Africanaussie

Most times towards the end of the year I start looking around for ideas in which I can share my love of gardening and crafting and baking with those I love. One year I dried herbs in the microwave and they dried nice and crisp in 30-60 seconds.  I used a mix of Rosemary, mother of herbs and kaffir lime leaves and lime peel. A tropical herb mix from my garden, and a recipe for  stuffed vegetables stuffed roast vegetables, it is very yummy.  So easy to slip the packet and recipe in with a Christmas card. One year I crocheted snowflakes - check out all the free patterns  here at Cratsy   I also made crocheted angels. There are some angel patterns on Interweave , so nice to be able to share free patterns.  Either of these can just be slid into a Christmas card, making it just a bit special. I love to make gingerbread men, biscotti and shortbread as they are easy to put into little cellophane bags and tie up with a pretty ribbon. One year I ...

I have been busy every spare minute getting the veggie garden organised.  A couple of weekends ago we were looking at the swale/hugulkuture area, and thinking that the front part with the raised beds looked so nice and neat and didn't want to have the back area looking untidy.  Here you can see the small hand dug swale area and raised area mostly consisting of roots and branches behind the two raised beds.  I have only ever read about swales in large areas, and the same with hugulkulture, so would it be possible to combine the two into a raised bed system, and have another raised bed behind the two - essentially having the hugelkuture contained in a raised bed?  Our nearest Bunnings had run out of the same type of raised beds, so we ordered one in, and last Sunday went down to pick it up.  I had hubby assemble it, while I dug out around the mound I had created - the hugelkuture mound - I love saying that word :)  I popped it right over the top, added ...

Since I last posted there has been lots of digging going on.  Two trees were removed - a moringa in the herb spiral and the barbados cherry in the veggie bed. Those roots were everywhere, and I think were robbing the veggie beds of nutrition.    This is looking from the back, and I have collected the roots that I dug up to go into the high part of the swale -  as these roots break down they will add to the soil structure.  I am also going to empty out the compost bin and cover it with soil for the same reason.  You can see here that the soil is lower at the back of the beds and then rises up to the swale.  I still have leveling and digging of these paths to go.  I am not sure what I am going to do with the bed alongside the fence.  I like the idea of a row of those wicking polystyrene boxes as I like to  grow solanacea family in them as I have bacterial wilt in the soil. With the rest of the garden looking so nice and neat, will the ...

Having done two overseas trips this year, and suffering drought conditions which led to water rationing for a year means my poor little garden has suffered.   My hubby did his best to keep watering at prescribed times, but we have had high winds, and then also visits by plenty of bandicoots.  They find a way in through the smallest possible little gap under the fence. This has of course been very frustrating, and I began to wonder if in fact I really do love gardening.  It is all so hard.... miserable .... depressing......Oh my gosh I got myself into a deep place of miserableness.  "Hello"  said the flowers on the dragonfruit, cheering me up a bit, and the golden candles seem to be thriving in this weather, Plus ....Yes!  there are lychees ripening, and I am sure there are other creatures watching for the minute they are ready to pick, just as I am!   After having the family over for  a breakfast out in the garden, hubb...

I saw fennel on special last week and bought a nice big bulb for $1.00.  I always think I should like it, but then often when I get it home it doesn't live up to its expectations.  I tried roasting it and it never really softened, I thought you could roast anything and it would improve the flavour and texture!  Roasting vegetables is my very favorite way of cooking vegetables, and every week I roast a couple of trays of vegetables.  So while my tray of vegetables was roasting, I decided to make up a salad with the fennel. The one that had caught my eye combined apple and fennel, and whenever I am juicing a lemon I will grate in the rind - do you do that?  It adds so much extra flavour.  The following day I sort of combined everything for my lunch and it was AMAZING.  You have to try this.... 1/2 large bulb chopped or finely shredded fennel 2 apples, cored and sliced juice and grated rind of one large lemon 2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil s...

I have mentioned before that once a month I have a group of friends get together and we do some sort of craft and share a cup of tea.  I do love these get togethers and so far it has mostly been me sharing some sort of craft.  We have done t shirt necklaces, crocheting granny squares, crocheting net bags, and sometimes we just bring along whatever we are working on at the moment. Last Saturday we made rag quilt bags.  You might remember me making a memory quilt for my daughter  here  that I will be taking to her in September. the weekend before I made up two different types of bags - it is so much easier to do them if you have one in front of you.   My rotary cutter decided that it had done its time, and there was no replacement in town, so I was beginning to get a little worried.  On a whim I asked my neighbour, who luckily had  a spare that she had picked up at an op shop ages back.  I was all set, I had a bunch of spare fabric, ...

The lady slipper orchid is beginning to flower again!  I have a few dichondra in a hanging basket, and like the way this is becoming the "hanging garden"!  I never tire of these beautiful flowers, and the fact that they are growing in my garden fills me with such pleasure.  The vine needs to be cut back so that it doesn't take over the entire garden.  I want light to be able to get in, and it also strains the branches of the weeping tea tree it scrambles over. In other orchid news I cut back the plants around the back fence, letting in more light and neatening it up a bit more.  Often when one does such a thing though it can still look a little messy for  a while until new shoots start to fill in the bare areas.   All my orchids need a bit of TLC, but they have survived the neglect pretty well. My phalanopsis has two flower spikes!  yeah!  They all got a good dunking in some seaweed solution.   This little...