tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70320841990071671212024-03-19T17:09:07.651+11:00The Crooked CottageAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-2613532255153172112017-09-06T14:44:00.000+10:002017-09-06T14:44:06.572+10:00New weatherboards and verandah deckingSo after we had our balcony replaced and it looked so nice (you can read about it <a href="http://crookedbluecottage.blogspot.com.au/2016/04/our-new-balcony-also-known-as-perils-of.html" target="_blank">here</a>) I decided we needed to go ahead and do the whole front of the house. That included the verandah posts and decking - basically everything except new windows as I wanted to keep the double hung sash windows.<br />
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The builders did a great job and it actually was surprisingly quick. Old cladding came off, including the power needing to be disconnected briefly due to the old meter box on the front of the house - this was reconnected back up later on the same day when the new boards were put on.<br />
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I had a whole lot of photos of the process but unfortunately it seems when I switched to a new phone they were lost. So instead I will have to make do with some before and after shots!<br />
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This is the finished product with the new verandah, poles, and all painted up. </div>
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This is a during shot of me painting the weatherboards (complete with my upside down lights).</div>
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The before shots - dodgy handrail, bright blue paint (although you can't see how bad the paint job actually was!).<br />
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This before shot shows some of the rotten and dodgy verandah decking boards. Plus when I had half stripped one window frame!<br />
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More before shots.<br />
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Before - but I still have the same pots to hang from the verandah!<br />
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We used the same Mirbau decking as the balcony and the same profile weatherboards as the upstairs. We also put on a new Colorbond roof on the verandah - which took the longest due to some stuff ups with the roofers and some fairly big variations in quotes. In the end we could only really afford to do the small portion of the roof and gutter - so we unfortunately have a current patchwork part red and part grey roof!<br />
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After the painters we used for the upstairs part did a not particularly brilliant job and still cost a lot of money I decided that I would give painting a go. My theory was if I was terrible then we could pay someone and not too much damage would be done. In the end I was pretty happy with the results. The weatherboards themselves went fine, although the trims weren't so easy (partly because we kept the old windows and even with multiple attempts at sanding and filling they remained fairly lumpy and difficult to paint). My tips for painting weatherboards can be found in <a href="http://crookedbluecottage.blogspot.com.au/2016/06/beginners-guide-to-painting.html" target="_blank">this post</a>.<br />
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End result though is very pleasing. The colour scheme is <a href="https://www.dulux.com.au/search/top?query=miller+mood&_charset_=UTF-8" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Dulux Miller Mood</a> for the weatherboards, with Vivid White for trims and the dark grey for the decking is <a href="https://www.dulux.com.au/colour/colorbond-colours" target="_blank">Ironstone</a> - a colour that matches up to the Colorbond colour of the same name. <br />
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Finished product - deck in Ironstone, weatherboards in Miller Mood and trims in Vivid White. Plus the same hanging pots and dodgy paint job on my cane chairs!<br />
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-45841280450041083802017-09-02T14:38:00.002+10:002017-09-02T14:38:44.532+10:00A white picket fence Turns out this is a historic post now - took me a long time to actually post it up!<br />
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After having a bit of a break from our renovations I upped the ante again to try to get things going again. <br />
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And first up was the fence.<br />
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The picket fence (on top of the green painted sandstone monstrosity) was rotting and paint peeling and cracking. At first I thought that we could just slap another layer of paint on and cover it up. I had planned to replace a few palings as needed, but thought I could do a bit of patch up job. <br />
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I pulled one of the rough palings off and took it to Fedwood, which is just up the road in Rozelle. I discovered that to have the palings custom made to match the previous ones (which were bevelled edge) would cost $7 a paling. Which seemed kind of expensive, especially when their run of the mill palings are a lot cheaper. <br />
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I got a quote to have the fence replaced and it came to about $4000, which again seemed to be expensive!<br />
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After discussions with my neighbour I struck upon a much better plan. Another neighbour (this is a great street!) is a builder and so he was able to put the fence in for us. We just paid for materials and labour and hey presto, a fence for significantly less!<br />
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But then we had to paint it. (mind you I was going to have to paint it for the $4000 too!) So I started with a brush, but it looked kind of streaky. Then I tried a roller, but it seemed very thin. And my final attempt was with a spray gun. I had a few false starts, as the paint was very spattered when it came out , but once I diluted it up more, the spray gun was the winner. It gives a much more consistent coverage. My poor husband got the job of holding up a drop sheet so that I didn't paint the cars on the street - not the most fun job but it did seem necessary, as we didn't have any other way of holding it up.<br />
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I was pretty pleased with myself when one of my neighbours came past and told me how good it looked - and then said "I'll pay you to do mine!" Don't think I'll be becoming a professional painter any time soon, but I figured it must look not too bad.<br />
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So we have a lovely new white picket fence. Add some silver numbers for the street number and a fairly stock standard letterbox and it's all good. Mind you after a eighteen months or so (it takes me a long time to put up these blog posts!) it looks like it needs repainting already if you look at it too closely...<br />
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This shows the still partly green sandstone fence (and my appalling lack of weeding - the weeds are coming out through the sandstone!.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-36593207999803586842017-06-04T11:08:00.000+10:002017-06-04T11:08:09.991+10:00Making a study nook (or more commonly known as a desk in an underused space!)<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It seems like everywhere you look (if you look at home improvement programs, or decorating magazines) there is something about a "study nook". So when I came to the conclusion that doing my work spread out all over the dining room table, and keeping work stuff in four different places in the house and carrying the printer up and downstairs to use it wasn't all that practical, I decided I could make a study nook too. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">We actually had the perfect place for it. After getting our balcony all fixed up off our upstairs bedroom (see the post about that <a href="http://crookedbluecottage.blogspot.com.au/2016/04/our-new-balcony-also-known-as-perils-of.html" target="_blank">here</a>) </span><span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;"> I now feel much more likely to actually use the space and have the french doors open. Well, I will when it is warmer anyway. And in the walkway to the balcony was a reasonably large area of dead space. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The layout was measured up - 207cm long and 193cm wide - so not exactly huge, but certainly enough. After all I've seen bedrooms in some innerwest terraces that are not all that much bigger!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So I decided all I needed to do was paint the space up and get some furniture. And bingo, work space that doesn't take up all of the room in the house.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Of course I always forget that painting isn't that easy! Especially in this room with our unusually shaped ceiling. Being an old workers cottage we have an extremely steep pitched roof, and the internal ceiling in our bedroom has the internal sloping walls. So I had to contend with high and strange shaped ceilings. Plus the previous owners had unusual taste in colours - at least this part was only a mint green before, and not the very dark grey or green that is on the other walls.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">One bonus was that the skirting boards had already been taken off when the builders took the floor up for the balcony building- so I could paint in the knowledge we will be putting new white skirting boards on later.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">One undercoat and two coats of colour later, I have finished the painting. I used the same colour as we used for all the walls downstairs, mainly because I had a few litres left. Of course, I did run out of it when I was halfway through the second coat which caused a mad rush off to buy more. </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">It was quite good as I had a bit of a deadline and impetus to finish - I figured fitting out my home office with furniture would be tax deductible and I wanted to claim it in the 2015-2016 tax year - so all had to be done and ready for furniture before the last weekend in June! Mind you I have now taken almost a year to finish my post!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I used a small table that we had downstairs as a general rubbish collection table and have put it in the space for a desk. One nice new office chair, a filing cabinet that doubles as the printer stand and a good desk lamp later and voila, my study nook is ready. Ok, so it's not exactly going to win any prizes for styling and I'm sure that it would ripped apart as boring on any home improvement show, but I'm really happy with the result, and with the fact that now all my work stuff is stored in one place and I can actually find things!