Africanaussie

I had a bit of a slump in the garden - life took over, and I just never seemed to find the time to get out there.  This last weekend I found two and a half glorious free hours so I rushed around doing an amazing amount of gardening in that short time.  I have noticed cockroaches in the compost bin and think it must be because I have not been mixing it as often as before.  I think we are just about ready for a new bin - this one is collapsing, the next one will go against the back fence.   I am wondering about moving my lime tree out of the pot and into that space vacated by the bin.  That soil must be amazing by now, it seems silly not to use it for something.  I am still not a huge fan of fruit trees in pots.  It is called a patio lime so I imagine will be able to be kept small with pruning in the ground.  The bottom section of the herb spiral is where I normally plant my parsley but this year I have parsley in odd pots around the garden and they seem to be doing well.  When m

I have been mulling over whether to do a post on nutrition and all the new fads that keep coming up.  What exactly works, and what is just a new fad. For the last couple of months I changed a few things, and something is definitely working. albeit slowly.  I don't know if like me you change a bunch of different things at one time, or try things one by one. I thought about doing a survey to see if the majority of people think hard before changing to a new fangled idea or put a lot of thought into it, or add things one by one to see what actually makes a difference. Then I saw that Jenny at   one body for living  started a similar idea.  see her badge off to the right and sign up if you want . these are the things/ideas I have changed recently: 1.  I get up half an hour earlier and straight away have four glasses of water. 2.  I go for a walk for that half hour, sometimes it is dark when I start out, but I love that quiet time and to see the sky lighten.  I pray, meditate, deep

Way back in May it was international compost week and it got me thinking about compost. Of course by now the week is long over, but I still thought a post about composting seemed in order right now.  Here is my compost bin.  I have often posted about my compost bin, and have met others who say that a compost bin does not work for them.  These are a couple of my observations: 1.  Forget the hot compost/cold compost debate, as there is not enough surface area to hot compost.  A bin works best by being as full as possible.  As everything composts it reduces vastly in volume, so you need to be continually aerating the mix, but if you have two bins you can leave one to mature while adding to the other. 2.  Air is so important!  I mix up my compost with a garden fork a couple of times a week.  I have seen spiral shaped tools for this purpose that look to be quite effective.  My five year old bin is breaking on the top edge because I do mix so much and so vigorously, but think in the en

A couple of months ago, while we were having a little holiday down in Brisbane, my very good friend gave me a kit to make a bali bag.  I never seem to have the time to sit down and sew, but Monday was a holiday and  I decided not to put it off any longer. The kit has such gorgeous fabric that I thought I would try the technique out first with some scrap fabric from my stash.   Look at the little basket I made :)  First of all you cut long strips, sew them together and then fold them over cotton washing line, sewing into a long strip of cotton covered rope.  Then you begin to coil and sew with a large zig zag stitch.  I still need to work on my tension -my cheap little sewing machine was quite stressed.  Hubby made the suggestion that a nice new sewing machine might be on the list for a future birthday present :)   I mentioned that Spotlight have Brother sewing machines on half price specials at time to time ;)  I learnt to sew at 10 on my mothers sewing machine, and remember a lit

I think my theory this year has become to fill every inch of space.  Luckily MrFothergills gifted me with lots of seeds, and since I have a small garden I am planting seeds in any empty spot I see. The bok choy is doing very well this year, and I have not been shy with lettuce seeds, scattering them quite thickly.  I tend to like picking the small leaves, so there is no sense in spacing the leafy veggies out to give them room to grow to full size. With the lettuces I cut the outside leaves away, but with the bok choy I cut the middle out and it grows a whole new bunch.  We are having a bit cooler weather than last year, and so the snow peas look as though we might get a good crop this year.  I planted out two trellises. We have had a lull with pawpaws, I think they like more sunshine, not these overcast days we have been having.  I like to start my day with pawpaw and passionfruit.   One of these days I will have to lop the top off my tall tree so that it will send out branches at