Friday, November 16, 2012

2012 Garlic Harvest Begins .........

It's time........
2012 Garlic Crop
to start harvesting........  

Mulch removed from the pathway
mulch is removed from the pathways and transfered to cover the recently planted ginger ..........

Using the cutter bar to cut the roots of the garlic
then the roots of the garlic are cut so that it is easy to lift out of the ground ........

Lifting out to see the size and quality

oh, it's looking like a bumper crop ............


First row ready for lifting out
needless to say we are going to be very busy for a while :)

Monday, November 5, 2012

Sunday in the garden ...

During the week we have been busy sorting ginger ready for planting while DH has been preparing the paddock, spreading organic fertilizer and forming beds etc.  So come Sunday we spent it relaxing in the garden and while there we made a frame and covered the tomato bed with bird netting.   Yipppeee ..........


We used PVC and bamboo grown on the farm for the frame.  There are 11 tomato plants in this bed plus a Persimmon tree.
This bed holds the remaining 6 tomato plants and acouple of capsicum plants.
Plus my sweet corn for Christmas.
This is my second frame and this time I did make a few improvements on the first.
  • I wasn't so lousy this time and the added length made it easier to place the brick to hold the whole thing down.
  • DH adjusted the leg length of the frame so I won't hit my head when I go in and out.
  • I made the door opening differently and it is now easier to access.
My first covered frame looks pretty sad in comparison to the others and is looking bad enough that I feel the need to re-do it, but this will need to wait until the ginger is resting snuggly in the ground.  I have made two jars of strawberry jam so far with enough for another bottle.  A far cry from my vision of rows of bottles of jam in my pantry but it is a start, it wasn't that long ago that I thought we'd end up with zilch.
 
So all is on track - my goal - to grow enough tomatoes to make pasta sauce.  I have never done this before so it will certainly be a learning curve for me.

Happy Gardening everyone!

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

One Christmas Item a month ....

Although the idea is to make one item a month, for one reason or another it hasn't quite worked out like that around here.
 
But never the less, I have three items put away, and on a recent shopping trip called into Spotlight and picked up some fabrics and nick naks with this in mind.

Going for a "Shabby Chic" look
Sorry about the cryptic photo but these are intended for presents.  Using the same materials, just put together differently, I have made three of the five presents so far.  I am going for the "Shabby Chic" style probably crossed with a bit of crazy patch.  This should then bring me right up to date.
 
Happy sewing everyone!