Guilding the garden.

[Michaelangelica]

Good work
I often sit in my "garden" and watch. Watch how the raindrops fall on leaves
Watch how the bees move. What flower do the choose what do they leave.
I like taking photos too, and often sit for a while waiting for the sun to be just right.
I am building up my wildlife now, lots of noisy frogs,
beautiful sleek lizards with a golden slash down their side.
The problem with my garden is, I do too much sitting.

[eco4560]

I second Annette's comments. I don't always reply but I always read. So keep posting even if it looks like nothing is happening!

[mischief]

I am glad you all enjoy it too.
I think perhaps I do alittle to much sitting and watching too, when I could be doing something.

I checked the 'blue' cheese today.
I did have it in the fridge wrapped up and then read it should be somewhat warmer so out it came back on a plate in the cupboard.
The kitchen smells.
Of cheese and Blue, so I checked it and it is covered in a blue stain.
I decided to prick it all over but had to use a sharp knife cos I couldnt find Any of our skewers.
I'm starting to get excited again.

[mischief]

I found two of Houdinis nests.
There was one in a hollow beside the plum tree that had 6 eggs in it, very tasty they were too and more recently found one along the hedge with 6 in it, which were also very good.
She definitely isnt happy now that I have been successful in stopping her from getting out on her own.

Unfortunately, she has made me realise that I have fascist tendencies!!!!
The last time I watched her get out, she had spent all day looking for a way out,I know cos I spent the whole day in the garden.
When she finally did manage it, my first thought was that if we were ever allowed to have a rooster, she would not ever be allowed to breed-she is far too intelligent......oh no....

The dome is now in the bed right next to the broad beans, I thought they would have done their thing by now and have been trying to figure out how to lift the dome over the beans,not going to be easy.
The last lot of wind blew them about so I got some stakes and baling twine to hold them all up again.
I could have trotted the dome right around the other side but I had already planted the last bed out when I thought of that.
Still I have two weeks so maybe they will hurry up for me.

The last three beds the dome has been on are the ones that run through the middle of the garden.
I have wound up joining these all together with a temp path running through the middle in line with the one by the compost bin.
I was going to leave it as all one bed but then realised that I will want to cart clippings from the truck across there at some point so it would be wiser to put the path in now.

I started off planting rows of potatoes which then became a wiggly worm row so I didnt have to replant the self sown pumpkins that are right next to them- Im pretty sure they are queensland blues.

SO the first part of the bed has a u shaped double potatoes row with the pumpkins in the middle.
Then next are all the sweet corn that got saved from the earlier beds along with the remaining soy beans planted between the last two corn rows.
Then the middle path.

I needed to plant the black pindar peanuts so they are in the middle of a wide bed.
There are two rows of these 2 feet apart with probably 2 1/2-3 feet on either side to make sure they have enough room to put their pegs down and not be upset by the peppers on each side.
The peppers are still too little to put in but they should be in by the end of the week or next week.

Then there is another temp path separating the last bed.
That has the last lot of potatoes in a double row and a single-didnt have enough room for another double row or enough seed potatoes either.
Again I put them quite a way into the bed so I could grow things next to the path that I will want to reach more often.

When I planted to potatoes, I banked up the bit inbetween the single row and the double so I wouldnt need to hill it up- its already hilled.
Ontop of this I have some conehead cabbages with cannellino beans sown in a row between them
I swear if these dont come up this time I am not ever getting them again, so far every one of these I have sown even in pots or punnets has got this wiggly white worm and the seeds have pretty much collapsed.
Hopefully these will do better and as they are growing for drying, I'm not going to be wanting to harvest them as often as I would if they were needed as green beans.

I feel alittle like a mandala traitor now that I dont actually have an a la woodrow looking garden any more, but there were some good reasons for doing away with some of the permanent paths and the indented paths between the beds.
Lack of mulch for the paths was a major one , actually lack of mulch over winter was a major problem
Having to move the dome more often especially over winter when the ground got pugged was another.
So I killed two problems with one solution by moving the dome over half a wideth each week.
This means I can have wider or narrower beds depending on what needs to go in them and when I need to plant kumara in another bed this gives me another option as to where they can go.

I had quite afew cabbages ready to be planted so some have been put in between the earlier rows of potatoes along with some roquefort beans also for drying.

The oil seed pumpkin have been put under the apple tree in the front garden.
These have a big pile of compost around them and the whole area under the tree has been mulched with grass clippings.
It was quite nice to sit here smelling the roses that grow next to the tree watching the world wizz by.

The pumpkins on the roadside garden are doing really well.
These are the funky french type that will grow peanuty warts on them.

[mischief]

The blue vein cheese was fantastic.
In fact it was so good, my daughter took half of it with her when she went home.
I only had alittle bit left to grate up to put into the next batch, so far so good.
I do worry about the rise in temperature tho cos I dont have a proper cheese cave or fridge spare for this and am using a large tupperware container.
The other one I made wasnt so good,in fact it smelt and tasted revolting so it got chopped up and fed to the chooks who thought it was just great.
I did worry that I was poisoning them, but they didnt seem to be adversly affected at all.

