WINTER GARDEN

The boys have all had winter lurgies - coughs, chest infections ear infections. One gets better and the next gets sick and now they are starting all over again.
I haven't been spending much time in the garden, other than wandering arond with a nice hot coffee in my hands.

I have lots of tomatoes growing. When I emptied the ocmpost loads of seedlings shot up. They seem to be copeing all right with the cold so I will leave them and see what happens.

This year I planted small carrots in pots. These carrots only grow about 10cm deep. They are sweet and full of flavour. We have been eating them raw or with dips. Yum!

Lavendar is my favourite flower. I can't get enough of them. On my kitchen bench I have 4 mini vases and I pick lavendar for here. They give the kitchen a lovely scent. Last year I planted 4 new varieties in the front yard. Two are early flowering varieties and 2 later ones. I want to have lavendar flowering all year long. The bees and insects love this little unassuming flower as much as I do.

The potatoe vines are also flowering over a coupleof arches in the back garden.

The citrus trees are weighted down with mandarins and lemons. The orange and other lemon are still too small to be fruiting. I have been juicing the fruit and we enjoy a glass each day.

Finally a couple of the new fruit trees. These are the apple trees - granny smith and pink lady. I have duo planted them on raised soil. The blue pipes are for watering so we can get the water down to the roots.

DELIGHTS

We have just spent the last few months redoing our front yard. It did have a lot of brick pavers with dips and big puddles when ever it rained. There was no drainage in front of the garages and since there is a gentle slope down to the garages from the driveway this wasn't good news with heavy rain. So we decided to redo the whole front yard. Drainage was fixed, old weeds and all the grass was removed. We redid the driveway with a stampled concrete finish. And I was all for having no grass what so ever at the front. Mr Gadget is far more traditional than me and thinks that front gardens must be very manicured and must have grass. So a compromise was in order.

He got some grass. I got a much bigger garden in the front and a lovely sitting area. I love this front area. It is so pretty and a beautiful place to relaxing. There are fragrant roses, and pretty cottage garden flowers.
The heavely fragrant Double Delight rose

and the gorgeous apricot Just Joey are flowering prolifically.

A hedge is growing along the front of plumbago and in front of the bricks there is another hedge of photinia. Amongst the flowers I have tomatoes, eggplants, parsley, artichokes and thyme growing happily. I have planted a few trees too - a weeping mulberry, coffee tree and magnolia. It makes me happy to see the flowers as I come home and to be able to sit out here amongst them. Everyone should have a place of indulgence and beauty and this is mine.

In the back garden I have harvested 7 beans and two cherry tomatoes! Who would have thought I would get so excited over home grown vegetables. They went into the stir fry we had for tea along with fresh oregano, parsley and sage.

With the weather warming up I have been making lots of iceblocks and icecreams for the boys. Iceblocks are simply frozen cordial or juice. The icecreams are made from powdered milk mixed with fresh fruit or vanilla essence or chocolate topping. The powdered milk is much cheaper than fresh milk and I always have some at hand for using in cooking, custards or for the kids when we run out of fridge milk.

M xx

HEY DARL.

Actually Dahl, Channa Dahl - that delicious Indian, yellow split pea, spicy and very filling meal.



This is my version of the recipe:

2 tsp butter /ghee
1 onion
2 garlic cloves
coriander seeds
3 cardamon pods
1/2 tsp turmeric
cinnamon
garam marsala
curry paste ( sometimes red, tonight green)
1 1/2 cups yellow split peas (soak in water at least one hour and drain)
500g tomatoes (I use my homemade tomatoe puree/pasta sauce)
2 cups water


Heat butter/ghee and fry onion, garlic until soft.
Stir in ground coriander, caramon pods and other spices and curry paste.
Add tomatoes and stir well.
Add split peas and and bring to boil.
Simmer uncovered for 40 minutes.
In the last five minutes I often add green herbs or celery or other greenery from the garden.

I usually sllightly blend mine for a smoother consistency but this is entirely up to your preference.


Mmmmm - so delicious!



Today Superboy and I planted corn seeds and sunflower seeds, weeded part of the front garden and watered the veges and front garden.

I was all set for getting garden soil delivered for the new vege patch but Mr Gadget said he would borrow a trailer and get a few loads. Didn't happen. I think tomorrow I will just go ahead and get the soil delivered. I need somewhere to plant all my seeds! I have coriander, beetroot, chives, rhubarb, thyme spinach and lettuce all waiting to be planted out.


In the garden my Port Wine Magnolia is in flower. The fragrance from this tree is glorious, just heavenly. Funny because the tree itself isn't anything amazing and the flowers are little, hidden amongst the foliage and hard to see on the tree. I have planted it outside the bathroom window. It is my natural deodorises. I leave the window open and the bathroom always smells so fresh.
Close up the flowers are pretty little things, shame they aren't noticable. You can see the pollen that has dropped onto the bottom petal.

I am investigating gardening by the moon.

And I am going to make ginger beer this week too.

Off to Bunnings tomorrow to suss out water options for either another tank or some other sort of rainwater collection/diversion/storage option.

M xx