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And on a gloriously sunny winter's day like today (these photos are hot off my phone from today!) it's not too bad a spot to sit and do some work - or some blog posts.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-15035706632800962432017-05-31T17:39:00.002+10:002017-05-31T17:39:50.424+10:00Restoring a door <span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When we moved into our crooked little cottage there was a very small room off the kitchen which was used as a shower room. This seemed weird to us given the bathroom/laundry was right next door, so we put a shower over the bath and decided to use the shower room as a cupboard. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When the shelves I ordered to fill the new cupboard I realised they would not fit through the doorway with the door in place. So the door was removed, and has sat on our deck for months and months.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The problem with the door is that it had glass panelling, and one had been broken. The previous owners fixed this by putting a piece of cardboard over it and once all the panes were painted you couldn't really tell. But when the cardboard fell out, it was pretty obvious.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The door was heavy and the old fashioned glass was dangerous - no safety glass here. So I decided to take on a restoration project. I didn't realise it would take so much effort for such a small door! Mind you, with the crooked old house I had to restore the door, as it was probably unlikely that I would find a new door to fit.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">First up - get those glass panes out. I just stuck gaffer tape over all the glass and then hammered it out. Still shattered a bit but generally that kept it together enough to be able to get rid of all the glass.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Then the job of stripping that brown paint, followed by sanding. And sanding. And sanding. Old doors are not easy to get smooth!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Once the door frame was reasonably smooth I undercoated it and then painted again with white enamel trim paint.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I don't have a lot of photos of the painting stage as I was a bit impatient and just wanted it finished!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Finally we had worried about what to put back in the door in place of the heavy glass. I had considered using plyboard and painting it with blackboard paint, to make a kind of built in shopping list/note board, but in the end we found some frosted plastic at Clark's Rubber that looks a bit like glass panels. Just now when I looked up this product I have discovered that it is a static privacy film - you can find it on the <a href="https://www.clarkrubber.com.au/static-privacy-film" target="_blank">Clark Rubber website</a>.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHneul6xw4ho8odudOZXAtuMNxAxBqbaosHCE4ic-hboN13T8H6kGrWqjuiweCcyf9PPCvNfilZfZvjzSeGxy0cW6loBZVqSlOBNon-z-AAM51wN5jm3XPcAmOJuraT26jJ2RzxNjUL8Du/s1600/38833_squares.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHneul6xw4ho8odudOZXAtuMNxAxBqbaosHCE4ic-hboN13T8H6kGrWqjuiweCcyf9PPCvNfilZfZvjzSeGxy0cW6loBZVqSlOBNon-z-AAM51wN5jm3XPcAmOJuraT26jJ2RzxNjUL8Du/s320/38833_squares.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It was fairly narrow - in fact it only just stretched across the opening. So my dad and I (well, more my dad than I!) had to carefully tack the plastic across. Then we had bought some thin dowel pieces which I had also painted white so we tacked those on top to hold the plastic.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The hinges and handles went back on and - hey presto - the new/old door has been replaced in the cupboard - which is now a walk in pantry. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8UpRoa5AfYP3ySVfqN5dfgzsiOrEMGOAfrIMvsI8slZ3_OnHhyphenhyphenGqEEpWm60tKU0uwBAorDq3TI87wCPmlbUPdT1tvCkyX7GlPUGcSJXHqiNJ_A4bjdZFLHxUYOA9UM_eO2WH2oR2cYcOV/s1600/IMG_2781%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8UpRoa5AfYP3ySVfqN5dfgzsiOrEMGOAfrIMvsI8slZ3_OnHhyphenhyphenGqEEpWm60tKU0uwBAorDq3TI87wCPmlbUPdT1tvCkyX7GlPUGcSJXHqiNJ_A4bjdZFLHxUYOA9UM_eO2WH2oR2cYcOV/s640/IMG_2781%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />To be honest it was a long process for not that much return, but I can feel like I accomplished something - and also the door itself was an unusual size so at least I knew it would fit back in the door frame!</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-68964498150944715072017-02-03T17:03:00.002+11:002017-02-03T17:03:28.211+11:00Herbs - Garden Share Collective January 2017<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Where does the time go? It's already nearly the end of January and so it's the first Garden Share Collective for the year. I've been missing in action for a while as I have not been doing anything much in my garden but I'm getting back into the swing of things.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Garden Share Collective is a place where anyone who grows edible plants - from a few pots of herbs on a window sill to acres of vegetables on a farm - can share their progress and take a peek at what other people are growing in different areas of the world. The link up is hosted by <a href="https://afreshlegacy.net/" target="_blank">A Fresh Legacy</a> and <a href="http://rosehipsandrhubarb.com/" target="_blank">Rosehips and Rhubarb</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This months theme is Herbs. So it is something I can actually blog about easily - even when the garden was overgrown (more than it is now!) and nothing much was doing, I always have some herbs that keep growing strongly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I have a never ending supply of oregano (any suggestions what to do with this?)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi80jha06A3v-ZYLiJ407vUxZ72O9MJBrti8Nnns4CAnZNnl9i2tGuHRcPkb7mBr1f1ANBayc3UAXcEGgBWwn8yRQTnx5qTqBT_NGq3A7vgjxbcgS9PCTV1rHDZpCF_Z96IxkmpV_tm010Z/s1600/oregano+edited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img alt="Photograph of oregano" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi80jha06A3v-ZYLiJ407vUxZ72O9MJBrti8Nnns4CAnZNnl9i2tGuHRcPkb7mBr1f1ANBayc3UAXcEGgBWwn8yRQTnx5qTqBT_NGq3A7vgjxbcgS9PCTV1rHDZpCF_Z96IxkmpV_tm010Z/s640/oregano+edited.jpg" title="Oregano" width="472" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My apple mint sprung up again where it had managed to escape its pot and self propagate.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7C-mZ1xPc-ie5I2Y6sSXQpoWdrPt6onZHjog8U5t9ZNClB0L8bheRpyh-KpYdMTxDWgJgjNDcvOIIuQRd-l4bKfRhMT02RazVDXLHcaaht86R-Ef7DcH3lAt2cPeqdKXl8ET0nx4_0cYx/s1600/IMG_2661%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img alt="Photograph of a shoot of apple mint" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7C-mZ1xPc-ie5I2Y6sSXQpoWdrPt6onZHjog8U5t9ZNClB0L8bheRpyh-KpYdMTxDWgJgjNDcvOIIuQRd-l4bKfRhMT02RazVDXLHcaaht86R-Ef7DcH3lAt2cPeqdKXl8ET0nx4_0cYx/s640/IMG_2661%255B1%255D.JPG" title="Apple mint" width="480" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Rosemary is always great for cooking</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_FFTtcsK4yiCANCkPNpJ8LzyeynPfOTlYjoOvwUJVNHg5akEAYB2JV0LtfP_kC_7EjAl-T5wklGbzQlAbB-e54d7uM8jC2iHYoAogKZqZshhpPaFvVLTP7aIvG1Qjxo2Pz8QwFG_AKR6y/s1600/Rosemary+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_FFTtcsK4yiCANCkPNpJ8LzyeynPfOTlYjoOvwUJVNHg5akEAYB2JV0LtfP_kC_7EjAl-T5wklGbzQlAbB-e54d7uM8jC2iHYoAogKZqZshhpPaFvVLTP7aIvG1Qjxo2Pz8QwFG_AKR6y/s640/Rosemary+.jpg" width="478" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Do bay leaves count as herbs? My bay tree looks a little sad, don't think it likes the heat very much.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Basil is always a favourite, although it seems to go to seed quickly.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwT4qrU7PsrzCmEmbT_wkreUNnP6ldo9HG47ENTxN9eBCAINznr8wjQZ6UDRrca9l9YQm5v19E3BQwTwyGcJkCkMJOPgRvbXGYIbJY-LZbu2U0Gfsp-vMWJXwyt-Wpx8ILSGZKzI94Md3n/s1600/Basil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img alt="" border="0" height="508" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwT4qrU7PsrzCmEmbT_wkreUNnP6ldo9HG47ENTxN9eBCAINznr8wjQZ6UDRrca9l9YQm5v19E3BQwTwyGcJkCkMJOPgRvbXGYIbJY-LZbu2U0Gfsp-vMWJXwyt-Wpx8ILSGZKzI94Md3n/s640/Basil.jpg" title="Basil" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I think this one is a thai basil</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiKiwYijgdpPnQhzsXWrEuZBLtNnIRam13CorAc5bkaDXGinXqXUpGDK-LhR0i8_66v9Mqp80Bb8q6IOkT0HDBn4Q37EZTCLxHQK17DhUNvrdFD0-tIQNWff_8BocI9HyYMwv74CkZCtzd/s1600/Basil+flower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img alt="Photograph of basil with purple flowers" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiKiwYijgdpPnQhzsXWrEuZBLtNnIRam13CorAc5bkaDXGinXqXUpGDK-LhR0i8_66v9Mqp80Bb8q6IOkT0HDBn4Q37EZTCLxHQK17DhUNvrdFD0-tIQNWff_8BocI9HyYMwv74CkZCtzd/s640/Basil+flower.jpg" title="Basil in flower" width="602" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Even the basil is going to flower.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I don't have many other herbs in at the moment, it's too hot here in Sydney to have coriander growing, but that will go in in a few beds.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So this month I have done a great job of finally weeding, and am trying to keep on top of that!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Will be looking towards the cooler weather crops and will get the beds ready for those.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Might try again for some snow peas and/or sugar snap peas.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Happy gardening to all! </span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-26127865543928032232017-01-22T21:18:00.001+11:002017-01-22T21:19:01.042+11:00The things you find when you weed....<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So not only have I been quite slack on writing blog posts for a few months, I have to admit I have also been guilty of letting my garden get away from me. I planted a few seedlings about a month ago, and I did attempt to repair some issues with my irrigation system, but it seems that all that happened was that I provided water for the weeds. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Finally today I decided that it had gone too long. I could almost do my own ads about "Who is going into the jungle" (can't say that I really watch "I'm a Celebrity", but I do like speculating about just which "celebrities" will be on) just when someone went out in to our front yard.