Broody mum and the babes got moved to the dog kennel.
What a mish that was.
I managed to get two of the chicks and transported them with her shreeking like a mad thing.
I thought it best to move her next which didnt go down too well but all was good when I got he last two moved.
Next day I could only find 3 chicks.
One had got out and had a great time underneath their wooden floor eating all the slaters etc...
Finally got it back up where its supposed to be and filled the gaps in.
They do look alot happier with the extra room and air flow.

I noticed a curious thing with the pindar peanuts, alot of them seemed to be trying to grow upside down, with their little white roots waving in the sunshine, abit like naughty peckers actually-must be a northern hemisphere thing.
Those seeds got plucked out and turned up the right way and so far they seem to doing better.
I did wonder if they had managed to fry themselves in the hot sun but no.

The first lot of sunflower seeds were sown behind their tomato buddies and most have come up.
Those that got eaten by the starlings have been replaced.
I did not want to risk my pole beans so these have been sown in little pots rather than direct sown-I didnt save the seed from the purple kings for some reason and neither did mum, thinking I had, so there were only 6 between us.not good.
My two have both sprouted.

The Georges beans I got from Pippi have all sprouted and these will get planted out with their mates probably next week when they should be too big to be distroyed by nasty birds.

The seed sowing has gone alot better this year even with me using the trays that have the small individual pots rather than punnets.
This year I didnt press the compost down quite so hard-just firmly and of course the liquid fert every couple of weeks is probably helping as well.
Not sure if I have got the planting by the moon down past yet but I think that is better than last year too.

The neighbour at the back corner of the garden wanted me to cut the hedge down to chest height right the way along which I didnt want to do.
They have 1 1/2 acres to hide in while all our section is in the back yard.
I no longer desire the priviledge of nude sunbathing but still like the idea of wandering around the yard with some semblance of privacy.
So, I told him that I couldnt cos the winter winds blew the dome around when it was near the low part of the hedge.
We agreed that it would stay around the same height as the front neighbours fence.
He also wanted to cut down the trunk of the tree that grows in the hedge.
I pointed out to him that it actually grows over his side of the fence so he is well within his rights to cut it right out and that there would be heaps of firewood there if he took it as far to the base as he could.
I think he's silly saying he wants more light in that part of the yard- he's just planted a shit load of fruit trees around here which get all day sun in summer and most of the day in winter anyway.
Hehe,I did want to be surrounded by trees and he has happily provided a forest at our back.

The tray of asparagus was looking dreary so the plants got transplanted into one of the polystyrene box that had holes in the bottom.
Lots of compost underneath and on top which should keep them happy for alittle while longer.
My brother was eyeballing these when he visited so I must keep a watchful eye on them when he's down for xmas.

The waterchestnuts arrived and duly got planted in their tub of muddy water only for me to be told via an" oops I forgot to give you growing instructions"-email, that I should put them in damp soil only til they start sending out green shoots just to make sure they dont get root rot.
These too are now in the porch in little pots of damp compost and are just starting to green up.
I am really looking forward to these....I love Trademe!!!

Clever people are selling things I have given up looking for and it has been a buzz finding special herbs and things.
I have had to restrain myself and only go looking once a month or I would be in financial jepody.
My latest aquisition is a set of 30 herbs for the beneficial insect border for a buck each plus shipping.
These are dual purpose rather than just for the bees and afew will have to go into pots like the horseradish and choc mint.
I have found a source for the hull-less barley but have to wait til feb for those and the same for the tumeric.
I did find the galagal ginger tho which is starting to shoot up nicely.

THE Clothes line got put up this weekend.
It probably could have been put a couple of feet closer to the house but where it is will work just as well.
Hubby has been given strict instructions to visit our friend and ask her very politely if he might measure up her table and bench seats exactly so we have just the same as theirs.
I have been given strict instructions that I might not put on the lines and use it as a clothes line til he gets home again to make sure that the concrete sets properly and the whole things stays perpendicular-I dont really mind if its alittle on a lean, but agreed only cos I spent all my allocation this month on herbs.

[sun burn]

YOu are making blue vein cheese? That's amazing. Are you putting pictures of that on photoblog?

[mischief]

....I'm trying.
It still looks and smells good, well actually I dont think blue vein cheese ever really smells Good,it does smell, but it doesnt smell Bad if you know what I mean.
It will probably take awhile to work.
With the first one, I had alittle bit of bought cheese left and mashed it up with some fresh cream and rubbed it all over.
It turned blue after a couple of weeks.
With this one I added the grated cheese to the curds before pressing it alittle so Im not sure if it will turn out the same.
I did stab it all over though so I hope so.
I should have put one up on the last blue we did, that looked great.
We should know next week if its going to work or not.

[eco4560]

Blue cheese smells so bad that it is good. I made blue cheese and mushroom tarts for the street Christmas party yesterday. That way I knew that the grown ups would get to eat SOMETHING.

[mischief]

haha love it!

[annette]

Your place and life experiences sound wonderful Mischief. I must admit to feeling pangs of envy when i read your adventures. I love blue cheese and to think you make your own.! yum...... It's on my list of things to do. I seem to have too many things to do and never enough time............ It's getting too hot here to be out in the garden after 9 in the morning. Sometimes I wish I lived in a cooler climate.