Working!

Well after over a year of being unemployed I am finally back working. I am now a catalog deliverer.
I started on the 22nd of Nov. and so far it's been okay. Quite time consuming where bundling up the catalogs are concerned but I am loving the walking and the area I have is really nice. Winnie is a big help and has come out with me every time so far.
It's nice not to have to worry about the times when our business is slow and it will be good to be able to get things for my garden when I need them.
I am already feeling fitter and it's not as exhausting as I thought it would be, so bonuses all round.

Fruit Thief!

We could not figure out why we weren't getting any strawberries for the last week or so. Turns out we have a thief!
I was hanging out the washing the other day and saw a rat running along the railing of the fence that runs along the back of  the bed.
Rotten little blighter is not going to win. His execution is being planed!

Strawberry order.

This is just so I don't loose track of which strawberries I planted in the pipe.
From left to right;
Kamu Big Red
Alinta
Sweetheart
Cambridge Rival
Chandler

UFOs

Un Finished Objects.
We are in the middle of a big clean out of the house and I found these a couple of weeks ago. All my unfinished quilts.
They are all hand pieced and now that I am not working with my hands anymore I now feel ready to tackle these again.

  That last shot proves how much of a cat magnet quilts are.

The Blackberries Are Covered In Buds

Last year was our first season for our blackberries, I was surprised when we got quite a crop of fruit. This year they are totally covered in buds and I had to lift the curtain that I used for was stopping the blackbirds from digging up the mulch, so that the bees could get to them. It was nice to note that there were baby praying mantis in amongst them again this year too.

The Red Currants are RED!

Sorry, I am a little excited about this. Have been waiting on this fruit ripening for a while. With all the wind we had in early spring, I was scared that it would all get blown away but it hung on and is finally ripening up.
I have never eaten fresh red currants before and am really looking forward to it. Winnie wont let me try one yet, but I really, really want to, even if it's still a bit tart.
I am a bit disappointed with the black currant, as it did not flower this year, but there is plenty of growth from last year and new growth this year so I am hopeful for next season.

An afternoon of mosaics

Spent the afternoon finishing off the bases and line work of my mosaics. All I have to do now is fill in all the white on the sides and I will be ready to grout.

Studio Of Mosaic Art

Thought I had better do a plug for this on my own Blog, seeing I am running this one as well.
I am doing a blog for my mosaics teacher Bruce Long. He is an extremely busy man and also is not really into computers, so I have put this together for him. There is not much there at the moment but I am hoping to bet more going soon. You can see more of my work under Artist and student work and also under events there is an article that I just did on the Dalek that Bruce and his team put together.
Hope you enjoy.

The Studio Of Mosaic Art

Plant diary

This blog was meant to be a journal on what I do in the garden but I love posting pictures too much. So it's time to get it back on track.
Mulched the lemon tree today and fed both the lemon and back veggie patch.

House Moving Chaos!

A couple of weeks back we had our little house leveled. Living at the bottom of a hill is a little problematic in that all the water ends up doing through our place to get to the road.
We have had trouble with movement for over a year now, so we had the guy come in and check the house, it was soaking wet under there. Not good at all
So we had it moved. None of the tiles in the kitchen cracked either! (That was one of my biggest concerns.) And now Winnie is digging deep drainage on the hill side of the house to stop it from happening again too quickly.

Latest Mosaics Project.

I have been working on this on and off for the last few months, as time allows.
I have had two old cement plinths in my garden for years. They come from the farm where I grew up and are possibly older than I am. On was broken in half, the other intact and I had plans to mosaic them for a long time now and finally I am getting them done.

I cleaned both of them up with the high pressure water sprayer we have and I glued together the broken one with tile glue.
These things were turned out from molds on mass and are about as square as a dogs hind leg, so I have had to fiddle around with the design quite a bit.
I wanted something that was art deco in look, using very few colours and a simple design. I sketched out some ideas but putting the design together has been a very organic proses. Basically I have been making it up as I went along. 
I used mainly floor tiles for this and they are an absolute pain to cut, so I have to thank Bruce, my teacher, for doing the cutting for me. Also Lynda for getting the idea juices flowing for the side designs.
Anyway this is where I am up to now.

 

I still have to place the side pattern on one and then finish the line work. The filling in will be done in the same white that I have at the top.

New Strawberry Bed And Another Currant Bush

So we finally got stuck into fixing up the bed along the back fence, it's always been a bit of a mess and I only just planted my two currant bushes there last year.