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So some hard yakka was in order. I am going to be in serious pain tomorrow. That couch grass is nasty (and was everywhere!).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I didn't actually take any before photos (it was really too embarrassing) but lets just say that after a few hours I have filled up my 240L green bin and I haven't totally finished. It looks so much better though. And I found some hidden surprises while I was there.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif;">Turns out the chilli plants I put in have half survived - and I even have one decent size fruit!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1AHBdHNlPSkQ-NrwThbyHBd1oIQzYOEu3GpfTZxKyNVhHjl-Iot9U_BtwAAZ5Lc7AowS98DeKEItKqi9KAhwbesH-qyhtg0esn9ihuFtGsKlwC3y3ONnP0IreGBf330c12rGBA4yJpZpU/s1600/IMG_2628.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Picture of a single raspberry on the cane" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1AHBdHNlPSkQ-NrwThbyHBd1oIQzYOEu3GpfTZxKyNVhHjl-Iot9U_BtwAAZ5Lc7AowS98DeKEItKqi9KAhwbesH-qyhtg0esn9ihuFtGsKlwC3y3ONnP0IreGBf330c12rGBA4yJpZpU/s400/IMG_2628.JPG" title="Raspberry" width="300" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLTn1ktte3oAEo89pKtLpyQZUGBjh7oW-WsxxA-jY5GiBCM7_t0GVoiTud0ubEGRcN-PtgMwP-3r5NCwzQfYQe8q25KqFlooul2lbS2VwkAmv3uwoyMscvBip_Mex1wrDvC1kDDEkFDzKJ/s1600/IMG_2629.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Picture of raspberry cane beginning to fruit" border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLTn1ktte3oAEo89pKtLpyQZUGBjh7oW-WsxxA-jY5GiBCM7_t0GVoiTud0ubEGRcN-PtgMwP-3r5NCwzQfYQe8q25KqFlooul2lbS2VwkAmv3uwoyMscvBip_Mex1wrDvC1kDDEkFDzKJ/s400/IMG_2629.JPG" title="Raspberry cane" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">My raspberry canes have flourished (even after I pulled some out to give to my niece in an attempt for some propagation - haven't heard how they went yet) and I managed to find some new fruit peeking around and almost ripe.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzFKOEQh_yuF8hIXY_FJmDix4Jg_dpYvZWACAtdl0i9vurIva6jWVrQicjBijDVLyLONdwOeNhfTVouZLwqudGB4Cv-FFFRub18k-FLP7jIchN4fiWFC_J1Xd_IhCI5SVjQrHQOYN5LWzu/s1600/IMG_2630.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Picture of tomato plant with others in garden" border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzFKOEQh_yuF8hIXY_FJmDix4Jg_dpYvZWACAtdl0i9vurIva6jWVrQicjBijDVLyLONdwOeNhfTVouZLwqudGB4Cv-FFFRub18k-FLP7jIchN4fiWFC_J1Xd_IhCI5SVjQrHQOYN5LWzu/s640/IMG_2630.JPG" title="Tomato plant in between raspberries" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Still some couch grass there - but in between the raspberry canes that is a single tomato plant</span>.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A runaway tomato plant has self seeded from somewhere or other and looks healthy.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The oregano is going well, and the apple mint and spring onions seem to have also spread and grown well under significant weed cover.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I also saw two lady bugs, which were cute, and three types of spiders - not so cute. Especially when I thought one might have been a funnel web (thank goodness for leather gardening gloves - and then when I looked up this spider chart on <a href="http://www.pestcontrolsydney.com.au/spiders.htm" target="_blank">www.pestcontrolsydney.com.au</a> I realised it was probably just a Common Black House Spider.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.pestcontrolsydney.com.au/pest-control/spiderchart.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.pestcontrolsydney.com.au/pest-control/spiderchart.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This spider chart comes from the website www.pestcontrolsydney.com.au</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So now I just need to keep the weeds under control - hopefully the thick layer of sugar cane mulch I spread around helps. And eat those raspberries!</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-80910927862437822722016-12-28T10:12:00.001+11:002016-12-28T10:12:44.272+11:00Looking towards 2017<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoeYWqN7j1AvlzozTBh7cwgIfsEIACowvRmOlkuTSs_rkRpk4Lf42ziyt4lleh-b2_Vc-KJOSasWGTeYVI_Awz1M3WBxlC_Wy7sdZODso0RQTe7jbhz6reZAm2S51OD_rSB-FYdnUQwKRJ/s1600/2017.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoeYWqN7j1AvlzozTBh7cwgIfsEIACowvRmOlkuTSs_rkRpk4Lf42ziyt4lleh-b2_Vc-KJOSasWGTeYVI_Awz1M3WBxlC_Wy7sdZODso0RQTe7jbhz6reZAm2S51OD_rSB-FYdnUQwKRJ/s640/2017.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Well it's been a long time! I got a little side tracked on the blog mid year and so despite having a few draft posts almost ready to go I have been rather quiet. Work at the Crooked Cottage has slowed down too, but I have lots of plans for projects for the new year, both in the garden and in the house. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I'm looking forward to a great year with more home grown produce than this year, and hopefully it will be the year I actually finish painting inside (probably just in time to start again!).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So wishing you all a belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May the year bring you health, happiness and prosperity, and lots of fun in your gardens and homes!</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjigEX1q7gRy5jemKUse7KSrOZ7RlWde6nFWrYgDoiSmH_ArHsJRZgQ4DiPOflSMvwk-4SbCbM2Db07WaDqzVC4UXr1MbfQNPS8m0uasZTP7Q0kA3jVKOqVs2AnxrVrPSVAgEdB9hieWWbo/s1600/fireworks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjigEX1q7gRy5jemKUse7KSrOZ7RlWde6nFWrYgDoiSmH_ArHsJRZgQ4DiPOflSMvwk-4SbCbM2Db07WaDqzVC4UXr1MbfQNPS8m0uasZTP7Q0kA3jVKOqVs2AnxrVrPSVAgEdB9hieWWbo/s640/fireworks.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-86495170442385854912016-06-13T12:57:00.001+10:002016-06-13T12:57:41.345+10:00Beginner's guide to painting weatherboards<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I haven't blogged for a while - too busy actually doing things to the Crooked Cottage! As I posted about last time, we had our new balcony installed - and it looked fantastic. I paid someone to paint it, as I didn't fancy (or even know how) to climb up and paint the sides and the fencing around the balcony itself. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And then it looked so nice I had to do downstairs as well!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So I will post about the actual construction of the new downstairs facade at a future point. Suffice to say it's done, it looks awesome and now we come to painting.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Being a <strike>tightarse</strike> frugal person I decided that I could paint the weatherboards myself. Apart from a ladder there is no particular equipment needed, and I knew it would save us a significant amount of money. Also as all the boards are brand new there is minimal prep work required.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Through trial and error (and also copying some of the professional painters tricks) I have some tips for anyone else who is going to give this DIY painting a go.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">1. Prepwork sucks but it is important</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Although I didn't have to sand the new board or strip any old paint, I did have to patch all the nail holes and then clean all the boards as they were dusty and dirty (I still don't have a verandah roof). The better prep you can do the better the finished product. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaZOiaFDbAMuQ8-APM3xmsKelRvCNzPYI9vG08RIGQEunmwwRAXxHXbYpvV7SQ2hZDcO3XMH2Qnie4d-NabZwkybcK_SJ50GBnt_SLVKWFRyJgG2mY64eNhB6fNKYxg6_yU6NE80_0JSOA/s1600/IMG_2170%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaZOiaFDbAMuQ8-APM3xmsKelRvCNzPYI9vG08RIGQEunmwwRAXxHXbYpvV7SQ2hZDcO3XMH2Qnie4d-NabZwkybcK_SJ50GBnt_SLVKWFRyJgG2mY64eNhB6fNKYxg6_yU6NE80_0JSOA/s640/IMG_2170%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Trying to keep the light protected by wrapping it in a plastic bag</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">2. Put your painting trays inside large garbage bags</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This one I stole from the professional guys. If your paint trays are like mine and full of dirt from the shed, or remnants of old paint colours then it is much easier and less cleaning. But the main saviour is the wash up and the environment - when you are done you can just pull the garbage bag off and put it in the bin, no washing up and risk of paint going into drains. From experience - if you keep the same garbarge bag you probably need to peel the dried paint off first - I had a bad day with little scraps of dried up paint going on to the weather boards so after that I went to just one use per bag. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6AUM3GYQ1mXNCmvD-G0YJoOmp9iIHWI0kkrocDNGEM_m0BHWNkDybJnV-12SfGX9yq6h75GCcBmQC9s7y0kgYrZHucBTNiVcq505yWe584BwvYqkPheuZ5m2ohNBUWFyVgh7fue2hfXQc/s1600/IMG_2168%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6AUM3GYQ1mXNCmvD-G0YJoOmp9iIHWI0kkrocDNGEM_m0BHWNkDybJnV-12SfGX9yq6h75GCcBmQC9s7y0kgYrZHucBTNiVcq505yWe584BwvYqkPheuZ5m2ohNBUWFyVgh7fue2hfXQc/s640/IMG_2168%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">3. Keep a bucket of water to put your brushes into</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If your brushes get dry they seem to not work so well. They get a bit clogged up. So if you have a few brushes, rotate them and throw them in the bucket in the mean time. Also once you are done put all the brushes and roller covers into the bucket - nothing worse than ruining all your brushes (yes, I've done it many times) by not washing them out properly and finding them stiff as a board the next day. The bucket manages this issue and the water can be discarded somewhere safely (not down the drain outside as that goes straight into our harbour!)</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGUghoXPKf_U-B-ddwL33XaVguFlnjMLVY4O41TV-_06TGMqTrjk-iZmbvvGRhdYmGVUsrDN9eDZx4JOsJ38nuvbMCS_8H70zklHKDutIdai6czMLLvT34ggZVL6ZVyUndVxSKGfeWr3-x/s1600/IMG_2169%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGUghoXPKf_U-B-ddwL33XaVguFlnjMLVY4O41TV-_06TGMqTrjk-iZmbvvGRhdYmGVUsrDN9eDZx4JOsJ38nuvbMCS_8H70zklHKDutIdai6czMLLvT34ggZVL6ZVyUndVxSKGfeWr3-x/s640/IMG_2169%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">4. Brush the paint on first then roll it</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Well this one worked for me. Brush into all the gaps, edges, and then across the whole weatherboard. Then you can get the roller and make the finish more even and nicer by rolling up and down but no cracks are missed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So it's a slow job but I'm hoping the end result will be worth it!