Garden harvest - Autumn approaches

garden harvest
Originally uploaded by margoc

Aaah the colour of Autumn. :o)

Two years on...how are we doing?

We are just over two years in our place in Hackett so today I walked around and took some pics of our garden to see how things have come along. Certainly the backyard is changed completely, the progress is documented in pics over at our Hackett Gardener Flickr set.

First our olive, planted back in June 2007. Here's then:


And now:


Our side verge is looking healthy now the natives (including grasses) has taken off:


We also added a heap of Poa grasses and dug a swale to try to stop the water run-off into our driveway (which gets to at least an inch deep at times! WE've had a couple of decent downpours since, and the result is pretty good.



And finally, our pond, now complete with juncus rushes and some new fish too. From this:


...to this:



Just a few highlights. Finally, the weeping apricot we planted when Clancy was born is almost 12 months as well - July is the month. It's almost about to drop its leaves for winter. Will mulch it and dose it with some manure just for luck.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Rubbish Free Year Challenge | Be The Change

Rubbish Free Year Challenge | Be The Change

Was reading about these guys in ReNew magazine (Issue 107, Apr-Jun 2009). Not as easy as it seems given the amount of packaging that comes with goods these days.

It has made me think more about the Reuse concept though - recycling is great of course, but if you can reuse before needing to recycle, you are already decreasing the need to expend energy on recycling in the first place. And if you can reduce you will have less to reuse and recycle in the first place.

So, in our garden, I'm attempting to grow our own seed where possible. Parsley, fennel, spring onions, and self-seeded spinach are among the first lot. I didn't know if the parsley seeds would take but they have. The srping onions were a pressie from a friend who had planted seeds herself. The self-seeded spinach can be transplanted when a little bigger, but we're not fussed if we don't get around to it!


parsley seedlings

I kind of like the mentality that if we don't want to worry about weeds and things then we can focus more on planting things that we don't mind reseeding themselves in place of weeds. Weeds are only plants in the wrong place anyway, right? :o)

Simon did a round of mulch and manure with a touch of lime a couple of weekends ago and we also planted a green manure patch of peas which have just started to sprout. We also have some broad beans that have just sprouted too, so will put in a second lot (dwarf this time) and see if we get staggered crops this time.

Have also got advice on our strawberries (sms from my dad the expert: "Looks ok gd luck") and that we should move them for more frost protection and more fertile soil. They were sitting out the front and weren't getting the same attention as the vegies out the back, so it was time to move them.

Gardening Australia also had a segment on recently about using tubes of newspaper to plant seedlings. Egg cartons work well for things like lettuce and herbs if starting them from seed.

Water is the big one though - reuse is ideal if you can set up a greywater system of some sort. Ours is working a treat since we put one together about 2 years ago now.

The next phase woudl be to set up a seed-raising area, protected from the extreme weather. Behind our shed would be good. Now to make some time to do it! A gardener's work is never done.

Blogged with the Flock Browser