Africanaussie

   A couple of weeks ago we had an amazing crafternoon, and learned to make kokedama! As expected, the very next week a few of us got together to make more! A wonderfully addictive craft - have you tried it? We used a recipe of 7 parts peat moss to 3 parts bonzai soil with enough water to hold it all together. I would suggest making a small one to begin with, we had a choice of mini mondo grass or jade plant. I chose the jade plant for mine. First of all prepare a small bowl with a piece of stocking stretched over the top, with the toe intact or knotted at the bottom. Line with spagnum moss which has been soaked in water. Make a little palm sized ball of the potting mixture, and then break it exactly in half, that is one way to check if you have the right texture. Insert the plant and continue to massage the ball so that the root is well contained. Pop into the spagnum lined pot and pull the stocking up and around. Add more moss if needed, and then tie the stoc...

 I am harvesting a few cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and lots of greens from the garden, which is good.  we have rain just about every day so I dont have to remember to water! I made up a few flower posies and bags of greens to share with friends, I so love to share what I have in the garden. Most of my gardening endeavors start with amending the soil. Even though I have a small garden I compost as much as possible, in as many ways as possible. My tumbling compost bin is my favourite, since everything is contained and vermin cannot get in, and also tumbling keeps everything nicely mixed. Recently I heard about aerated compost tea. http://www.carryoncomposting.com/441149730 I filled a sand bag with compost and tied the top closed, then placed it into a plastic storage bin. This was the biggest container that I had handy, and it made a fair amount of liquid. I topped the plastic container with water that had been standing for a couple of hours to make sure any chlorine eva...

  Here in tropical North Queensland I am so happy with my raised beds to grow my vegetables this year.  I grow from seed so didnt want to miss the beginning of the growing season.  Of course we never really know when the wet season is going to end, but most people rely on April or May being the time when one can plant out seedlings.   I started early, but wanted to stagger my plantings, so started off a few each weekend The greenhouse where I start the seeds is semi shaded, and I am made sure to water every day.  The greenhouse was a great buy, and I have had the first one for about three years.  I recently purchased a new one and then took the plastic off this one and added shadecloth so that is a place teenage seedlings go, where they have a little more freedom and exposure the wind and the rain, but not the hot sun. I mostly order all my seeds from https://www.theseedcollection.com.au/ - below is the list of seeds I recently received. They ha...

  Most people that grew up in the sixties would have explored the world of tie die.   Our tie dye t shirts proclaimed to the world that we were a new generation. Peace and Love!     Unfortunately, that dye was not very environmentally friendly and so I started researching the world of botanical dyeing.    Fabric choice: It turns out that fabric is either cellulose (plant based) or animal based.   Cotton and linen come from plants, and silk and wool come from an animal – the silk worm, or wool of an animal.   Animal fabric accepts dye much easier, and so does not need to be scoured, just washed gently. Scouring : In order to open the fibres to ready the cloth for dyeing, it has to be scoured, which means the fabric needs to be boiled in a mixture of washing soda and soap.    Use a large pot, preferably stainless steel, and only do as much fabric as will allow movement. In my large pot I scoured 5 dishcloths, 5 tote bags...

  For a while now I have been wanting to liven up the living room.   We recently purchased new furniture, but I was looking for a bigger change, and somehow thought that I wanted to incorporate the garden more into the room. Here you can see the garden through all three sliding glass doors in the room, but I wanted to bring that inside as well.   I began to bring more plants inside, but then what to do about the artwork?    I received an e-mail a couple of weeks ago that seemed to be the answer to my searching. Photowall, a Swedish company, contacted me and asked if I would like to try out one of their products.  I had been mulling over wallpaper or canvas prints, so to say I was super excited was putting it mildly.  In the end I decided on a canvas print to install behind the couch.   I thought committing to wallpaper was something I might regret, although looking at their gallery I was very temped. Our combined living/ dining room...

  I have been making and using beeswax wraps for about a year now. Reducing plastic in our lives is so important. Plastic never goes away, and it is really worrying to think about that fact. Micro-beads of plastic are showing up in the fish we eat, and the only way we can stop this occurring is to STOP USING PLASTIC. One way is to use beeswax wraps instead of cling-wrap. Choose pretty 100% cotton fabric, and cut it into the sizes you desire. You can pink the edges, or sew with a three point zig zag as I do. I buy my beeswax locally from a dear friend who sells honey, and I love the fact that it is a little bit rustic, and even sometimes has the odd little bits of unknown objects in it! I used to grate it but find it is easier to take a large knife and just shave pieces off it. If you get natural beeswax like this, then I would suggest you select fabric that does not have a lot of white background, as the wax tends to yellow it. You can buy beeswax pellets that are white...

Living in the tropics, I find that the soil must be covered at all times, either with plants or mulch.  The pine bark mulch at our local supermarket was on special, so I rushed in to get 14 bags.   I tend to switch what type of mulch I use in the garden over time. Last year I used hay mulch, and the time before it was peanut husks.    Of course, all the time I also have lots of leaves falling from my lychee tree.  I do pick up a lot of those leaves for the compost, but plenty lie under tree slowly forming leaf mold.   They can draw nitrogen from the soil as they break down, but I find a sprinkle of home made  compost on the leaves every now and then seems to fix that problem.  The first area I added the mulch was the little bed right outside the bedroom window.  I had weeded that bed the day before, and removed the mondo grass edging as it was getting too invasive. I think the ground orchids will grow well in that area now. Those ar...