</span><br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-49914140534674251192016-06-05T20:10:00.000+10:002016-06-05T20:16:12.769+10:00Garden Share Collective May 2016 - Leaves<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This month's Garden Share Collective comes around again and the theme is Leaves.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Which is a pretty apt theme for my garden - as that is about all I have at the moment.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhavsOvxfIdw8VmMZU01Wwofh2HFjHw11lk3AiZTuluxUChsWXTMi_Mm26AXfSLa8MPKhW1spBb9q2FmaCUdkFGVW3mCJwnjo-U9XXlpwjQP0tK8DqKYPyUNedbE1qaNY-sHqsuQnKFDoZX/s1600/forest-meadow-leaves-autumn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhavsOvxfIdw8VmMZU01Wwofh2HFjHw11lk3AiZTuluxUChsWXTMi_Mm26AXfSLa8MPKhW1spBb9q2FmaCUdkFGVW3mCJwnjo-U9XXlpwjQP0tK8DqKYPyUNedbE1qaNY-sHqsuQnKFDoZX/s400/forest-meadow-leaves-autumn.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I had hoped to at least take some nice photos of the garden and of the house but unfortunately due to the crazy storms in Sydney (and everywhere on the east coast) I have been spending all day trying to mop up leaks, and spinning and drying wet towels in front of the heater. So no nice pictures! But I do want to get it out in time for the link up, so I apologise for the non aesthetically pleasing post!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYn7fLGBlHtQCVLdJQbRScENvNJdpSY1f1z_-jafkoXyeF_POi0y64bO-DnTpSOiN4oMQM5wECTGVD685fXvx-fxHUrgw6tt3m9faLczeRGxwp44MQoMqftCS1B7JyAAISaCNvdhDB0lAA/s1600/Radar+5.6.16.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYn7fLGBlHtQCVLdJQbRScENvNJdpSY1f1z_-jafkoXyeF_POi0y64bO-DnTpSOiN4oMQM5wECTGVD685fXvx-fxHUrgw6tt3m9faLczeRGxwp44MQoMqftCS1B7JyAAISaCNvdhDB0lAA/s400/Radar+5.6.16.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The radar for this evening - more rain coming.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I am still doing renovations with new weatherboards put up all around the front of the house. This has meant most of my pots have been moved to the back yard, where they get limited sun, and being winter anyway not much is growing. The only things that are going well are some of my bulbs and of course my weeds!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The tree in the back neighbours place is some type of gigantic oak tree and is the bane of my existence, as it is always dropping leaves. I'm forever sweeping them up at the moment. And that is all the activity I have been having in my garden.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">My renovations are almost finished, and I have been painting on all my weekends when it hasn't been raining. So there has been no time for gardening. I also haven't yet been able to visit the Community Garden, although I have been in contact again, as I have to go at a time that I can meet with some members, and haven't yet been able to co-ordinate my times. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">However, I am hoping that next month I might get back into the garden. Since my renovations are fininshed, I now want to work on the garden beds. They somehow seem smaller and lower with my new verandah. So I am thinking of building all the garden beds up, and putting in a new bed on the north side of my yard. I will also be digging in my sprinkling system so that it is drippers under the beds rather than the current sprays above the ground. So that will probably end up quite a bit job!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So this month will realistically be no gardening. But maybe just some digging in of compost, tidying, and planning will be on the cards.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Looking forward to seeing what everyone else is actually getting done in their gardens this month!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-76775286860598311672016-04-09T11:45:00.003+10:002016-04-09T11:45:25.336+10:00Our new balcony - also known as the perils of starting one "small job"<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So we have now owned the Crooked Cottage for two years. Actually I think today is the anniversary day of when we settled. And after the initial push to renovate before we moved in, followed by a period of extreme dislike of building work, I've swung back to wanting to get stuff done around the house.</span><div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The quest to get the balcony fixed started last year, when I got a builder to quote on fixing the railing. We hadn't been letting people go out onto the balcony, even though we do have a little view of the city, and can see the fireworks at New Years - but the balcony rail was quite low and not sturdy so we wanted to fix it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Seemed simple enough. But nothing is ever simple here!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRFSK0Baz8vE6vT19V8NDpspQ60vKIo3VlnXBM5VHo7I_k98WujgtcgvOTOyKsBiNZrpXV8vhl1nSX0ic5Jv5O6IgBWtV2l-WC8f31rZSTHbVhIfIy_sp6s96qRQQmxQiCnUsOas9rslTm/s1600/Old+house+appearance.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="580" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRFSK0Baz8vE6vT19V8NDpspQ60vKIo3VlnXBM5VHo7I_k98WujgtcgvOTOyKsBiNZrpXV8vhl1nSX0ic5Jv5O6IgBWtV2l-WC8f31rZSTHbVhIfIy_sp6s96qRQQmxQiCnUsOas9rslTm/s640/Old+house+appearance.jpg" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is how the house looked when we bought it. Those palms are long gone. But as you can see, the balcony railings quite clearly do not meet any safety requirements.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Builder turned up. (bonus). Looked at railing. Bounced up and down on the decking. Looked underneath. Pronounced the boards to need replacing.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Ok - so we will replace the boards too. Good idea. New balcony.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Then he looked under the base. Our balcony doesn't have any support posts - which means the joists are cantilevered under the floor of our bedroom. The joists were also pronounced rotten. So suddenly the "small job" of fixing the railing height had become taking up the floor in our bedroom, putting in new joists, new decking, new railings.... And the numbers he was "quoting" me kept climbing - first $5000, then $9000 then maybe $12000 - but all rather vague. He never did send me a detailed quote. And I didn't chase it up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Then this year I spoke to our neighbour who had replaced our fence. Asked his opinion on the matter of the dodgy balcony. He had a look, agreed with the first builder and called a builder he works with. So this time I got a proper quote. The floor would be taken up, new joists put in, new decking (the right way up this time - it was pointed out to me that the ridges on the decking should go on the under side but people think they go on the top side for "grip"), new railings with regulation height and also no child sized gaps for anyone to stick their head (or entire body in the case of the old balcony) through. Plus as the weatherboards had deteriorated these would be replaced. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4_mTTlPoreS3SlvuTUBJigvJc3AtlpY34IUOoRPE3VWUB3_NhS4VaTDcQzOPQdeaeTLfvBj648-_PTW-PR_yA71uzBvTPEOudQxhjkNABj8lLBa0kWFoHIA7KNVgcfFqPChTPhPt3pjZ9/s1600/IMG_0858%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4_mTTlPoreS3SlvuTUBJigvJc3AtlpY34IUOoRPE3VWUB3_NhS4VaTDcQzOPQdeaeTLfvBj648-_PTW-PR_yA71uzBvTPEOudQxhjkNABj8lLBa0kWFoHIA7KNVgcfFqPChTPhPt3pjZ9/s400/IMG_0858%255B1%255D.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Not sure if it is very clear in this photo but previously there was quite a large hole under the balcony. Also, the joists had been "fixed" by a second piece of pine attached to the first joists.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So we went ahead. And as usual, Sydney's unseasonably dry weather stopped the day work was meant to start - we lost probably 4 days in total to rain. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I didn't actually take any internal pictures, but for a few days it was very painful removing all the stuff out of our cupboards to allow access to the roof space and under floor. But the results are complete (apart from painting - still waiting on quotes for that!) and I'm so very pleased!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcCyEMyj124aLO2_Y0izY7HziJEgnmDmqoo5o9sgi9R0C4jbnCU58XEHOln9ba1Y7HvXNtfM5JpZ0sDGLLpf6ZFJJlhReomyo9BQ_9P3rfkoEvTa0mAos1xdKdt36BPtJh9A5lf6uOFF-C/s1600/IMG_1954%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcCyEMyj124aLO2_Y0izY7HziJEgnmDmqoo5o9sgi9R0C4jbnCU58XEHOln9ba1Y7HvXNtfM5JpZ0sDGLLpf6ZFJJlhReomyo9BQ_9P3rfkoEvTa0mAos1xdKdt36BPtJh9A5lf6uOFF-C/s640/IMG_1954%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The joists were cut off, and floor inside pulled up. Weatherboards were also removed.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAE1tEZG5sy-sfztHMt657oceE4QJdTZRxd3fyG8Wm1tyP82qXEYe7nKriYMEpv9V3XiNTNM8YbSKAicBrqqXLqS1CiXg1waBGkJ7Q_43HPMGSH0h5docDTaN2cdC6V5D34OxHOdWlWFuA/s1600/IMG_1950%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAE1tEZG5sy-sfztHMt657oceE4QJdTZRxd3fyG8Wm1tyP82qXEYe7nKriYMEpv9V3XiNTNM8YbSKAicBrqqXLqS1CiXg1waBGkJ7Q_43HPMGSH0h5docDTaN2cdC6V5D34OxHOdWlWFuA/s400/IMG_1950%255B1%255D.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6PmAhxqRDYpjxQmWBJzkRed_W8EBn2KkGBjO3LjnC82BB5dmbLuRXRzhhuXHtvwAEtaJWpm2mVSTyGyJ543tQ-OjZ4t_l2v4BXaeWsrEvIllwREdZHV60aTq5PGR9NkkMHGumgwRh8HRn/s1600/IMG_1955%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6PmAhxqRDYpjxQmWBJzkRed_W8EBn2KkGBjO3LjnC82BB5dmbLuRXRzhhuXHtvwAEtaJWpm2mVSTyGyJ543tQ-OjZ4t_l2v4BXaeWsrEvIllwREdZHV60aTq5PGR9NkkMHGumgwRh8HRn/s640/IMG_1955%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">New joists were put in place and remain cantilevered so the balcony remains the same form and size - but is no longer rotten!</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYsMRCsKWiQQVQ_gc_T6z3nuyR39m5L8FQQxmI3enh3Ic_GZDBTOtVeyq80svalzz6buIl8MiJfP6nzdweSavly9ShOwuh7YIctCqfg5nBVPArcbQ9diEJvKa8-Cy1GZAjgoiVHd_t9QCy/s1600/IMG_1958%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYsMRCsKWiQQVQ_gc_T6z3nuyR39m5L8FQQxmI3enh3Ic_GZDBTOtVeyq80svalzz6buIl8MiJfP6nzdweSavly9ShOwuh7YIctCqfg5nBVPArcbQ9diEJvKa8-Cy1GZAjgoiVHd_t9QCy/s400/IMG_1958%255B1%255D.