Gardening is good

We spent this weekend camping with friends. It was fun and exciting and chaos all at once. The real purpose was for a 24 hour mountain bike race. But as a support crew member, it was not quite so physically draining for me. I got to enjoy some time with my lovely friends and cheer on my husband and children in their races. None the less, when I got home I was exhausted and my husband had a much needed nap. My children happily went for some garden/water play with my mum and I had a little while to rest...

Despite being tired, having washing to do and bags to unpack, there was something much more urgently in need of my attention. Ok, maybe it wasn't really urgent. But I desperately needed my garden time.

With the glorious afternoon Autumn sun shining on me I weeded, pruned and harvested. Gardening makes me feel so good.

The slow cooker is now simmering with tomatoes to bottle, there are huge carrots stacked in the fridge, my garden is looking neater and there are assorted seeds clinging to my merino top. I feel both enlivened and exhausted, and I'll surely sleep well tonight!

Pulling out the weeds?

We couldn't get down the garden path due to the overgrown, self seeded tomatoes. So I was ruthless, pulling them out and freeing the pavers from the tomatoes. I did think to snip off the little trusses of Tom thumbs, even though most of them were still green. Here they are now in a big bowl where hopefully most if them will ripen nicely.

Not a bad harvest from some plants that were basically weeds on the path!

This is what it's all about

We just collected seeds from the carrots and sowed them into the garden bed that has been prepared for winter veg. I love having the full cycle happening and what my children learn from it.

In fact, as we were watering in the seeds, my 3 year old told me about how yesterday he collected seeds from the sunflowers, dug holes, planted the seeds, topped them with soil from his digging patch and watered them with water from the 'little tank' that they fill their watering cans from.

I was both very impressed and wondering exactly how we will deal with the sunflowers that will soon be emerging in the lawn.

I get more done in my pyjamas

This weekend I have spent more time in my pyjamas than I have in a long time. With two teaching jobs, two kids in school, two school committee positions and too many other things to do, I don't get much gardening or house work done in my pyjamas these days.

But this weekend, you would be excused for thinking it was Spring with the amount of Spring cleaning and clearing out that we have done here.

Perhaps being in my pjs is my commitment to the task knowing I can't really just pop out to the shops or anything, so a long weekend at home had been fantastic!

Sharing a backyard space for productive gardening

I came across the sharing backyards website today on Susan's blog http://aslongasyouhaveagarden.blogspot.com.au/ (thanks Susan!).

After the article on the patch was in The Canberra Times, and again when we had our home open for the Sustainable Homes Open Day, we had people asking about how they can set up their own shared garden space. Although there are several community gardens around Canberra, an 'at home' alternative would suit some people better.

The Sharing Backyards organisation is not yet established in Australia, but is in America, Canada and New Zealand. Perhaps this is the answer to many questions, empty backyards and idle green thumbs?

http://www.sharingbackyards.com/

Fancy a cob?

I just picked this cob of corn and am about to toss it in a pot to have with dinner. But first I wanted to show it to you. The luster is gorgeous. The plump kernels look juicy and I'm anticipating their sweetness. The ear itself is quite large, which is great because I'm hungry and my kids have their eyes on it too. We do have more growing in the garden, but not quite ready for picking. So, pot, boil so I can tuck in!

Sun, glorious sun

How quickly we can forget a week of constant rain. With beautiful sunny weather and loads of washing on the line, the wetness of the past week are almost forgotten.

Besides the small annoyances of no flowers on the zucchinis and raspberries forgotten and rotten in the hard to reach spiky places, the garden is looking like it loved the recent down pour.

I am certainly looking forward to getting my hands dirty again and getting some more seeds in.

Cuddles on the couch for me this weekend

It is cold and rainy and I have a sick little girl. It doesn't really feel like a gardening day at all. There is weeding and tidying to do and more seeds to sow, but with all of this rain it almost seems pointless - the seeds will all be washed away!

So I'll cuddle on the couch and enjoy the opportunity to do very little and not feel guilty about it, because cuddles is exactly what my girl needs at the moment.

Something I'm listening to photo

I'm listening to the rain. It is pretty hard to avoid at the moment! The tank is full and the ground is soggy, but it looks like the rain will be continuing for some time...