Spring back

 

Early September, 2022

In Australia, it's early Spring. If you live near the Toowoomba region, you know it's Carnival of Flowers time. The annual celebration for the Garden City. This year though, Spring represents a whole new way of life for me. It's the place of regrowth, from a rather harsh prune in my personal life, last year. Come have a wander around my garden, and catch up for a spell.

Prop boxes

Growing plants & making new ones

I was going to share my propagation boxes, once I finished the first month. To track progress during that time. However, after receiving a question in the comments section of my last post, I thought, why not share what I know to date? Like, where I first learned about prop boxes, different growing mediums to use, etc.

Winter Hiatus - Hello Spring!

 

Plant alter

So I missed winter, on my blog completely! It's been a peculiar year of big changes. We're on the last push to finalise David's family estate, and our eldest moved into town with some friends. So many things had to be rearranged, moved, stored and eventually used. It's an ongoing process. This is some of what I've been up to lately, in our new outside area.

The potter planner

Making words with lego

Hello again, friends. Where have I been for the past two months? Like most parents during lock-down, our kids started learning from home with study packs. Getting creative with lego and playdough, made it a little more interesting - but all things come to an end. They returned to school, a few weeks ago. I'd like to say, that's when I caught-up with my property projects. They've been heckling from the sidelines, to come finish them. But I needed some unstructured time to myself, first.

Kitchen garden expands

Late summer, 2020

Happy to report, another 23 mm came through the rainwater gauge, in the past 24 hours. Great news for food production. But my journey in this department, has taken a few twists and turns. Like starting my Kitchen Garden in the middle of 2018. It enabled food production in containers, by economising water. With the added advantage of being close to the kitchen. Almost 2 years later, I'm totally in love with this area. So always looking for ways to expand it, and make more resilient!

Catching up

Stella's frangipani (a departed friend, whose cutting we cherish)

Hello new year! 2020. I didn't mean to be away this long, but life kind of happened. Like recovering from Christmas, then a stomach bug which took me and our youngest out, for a bit. In early January I pulled my trapezius muscle, from my neck all the way down to my shoulder blade. Typing was not an option. I'm much better now though, and both kids are at school for another year. So like our pink frangipani, life is just blooming along.

Knot a problem

Hanging around

Some of my earliest memories in childhood, was watching my mother make Macrame. I'd see her surrounded by never-ending cord, that would magically get shorter after a while. She made the most beautiful fruit basket holder. It was wide, tall (ceiling to floor) and I could pretend to get tangled in the longs strands. Quite a few times, she told me not to pull on the tail. I could play underneath, if I didn't pull! So I was more than delighted, to try my own hand at Macrame knots, recently.

Free things

Peekaboo...

David surprised me last week, when he came home from work. The aged care facility he's employed by, had some plants and containers to discard. Or at least, no-one wanted to look after them any more. There were some mature specimens, inside the pots, and even a metal owl companion, found it's way with some succulents.

Terrarium

A procession of plants

My window sill, at the kitchen sink, is starting to look overcrowded. It's a brightly lit area, I help plants get a headstart here. Some are intended to be permanent residents though, I have yet to introduce to you. Others, I have already shared - such as the pear scions, I'm attempting to root in soil. No doubt, I'll eventually mention some of the other plants, but for now, it's onto re-purposing something, near and dear, to my heart.

Indoors garden

Ivy - see update (below)

Yesterday, was filled with new tasks I've set myself recently. All to do with bringing the outside, inside. Or creating space for indoor plants. It's something I've been researching and wanting to do (successfully) for a while. In the past, I've failed at keeping plants alive. So I haven't rushed into filling my house with plants again. Not until I was confident, I had the crucial information required.

Plant saga - success!

Finished, winter 2017

When I did a minor bathroom renovation, 2 years ago, my intention was to bring some of the outdoors - inside. Because cleaning a bathroom, can be mundane work! I love gardens though, and everything green in them. So what better, than to introduce a green feature-wall to the bathroom? Once complete, the next challenge was to introduce a living element to the bathroom. Anything, has to be better than mould, right?

Zone Zero

A new friend

Coming out the winter hibernation period, I've had a wave of ideas to sort through. Because normally this time of year, is our dry Spring. We occasionally get a wet one, but more likely, they're dry. Actually, since 2017 rainy season, it's been dry all round. Every season! Which presents the dilemma, of what to grow? Especially, when there isn't much water to spare.

Kitchen garden in winter?

