Africanaussie

I just discovered this wonderful online film about how gardening the way the Garden of Eden was made. Sometimes I think we do fuss too much!  Gardening was never meant to be hard! http://backtoedenfilm.com/index.html#movie It is fairly long but oh so true, and just makes me want to get going on planting my vegetables right now... You might remember that just before I went away I dumped a whole lot of the wood chip mulch on my veggie patch. Not normally what one would do, according to all the gardening gurus I see on the TV shows and gardening books.  They all use sugar cane mulch which is nice and fine and breaks down very quickly, and they always tuck it around the new seedlings like a soft downy blanket.  I purchased a bale of sugar cane mulch over the weekend, along with a big bag of chook poo.   Now, when I was sprinkling the chook poo around I was thinking that I should dig it in.  Why I had that thought I don't know, because I do ascribe to the lasagna gardening techniqu

In Australia the term yakka means work and hard yakka means the type of work that is not too appealing - muscle building work. I have had a few projects that keep getting pushed aside.  One day this week I came home from work and decided to get stuck into the Mandevilla/passionfruit/weed vines that had taken over the support over the herb spiral.  Originally this was just for the passionfruit, but as the lower branches died they just lay there looking brown and horrible with the new growth on top.  Then the heavy Mandevilla leaned itself over and got into the mix.  I didn't really mind as suddenly there were always lovely flowers, but in the back of my mind I knew that eventually something had to be done.   Slowly the supports were collapsing, and I also want to plant somethings in the herb spiral and for heavens sake they were going to need some light! Pulling and tugging, and clipping and sawing.....getting bitten by green ants...this was not fun!  Eventually though I h

On my return from my wonderful holiday in Malaysia (last post on the trip has been added to Life in the Tropics) I found an interesting e-mail in my very full inbox. WOW!   This is the kind of thing that only happens to other people.  This little blog of mine was "discovered" by one of the major seed suppliers in Australia - Mr Fothergills!  The e-mail said that they would like me to trial some of their products and write about it.  Well of course!  Am I going to say no to free seeds? I received a list of what they are going to send me (I thought it would just be a few packets, but that is a lot of stuff) Climbing Snow Pea Basil seed mat Coriander Lemon Lemon Grass Carrot seed tape Carrot Harlequin Parsnip Gladiator Radish Beauty heart Silver Beet organics Cats Paw wildflower Poppy Falling in Love Jiffy Windowsill kit (12 pellets) Jiffy Starter Set pots & qsm's Parsley Italian kitchen garden pot Strawberry Temptation grow pot I won

I think mulching the garden thickly before I went away was a great idea......the garden has survived well - of course it helps that it is the rainy season and so there has been plenty of water. My neighbours compost bin is on the other side of the fence and a nasty vine has joined into the loofah and passionfruit climbing the happy plant and the fence.  I pulled away what I could, but it really needs to be attended to at the root....  I am thinking I might eventually get rid of that passionfruit vine as it has been going for more than three years now, and they have a short life in the tropics. A new vine has started in the corner and I might start another one out front.  I do love having passionfruit - it changes regular fruit salad into sublime fruit salad in a moment.  A few little pawpaw trees are springing up as well - I have two that produce steadily - my oldest one has a fungal infection, so might have to cut it way back again, or remove it entirely?  I keep hoping that one of

While I was away there was plenty of rain and so things grew, .............and grew, but luckily all the mulch I had laid arrested the weed development to some extent.  The pigeon peas are going wild - I might cut some branches back to allow better access and also to release nitrogen into the soil.  The one to the left has the winged bean entangled in it so that wont be cut back for now.  Why do climbing vines insist of climbing where you don't want them to?  I also thought I might have some beans on that by now......mmm.  I have a suspicion that I have plenty of nitrogen - hence the green growth.  What I need is phosphorous to promote flowering and fruiting.  I can see some smelly chook poo in my future.  The perennial bed is also very full and lush The turmeric is flowering - I am so glad that I moved it out here into this bed where I can enjoy the flowers and then my nose twitched, what a beautiful scent ..... these gorgeous flowers have appeared on what I thought

a IIII I  have had a really hard time getting back into blogging since my return from my holiday, and then today I found a message that the wonderful Missy has given me a Liebster award.  How lovely! Just the catalyst that I needed.                                               Liebster is German for ‘favourite’. The Liebster Award is given to blogs with less than 200 followers. In accepting this award, the recipient must pass it on to 5 favourite up and coming blogs with less than 200 followers. have singled out five blogs who I think deserve to be showcased 1.   http://laurarittenhouse.wordpress.com/   Laura gardens in Sydney, and she comes from America, and now lives in Sydney.   I come from South Africa, but via America.  She tries to grow lots of veggies, and like me battles to get her fair share after the bandicoots and possums have had more than they should.   She just had a long holiday in Germany, and I had a holiday in Malaysia. 2.    http://solituderising.blo