Garden supervisor in place. Construction can begin.

Getting started.

The construction site.

All strawberries moved and new white currant planted. Pipes in place to hold bird netting.

 

We are trying an experiment and are growing some strawberries in a gutter and some in a PVC pipe to see how they go.

I also mulched with pine needles. They say the strawberries and currants love the acidity of the needles. The companion plant I have in here so fare is, borage, it is meant to make the strawberries taste better.

I am still deciding whether to plant blueberries and gooseberries. If I do, it will be a project for next year, I think I have enough to be going on with this coming summer.

The rain is still really good at the moment, but we could do without the really windy weather. Luckily we have not had any major damage and everything seems to be holding up well.

The Lemon Tree.

So we had a spot all picked out for the lemon tree. It was going to be out the back door and up against the back fence. Not a bad spot, plenty of light and not too much wind, but when we started to prepare the bed we discovered a problem with the area.
Our neighbors run a drainage pipe from one of their gutters along the other side of the fence and it stops around where the lemon tree was to be planted. When we planted another currant bush not far from where the lemon tree was to go we struck water about a foot down.
This will not be a problem for the currants, as they are in raised beds and it will actually give them an advantage in summer. But the lemon's root system would not be high enough out of the water and it would have drowned in winter.
This was where it was meant to go.

We will put veggies in here instead for this summer.
I was at a bit of a loss as to where we would plant our tree now. Winnie was the one to come up with the new site. 
I have a rose bed on the other side of the house and he said we could plant the tree in the middle of this. When we looked at it yesterday we found it was even more sheltered than the old spot. It was a very windy day and the middle of the bed was really calm compared to the rest of the garden.
It is guarded by trees on two sides and the house on one. The roses should protect the trunk of the tree from the westerly sun too.

So, plans have changed, but at least we will still have our little lemon tree.

Snail Hotels

Okay I have a confession to make. I like these little alien creatures. I mean what's not to love about that face!

But unfortunately my veggie garden and these little guys can't coexist together.  And I also have a really hard time squashing them too.
I have fed them dishes of beer, which they love very much and I imagine them dying happy and well inebriated, but it's hard to keep the dishes topped up and rather horrible having to scoop out the drowned snails and slugs in the morning.
So I have come up with a better solution; Snail hotels!
1) Snails like to hide under things, so if you over turn a pot in the garden and leave it, there is a good chance that snails will make it their home.
2) I also worry about how snail bait affects my worm population. And once it gets wet, it deteriorates fairly quickly.
So what I did was simply to put snail bait in a dish and over turn a pot over it.

You leave the snail enough room to get in under the pot and place these in areas that you know snails hide out. For added weather protection you can use a bit of twig or stick to block the hole in the pot. The snail bait stays dry and when the sails find this new home they have a last meal waiting.
About the only thing you have to remember with these is to top them up and also watch out for those pesky spiders, they like moving into these as well.
I also use an environmentally friendly snail bait, one that does not harm birds, dogs and cats. and I still sprinkle it around new seedlings, just till they are large enough to survive a hungry snail who is after a snack on his way to the hotel.
 So there you have it. I still don't like killing them but I do want my veggies. At least this way I can keep them under control.

Juice Fast part 2

Well it's a week tomorrow when I started my juice fast. It strictly wasn't really an all juice fast. I ate nuts as well and on the third day added a tin of plain tuna for protein.
Yesterday I had  a light evening meal. I am keeping with the juice for breakfast and possibly lunch too. The two things that I am trying to avoid at the moment are gluten and sugar.
My skin did improve some, but I think I have to keep with my changes for a while to see some real results.
One thing that this exercise has given me is more incentive. I have spent a great deal of time in my kitchen and have interest again in cooking, now all I have to do is keep up the momentum.
Winnie has also been dragging my arse out for exercise, which has been great.
One extra bonus of this is that I lost 3 kg. It's not really my goal to lose weight with this, but I could stand to lose some. My main goal is to tone up and get healthy. At 45, with rampant diabetes in my family, I can't afford complacency and I am getting sick of my lack of motivation for anything but sitting on my backside and doing not much. I am also getting sick of not feeling as good as I could.
I know this is not going to be a quick fix, and there is not such thing as a magic pill to do the work for me. I spent many years getting my body into this shape and I am realistic in thinking this is going to take a while.
So the plan is to have juice veg as much as I can, to try and give myself the right level vitamins and minerals I have been missing.
Eat healthy meals that use as little fat, gluten, salt and sugar as possible, as well as keeping away from processed food where I can.
And lastly not deny myself things that I like, but have them as they are meant to be; treats that are had on occasion and not on a daily basis.
It's time for long term changes.