I had an unintentional blogging break for about a month. We're hanging out for rain, mostly. Then there was the season of sickness, which visited during winter. Thankfully, we've all turned a corner now, and able to get back on the horse for Spring!

Oh, but hasn't Spring been a fickle visitor, this year? It appeared in late July - which for the southern hemisphere, is supposed to be winter. Temps have regularly been 29 degrees Celsius, lately (84F) during the day. Luckily my Kitchen garden isn't struggling. I'm learning more from it, with each change of season.

Kitchen garden, late August

This is the only part of my garden, that gets watered regularly now, so it's economical on our water resources. We're on our last water tank, and if it doesn't rain in the next 2-3 weeks, we'll have to order some water in. It's motivated me to consider more water tanks - specifically for the edible garden, so we don't have to tax our house tanks any more.

In true permaculture fashion, I'm thinking small and slow solutions. So it's going to be a low tech set-up, and much easier to install than our last house tank.

A splash of colour...

I've learned plenty of new things about my kitchen garden, lately. Like, how it's a waste of space to grow ornamental kale. No matter how attractive it looks, it's just not a regular producer. Maybe if I was picking it more, it would be more productive, but then you lose the appeal. It's taken so long, to get any size to the heads anyway. This red ornamental kale, has been the slowest growing plant in my kitchen garden.

So maybe, looks aren't everything...?

Another ornamental kale, going to waste

More than that however, the flavour and texture of ornamental kale, is somewhat lacking. It's leaves are tough, flavourless and take up a lot of space in the pot. Whereas, my curly leaf kale (in my hugelkultur beds, formerly) grew more vertical, and took up less space Especially when picked regularly. Plus the flavour was worth growing it for.

I'll be feeding this kale to the chickens. Which is great news for our feathered friends, but is wasted growing space for our tummies.

New productivity

My plan soon, is to remove ornamental kale from the kitchen garden, and replace with Pink Thai, cherry tomatoes. They're meant to be split resistant too. I germinated seeds on my seedling mat, in the first month of winter. They're now outside, in a large plastic container, so I can close it in, at night. This stops rodents from eating them!

The reason I've selected the cherry tomatoes are, getting more production from the small space it occupies, in a container. Which is what I've learned from my container garden. When growing vegetables, and it's near the back door, make sure the plants are productive ones, you will eat regularly.

Sweet fruits

Strawberries have proven themselves to be very productive in this department too, and act as a living mulch for the container soil. I've yet to learn how long strawberries produce for, in my climate though. In the meantime, new tomato seedlings should do well, planted amongst the strawberries even when they do stop producing.

The strawberries have also proven to be a winner, with the kids - as I hoped they would be! Fortunately, I haven't experienced any problems with birds stealing them. One went missing earlier, but I'm sure it was one of my own little fledglings *wink*.

 Left to right ~ Cos, looseleaf lettuce, & Marvel of Four Seasons

The clear winner though, would have to be the mixed lettuce varieties. Why grow just one? I've enjoyed seeing how they all perform and taste. The looseleaf lettuce, sprawls outwards, while the Cos lettuce grows upwards. The Marvel of Four Seasons variety, is hands down, the tastiest! Although I suspect I will have problems growing that particular variety, during summer. The Cos should be able to continue growing, however.

Lettuce is a living plant, so doesn't lose it's nutritional value the longer I leave it - unlike, the head of lettuce, languishing in the fridge crisper, waiting to be used up! I love that I can leave my lettuce in the pot, and pick it fresh, every time. Best taste and nutritional value! Definitely a keeper in the kitchen garden - weather permitting.

Thyme, basil and oregano

Of course, the herbs are doing exceptionally well - as you would expect them to. In fact, my oregano is threating to overrun the pot, so much so, I'm going to have to prune and dry some soon! The mint (not shown) is also putting out new runners, so really, herbs in pots are clear winners too. I will have to add more parsley though (not enough) and I've germinated some welsh onions (spring onions) seeds, to increase supply as well.

What I can see I will need to address, as the hotter weather moves in, is some kind of shading system. Or these pots will be toast!



To summarise:

• Remove ornamental kale - poor production & flavour
• Keep strawberries & lettuce - great production & flavour
• Add cherry tomatoes - great production & a split-resistant variety
• Herbs - add more, more & MORE!
• Overhead shade for summer

Do you have any tips for container gardening, or how to get productive in small spaces, when it comes to growing food?

Kitchen garden update

It's been a month, since setting up my new kitchen garden. I was watering every other day - but only a light sprinkling. Just until the shallow roots delved a little deeper, into the potting mix. Even though the temperatures were milder than summer, the soil was still drying out. As we hadn't seen any rain for many weeks.

