I'm Julie, and I live Australian suburbia. This blog is the online journal I kept to record my family's journey towards living more simply & sustainably.

This blog is on indefinite hiatus but feel free to look around my archives for some inspiration in your own journey to living more lightly and sustainably. Please note that Blogger has 'eaten' some of my older photos which I am unable to retrieve at the moment.

I am now blogging at Our Simple Days, if you would like to stop by.


Monday, March 07, 2011

Garden dreaming...

My poor garden has been so sadly neglected but as my energy returns I have trying to do a little here and a little there.  Recently (um, in January, actually), fellow local blogger Tamara, from Thyme for Tea had a giveaway of a 2011 Permaculture Calendar which I was fortunate to win.  Because I am a slacker have been ridiculously busy of late, poor Tamara ended up having to post it out to me (thank you!), and serendipitously it arrived just in time for a day "off" and some lovely cool weather on Saturday.



Mmmmm, just what I needed; some terrific inspiration!




After an early morning raid on my local nursery for veggie seedlings (there's nothing like some instant gratification when you are feeling flat) and a very liberal application of mozzie repellent (oh my gosh, the mozzies are bad at the moment!) I was able to spend the day plodding away comfortably in the veggie garden.

With some help, I managed to get the gardens and paths weeded and three beds chook-proofed (I hope!) using bamboo stakes, some leftover drip-irrigation pipe (to form tunnels over the beds) and some bird netting pegged over the top.  Those beds have been planted out with greens and flowers - now I need to get outside and plant up the rest of the autumn greens I have leftover in my box of goodies.

Catch you later!

Cheers,


22 comments:

Aussiemumbecc said...

Glad to hear you are feeling better! I've been to my nursery twice already this week and yes it's always refreshing to say the least.

dixiebelle said...

Great work! We are on holidays for a few weeks, so going to get stuck into finishing some of our neglected garden areas too!

Today I conditioned the soil in one of our wicking beds (where I had taken out some yellowing, fruit-fly ridden tomato plants & collected all the green, non-pest ridden tomatoes!) and put in some Winter vege seedlings... though I am enjoying the last of the Summer harvesting from the other wicking beds, I am looking forward to doing the same to them soon too!

Oh, and your post reminded me to actually turn to the March page of our Permaculture Principles calendar!! (Aptly titled Obtain a Yield!)

biobabbler said...

Nicely done. =) Thanks for the new vocabulary word, mozzie. =)

Any chance of a picture of the present state of your garden (your recent work)?

Permaculture calendar--sweet!

Julie said...

Hi guys!
Aussiemum - All that tiny plant potential at the nursery gets me feeling optimistic every time :-)

Dixie - oooh, I want wicking beds, so am very jealous of yours! My parents are going to set up raised beds when they move so I may have to convince them to set up wicking beds (which wouldn't be very hard) & live vicariously through theirs ;-) Have fun on your holiday!

Biobabbler - ah yes, some good Aussie slang ;-) I intend to take some overall pics of the garden at some stage soon, as a couple of people have asked me about the netting. Just have to wait for some photo-friendly weather!

Cheers,
Julie

Joanne said...

A productive day in the garden is very therapeutic. Hope its all onwards and upwards for you now.

HappyEarth said...

Best wishes for you and your family for the Easter holidays Julie! :-)

Ally
www.happyearth.com.au

Pomona said...

Great to discover you - we live on a permaculture smallholding in the UK, and are trying to live a more sustainable, self-sufficient life.

Pomona x

Rob Towner said...

Looking forward to reading more :)

Jason Dingley said...

Wow! I was just looking at that calender a moment ago thinking this would make a great gift. Looks like it does.

To insure I give my garden the time it deserves I have done a number of things: 1. written a garden goal, 2. let everyone know my goal and its progress, 3. started a rotational garden group.

Katie and Reuben said...

So excited I just stumbled across your blog! We live in Sydney right now but dream of escaping to the country and living a self sufficient lifestyle. Can't wait to read more about your self sufficient adventures! Very inspiring.

Katie x

Madeleine said...

Hi, I’m enjoying reading your blog and I have given your blog a versatile blogger award. Please go to my blog (http://nzecochick.blogspot.com/2011/05/versatile-blogger-award.html) to collect your award. Keep up the great writing. Kind regards.

Lindsay said...

Lovely reading! A lifestyle to be emulated!
Lindsay www.clothingloop.com

Anonymous said...

Hi Julie, We haven't heard from you in a while, hope all is well with you & yours. from Jenny McH

daneastside said...

sounds nice.

Carolann said...

Hi Julie I am fairly new to blogging and am not sure if I have successfully joined your page. I wanted to tell you that I have had soap shakers manufactured here in NZ if others were interested as one of your previous blogs mentioned that they were hard to get. Have a look at www.selfsufficiencystore.com if you are interested. Cheers carolann

Anonymous said...

I hope you are OK. Have missed your posts.
Cheers

Zac Aldridge said...

Widespread knowledge is the catalyst for sustainability. As long as people understand how important alternative energy is, the majority will become impassioned by it. The only people against the green revolution are Republicans and oil industry executives. Consumers far outnumber them.

Sara Bell said...

My husband and I recently moved into a motorhome so we could travel all over the US (and parts of Canada). I am thinking about getting some of those hanging tomato plant kits so I can still have some semblance of a garden.

Alex said...

You haven't updated in a while. I hope that you're okay.

sarah said...

I continue to click on your page from my Bookmarks- hoping I'll see a new post. I hope you are well.... I miss your stories and advice.

kole said...

As the saying goes: knowledge is power (Francis Bacon) so we just need to keep spreading the knowledge.

Jeff said...

A great article! Hoping you'll be able to update soon, I've really enjoyed reading your posts :)

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