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHf2b4PPQR_UJiXEzV8-TDmrSiC2G1WoANGwO6f2-GtNBqjBUyrcX647d49jSoV2n4CYHkIH5IGx_99jwFXC9Hkhvv57A4dFVFJID_2FxTmqJ6cuegUMEL_QoKkA6eYo0X5hG2zENOOb1c/s1600/IMG_1949%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHf2b4PPQR_UJiXEzV8-TDmrSiC2G1WoANGwO6f2-GtNBqjBUyrcX647d49jSoV2n4CYHkIH5IGx_99jwFXC9Hkhvv57A4dFVFJID_2FxTmqJ6cuegUMEL_QoKkA6eYo0X5hG2zENOOb1c/s640/IMG_1949%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I tried to take some photos of the joists that were removed to show how rotten they actually were - very glad now that we didn't let anyone out there before! </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbxCGuc5FpbXJBzFGgxvK-5K-CAHw-rFFawQwEIMWPKpzJIk3VvGYX0buZlso-EG69Hb9f5sCdgi8fQ0ktI4uu9jDb3VGJEoi_TitwBJtjuySy7HzSO_TVUxGBh2o8Q4Nk9mBCEQsmKTMU/s1600/IMG_1964%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbxCGuc5FpbXJBzFGgxvK-5K-CAHw-rFFawQwEIMWPKpzJIk3VvGYX0buZlso-EG69Hb9f5sCdgi8fQ0ktI4uu9jDb3VGJEoi_TitwBJtjuySy7HzSO_TVUxGBh2o8Q4Nk9mBCEQsmKTMU/s640/IMG_1964%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Base all framed up nicely, with the decking down, and new posts going up.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUrbWNprUnxjeCBRDJwZQlXs7pP6RVTJxWBOKXds-TzxJy_m7-_t-UQQwmAOniyhU8181cDF2G4aQHJ5Fw6eJ0b8gfzxqVoqe7ROJ4sCa1I3HYAnMB7kKwB8DEb0qdMk6Z3aXGOSarjLUd/s1600/IMG_1981%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUrbWNprUnxjeCBRDJwZQlXs7pP6RVTJxWBOKXds-TzxJy_m7-_t-UQQwmAOniyhU8181cDF2G4aQHJ5Fw6eJ0b8gfzxqVoqe7ROJ4sCa1I3HYAnMB7kKwB8DEb0qdMk6Z3aXGOSarjLUd/s640/IMG_1981%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8BHrJoxdOOyQ2Z1wLBRiryxMz6YGQ7IKSTg91mCPocYE6murUETo8DrAKqnlgizL-KnE_43CggIXQRZO9s-VwROM08iIcmddMzxFeg5z3FzYs5WYJVRDRdgqW2fdzGGyk2IGxt1F8-Xc8/s1600/IMG_1982%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8BHrJoxdOOyQ2Z1wLBRiryxMz6YGQ7IKSTg91mCPocYE6murUETo8DrAKqnlgizL-KnE_43CggIXQRZO9s-VwROM08iIcmddMzxFeg5z3FzYs5WYJVRDRdgqW2fdzGGyk2IGxt1F8-Xc8/s640/IMG_1982%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The finished product! Looks so much better (and will be even better when we get it painted). A nice sturdy, safe balcony which meets requirements. I might even be able to sit out there sometimes and watch the world go by!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Of course, the problem is that now the upstairs looks so good I have to do something about the downstairs. So next project will be replacing all the weatherboards and architraves at the front of the house. And of course painting it a new (non bright blue) colour. Won't be long and the Crooked Cottage will be one of the best looking houses on the street!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-76447417731073984772016-04-09T10:58:00.000+10:002016-04-09T10:58:26.287+10:00Anna's Promise<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This post is going to be quite different to usual. I am not even sure I will make it public. But I have had some shocking news and it has really shaken me up, so I felt maybe writing it down will help me make sense of it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I read the news in an unusual way. I found out about my friends unexpected death on Facebook. Sounds kind of horrible and heartless I suppose. But in reality it was perhaps to be expected. I went to primary school with her. For years I didn't have any contact but then we reconnected through Facebook. I guess reconnect is a loose term, we did meet up in person once but through distance and different lives we didn't really catch up much in real life. But I saw her journeys on Facebook, saw her first child born, and grow. I knew she really wanted to have a second baby and was so pleased when her second son was born. We messaged occasionally, or commented on statuses. I couldn't really count myself a friend. I don't know her address (although I've seen photos of her house renovations), I have never met her husband or kids. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In February she posted that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She had had surgery, they thought it looked good, something about no margins which I took to mean the surgeons thought they had got it all. But as a precaution she would have chemo and radiotherapy.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I messaged her then too. My mum went through chemo, and another friend has been recently diagnosed. I made some professional (pharmacist) suggestions about how to deal with chemo side effects. I wished her luck. We messaged just a few times.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I saw her photo on the day of her first treatment. She was going to sew a quilt during the treatments, friends had sent her different fabrics.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And then I saw her husband post that only about two weeks after her first treatment, she had passed away. From complications due to her immune system after chemo. Maybe that is why I'm so upset. You shouldn't die from chemo. Cancer, well, I understand that. But not the treatment. Not when you have two small children. Not when you've only had one treatment. Not when you are 38. Not when just a few days before that she had been posting as usual, everything seemed normal.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">My heart breaks for her, and her family. But I don't really know them. I feel like I do, because of social media I suppose. So then I feel like I don't have the right to be so upset. What is my grief when compared to theirs?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I have had one idea though for a small memorial. Just a little one, for me. I have just looked up roses called Anna. And I think I will try to grow one of the <a href="http://www.weeksroses.com/_Roses/AnnasPromise.html" target="_blank">Anna's Promise</a> roses. And then, I can remember her anytime I like.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><img src="http://www.weeksroses.com/assets/images/roses/_AnnasPromise.jpg" height="400" width="322" /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Photograph from Week's roses website.</span><br />
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-48230892069023295832016-04-03T12:14:00.001+10:002016-04-03T12:14:48.699+10:00The pineapple sage forestMonths ago I bought a small seedling of a pineapple sage plant. I actually thought it was just normal sage, and wanted to add it to my herb garden. I read that it needed full sun, but then decided to plant it out in my fairly shady back garden where I have a small herb bed regardless of the need for sun. It's under my clothes line and so I prefer small plants anyway. My mint has been growing well there, as has parsley. So I put the small pineapple sage in.<br />
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And now, I have a massive pineapple sage forest.<br />
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So - so much for needing full sun.</div>
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Also so much for my clothesline.</div>
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And now I need to find some uses for this herb! </div>
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According to the <a href="https://bonnieplants.com/growing/growing-pineapple-sage/" target="_blank">Bonnie Plants website </a> when it flowers I should have a lovely pink display (image from Bonnie Plants). Also from this I find that this plant attracts hummingbirds - pity I'm in Australia!</div>
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So apparently it's nice in drinks, and can be used in salads.</div>
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It should make nice tea - although I'm not big on tea. But I might dry it out anyway!</div>
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And I'm going to try some dried in my cupboards and pantry to see if it makes any difference to my pantry moths.</div>
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Edit - when I started this post the sage had just been growing but there were no signs of the flowers. However yesterday I noticed I have a few pretty pink flowers out. For some reason one of them was covered in ants, but the other was ant free. They certainly are pretty!<br />
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One flower was very popular with ants for some reason.<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-489537079430773822016-03-28T21:40:00.000+11:002016-03-28T21:40:02.298+11:00Garden Share Collective March - Colour<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">After missing last months Garden Share Collective (I don't preserve anything, and wasn't feeling very inventive about how I could tie the theme in with my little patch which doesn't seem to ever produce a "glut" of anything!) I'm back with a post for Colour, the theme for this month.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">If anyone wants to join in head on over to the link up either on the </span><a href="http://rosehipsandrhubarb.com/garden-share-collective/" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif;" target="_blank">Rosehips and Rhubarb</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> page or </span><a href="http://afreshlegacy.net/what-can-you-preserve-from-your-garden" style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif;" target="_blank">A Fresh Legacy</a><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"> and show us your garden. Don't be afraid - even a straggly collection of pots and a forest of sage like my current situation is warmly welcomed as a "garden"!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I do however have to make a confession - the pictures for this post will not be current ones. This is because as I type I have two builders in my front yard and upstairs bedroom, and we are getting out balcony (which turned out to be very rotten and not at all to the standards of correct height or no gaps for small heads to get through) replaced. I'm very much looking forward to the completed project - but for now it means I can't see most of my garden due to the materials piled up and there seems to be a layer of sawdust over a lot of it. Hopefully it won't lead to any long term damage, although since I've been fairly lazy on the planting front lately there isn't all that much to destroy anyway!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So right now in my garden the only colour you can see are the orange pom pom marigolds which have been very hardy and have kept on flowering for quite a while.</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">However the colour of the garden is one of the great things about having a go. Who doesn't love seeing some red tomatoes, green cucumbers, purple and white eggplants, and yellow lemons popping up in the garden? </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">My beetroot attempt wasn't very successful either - I had mini beets!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">And of course it's not just the actual fruit and veg that are colourful - the flowers can also be beautiful and perhaps not what you think of - for example my basil plants went to seed but still looked colourful!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">This month (once I get my garden back) I will be weeding and digging and preparing for some autumn/winter crops. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I'm hoping to put in some late lettuce crops, and will be trying some carrots this year I think.