Over 4 weeks ago

This was my kitchen garden, newly planted, in early June. This photograph was taken in the late afternoon, as it took most of the day to set up. Being quite advanced specimens too, it greened the area nicely.

It's quite a lovely place to look out, while sitting at the dinner table. But it's amazing what a month of growing in winter (in the Sunshine State) can do.

Today

Taken, late morning this time, you can see how much sun the plants are given. I haven't had any curious kangaroos, take a nibble yet. But they have other places on the verandah they frequently visit - noted by their little nuggets of poop. For those who've never seen kangaroo poop before, imagine rabbit pellets on steroids.

Which actually gives me a great idea. I know, right? Poop and gardening. It's what makes things grow! In containers, once the nutrient in the soil runs out, you need to add more. Time to make some fermented tea fertiliser. I might as well DO something with those pellets, my kangaroo friends left behind!

Lettuce, front

Silverbeet, dwarfed on other side (not as much sun)

From the kitchen garden however, I'm snacking on lettuce leaves and picking herbs for cooking. It's a small supply, to be sure. Sometimes I have to venture to the wild parsley which has seeded itself in my garden. I did that for pizza the other night. Lots of parsley! I still consider this garden, a bit immature though. Growth is slower in winter, so how I browse it, has to correspond.

The kitchen garden experiment has worked successfully. The only downside, is not having enough supply. Maybe when the silverbeet grows big enough to pick, that will change.

Recycle waste

I'm always on a journey of discovery - learning new ways to deal with old problems. I like to extend potting soil I purchase, for propagation and plants I keep in containers.

I use coffee grounds, from my husband's work, to help in this endeavour. I've also been known to use sand and compost too. All of which, can set like concrete if it dries out. Which means, dead plants.

I found a solution, in a waste product I have to deal with every few weeks...

Vacant for cleaning

We once had two guinea pigs, but one passed away, last year. Now we just have the remaining one to look after. She lives inside for the most part, and I bring fresh greens, a couple of times a day. We buy wood shavings from the local produce store, to line the bottom of the cage. Which I then have to clean out, every few weeks.

Previously, I dumped the spent shavings in the compost, but we gave up making compost in piles. We prefer to place all our food scraps, either in the chicken coop, the worm farm, or in the banana circle. But then one day, I decided to experiment with this waste product, in a different way....

What is this?

It's a terrific soil extender, for my potting mix. I had about 15 litres of a bag left, which I already extended with coffee grounds and old bark - sitting in a pile for years. But it was also setting like concrete, when it wasn't kept moist. Most plants like to have damp soil, but not drenched, so I had to fluff the mix up with something else.

I used about half of what was in the cage, to match how much potting mix I had. Then I mixed it all together. A wheelbarrow came in handy, for ease of mixing, and so did my son's smaller shovel (a Christmas gift, for gardeners in the making).

Ready to use

I stumbled on this trick, several months ago, and it keeps the moisture in the soil, without needing to be drenched all the time. Plus it doesn't set like concrete, should it dry a little - which can be damaging to finer plant roots.

Finally, I get nuggets of guinea pig poo, and guinea pig hair, as slow release fertiliser. So I'm pretty happy to have discovered this new way of recycling waste. I like how it's performing in the pots too - the plants are doing so much better.

Effectively though, the money I spend on the guinea pig food and shavings, are extended into my nursery and potting culture. I don't have to buy as much potting mix now, or any slow-release fertiliser. Nor do I use as much water. Incremental savings add up over time. It makes sense to simplify what we buy in, to do as many jobs as possible, on it's way out.

Do you have any secret ingredients, you use to extend potting mix, or a useful way to recycle waste from the home?

Plant saga

I mentioned in my bathroom reno post recently, it wasn't so easy to find a plant that could actually "live" in the bathroom. Turns out, plants have different tolerance levels of light, shade and humidity. I already knew that, but didn't realise how critical it was to an artificial environment, such as bathrooms.

I figured, I couldn't go wrong with a fern, as they love warm, moist conditions. But at the time, I wanted to use what I had - rather than go out and buy something new!

First choice

Enter my "baby panda" bamboo. I had successfully grown this in a pot, in both full sun and indirect light, on my outside verandah. My mother loved it - anyone who saw it, loved it! So I divided it up and gave one to my mother, to enjoy. I had two smaller plants from that same division.

