned, watered and mulched.

Today I am awaiting the big truck from the landscape suppliers, bringing more lucerne hay, about a tonne of pebbles for a bit of a project out back (neaten an untidy area), chook poo, potting mix, vermiculite and perlite, some more pots for the Mistydowns rose order which is on its way, and some black plastic to nuke a bed with way too many nasturtiums.

There is an area behind the garden sheds which is sludgy and weedy and nasty. I am in the process of putting down weed mat and the pebbles will go down atop this. I also bought 6 huge terracotta pots to go down there in which to grow my tomatoes this summer. Today I had to clear the area and shift the pots into position before the pebbles went down as I would not be able to do it after.

Am looking forward to summer very much.

I can almost feel a hint of spring in the sunshine today ... but maybe that is just sheer hope.