Harvesting those strawberries!

As part of operation veggie patch I planted strawberries. These have taken off and are bearing so much fruit! The kids loving checking it each morning to see if there are any more ripe strawberries to pick. I now away the "runners" and will replant those to make an even bigger strawberry patch. I want so many strawberries that we are over run with them!!

School holidays have ended, and this means I sadly finish my two weeks of being creative and focus on my uni studies. I have 5 weeks of insanity with major assignments due and then it will be getting really focused on Christmas. I can't wait!!

Seedlings!

You may remember that a little while back I planted some seeds in pots and egg cartons in my window sill?

Well some more are sprouting!!

Here is my Oregano....

...and Basil

My Mint has also started to shoot, but it's too small to see at the moment.
I've moved the egg cartons outside so they get more sun - they haven't sprouted as yet. Hopefully one day soon I will see little shoots of life! These will then be transferred into part of my veggie garden and I will have fresh herbs at my disposal! I can't wait!! Operation Veggie Garden is in full swing!!

WIP Wednesday - Shoots of green

Ok so technically this isn't a craft or creative thing - but this week has been so crazy busy I haven't even picked up anything creative!! My son went on to half days because he wasn't adjusting to school life well after his holiday. Friday saw the biggest meltdown I have ever seen since diagnosis. I have been in catch up mode with uni and trying to wade through the mountain of reading.

But in all that, this morning while I was making my coffee, I glanced at my pots on the window sill to see if they needed any water. Hmm some were looking a bit dry... and then a small spot of green caught my eye! What's that??? Two little shoots of Thyme!

I was NOT expecting shoots so soon so this was such a wonderful surprise.
My youngest daughter and I spent some time in the garden on the weekend, clearing space for what will be our herb garden. These little guys will be moved out into the elements to hopefully thrive and grow and some day be part of making my food taste even MORE awesome! Operation Veggie Garden is coming along nicely!

Joining in with Little White Dove's WIP Wednesday. Common.. you know you wanna join too!

Spring is doing a teaser!

Today the sun has been shining brightly, warming up everything and bringing us all out of hybernation. Spring is just around the corner. So I have started to get ready for planting out my herb garden. I got out my high tech seedling kits (aka egg cartons, tins and two random pots), filled them with potting mix and began to sow the herb seeds.

I have sowed:

1. Rosemary
2. Mint
3. Basil
4. Parsley
5. Chives
6. Thyme
7. Oregano

We should start to see some shoots in the next 3-4 weeks and then they should be ready to plant into the veggie garden in spring. 

Happy Strawberries

Some time ago I planted some strawberry plants that my Aunty gave me. While I was away on our road trip of awesome I wondered if they would be ok. When we got home, I nipped outside to check up on them and to my surprise I spotted flowers and fruit! My goodness that was fast work!!! Every plant has at least one flower on it. Pretty stoked there!!!

Thermomix Lemon Cordial

I have mentioned before that my lemon tree in my garden is very happy. It likes it's life in my veggie garden. It likes that the birds hang out in it and the cat sleeps under it. It likes that my kids search it's branches for new or ripe fruit. It's a very happy tree. And what do happy trees do? Produce an abundance of fruit! I have so many lemons on that tree it isn't funny! I want to make the most of the lemons while I can - so I need to start making things I can put away and keep for another time. As I mentioned before, we are going away for a holiday and the lemons won't be as wonderful as they are now when I get home. So I need to get cracking!

My first lemon project was some lemon cordial. I hunted for a recipe for cordial I could make in the thermomix. 

It was so quick and easy - it would have taken me more time and money to go to the shops to get some lemon cordial than it was to make it!

Pin can be found here

Operation Veggie Patch update - June

A few weeks ago, I planted some strawberries. I'm happy to report that they are very happy in their new home and are growing nicely!

There are new shoots coming off the base of the plant and I am expecting these plants to be a nice size when it comes time to fruit.

Remember my compost bin that I started back in April? It's breaking down very nicely!!  Come spring, this will be very handy to dig into the garden when I am ready to start planting my herbs and tomatoes.

My youngest has been collecting the Jamie Oliver gardening book and equipment because she is very keen on gardening with me. She loves pulling up weeds and digging in the garden. I love that this is something we can do together.

Strawberries are in!

Everytime I say the word "strawberry" my mind drifts to the series "The Darling Buds of May" where Ma says "strraaaawbries" Love that series! Anyway.. I digress...

A few days ago, my Auntie who is an avid gardener dropped off a present for me. A load of strawberry plants that were surplus in her own strawberry patch. So I got to work, clearing a small patch of the tiresome winter weeds and planted them in. The plan is - as they grow and mature and shoot off runners, I will be replanting those so one day we should have a decent sized strawberry patch. :)

So here are the first members of what will be a continuing project - Operation Veggie Patch. 

Painting tins - because I can.

I've collected a couple of tin cans. I've been meaning to use them as part of Operation Veggie Patch. It's now Autumn here down under so planting is not really happening, but there are a few seeds that can be sown. One of them is mint. Now you may be aware that mint is an aggressive herb and will take over a garden if placed in soil. It's much better suited to pots.  I'm not a huge user of mint, but when I do use it, I resent paying the $3.50 for a small bunch from the supermarket. I can have 100 plants for that kind of money!!! So I'm going to grow mint in these tins. They have cost me nothing, I painted them to look pretty from paint I already had and they will hold a small amount of potting mix. When they have grown to a decent size, I will transfer them to a larger pot. But for now - this is perfect. 

From little things, big things grow

Lately I've been collecting pins from Pinterest about gardening and basically how to not mess it up! I remember looking at a pin that suggests using egg cartons to plant seeds in.

Yesterday my big girl showed me a seed from her orange that has begun to sprout. So we decided to not waste it and put it in some soil in an egg carton and let it continue to grow. 

The idea is to get it established and then plant it, carton and all in the garden. The carton will decompose, feeding the roots and plant as it continues to grow. Fingers crossed this little shoot will one day provide our family with lots of oranges for many years to come. Grow little seed. Grow!

Rubbish? No!!!

Step one for starting my veggie patch is to start making use of my scraps.

This pile of goodies was part of my end of shopping week "Leftover veggie and beef stew" which gets made up in the slow cooker. This week I found some mushrooms, zucchini, sweet potato, carrots (those ones above were soft and too far gone for use) onions and cherry tomatoes. This is what normally would be thrown into the bin. This time I wrapped it all up in paper towels and popped it into a compost pail that now sits in my kitchen. I'm going to make a small compost bin soon and have it sitting outside ready to go to make lovely compost for my garden.

Operation Veggie Patch

This is my "veggie patch". For years I've started and stopped using this space with dreams of growing fruit and veg but the reality was I didn't have the time to invest in it.  So it went to ruin and is over run with grass and nothing else. My lemon tree thrives in the corner as you can see, but everything else is barren.

I want to put some things in there that I use. I'm sick of paying $4 for a small bunch of wilted fresh herbs when I could buy a packet of seeds that cost less than that and have fresh herbs growing in my own yard for me to use at any time. I love fresh berries, but the prices are so expensive! So why not grow some? I love homemade tomato sauce, soup and my big girl eats them like apples! So why not grow a stack? I love making jams and chutneys. I love dehydrating fruit. I would love to have kilos at my disposal.

My mistake in the past is to cover the whole area all at once and then so completely overwhelmed that I can't manage it and then let it go. This time it's going to be different. I'm going to start in one small area and work at that and SLOWLY spread out.

Over the next year I am planning to make this little space a manageable spot with the things that I will use and need growing in it.  Stay tuned!