Given it lived in a range of light conditions on my verandah, I thought it was flexible enough for my bathroom. But within a month, my bamboo turned into this...

Poor choice

All the leaves dropped off! I've had this happen to a larger bamboo, when I transplanted it from the garden, and into a pot. In the first year, it dropped all the leaves that were conditioned to direct sunlight. It eventually grew new leaves, better suited to the conditions under the verandah.

So I knew I hadn't actually killed my bamboo, it just didn't like the new, lower light levels. The leaves that grew to live on the verandah, weren't suitable here. So outside my bamboo went, for rejuvenation.

Second choice

So then I was forced to consider buying a fern, from a reputable nursery. This was a maidenhair fern, which my mother would keep in a pot, indoors, so knew it should fair better than the bamboo did.

However, the Adiantum spp, from which maidenhair ferns originate, have over 200 varieties. And, each one is grown, in slightly different conditions, depending on the nursery.

When I looked at the above fern, it had harder leaves than the soft ones my mother would grow inside. Something told me, perhaps this wasn't the right fern, but I purchased it anyway. It turned out, even though it was grown under shade-cloth in the nursery, it still wouldn't thrive in the light levels I had in the bathroom. I took it back outside, before it defoliated, to the extent of the bamboo.

Third choice

So my lovely little shelf, was abandoned for many weeks. I didn't make it a high priority to find a better specimen, as I had too many important tasks on my list. But on a trip to Bunnings Hardware, looking to replace spent shovels, I found a fern, which I knew would fair better.

For starters, it was kept under a roof eave - a dark little corner, with no indirect light from shade cloth. The size of the specimen told me, it had been grown in similar conditions to my bathroom. Which is why it had those big, soft leaves I was use to seeing on maidenhair ferns.

Best choice so far

It's a Lady Moxam variety, which is a hybrid of the maidenhair fern. So a new cultivar. It has survived the longest of the other two in the bathroom, and is even putting on new growth.

My only concern will be winter. It likes temps no less than 12 degree Celsius (53F) and the heater only runs in the bathroom, when someone is showering. So we will see how it fairs through the cool of winter and heat of summer.

I suspect I'm going to have a range of plants which visit my bathroom shelf. I may be able to get my baby bamboo, back in, if I acclimatise it's leaves to lower light levels - as it's more cold tolerant.

So just like I move my pot plants around the outside verandah, at different times of the season, I will have to do the same with my indoors plants. As well as having a place outside for them to go, when its not the right time of year in the house for them. Is it worth it? Well, for a plant-nut like me, it is.

Do you have tricks of the trade, to do with keeping indoors plants, happy? A favourite plant for the indoors, perhaps?

Instant forest

I've enjoyed keeping my container plants on the verandah, over the years. My small plants, become quite big and soon graduate to larger containers. What I love most about keeping container plants for several years, is how they become an instant forest, wherever you want to keep them.

Only something happened recently, which made me have to find a new home, suitable for my container plants. Somewhere not too exposed, or too starved of light. We had to clear the verandah recently to complete a large project on it. More about that, umm...later. I don't know how much later, because it could go on for a while.

So where to place all these plants, which were mollycoddled on the verandah?

I had a big mulberry tree, over a swale. Literally, this was the only place I could think to place a verandah full of pots, which wouldn't cook them to death. The leaves will fall closer to winter, but they should hold for several more months.

Hopefully, enough time to have our verandah project finished, and I can place my plants back again.

The exterior of the mulberry however, gives very little indication of what's happening underneath...

Remember what I said about instant forest? Within the hour, I had moved quite a few pots, and some even David had to help lift. Thankfully, we had a little trolley that did most of the leg work though.

It shouldn't have surprised me, this instant garden effect. I mean, that's what container plants do! You can shift them to different places, for different effects. Pile them all together and you get a miniature jungle. But I was so in love with this new arrangement - I wasn't expecting it to look so natural.

The swale was perfect for holding all these containers. I kept a little ally in between the two rows, so I could water them, once a day. Now the weather is starting to cool however, I can probably get away with 2 days between drinks.

The container plants are loving it! They're putting on new growth and I thought it was cool under the mulberry before, but now it's a miniature forest kind of cool. The mulberry is benefiting from the new arrangement too, with the regular watering. The tree canopy, lets in dappled light and the under-story holds in any moisture it can capture.

So if that wasn't enough function stacking, in this particular guild, did I mention my little marcot experiment?

I'm hoping to get three more mulberry trees, by air layering on the branch themselves. Youtube has plenty of videos if you're curious about this method (marcot) as I was. It's pretty easy, once I had the materials together.

