WELCOME to my BLOG

Hi there!

I’m slowly working towards some simplicity within the home, but hey! It’s a lot of hard work!

I love having a go at growing my own veges and always use herbs fresh from my garden. I try to plant from seed whenever I can and have learnt to save and share my own seed for the following year. I make Award Winning preserves and pickles; and my husband brews Award Winning boutique beers as well. I love to stockpile and try to limit quick trips to the shops. I dabble in bread making and enjoy making my own stocks too.

I enjoy feeding my family good hearty meals, nothing like those tiny restaurant stacks you have to look for on the plate. My husband maintains our vehicles and machinery and we both enjoy fabricating on a small scale mostly relying on metal & timber recyclers for any materials needed.


While I don’t always have time to reply to comments, I love reading them. I hope you enjoy your stay and I hope you learn something new because I love sharing what I learn, and I'm always looking for another new skill myself.

Cheers!

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

I'm not alone

Walking around my garden this fine cool morning,
OH NO!!!! WE ARE NOT ALONE

On closer inspection of my sweet chillies, I see we are not alone..they are back, Yes Rats!! Low down dirty hungry rats.
I should have listened to Rusty yesterday, when she was hunting the gardens.....
She found the last lot, which did heaps of damage....
I had tomatoes, carrots, beetroot, even radishes......Oh they don't like the skin on a radish, it gets spat out, and left on the ground,....as for the beetroot, they don't like the stems, and leave them standing upright so you are unaware of their presence, The carrots all got eaten or distroyed. There was nothing to salvage when they went through my garden....although they didn't eat the herbs.

It certainly made me lose my gardening spirit for a while, but I am back and they're gonna die.
I agree with Rusty, a good rat, is a deads rat.

Last time we had damage like this, I trapped and killed 6 rats, and 5 mice
all in a week
Apparently  next door has decided to get chickens.

I'm setting the traps again tonight.


Rusty says, "Let me at 'em mum, I can smell 'em."

I'm really sorry that I never picked up on what she was on about, I just thought she was after lizards again, as she does this daily. At least I have caught it early.
Sorry Rusty, I will be more attentive in the future.

I continued to take stock of what was happening in the garden, taking photos, to keep a record of what still needs to be done..
the seedlings are all looking fantastic...




But the strawberries are looking really bad, It seems I may have put too much moisture keeping products on them, even the eggshells to stop the slugs is growing algae...I will have to get onto this shortly.



I have a lonely Jam Melon, It was a surprise, so I planted it, not knowing anything on growing them,...It has bearly done anything, up until now. In the last few weeks it has taken on all the new leaves that are green....Yes it was totally neglected...and  planted in very poor soil...I only potted it to see what would
 happen, I am not expecting any fruit from it, but the leaves are so unusual, I may have to press some in my flower press. ( a post for the future)



The 7 year bean seeds need to be harvested, and remove the vine., I must remember not to pull the roots out, I believe they come up again for about 7 years. Cool, will just have to wait n see.

The climbing butter beans are doing well, they like the cane sticks I gave them


 ..




I have two tomato plants that are about the same height as the butter beans, they have started producing flowers...so if the good warm weather keeps up, I may get some tomatoes to harvest again before the cold sets in.




I have a mix of salad leaf seeds I also need to harvest....
at least I will get the beds back for the winter crop.


and the rest of the celery seeds to be harvested.


I hope you have enjoyed reading about my garden, I enjoy sharing, so If you like something, or have a question, please don't hesitate to leave a message..











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