Winnie gets the all clear for another year

It's been six months since Winnie had his second stent put in. Since then we have drastically changed our diets and it's a relief to say that Winnie got a good result on his on his stress test today and we don't have to go back to the specialist for another year! WooHoo!

Companion Planting.

I have always been interested in companion planting, ever since I started gardening. The idea of plants working together or against each other I find fascinating.

Today I gathered plants to put under my nectarine tree; Sweet violets, tansy, pyrethrum and chamomile. I have already planted garlic and am planing on planting a couple of strawberry plants under there too.
All of these are meant to help the three stay free of pests and help nourish it too. The ground around this tree can get quite dry and hydrophobic during summer and I am hoping these plants will act like a living mulch and keep the ground shaded and moist.

I also planted mint around my blackberries. It doesn't actually affect the blackberries themselves but it is meant to confuse harmful insects with their strong sent. I did find out though, that mint makes parsley grow better, which is great because the blackberry patch already has a great crop of parsley.

I am still leaning new things all the time about this subject and hopefully me garden with thrive on that knowledge.

Lemon Tree!

I have a number of projects that I want to get going this year. One is planting a lemon tree. So today I finally got one!
We are now the owners of a Lisbon Lemon. It's a beautiful and healthy plant and I am so excited to finally have it and a little nervous about getting things right for it's care.
Still have to get the bed for it finished but hopefully it will be int the ground in the next couple of weeks.

Juice Fast.

Okay, back to health.
I have not been kind to myself over winter. I slacked off on my juicing and started eating too much sugar again.
And my bodies been telling me what it thinks of all that. My skin is not good at the moment, even though I stopped drinking milk. And I have just not been feeling well in myself lately.
I have been skipping meals too, breakfast being the main one, sometimes not eating till early afternoon. All habits that are not good for someone who has diabetes running through the family.
I decided to go a little extreme this time, instead of just adding juice in to for my breakfast. I thought I would attempt a 10 day juice fast and see how I go.
With the way I am eating now it can't do any harm and if I don't succeed, I can always keep juicing for breakfast and lunch then have dinner with Winnie which is still pretty good health wise.

So this is the first day. Breakfast this morning was a juice of; Celery, kale, carrot, apple, parsley and cucumber.

I am using my cold press juicer so there is lots of body to the juice, it's not a pure liquid and is not oxidized by a fast spinning proses. An added bonus is I really like the juice and feel energized from it.
Now all I have to do is get through the sugar withdrawals. Blah!

Spring is hitting hard already!

Winter has been quite mild here, but we still got some good rain with it which was really nice, the ground is nice and saturated.
Now it seems we are getting an instant spring. The weather is already really warming up fast. We usually don't start planting some of the more frost tender plants till October but there has been no hint of frost and I am nervous that we will be heading into an early and hot summer, so I am getting suck in with my planting now, just in case.
My strategy is to plant things as close as possible this year, utilising smaller areas and keeping things well mulched.
If it gets too hot too fast I will have to abandon the annuals and just concentrate on the trees and berries.

I have already gotten into the blackberries and cleaned them up.

The lemon balm has self seeded in a couple of places and I want to plant some other mints in this bed too. I have left some weeds behind too. Dandelions, small oxalis and a type of broad leaf grass that is great for insect photography.
There is a nice crop of self sown parsley on the right and I want to add some other herbs too.

I took a risk and planted a herb garden this winter, shifting rosemary bushes and sage into a new bed and adding other culinary herbs.

The larger bushes have all seemed to have taken and it already looks good. I will add some basil to this plot, Winnie is using a lot of it in his cooking.

The raspberries are still getting cleaned up. It's hard to believe we ate the last fruit off of them only a month ago, I trimmed the last cane the other day.
I have planted veggies in the corner. It's a nice sheltered spot with really good soil and until the veggies take over this spot completely I will utilise the space as much as I can.

The lone boysenberry is till in the other corner. You can't see it very well because it's being dwarfed by the giant parsley bush and the pineapple sage that managed to survive last summer.
There are raspberry suckers coming up all over this patch and I'm not sure how well they mix with  the boysenberry, so I might have to shift it.