The birds have taken a keen interest in the shiny alfoil too. I find peck holes in the medium, and sometimes the alfoil comes away from their constant inspections.

We have success though...see the tiny root showing through the cling wrap? I really love mulberry trees, which is why I love to propagate them. If you have the space, do plant LOTS of mulberries! Or just one if you're limited. It took a few years, but I now have a nursery tree, where I can utilise the cool under-story, the mulberry creates.

Who would have thought that so much could happen under just one tree? I have a swale to help capture the moisture to hydrate the mulberry, a deciduous tree which regulates its canopy cover, according to the climate, a temporary nursery for container plants and it's also a propagating area. Oh yeah, and it also produces delicious fruit!

In permaculture it's called stacking functions, and its one of the reasons I love the design principles permaculture teaches. If you're going to use energy for growing something, try to stack as many functions in and around it, to make the energy used, more efficient. 

Do you have a tree or dedicated area, that does more than just produce one yield (ie: fruit) for you?

End of summer review

Goodness, summer was a bit of an adventure. So was spring. Now its autumn, and as everything starts to wane in the garden, its the time for David and I start to evaluating the property, reviewing what we've achieved. Namely, so we can figure out, what to do next, how to do it better, and possibly even what we should be dropping.

Not everything we try in the garden, works. In fact, a lot of what we try, doesn't work to its full potential. But as David likes to say, "we're doing the right things, we just have to do more of it." So autumn is the best time to see how the garden performed, against our well intentioned, efforts. So what did we do?

 August 2015

Back in late winter, I resurrected our old vegetable beds, which hadn't been managed for several years. I created four new growing beds to plant out. August was a busy month, because I also made a new sweet potato bed, away from the main vegetable area, they were attempting to dominate.

The sweet potato bed was a failure, because we didn't get the rain that would fill the swale next to it. We also had ground, around the bed, fully exposed to the sun. Moisture was quickly sucked out through evaporation. It was just another reminder, gardens work best with many functioning parts. Some parts, landscape water storage, some parts water retention strategies. Other parts, climate modifiers by the use of foliage cover.

We had one part right - the landscape water storage, via swale. But it failed when the rain didn't arrive, to fill it. In the end, it was just a huge sponge, sucking water I could cart by hand, to keep things alive. When I got busy elsewhere, our sweet potato bed, went into decline. If I know sweet potato though, it may well bounce back, next rainy season - but it won't be feeding us this season.

 Mid September 2015

The next job we completed in spring though, was the raised bed, built, around the newly renovated, Hilltop chicken coop. It was designed for several purposes. To grow strong scented plants, to deter pests: to grow greens I could pick for the chickens; and to create a screen to help block the Western sun in the afternoon.

The choko I planted, died. But we successfully grew Sunflowers and a a few beans up their stalks. I collected the seeds and will plant more, next year. We ate a few beans, like maybe 10 in total.

 Sunflowers, as a living trellis for beans

Mostly, we grew tall grass, really well though. Which helped shield the chicken run from the weather extremes, in the end. The kale I planted, fed the chickens, until the heat of summer, and lack of rain, made them too tough to eat. We got some tomatoes, which I threw into the chicken coop - a delightful (if infrequent) treat for them. And several spaghetti squash grew, which were enjoyed by us. I saved seed for next year too!

But it was not enough to say, this production area was successful. Saving seed is great and all, but we really needed to eat from the fruit of it. It gave us some things, just not enough of what we needed. And this bed, also went into decline, without regular watering and the heat of summer.

Vegetable production, early October 2015

How did the vegetable garden perform over the growing season, though? Well, it took off with Spring and the warmer soil, which gave us some delicious treats to eat from the garden. The guinea pigs were fat and the chickens happy, with what I could throw in too. I was thrilled with how everything was growing. It made the effort, to water daily by watering can, worth it.

 Yacon growing (centre) late October 2015

If the truth be told, it was a milder spring and summer, temperature wise though. We had many overcast days, which helped keep things a little cooler. I suspect if this hadn't been the case, my manual cans of water, may not have been enough to keep everything hydrated. So the weather worked in our favour, at the start.

Harvesting ~ November 2015

By early November, we were starting to see some harvests. We were never overwhelmed at any point, but it was enough to feel the difference between store bought and home grown. I was looking for ways to use our scarce offerings in our meals, rather than have them go to waste. That's what happens when you spend the time nurturing a crop. You want to see everything used. Plus they taste better than anything you can buy.