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Last season the brassicas were reasonably successful, but this year I want to really grow some good cabbages, so they are on my list.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">The other thing I'm hoping to do this month is to visit my local community garden. I have contacted them about how to join in and have to attend three working days, so will be trying to get stuck into that - I'm hoping to meet some new people, learn some more about gardening and maybe get access to some different produce that I don't/can't grow here in my garden. But I'll keep you posted!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Happy gardening and see you next month!</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-81872712742253630102016-03-24T08:48:00.000+11:002016-03-24T08:48:44.818+11:00A failed garden experiment<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I recently attempted some propagation from cuttings. I was visiting my grandma in her aged care facility, and as usual she had many vases of flowers from other members of the family. From my aunt there was a lovely bunch of blue hydrangeas, with some stems of white and pink buddlejas. They were nearing the end of their life in the vase, so Grandma said I should take them to plant. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Of course I asked how was I supposed to do that, and Grandma just said - "put them in a pot" like it was the easiest thing in the world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">So I brought them home. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">I dug some of my best compost out of the compost heap, and filled up five pots.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Then I placed a few stems in each pot, and filled them with compost.</span><br />
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Three of my pots with my lovely compost.<br />
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The blue hydrangeas in the pots.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">A rather droopy budleja.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Unfortunately, I ran across a few problems - namely extreme heavy rain for a few days, followed by some of the hottest days in January (around 40 degrees). Well, that is my excuse for why the experiment failed miserably.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: georgia, 'times new roman', serif;">However, one saving grace - from my compost some very healthy tomato plants have sprung up in my pots, so at least I will be able to salvage something!</span><br />
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All that is left of the experiment - rather healthy looking tomato plants but not a hydrangea to be seen!<br />
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<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Anyone got any tips for me for the next time I try to propagate from a single stem? Or do I just admit that I'm not such a good gardener as my Grandma?!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-36312157695488252602016-01-25T04:00:00.000+11:002016-01-25T04:00:16.659+11:00The fruits of my garden - Garden Share Collective January 2016<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Well it's time for the first Garden Share Collective of 2016. The GSC is hosted by Kyrstie at <a href="http://afreshlegacy.net/" target="_blank">A Fresh Legacy</a> and Kate at <a href="http://rosehipsandrhubarb.com/" target="_blank">Rosehips and Rhubarb</a>. Head over to check out all the wonderful gardens and gardeners who join into the link. Another month (well two really, as there was a well deserved break in December!) has passed, so it's time to have a look at everyone's garden and the fruits of their labour for the past month. And that ties in well with the theme for this month, which is - Fruit!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Of course, here in Australia we are in the middle of summer - a crazy wet and wild summer in Sydney, but summer none the less. I heard on the news tonight that Sydney has already received around 225ml of rain this year. Plus we've had a number of 40 degree days, which is unusual for us as well. It seems to mean that many of my plants are looking a bit bedraggled, either drowned or burnt, but the weeds are thriving! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">At the beginning of January I had my nieces and nephew come to stay, My eldest niece is quite interested in gardening, and asked lots of questions about how to grow different herbs and vegetables. My youngest niece told me that she liked my garden as it was just like "going to the shops" - this was after she helped me cook dinner and we picked the capsicum, chillies, oregano, and lettuce fresh from the garden. Interestingly, while they were staying we watched an episode of <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/" target="_blank">Gardening Australia</a> (I was quite amazed that an 8 year old, 12 year old and 15 year old would happily watch a gardening show, but that must be the power of Costa!). And from that episode I learnt something I had never realised - that any plant which produces a seed bearing product that can be eaten is considered to be a fruit. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">By that definition, not only are your traditional "fruits" such as citrus, stone fruit, berries and others included in this list but also tomatoes (ok so I knew that one), capsicum, cucumbers, eggplant, zucchini, and pumpkin - the list goes on......</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So it turns out I have quite a number of fruits in my garden. This month the tomatoes have continued to grow and flower, although I transplanted a number of my plants and they are yet to fruit - also they have been overtaken by the weeds.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My eggplant has produced it's second fruit, and I think it looks so lovely.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My capsicum plant produced a few more good size fruit, although is a little bare now. I did learn though from <a href="http://afreshlegacy.net/stuffed-capsicum-recipe" target="_blank">A Fresh Legacy</a> recently that it may be worth keeping my capsicum plants through a two year cycle, and they may produce better in the second year. So I will be trying that theory out, and will let you know how I go next year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My raspberry plant has also been recently transplanted to a new spot, and although no fruit have appeared the plant certainly looks a lot more healthy, so perhaps next year will be a better year?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The cucumber and zucchini plants have succumbed to powdery mildew, which might be to be expected in this kind of weather.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The chillies always look nice and bright and this year I planted a few different types.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My lemon tree does have some fruit on it, but I need to take them off as it is still only young. And my passionfruit vine is growing brilliantly, but as it was only planted a few months ago I will wait until next season to hopefully get some fruit.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Apart from my actual fruit, I like to think the rest of the garden is still "fruitful" - the spinach just keeps on growing ,my apple mint plant is going great guns, and as I discussed in a <a href="http://crookedbluecottage.blogspot.com.au/2016/01/one-of-these-things-is-not-like-others.html" target="_blank">recent post</a> my lettuces have been a bit variable in their growth but are growing none the less. Plus my marigolds that have been planted for companion planting with my tomatoes (they are supposed to repel white fly - even if it doesn't make any difference I always think it looks pretty!) and other plants are flowering away and making the garden look quite cheerful - it an overgrown and weedy kind of way.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This one is called apple mint. I haven't actually tried it yet!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My poor tomatoes are being over run with weeds</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">As usual, my to-do list is dominated by weeding! Plus I really need to fertilise all my pots, as a lot of the plants are starting to look a bit droopy - I think with so much rain a lot of goodness has probably been washed away.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My compost bin (which is a pretty cheap one to be fair) has started to fall apart and so I am considering relocating my compost - however I'm just not sure where it is best to go so not sure when this will happen.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I'm also considering redoing my whole sprinkler system. While it works well to water my pots and plants, particularly when I am away often with work, I think the sprinklers are not the best way to get water to the plants and I need to look at putting in drippers instead. This will also protect my verandah, which seems to be getting wet a lot and the wood is starting to look a bit worse for wear.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We will see how much I actually get done when it comes around to next months post! Happy gardening to everyone and I look forward to seeing all the different and wonderful fruits for this month.</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-53039455717127684852016-01-16T16:24:00.000+11:002016-01-16T16:24:34.751+11:00One of these things is not like the others - what is wrong with my lettuces?!<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So I think I need some advice. I will probably also ask this question of my dad and of my grandma, but the more input the merrier I say!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I have been growing some lettuces (lettice? What's the plural of lettuce?) which I bought as seedlings. All came from the same punnet and were of a similar size when planted.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Five fitted into one large round and fairly shallow dish. The other got put into a large pot sort of as an afterthought with a rose bush!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdmIDNu_Cl8b3JaVNIWX48SC2FkDsdz8lanSWMiOFjO1C9zNQaCSVgZR8BmaUpqA2FFttQuBpb95O77d1dRv__QhR2JDIk0kRVm6SLEQmLYIt1QP5qSdrxmzwR-Qj3uHsTJR71ZyW2fNmW/s1600/IMG_1814%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdmIDNu_Cl8b3JaVNIWX48SC2FkDsdz8lanSWMiOFjO1C9zNQaCSVgZR8BmaUpqA2FFttQuBpb95O77d1dRv__QhR2JDIk0kRVm6SLEQmLYIt1QP5qSdrxmzwR-Qj3uHsTJR71ZyW2fNmW/s640/IMG_1814%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Five little lettuces planted in a pot.