Well that is what is happening for now. the rest of the garden looks like a jungle and the weeds are huge. My mad weeder (winnie) has been working hard, but there is still a lot to do.
We are still planing out the new berry beds and the place for the lemon tree, that's going to be the big project this year and I will leave it for another post.

Worm Stations

Okay this is another one of those ideas that you find on the internet, as you do.
Worm stations; The idea is simple, you bury a pipe of bottomless container, with a lid, in the ground and use this as a worm farm/compost type system.
Now I do have my bathtub worm farm, but I very rarely take material from the top, because the worms are always still munching away on it, even though I change the sides I feed them on. I mainly use the liquid that comes from the bottom of the tub. So I thought that this was a great idea to get my worms out there into my garden.
The worms I have are tiger worms, they like compost and won't just live happily in soil, they need lots of decaying goodness to munch on, hence making them these feeding station.
So I took some old pots that I have and knocked the bottoms out of some, others already didn't have a bottom. and set up my stations, using terracotta pot bases as lids.

These were set up over winter and I am happy to say that the worms are still there munching away and they seem to be working will so far.
The big test will be over the warmer months. I am interested to see if they have a big effect on plant growth.

First plantings for spring!

Was feeling a little crappy this afternoon, but instead of going to bed I went and worked in the garden, just pottering around and putting in the first of the veggies for this spring.
Planted; Beans, lettuce, spinach and beetroot.

Koala sighting!

Well not much has been happening to my weedy winter garden. I did come outside today and try and catch some sun, but it keeps hiding.
One thing that did happen though is I saw a koala in our street. I have never seen one here before, not this far in town before, anyway. She has a baby on her back too.

Winter is here!

Well I have not been keeping up with this too well.  But then things are slow here at the moment.
Had my 45th birthday on Saturday, very relaxing and nice, nearly snowed too, that would have been some birthday present, but sitting home by the fire was nice enough.
On Sunday I went with my mum to a citrus workshop, put on by the, Diggers Club. We had a great time. The speaker, Ian Tolley, was brilliant, and even with a really bad cold, still gave a great talk.
I feel more confident about putting in a lemon now and will need to get cracking to prepare the ground for a tree this spring.

In other gardening events; The herb garden is put in, the raspberries are cut back and the blackberries are mulched and trimmed back, ready for spring.
The cold weather has finally arrived here, it has started feeling like a real winter for the first time.
Still lots to do, but now I have the excuse that it is too cold. LOL

Good news.

Well had a strange day today. I have been felling quite off lately. Tired, cranky, unmotivated and quite frankly just off and generally unwell.
So off to the doctor I went, thinking that perhaps things are starting to change for me, seeing I am around that age or close to it. (45)
So blood taken, tests done, and absolutely nothing found! which was unusual seeing I have been feeling so out of sorts.
But hey, I am not going to complain, especially when everything came back as, spot on or perfect. The only two things I have to watch out for are diabetes and strangely, vitamin D deficiency, both of which run in the family.
So what is going on with me? One of the things that doctor did suggest is that I am not sleeping right. That either I have sleep apnea, or my sleep is being disrupted from another source (Pokes Winnie and his strange nightly noises.)
So what to do? I am eating right, the tests confirm that, but I am not exercising much at the moment and that might be one of the reasons I find it hard to get to sleep at night.
I could also stand to loose a little weight, if I do have sleep apnea this will help. So exercise again.
So it is time to pull the old exercise bike out and also let Winnie drag me around the countryside.
Am I disappointed that they did not find anything more concrete to point to why I have been feeling so lousy? No, not really, the results I got are bloody good and I am thankful that I don't have greater battles to face. All I have to do is get off my arse and be more active, far better than facing something far more sinister and permanent in my future.
Time to get moving and hopefully that will once again get me motivated.

A Berry Nice Day

Went to the Diggers club berry workshop today with my mum and learned lots of practical facts on how to grow all the berries in my garden.
Some things I already knew but others were very interesting, like how my black currents and red currents should be pruned differently. Thrilling I know, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
And as a bonus it belted down today. Not great for traveling but it was good to finally see some decent rain for once, I just hope that this is finally the break in the season and it keeps on going.

The long dry.