Finished retaining wall ~ February 2016

As the vegetable garden chugged along, in November, through to December, we were busy erecting a new retaining wall, opposite it. This was intended to expand our growing area, as the soil and passionfruit vines above, were constantly threatening the crops underneath. We hadn't used the area for growing vegetables in a long time, because of this constant invasion.

Now we could look forward to planting something underneath. What format would we settle upon though, when I didn't want to compromise the footings of the wall? More on what we came up with, at the end.

Christmas 2015

I was delighted, for Christmas lunch, however, to be able to make a peasant loaf, with fresh tomato and basil, picked from our garden. It truly felt like a luxury to have fresh food available, thanks to all our efforts. While we hadn't managed to harvest a lot from our garden (I keep repeating this) it was still memorable enough, to keep wanting to do more.

But then things changed in the garden, by mid summer. Between January and February, David left for five weeks, to boot camp. Where he would become...

March 2016

...A Private in the Queensland regiment of the Australian Defence Force. During his sustained absence however, it meant all the running of the property and our dependents, fell to me. It meant our garden, filled with so much promise at the start, stopped being watered by hand. I tried to keep up with the task, but I was quickly inundated by the rest of my responsibilities.

Those remaining months of summer were not kind to the vegetable growing areas. We didn't get much rainfall either. And it has been mostly dry all the way, into autumn too. Little showers, here and there, but not our usual amount to soak the soil properly. So my vegetable growing area, went from looking like this...

Main vegetable beds ~ February 2016

...to eventually, looking like this, today. Notice the difference in the grass, on the pathway, when the rain vacates for a sustained period of time?

 Main vegetable beds ~ May 2016

It goes to show, two very important things. Firstly, we were on the right track with starting the vegetable growing areas, we just weren't able to keep up momentum. Had we been able to, the garden would have severed us well and yielded more. Secondly however, and more telling is, it demonstrated how utterly dependent our growing systems are, upon us.

Which is why David and I are going to develop a new growing system, away from our existing vegetable patch. One that harnesses the natural forces which enter our property, and use it to our advantage. More on that later though. We're just getting the ball rolling, as autumn and winter are prime months for physical labour.

We aren't leaving the existing vegetable area, though. It will receive some upgrades. Especially, when we went to all that trouble, building a new retaining wall. We had something in mind, which shouldn't compromise the wall footings, and will actually improve the watering situation.

May 2016

We are building a series of Wicking beds. Because a can of water, received straight to the base of the plants, via the wicking bed system, won't have to contend with surface evaporation. This is especially important in summer. But more on our wicking beds, in another post. They deserve their relevant details expanded upon, rather than glossed over.

What David and I learned, after assessing our end of growing seasons notes, however, is that we need a more strategic approach. One which doesn't rely completely on the weather, or completely on man made systems. We actually need both, with many different variations in between.

Might I also add, we need imagination during this process too. It keeps our minds engaged, with exploring what's still possible, rather than focusing on negative feedback from what has failed. I can see the success we had at growing seeds for saving, and the small windows of production for us and our animals to eat - but it showed shortcomings, when tested. It makes sense to diversify and try different things.

I look forward to sharing our new developments, as they eventuate.

The edible corner

I'm a sucker for an empty space, and I simply love to plant stuff. So while I might have cleared, four new beds in my vegetable garden recently, that was no reason to ignore an opportunity to bring plants closer to the house.

If you have a verandah or patio, do use it for growing edibles. I've crammed in some parsley, basil, mint, spring onion, Mexican coriander, lettuce, celeriac, dill, and nasturtiums, along with some volunteer tomatoes, I transplanted from the garden. I seriously don't think I'll ever be rid of volunteer tomatoes, even if I wanted to be rid of them - which I don't.

I've used a mixture of styrafoam boxes, and clay pots. The green saucer is an old butter plate that got chipped. I can't use it for serving food on any more, but it makes a great water catcher, to prevent staining the concrete. Don't mind the pantyhose in the corner either - I chopped some for staking the tomatoes with. I'll need the extras, as the plants get taller.

I hope to add some more clay pots soon. I have empty ones sitting around the place, and can't bare the thought of nothing growing in them!

As it's on the western side of the house, I also need to erect some shade cloth. Especially since I want to grow lettuce here, without them bolting to seed. I also plan to utilise the chicken manure to make a tea from. There's one already on the brew, because potted, edible plants, really need the extra fertiliser.

At this rate, I think I'm going to run out of things to do in the garden soon.

Is that even possible?