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijFlQ_ai81WYIeXArFwZeFWtlWkuQLVSF9WK9cBv_6tRX3QhWLOxJ2dJpzgij7OWS7VzVpyPAj9gfsbN-d3IXYPZLs0LPqXKT4zE7hWjZ9J0RFVSEtTI6bgjEL4-jaMUcoiTQdYzWQbc68/s1600/IMG_1815%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijFlQ_ai81WYIeXArFwZeFWtlWkuQLVSF9WK9cBv_6tRX3QhWLOxJ2dJpzgij7OWS7VzVpyPAj9gfsbN-d3IXYPZLs0LPqXKT4zE7hWjZ9J0RFVSEtTI6bgjEL4-jaMUcoiTQdYzWQbc68/s640/IMG_1815%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Close up of one little lettuce. These have probably been out in the garden for about a month.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The single plant is thriving so much more than the 5 together.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaNoQEPnZoMuxiSL0F4ruu3ggmIulY_mAHVKFijXv50F3aaXuVv8DUb47Ys-GXiSOJnp4V7dd8X6ICHIl_K0TE7twAJtDPcmQC9U39NE3Zp30y9fe8l0mPXy6vI8Iuzr5LBiJiWumWr0c_/s1600/IMG_1812%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaNoQEPnZoMuxiSL0F4ruu3ggmIulY_mAHVKFijXv50F3aaXuVv8DUb47Ys-GXiSOJnp4V7dd8X6ICHIl_K0TE7twAJtDPcmQC9U39NE3Zp30y9fe8l0mPXy6vI8Iuzr5LBiJiWumWr0c_/s640/IMG_1812%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The loner in the rose pot.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAdnnYmfJtsbG8iIaFIqjna1LLxXnFiZMcdzH00N2HPhxS36WHa8llwYQ-taS765S-379HMzoKhmcMlUV6ZPRj6VVR9xBAGPYNArYxIo_JS1Ix_vrjiWZFwBa0mxlu0KWjiWdq5otsEZ3i/s1600/IMG_1811%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAdnnYmfJtsbG8iIaFIqjna1LLxXnFiZMcdzH00N2HPhxS36WHa8llwYQ-taS765S-379HMzoKhmcMlUV6ZPRj6VVR9xBAGPYNArYxIo_JS1Ix_vrjiWZFwBa0mxlu0KWjiWdq5otsEZ3i/s640/IMG_1811%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Clearly a much larger lettuce after the same time of growing!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So - what is the problem?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Is it too much water? The single plant gets far less water as my sprinkling system doesn't reach it - it's pretty much neglected.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Is it the deeper dirt for roots?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGrKPkqrXbP_C4NRBe5Un4f-LnDUR7jh3Z5Wz-41eYi6KQLXymcls5hZSkjKp6e5-V_hSbgCHhIBXYhL-ZMIbHKyt6N2QywQ4UeNgEOMBO_L6ekwp208nHzpNBEXicjXn56fvdT6d_U0jf/s1600/IMG_1813%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGrKPkqrXbP_C4NRBe5Un4f-LnDUR7jh3Z5Wz-41eYi6KQLXymcls5hZSkjKp6e5-V_hSbgCHhIBXYhL-ZMIbHKyt6N2QywQ4UeNgEOMBO_L6ekwp208nHzpNBEXicjXn56fvdT6d_U0jf/s640/IMG_1813%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This one is in a much deeper pot than the others.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Are the 5 too close together?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQwCYk9SPqneNWEYonj4r11YxO1fTfbmMCb4y4YkPAUtkVeFvqICA4xsGleSuqp_v3RNVi9CYasiXTO7i4LXe2111pMfX-uk_wzblf8N-LMoUSHQVuEAtHx-LN_84Th4dyuhxCfjiFDZYG/s1600/IMG_1817%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQwCYk9SPqneNWEYonj4r11YxO1fTfbmMCb4y4YkPAUtkVeFvqICA4xsGleSuqp_v3RNVi9CYasiXTO7i4LXe2111pMfX-uk_wzblf8N-LMoUSHQVuEAtHx-LN_84Th4dyuhxCfjiFDZYG/s640/IMG_1817%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Significantly more shallow pot. And closer to the sprinkler system. Also gets a bit more sun, although still mostly shade in the afternoon.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Is it slightly more shade? The single plant is probably 1-2m further into the yard than the other pots, and as such would get less sun. But all the plants would get predominantly morning sun and be in shade for some of the day.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Is it likely to be pests? (I do admit I use snail pellets as I just can't get any other pest control to work, and we have no pets that could access these)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Is it a combination of all of these?!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I really want my lettuce plants to grow well as it is so nice to have an ongoing supply of salad greens. So any advice will be gladly taken!</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-89833827822333730202016-01-10T10:00:00.000+11:002016-01-10T10:00:04.385+11:00Things to do in Sydney in the school holidays - (which are cheap!)I have just had the pleasure of having my two nieces and my nephew come to stay with us for nine days. They live in <a href="http://www.waggawaggaaustralia.com.au/" target="_blank">Wagga Wagga</a>, in the south west of NSW (yes that really is the name of the town, when I lived in the UK I always had to say that a few times before people would believe me!), so a trip to Sydney is a little bit different, although they are up here quite often. <br />
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Not having kids of my own, I was a bit concerned about what we could do to entertain the three visitors - and at 8, 12 and 15 there is a bit of a difference in their preferred activities. <br />
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But in the end we didn't get anywhere near through my list of things to do, partly because it rained so much. So I have more choices for the next visit. The things we did get to do though were all pretty good, so here are my suggestions.<br />
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1) Watch the New Year's Eve fireworks. Ok, so that is clearly a suggestion for next year! But we went to Mort Bay Park, where there were surprisingly few people (we had a good spot all to ourselves), a family friendly atmosphere and a great view to the bridge. You can also get there and back quite easily on a bus down Darling St in Balmain, although we drove in early and then took the car home after the 9pm fireworks.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our view from Mort Bay Park - slightly obstructed but good none the less!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the 9pm fireworks</td></tr>
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2) - Visit the Rocks. Yes, it's a bit touristy, but any child who has read Playing Beattie Bow (seriously, if you haven't read it you should. I loooooooved this book when I was a kid, and so I gave it to my eldest niece for her birthday and she loved it too. There is a link to Amazon below, if you happen to buy it there I get a few cents towards my next purchase.) will love the idea of walking through the same streets that Abigail did in the book. There are heaps of little lanes and cobblestoned paths, and it's an easy walk from Circular Quay.<br />
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We visited the <a href="http://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/susannah-place-museum" target="_blank">Susannah Place Museum</a>, which was also really interesting. Four houses have been kept almost as a time capsule, stretching back to 1844. You have to take a tour, you can't just look around, but the tours run on the hour, and it wasn't too hard to book in. I joined <a href="http://sydneylivingmuseums.com.au/houses-museums" target="_blank">Sydney Living Museums</a>, and when you join as an adult you can add up to four kids under 16 for free - which certainly makes for a cheap visit if you want to go to a few places. They include museums such as The Justice and Police Museum, and the Museum of Sydney, plus Vaucluse House, Elizabeth Bay House and The Mint to name just a few. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Part of the Susannah Place Museum</td></tr>
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While we were in The Rocks we also had a look at "<a href="http://www.thebigdig.com.au/history/" target="_blank">The Big Dig</a>" -an archeological dig uncovering our past under the YHA hostel! This is free to look at, although there is also an education centre which wasn't open when we were there, so I'm not sure if there is a cost involved in that part.<br />
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3) Take a ferry - anywhere! Particularly on a Sunday, when all the travel you can fit in only costs a maximum of $2.50 on your Opal card. There is something so wonderful about being on Sydney Harbour, looking at that iconic vision of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House - you just can't beat it.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The view from the Balmain East Ferry wharf.</td></tr>
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4) Go to the Big Bash League Cricket - although this might soon be over for the season. Kids general admission tickets to <a href="http://www.sydneythunder.com.au/" target="_blank">Sydney Thunder</a> matches are the princely sum of $5.07. There is free face painting and activities, and they hand out flags and those annoying inflatable "thunder sticks" for free. You can take in food that is "non commercial" - which I asked about and is simply no take away food such as Macdonalds or KFC. And you can take drinks that aren't in glass or cans. We had great fun, and if you take photos at the ground and then post them to social media with the hashtag "thundernation" #thundernation - the pictures then appear on the big screen at the ground - which is quite fun in itself. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfpHIUVl3Gfs4l7Y8rPaFKXLeiwBCvD6I_V8FfiqOnCWjJXZBMSIgZ60Urx75ox4-pmWitZxBfiWAZUX7EljlbUkIEqOFDetVjlo3FDBiuDNqb4giI8PHAdr8ypfkJ9W7GUlk7FkVSiYLm/s1600/IMG_1791%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfpHIUVl3Gfs4l7Y8rPaFKXLeiwBCvD6I_V8FfiqOnCWjJXZBMSIgZ60Urx75ox4-pmWitZxBfiWAZUX7EljlbUkIEqOFDetVjlo3FDBiuDNqb4giI8PHAdr8ypfkJ9W7GUlk7FkVSiYLm/s640/IMG_1791%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If you are lucky you can make the big screen at the stadium.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
5) Visit the Botanic Gardens - always lovely, the Botanic Gardens are a forgotten treasure in my opinion. One point of warning though - if you have a scooter or skateboard mad child (like my nephew) I have found from experience that bikes and skate boards are banned (so I assume also scooters). Ball games also seem to be against the rules, so it is picnics or walking around only.<br />
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6) Parks and playgrounds! There are playgrounds seemingly around every corner in the inner west at least. We visited <a href="http://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/explore/facilities/parks/major-parks/glebe-foreshore-parks" target="_blank">Blackwattle Bay Park</a> (next to Jubilee Oval in Glebe) and enjoyed talking to people with dogs, looking at the water, and playing on the equipment. The park voted "best park of the holiday" was <a href="http://www.canadabay.nsw.gov.au/playgrounds---timbrell-park-playground---livvis-place---five-dock-page.html" target="_blank">Livvi's Place playground</a> at Timbrell Park in Five Dock. Built for children of all abilities, the stand out ride (and even I had a go!) was the motorised carousel, which has chairs and space for wheelchairs to be secured. The electronic system allows the carousel to be started and the kids had great fun counting down until it started. <br />