I haven't really posted here in a while, simply because there is not much happening. We have had very little rain so there is no point in doing new things in the garden yet. I do have the stump of a Chinese cabbage growing on my window sill. Everything outside is just hanging on.
 I have been slack, too, with the house and I really need a shovel through my office, as I am going though all our papers (20 years of them!) and getting rid of anything we don't need. I am determined to purge as much junk and unnecessary crap as I can this year.
Things that I am proud of and happy with at the moment  are;
Getting a new grand nephew and the family is doing well.
Winnie's health. He is doing really well and weighs less than me at the moment.
My kitchen which is now functioning and running smoothly.
Getting the bookwork done on time, just and starting this years way ahead of deadline.
And finally getting a new washing machine! This one is not evil and doesn't shake the house to bits.
So that is all really. I am off to a seminar on growing berries this weekend which I am looking forward to. And I am starting to get into renovating again.
Once the weather truly breaks here I will be so glad to get back into the garden again too.

Wicked Garden Beds.

I am quite excited this morning, because I have found a system I think will truly help us with our water issues over summer. The principal is so simple and once you see it, it seems so obvious.
Basically it is like turning your garden bed into a giant water well pot, those pots that you fill a reservoir at the bottom to water your plants.

I will be researching this and definitely will be utilizing this system in my garden. I am hoping that this will cut down the summer water consumption in our garden and I will be able to spread out and have more production in the future.
Summer does not seem so depressing anymore.

Here are some of the useful sites I have found.

http://www.wickingbed.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35TU5aWRNjY&feature=player_embedded

http://sustainabuildsolutions.com/wicking.html

http://eatatdixiebelles.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/raised-wicking-worm-garden-bed.html

These are just a few sites to explore, there are lots more links out there.
One of the things that I like about this system is that it can be added to containers so if you have limited space you can set up a self watering container garden. Suddenly the old concreted rainwater tanks out the back, that I had no idea what to do with, are looking really, really good.

The Diggers Club Work Shops

Went to my first, Diggers Club work shop, here in the Adelaide botanical garden, yesterday. It was on, utilising the harvest and kitchen ideas. It was very interesting and my mum and I came away from it with some new ideas and of course, books. (As you do.)
I for one loved the recipes given out by the individual speakers, as well as listening to their personal stories and experiences. The atmosphere was friendly and relaxed.
I will definitely be attending some of the other workshops through the year.  The next one I would like to go to is on berries and seeing that I want to add more verities to my garden, this is one I am very much looking forward to.

http://www.diggers.com.au/events-education/workshops/adelaide.aspx

Waiting For The Change

Bunkering down for hopefully the last stinking hot day of the season. (Please, please, please!)
Everything is just so dry here and parts of the garden are resembling a dust bowl. I want to do little more than curl up under a fan, read and wait for the cool change.
I am itching to get stuck into the garden but have to wait for the first rains, before I even contemplate doing anything. The trees are already giving of the hint that Autumn is on it's way and we have had a few day,s here and there, that has hinted at the cold to come.
I have lots of projects I want to try and also lots of planing to do on how to make the garden more water officiant. With only about 10,000 gallons of water to play with during the dryer months, sometimes with no top ups in sight, it can be difficult to hold back on what you want. Instead of concentrating on what you can sustain. It can also get to the point where you have to just let go of all your hard work and give up till next time. Luckily this year things have gone well and we still have water to keep on going.
Before We started trying our hand at growing fruit and veg, I would go into my garden and tell the plants that this was it, they were on their own till the next season and those that did not survive would not be planted again, it's sad but just a fact of life in a dry climate and it is something that we have lived with for a long time.
Now that we are trying to grow edible plants, especially fruit, we have to start thinking of cleverer ways to sustain things.
So that is what the colder months will be for: How much do we plant, where do we plant it and how do we keep it alive through summer.
I still think that the satisfaction of having a garden far outweighs the hardship, life can be a struggle and things do not always go to plan, but that only makes the victories all the sweeter.

Lightning Tree

I have no idea if this is what I think it is. A tree struck by lighting.
A few months ago Winne was on the hill taking pictures in a storm when one strike seemed to come awfully close and he high tailed it back home. Just recently we went out walking and found this tree, and both wondered if this is where the lighting hit.

It is the only tree marked like this and the markings seem to be chard into the trunk.

And the weather was....Sultry!

It has been a strange sort of evening here. The weather today was hot and humid and I slept through a lot of it. Tonight we had thick cloud and thunder, but unfortunately no rain, Winnie and I have had fun taking photos, though and I thought I would share.

First shot is a rather bad one of a flock of pink galahs across the road in the playground. I used my little compact camera and of cause scared them all off with the flash before I got a better shot.

I got Winnie to take a couple of me and the new table in action. Still have to paint the frame but it works exactly as intended. I thought I would show one of me in my natural habitat, too, face stuck in the kindle.

