I Love my Greenhouse

Once upon a time, there was an oddly shaped corner of the garden that was getting very over-grown with unwanted spreading boysenberries. Obviously I want the original boysenberry patch - I just didn't want them spreading everywhere!

I had always wanted a greenhouse, and figured that this was the perfect spot! My lovely OH gave me one for my birthday which duly arrived in what he called "a lot of flat-packery"! And a 106 page instruction book! I kid you not - 106 pages ...

And I built it! It took ages, but I did it - and it looks fab at the bottom of the path ...

And now it's full!

I've planted up Diosma cuttings to extend the hedge around the perimeter fence; raspberries cos I "share" way too many with the neighbourhood kids; gooseberries cos I really want lots of gooseberries; Swiss Chard cos I planted too many seeds and the chooks love their greens; ginger or galangal and lemongrass cos it's so great to be able to say I grow them here in Canberra; and a tomato and a chilli plant that I may have managed to over-winter. And then - I planted up one of the two polystyrene boxes with tomatoes, leeks, beetroot, broccoli, onions, and sage. I also planted some apple and Lebanese cucumbers and some black Jack zucchinis in the six-pack punnets in the background in the top photo of these two.

I love my greenhouse!

There's something about July!

Well, after nearly two years of silence, I've got the urge to blog again. So, I'm baaaaaack!  There must be something about July that makes me want to write up and share what's happening in the garden because I started this blog in July almost 3 years ago.

Quite a lot has happened on the food forest front since the last time I posted. We've eaten cherries, apricots, almonds, nectarines, mulberries, apples, peaches, broccoli, shallots, onions, cabbage, beetroot, mandarins, tomatoes, asparagus, strawberries, raspberries, boysenberries, potatoes, cauliflower, pumpkin, silverbeet and countless other things I can't remember from the garden. The grand-girlies love feeding the chooks, collecting the eggs and exploring the garden.

 I have established the front garden and am hopeful the frogs might move in this Spring and summer. The garden beds are full of chives, strawberries, garlic, asparagus and flowers for the bees. And a broccoli plant that just gives me the best seeds ever! So I keep it going ...

And then last year, for my birthday, my lovely boyfriend (who I've been married to for nearly 30 years!) bought me a proper glasshouse! It arrived in what he described as "a lot of flat-packery" and I set about constructing it. It took about a month but look!

I love it so much, and you can see the mandarins peeping through the foliage of the hedge. I love this too! 

And, despite being away for the whole month of April, we've managed to harvest bucket loads of tomatoes right up until about the end of June, so I got a cupboard full of preserved tomatoes and chutney.

The mandarin hedge is also developing nicely as you can see and we've had so many mandarins this year, I've had a go at mandarin marmalade. Yummy!

We have six chookies these days. Three young ones, two of which are part-Australorp, part-Isa Brown and a white Leghorn, dear old Lexie, the last remaining of my friend's flock who came home with use after shed looked after the others for me last year, Minnie the Moocher the Light Sussex and Big Red the Wellesummer.

I make all our own bread, and we still cook most of our food from scratch. The chicken pate below is from a blogger I followed a couple of years ago but I can't remember who it was. Best pate ever and so easy! Thanks blog-land.

Well, that's it for the update for now. Talk soon.

Greenie x

Morning Coffee

The view from our coffee shop! Aaaaagggghh! Life's good

Boysenberry Bakewell Tart

Yum yum - the last of the summer's boysenberries went on this wonderful Bakewell Tart on the weekend. Mmmmm Mmmmmm

Aaaaah! Blessed Sunday

A wonderful Sunday full of relaxing, knitting and baking. Our weekly loaves and some White Chocolate and Lime Cookies! Yum yum

A Good Friday

Productive day today - cooked up a big batch of our staple tomato pasta sauce. It used up just over 2kg of my tomatoes, some of which were beginning to look a bit tired, so it was good not to waste them. Also picked about 350g raspberries, and planted up my garlic in one of the front beds. I must show you some pictures of the front yard's transformation. Perhaps tomorrow ...

Get me outa here!

The punishment for spending the night in the trees!