The Sometimes Gardener?

Why am I the Sometimes Gardener?

I'm one of those people that gets all excited and passionate about a project and throws absolutely everything I have into it, and then get distracted by...Oooh! Shiny thing!

It can be hard to concentrate on the garden when this is the view from your front door...

Seriously though, I do love to garden. I love the satisfaction that comes from seeing something that you've nurtured produce something beautiful or edible. I love the feel of soil between my fingers, the sun on my neck and I love that bone-tired feeling after a good day in the garden.

But there are a couple of problems. I have a lot going on in my life, with periods of intense busyness, I don't do well in winter (as I've mentioned previously), and sometimes I get discouraged or overwhelmed by the task ahead of me. Last October, I also broke my knee. Which set me back in many areas, but overwhelmingly so in my garden. The weeds grew tall and took over, the pruning didn't get done, and worst of all I didn't get to plant anything. It's taken me a year to get my mojo back, but I'm hoping I'm on the right track now.

...and this is the view from the back!

In the past I've been a bit of a set and forget gardener: plant the stuff and hope it will grow, occasionally water it, pull out the odd weed. I've had some success with this, but I want to get serious. I want to grow lots of food, share it with others, and become just that little bit more self-sufficient. Hopefully this blog will help me stay on track.

Coming up: tackling the weeds, my chooks, the grapevine.

October in the garden - planting!

Of course one of the big jobs in October is planting! Especially when you're growing vegies (and constantly finding fun new food plants to try...)

So in the bits that are already prepared, I've been planting.

I've planted lettuce twice, as the first lot was decimated when the chooks escaped from their yard (along with some of my precious garlic - aaaargggh!).

As well as some tomatoes, basil, eggplant and leeks. I had some little bits and pieces that I'd grown from seed (like some zucchini plants) but the chooks got those too. I'll put them in again this week. One of the pitfalls of having them I guess, but I wouldn't give them up. I love my yummy fresh eggs! I'll introduce you soon.

I've also put in some new raspberry plants from my dad (a very clever gardener along with my mum), planted some corn seeds, transplanted some strawberries and I thought I'd try a honeydew melon in a warm spot that I've got out the back. We'll see how it goes...

October in the garden - new growth!

Every spring I feel like I'm coming alive again. I've lived in Canberra my whole life, but I still struggle with the winters: the cold (though mostly beautiful and clear) days are tough, but the shorter daylight hours are what really get to me. By September I'm really down in the dumps and ready for things to warm up.

So in the spring, the garden and I come alive together. The wonderful thing about growing food is that in spring there are lots of blossoms. On the apple trees,

the berries,

and especially the weeds (I'll tell you about those another time!).

I grow really good weeds too. Sigh...

October is a great month for asparagus too (although in the last week or so, it's gone crazy with the warmer days!):

(I swear if you had a couple of hours to spare, you could actually watch asparagus spears grow!).

There's a lot of work in the garden in spring, but it pays off when you've got a big bunch of yummies straight out of the garden! 

October in the garden - preparation!

Early this month I gave the chook yard a good going over and in my garden beds put down chook poop and comfrey (good green manure) and 10 bales of pea straw (you should see all the pea plants that have sprouted now!); to keep the weeds down (ha!) and the moisture in. 

My 'orchard': apples, oranges and apricots

Comfrey

I also did lots and lots of weeding. In fact I'm still going with that, but I've got a whole other series of posts planned about my weed battles! 

I also had a go at tying down some branches from my pear tree, which I'm hoping to espalier (with no actual experience or knowledge of the process) along our new rumpus room/shed). 

And we created a new garden bed for my favourite berry - the raspberry! Of course, it has to be dog-proof!!!

This is my garden

I live on a 1/4 acre block in Canberra, Australia.
Canberra is a good place for gardens, especially food gardens. While we can't grow tropical stuff like avocados and mangoes, we have the kind of climate that is good for lots of fruit (apples, stone fruit, passionfruit etc), as well as lots of different herbs and vegies, and my favourite, berries!

My delicious organic Tasmanian garlic,

This is the food I currently have growing in my garden:

• Tasmanian garlic (grown from bulbs a friend gave to me when I visited in 2012)
• Asparagus
• Herbs: chives, basil, dill, coriander, marjoram, parsley, comfrey, camomile
• Pears
• Apples
• Apricots
• Raspberries
• Blueberries
• Boysenberries (although I've been trying unsuccessfully for a while to get rid of these!)
• Strawberries
• Passionfruit 
• Vegies: tomatoes, zucchini, cucumber, lettuce, leek, spinach, kale, peas
• Almonds
• Oranges
• Rhubarb
• Cherries
• Pomegranate 
• Bay tree

Soon, I'm planning on planting more veg: corn, capsicum, chilli, celery (and all the other 'c' words!).

I'll tell you about it!

Bloggin' in the garden...

I've missed blogging. I blogged for a few years on a completely different subject; but that blog reached its natural end. But gosh I love to write. And I love to blog. So I thought I'd blog about my garden.

I'm a sometimes gardener. I get very motivated and do lots of stuff, and then tend to just let things run a little wild. Or lose interest (that's generally in winter. I don't like winter). But, when I do garden, I get some great results. I don't know what it is. I'm the child of keen gardeners (my dad's a trained horticulturist, my mum's just keen), so I grew up with a nice garden (and many trips to the nursery), but perhaps most of it is just luck.

What I'm really keen about though is growing food. I've tried flower bulbs and natives, but I definitely get the most satisfaction from growing something that can be eaten. It doesn't hurt that I like food and cooking too!

So, I hope you'll join me on my adventures in gardening! Welcome!