Nice to get some rain today. The kids went mental, jumping with the thunder into all the puddles.
Our driveway is chock full of sweet potatoes. They are really delicious and sweet, easily the best sweet potatoes I've ever eaten. There must be a hundred of them just in the driveway, and we've also got some Ma…
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Added by Scarlett Patrick on December 15, 2009 at 3:35pm —
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All of our computers got infected with viruses and then we maxed out our download limit reinstalling everything. My computer has been too slow to use for about 2 weeks - I was starting to suffer withdrawal! So apologies for not replying to anything. Each page was taking about 30s to load, it was just too much.
We still have a giant bunch of bananas waiting to turn yellow, and two small bunches developing now - I must spread that rooster booster, they obviously need a feed. I'm late. I bought th…
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Added by Scarlett Patrick on December 4, 2009 at 10:12pm —
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Both of our computers have been out of action for the last few weeks - and I'm still trying to get them up and running. Sigh.
We've been very busy in the garden though. I've moved the pea trellis (as they have finished) and planted some blue lake climbing beans. I'll also plant some snake beans here soon. I've planted peanuts (from an african food store so we'll see if they germinate - they're local Australian and they are very fresh, and no blemishes, so fingers crossed) at the base of them, a…
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Added by Scarlett Patrick on October 31, 2009 at 7:38pm —
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I'm drinking coffee right now. I love coffee. I love going to the grinding shop and smelling the different coffees in the big round tubs. I love buying coffee in a vaccuum pack and foofing the smell onto my face through the valve on the way home.
Developing coffee berries
I try to only drink one or two cups…
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Added by Scarlett Patrick on October 10, 2009 at 11:55am —
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The shady corner of the garden beds.
Baby mizuna and pak choy.
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Added by Scarlett Patrick on September 11, 2009 at 6:19pm —
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Family life and food gardening: sometimes they're incredibly complementary, sometimes they compete for every available scrap of your time. Recently it's mostly been the competitive scenario - hence the lack of computer activity on my part.
I haven't done much in the garden either. For example my pond is st…
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Added by Scarlett Patrick on September 9, 2009 at 9:38pm —
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What a lovely day for it. I hope the promised rain materialises later on.
I took all of the fittings off my pump and put plumbing tape on them, all the leaks are gone. I only lost a bit of water because the tank is almost empty - I've been waiting. Fingers crossed for a rainstor…
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Added by Scarlett Patrick on August 12, 2009 at 4:14pm —
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Subtropical edible shade garden down the south-east side of the house
Bananas, pawpaws, turmeric, ginger, galangal, coffee, passionfruit. My baby taro died - need to try again.
Big tall ladyfingers- the others are all dwarf bananas
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Added by Scarlett Patrick on July 17, 2009 at 4:30pm —
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I'll have to add photos later - for now I am only words
I pulled out our pumpkins because I want the space they had consumed. The vines have filled our compost bin. The banana pawpaw circle is groaning with banana stems plus the dead wattle tree from out the front, so it's no use for the moment.
I would like to have left the pumpkins in (soon this infernal cold will pass and they would have 'gone off', they have so many babies attempting to set all the time).
I have planted LOTS of seedlings…
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Added by Scarlett Patrick on July 12, 2009 at 10:00pm —
3 Comments
I've taken the Backyarders group down. The backyarders forum was basically duplicating the general forum which seemed unecessarily confusing.People were having trouble finding discussions too, and the search functions on the general forum are much better. So Donna and I copied them over - but now all the links to the people who actually posted the comments are gone. Sorry about that.
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Added by Scarlett Patrick on June 24, 2009 at 8:55pm —
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It's been the wettest May on record apparently, or something like that.
Heaps of seeds have germinated, which is a good thing because the grasshoppers are really giving my seedlings a hard time.
The dill is finally up.
The celery is going well - I feel confident it will make it to full…
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Added by Scarlett Patrick on June 3, 2009 at 3:00pm —
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Lots of garden activity for us this weekend.
I've bought a guava, a mandarin, two tropical pears (to be pruned small and to increase fruit set), and a persimmon, mostly on impulse. It's funny I used to plan other people's gardens for a living and can't bear to plan my own ;)…
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Added by Scarlett Patrick on May 24, 2009 at 6:00pm —
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Ooh how exciting - we have our first dear little potkin. I think it's a Red Leicester. I think it came from Green Harvest (via my friend Jen). Unfortunately it's not going to be any good for seed saving as I have about 5 varieties all flowering in the garden at the same time. Sorry.
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Added by Scarlett Patrick on May 17, 2009 at 5:00pm —
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Actually they were out for hours on Monday and they didn't go into the vegie garden at all. I'm crossing my fingers that they may have got the 'stay out of the vegie garden or you go straight back into your yard' message. At least for a minute.
Consequently, the latest lot of…
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Added by Scarlett Patrick on May 5, 2009 at 9:03pm —
5 Comments
Wow - I think this could be the beginning of a new age: I bought a pump for our watering tank. It is extremely exciting to think about using the hose any time I want instead of carting watering cans. It really has restricted the frequency and amount of water I put on the garden. This should hopefully give me some impetus to really get this garden moving. Hooray. Now I just need to rig it up...Could take a weekend or ten, what with everything else going on (as usual).…
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Added by Scarlett Patrick on April 24, 2009 at 9:00pm —
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Oh dear, I wish I was more organised. Or retired. Or a stay-at-home mother. Or something - anything that means I could spend heaps more time or money in the garden :)
I had forgotten that I am meant to be doing the garden visit thing this month until Chris reminded me. So my edges…
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Added by Scarlett Patrick on April 18, 2009 at 6:39pm —
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I'm afraid that our chickens are completely stupid fluff-brains. Serves me right for getting designer chickens. I pulled the sunflower stalks and put them in their pen. They sit on them, but don't eat them. So I pulled the seeds out of the flowerhead and made interested n…
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Added by Scarlett Patrick on March 22, 2009 at 10:30pm —
3 Comments
Just back from visiting Christopher's garden. Thanks heaps Chris, I really enjoyed the visit. It was great to check out how you organise things and how your plants grow in different spots. Lovely cup of tea too. I've brought home a lot of seeds to try out - thanks seed save…
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Added by Scarlett Patrick on February 22, 2009 at 3:00pm —
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Garden fare is all very sub-tropical at the moment. It's raining right now, how lovely.
I picked our rockmelon - the excitement! A bit early I'm afraid though. I tested it with a Brix meter and it said only 'ordinary' nutrition. My chef friend says she uses them to test for ripe…
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Added by Scarlett Patrick on February 13, 2009 at 5:30pm —
2 Comments
I am enormously happy that Food Connect can now supply suppplementary vegetable bags in our weekly fruit box. It's fantastic - we're not so completely at the mercy of the garden, and I can buy garlic and ginger without making a special trip to buy chinese imports (pretty much…
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Added by Scarlett Patrick on February 4, 2009 at 2:05pm —
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