And to be fair, one of the ever cheerful Winnie. He does love a good storm.

Here also are some of the shots that Winnie got tonight, as the clouds built up.
Is it my imagination, or does this storm have balls?

The cow just because I really liked the picture and the background.

Health Kick Part Two.

Ever had one of those moment where you kick the door, only that have it come back and smack you in the face?

Well this year has been a bit like that for Winnie and I.

A few weeks back Winnie went to see his heart specialist, he was having some concerns with chest pain. Nothing too dramatic, we weren't sure if it was muscular or something to do with his heart. Better to be safe than sorry with his history and that of his family.

So off to the specialist we go and six days later Winnie is in hospital for an angiogram, and yes they found another blockage. This time, though, it was 90% which kind of freaked us out.

It was only four years since he had the fist stent put in and now he has another alongside of it.

So what does this mean for us? Our health kick just got very, very serious. We have now cut a lot of things from our diets that are a no no and have gotten even more concious of just what is in the food that we buy.

Winnie was under the impression that he could get away with still eating a few of the things he liked because of the medication he was taking to lower his cholesterol, but he seems to be one of those that is prone to building up cholesterol very easily.

So we have gone a little extreme now, which will do neither of us any harm. I am in my 40s and Winnie in his 50s so we need to be more concious of what we eat.

So now we have even more incentive to plant our garden up with fruits and veg.

I suppose we could look at the start of this year as being negative but really it could be a whole lot worse. I for one would rather celebrate and be thankful that my husband is proactive in his health and did not ignore the signs and I still have him with me today, to carry on life's journey with me.

Nothing like a scare to get you going either, Winnie has already lost 4 to 5 Kg.

Back To Mosaics

It has been a number of years now since I did mosaics and I think the time and mood is right for me to get back into them.
I started a very simple project the end of last year and yesterday when in and grouted it and brought it home. You cant really see the colors in this shot, the green and red are quite bright.

It is nothing spectacular, just a very simple pattern using tiles that I had around the place. The table itself needs a good revamping, cleaning, painting. This will then sit on my front veranda and be my coffee table.
I am not sure what I will tackle next. I have a large concrete cylinder that has a cactus growing in it that really needs sprucing up. I also have a bird bath that is starting to look really tired and I think it would look good with mosaic.

The Last Of The Harvest

Well it is getting that horrible time between seasons here. Every thing is incredibly dry, the ground is baked solid and I am getting thoroughly sick of having to water all the time, just to keep things alive.
I am waiting for the time when I can start preparing for the winter crops, but before that happens we are harvesting the last of our summer produce.
The blackberries have been incredible. I did not think they would produce so much in their first year round. We have been really enjoying these sweet treats.

They were made even sweeter, when we saw what price they are charging for a small punnet of them in the shops, around $7.00!
I am going to miss them when they are all gone, but that will only make them all the better next year.

We have also started harvesting our potatoes. This particular one is called Royal Blue. They are a stunning color and taste so creamy.

We still have lots of tomatoes coming on, the feral seeds that came up in our corn patch are starting to produce now too. Amongst these there are two cherry tomatoes which we hadn't bothered with this year, so that was an added bonus.

The zucchini are going nuts and I am getting a good crop of them. Three plants are definitely ample supply for us.

So that is it for our little garden at the moment. I am now waiting for rain and dreaming about when everything will be green again, without me standing over it with the hose.

The Diggers Club

I just recently joined, The Diggers Club and got my starter pack today with lots of mouth watering goodies in there seed and plant catalogs.

http://www.diggers.com.au/

My mum has been a member for year and seeing that they now have a shop here at our city's  botanical gardens and are running workshops, I thought it was about time I joined.
They have an incredible range of old and unusual seed and plant varieties. I am looking forward to building up my garden with lots of goodies in the coming seasons.

Blue banded bee

Yet another shot of a blue banded bee. Caught this little one having a rest while foraging in my borage. They are also very attracted to the lemon mint.

Cacti

Years ago I started collecting cacti. They were an ideal plant to have with our climate and I loved them, so many shapes and verities. Unfortunately I they were heavily infested with mealy bug at one stage and I could not control these pests without some really harsh chemicals, so I lost quite a few. Some have survived though and I am just now getting back to these poor neglected plants.
I have had some nice surprises in amongst these, finding some I thought lost.
Here are some that are coming into flower now.

Plus those that I have started to repot.

Except for the one in the yellow pot. That is a tree. LOL.