planning, propogation and patience ...

first of all .... apologies for not having written any updates for a while.  it's been the first week of winter school holidays here "down under" which means with my three munchkins ... chaos ensues .... you get the picture!

but we finished the week in style.  chooks are laying 2-3 eggs a day now, rather than 1-2 .... i think even they are trying to will spring to get here!  we found ourselves in a position of doing some fun planning, wrapping up propagating and seeing our patience beginning to pay off!

we've been wanting to modify our side beds for a while.  when we built them we were eager and ignorant.  we had six 1.5 x 1.5 semi attached beds  that were far too deep.  this meant i had to use valuable bed space to make a walking path.  we have severely modified the size of the beds with a bit of a keyhole design, allowing me to have access to all sides of the beds without stepping into them.  there is one "almost dead spot" that i can't reach .... for this we will be placing a worm tower .... and bob's your uncle.  scott got this all finished today .... with a little help from the kids as well!

i've also been working on the back crescent bed.  i have a dream to have trellis's running on one side (beans on the trellis, strawberries and asparagus for ground cover), with giant sunflowers and corn on the other (with beans running up this, and probably early zucchini as a ground cover too) ... .this will be my high growing bed.  today, i installed the trellis .... happy girl!

i've been madly propagating as well.  felt a bit bad when i realised that i could use chopped up willow leaves as the propagation medium.  but i can't worry too much as we don't have a willow!  so i am using the packet propagation mix.  currently have pineapple sage, lavender and two kinds of wattle that i've put in pots.  i'm looking forward to seeing how that works out.

in my green house i have heaps growing!  (in spite of an errant child going in and up-ending a grow shelf!  grrrrr!) the kohlrabi is coming on well, as is the celeriac .... and i've even got some celtuce in .... these are my ugly veg!  the beetroot, cauliflower, kavelo nero and cabbage are looking great.   i've even taken the plunge and have a few beans in as well.  and yes!  we have tomato's seeds in that are my early season mix.

the disappointment remains .... <sigh>  leeks.  a whole pallet of 24 spots with 2-3 seeds in each in wonderful seed raising mix and what do i have to show?  well ... two little spikes ..... <sigh>  what am i doing wrong?

two leeks out of this whole pallet!
what am i doing wrong!!!!!

my macrame pea climbing
wall!

and patience .... i am thrilled to say that we have pea's a plenty!  my fence in the front is FULL.  but the river cottage inspired macrame mesh that i did is finally coming good!  i wasn't sure at first .... but the pea's have finally gotten big enough that they are above the lip of the bed and are catching heaps more sun and are starting to take off now too .... i have high hopes that they will go ballistic and cover the entire macrame by spring!

ah spring .... it's in the air .... i can feel it .... with the great sunshine we had today, how could you not?  i know it's still a bit away ... but each day is just that much closer to my spring happy dance!