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6) Well this one is not to do with Sydney - but boardgames are fun. Our favourite is Sequence, which may not be familiar to as many people but it is quite simple for kids to pick up. Again, I've put a link below if you are looking for a good gift - I gave this to my nephew a few years ago and he still loves playing it. We also played UNO and Billionaire card games, and when we visited a friend for the day they had Cluedo and Hedbandz (like Celebrity Head but with objects, the kids seemed to enjoy this one)- which were all popular!<br />
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Other things on my list that we didn't get to for this visit included -<br />
<ul>
<li>Visiting the Sydney Observatory</li>
<li>Visiting the Dawn Fraser baths in Rozelle or the Cabarita pool (both lovely harbourside pools)</li>
<li>Visiting an op shop (charity shop) and buying clothes for a dress up "fancy" dinner</li>
<li>Visiting Manly by ferry</li>
<li>Free activities at <a href="http://www.sydneyolympicpark.com.au/whats_on/free_activities_events" target="_blank">Olympic Park </a></li>
</ul>
And finally, one thing we did that wasn't all that cheap, but was fun - visit the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/hellokittydineraustralia/" target="_blank">Hello Kitty Diner</a> in Chatswood. It's kind of strange, and not as kid friendly as I thought it might be (the only "themed" parts are the cardboard bows on the burgers, and a few neon Hello Kitty signs, plus the waitresses wear cat ear headbands) , but for the older kids it was something a bit different.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx7HtKd8on4aHYs7jNC5Q7buk2JA5hyCxFfhyphenhyphentKczVhqNwxkbcNfpdoFL8vMcpmncbA8RJTqEpJqG8Q2CNnQURH2S0eNhwikpG8NwSPIx2dga0qsDCdDxhDEtaED9yePqOLEWeplTRCa7A/s1600/IMG_1771%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx7HtKd8on4aHYs7jNC5Q7buk2JA5hyCxFfhyphenhyphentKczVhqNwxkbcNfpdoFL8vMcpmncbA8RJTqEpJqG8Q2CNnQURH2S0eNhwikpG8NwSPIx2dga0qsDCdDxhDEtaED9yePqOLEWeplTRCa7A/s640/IMG_1771%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2RGMSWmtTEDYyT5r6sBKZw8YcRBNsorx96yR48YfPwb7HIfcIhykaTtEAEe6pl8vrdURWfdrN-m70Y6nY8cf5TDP2XBvtC1DRMkv5aa_nHZ92MZV0lLN84ufbDob4p70XJHaT1nDNFYY_/s1600/IMG_1774%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2RGMSWmtTEDYyT5r6sBKZw8YcRBNsorx96yR48YfPwb7HIfcIhykaTtEAEe6pl8vrdURWfdrN-m70Y6nY8cf5TDP2XBvtC1DRMkv5aa_nHZ92MZV0lLN84ufbDob4p70XJHaT1nDNFYY_/s400/IMG_1774%255B1%255D.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My salted pretzel milkshake</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-WLfTVMjvnYd-0iRID-RK18hH8mYvNtNxoXmbEtBamdAZfpw08TxR8Ej1wMjIY_RotVXBMlk2-8Jf9-kdHnrSEpOwxlmne66GxDTfSJ5e5b_aq6z1Zuuwf0T48G2StieC5upM7G95Y9LO/s1600/IMG_1773%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-WLfTVMjvnYd-0iRID-RK18hH8mYvNtNxoXmbEtBamdAZfpw08TxR8Ej1wMjIY_RotVXBMlk2-8Jf9-kdHnrSEpOwxlmne66GxDTfSJ5e5b_aq6z1Zuuwf0T48G2StieC5upM7G95Y9LO/s640/IMG_1773%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The menu - perhaps not kid friendly either.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So have fun these school holidays!<br />
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<iframe frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&OneJS=1&Operation=GetAdHtml&MarketPlace=US&source=ac&ref=tf_til&ad_type=product_link&tracking_id=thecrocot05-20&marketplace=amazon&region=US&placement=B003AIM52A&asins=B003AIM52A&linkId=N7II3UEVZTZEGXKH&show_border=true&link_opens_in_new_window=true" style="height: 240px; width: 120px;">
</iframe>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-89505403146277719232016-01-09T11:41:00.001+11:002016-01-09T11:41:29.705+11:00Almost my blog birthday!<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">It's almost the first birthday of The Crooked Cottage. Which is pretty exciting. It all started last year with my new years resolution of starting a blog - which really was going to be about our falling down house and the perils and joys of DIY. Although we haven't done all that much DIY (I get inspired at times, but other times very uninspired!) and it has kind of morphed more into being about my garden.</span><br />
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Great night so far for <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NYE?src=hash">#NYE</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/sydneyfireworks?src=hash">#sydneyfireworks</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/sydneyNYE?src=hash">#sydneyNYE</a> <a href="https://t.co/hSFXEmaMal">pic.twitter.com/hSFXEmaMal</a></div>
— Crooked Cottage (@crookedcottage1) <a href="https://twitter.com/crookedcottage1/status/682521002115338240">December 31, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I've had a great year, although I have found it more difficult lately to post as life just seems to be crazy busy all the time. I've really enjoyed reading lots of different blogs, about gardening, DIY, and simple living. I have a few of them on my blog list, and would definitely recommend all of them! I learn a lot from these blogs, and I hope that occasionally I can help people out with some information too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I've really enjoyed being a part of the </span><a href="http://www.strayedtable.com/garden-share-collective/" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">Garden Share Collective</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> - and anyone who is interested in growing their own food should join in too! Anything from some herbs in containers on a balcony to serious gardens on large areas (I'm still not sure how big an acre is. But I know it's way bigger than my 150 square metres!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So this years new years resolutions will be - </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1) Keep up the blog - and try to be a bit more consistent. I'm pretty chuffed that according to my blog stats I've had 7500 visits this year, so hopefully I can increase that average!</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2) Waste less food - this is a bad habit of mine, and it is quite shameful how much produce goes into my compost bin. I guess it's better in the compost than the rubbish bin, but it is wasteful, and I'm going to try hard not to do it so much this year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">3) After just reading some posts on Nana Chels's blog <a href="http://goinggreyandslightlygreen.blogspot.com.au/" target="_blank">Going Grey and Slightly Green</a> I'm inspired to try to learn (or relearn, although not sure if being taught by your grandma when you are 8 and then trying again 30 years later counts as "relearning") how to crochet. Time will tell.....</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And of course there are still plenty of jobs to do around the house - including fixing my leak which seems to have returned, get the whole place painted externally, fix our balcony, and do something about my messy back courtyard. Oh and of course properly fix the letterbox....</span></div>
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And this is why I am in charge of DIY at my house <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/husband?src=hash">#husband</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/diyfail?src=hash">#diyfail</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/saidhefixedit?src=hash">#saidhefixedit</a> <a href="https://t.co/bE643Thx0w">pic.twitter.com/bE643Thx0w</a></div>
— Crooked Cottage (@crookedcottage1) <a href="https://twitter.com/crookedcottage1/status/670541119667593216">November 28, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So thanks for reading, commenting, and making suggestions, it is much appreciated!</span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-60438037343873005782016-01-06T18:17:00.001+11:002016-01-09T13:12:38.904+11:00Tasmanian Holiday - Part Two<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Well I have already written about part of our recent trip to Tasmania, so here is the last part of our travels -</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After Launceston we drove up to Stanley. It looks deceptively close on the map, but the nice views, windy roads and the fact that our hire car struggled to get much above 80km/hour (and sounded like a lawn mower when it did!) meant that the drive took us longer than I had thought. Of course, a stop at Ashgrove Cheese also meant a little longer between destinations. But it was worth it!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Stanley lies on the north coast of Tassie, and there is actually a narrow passage of land leading the "The Nut", a large stone formation towering over the quaint little fishing village of Stanley. We stayed just outside the town at the Beachside Retreat property (again, this is not sponsored but I would be very happy for someone to pay for me to go back!)</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFpJHViRf_e37q6zzgH-OBSB_RYrI5xREYhAPEKlvFHbCLvHCFaTuaqyo1Z7kP2lY6vN6vp3gZ4cLfBbyIdDr3xpc6DNnolgIx6dVaK-jh39uhUUOKqF81kxvT2bfLlKLHfK2bynxTxkWU/s1600/IMG_1554%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFpJHViRf_e37q6zzgH-OBSB_RYrI5xREYhAPEKlvFHbCLvHCFaTuaqyo1Z7kP2lY6vN6vp3gZ4cLfBbyIdDr3xpc6DNnolgIx6dVaK-jh39uhUUOKqF81kxvT2bfLlKLHfK2bynxTxkWU/s640/IMG_1554%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The view from our cabin</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Our cabin was fantastic, very private, and my favourite part was the large porthole window which is actually set up as a window seat, so you can sit in the window and wait for the wildlife. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWaGejI9yD-U9et3ykzi1bEP_3KmBfzlxbhXcnFulfU7OE0JeLJ3nKhx7NdLqWMB53RQhYdu0ED4KZjsz6mT2z-p6u_3NLMqxu-APNxnuSSNhTvyMkRVKJsFS7ZWgrqaswOgqSYzwLLfiY/s1600/IMG_1606.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWaGejI9yD-U9et3ykzi1bEP_3KmBfzlxbhXcnFulfU7OE0JeLJ3nKhx7NdLqWMB53RQhYdu0ED4KZjsz6mT2z-p6u_3NLMqxu-APNxnuSSNhTvyMkRVKJsFS7ZWgrqaswOgqSYzwLLfiY/s640/IMG_1606.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The porthole window seat</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">We also had gorgeous views of the sheltered lagoon.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So this few days was all about wildlife!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">First we only saw rabbits, which was a bit dull. Then I saw in the gloomy dusk what looked to be the size of a rabbit, but took off hopping like a kangaroo - but much faster! I was intrigued to what I had seen and thought it might have been a potoroo. The next night though the mystery was solved - there were many wallabies around and what I had seen was actually a juvenile wallaby. I didn't get a picture of them as they were a bit shy and easily startled, and they can really move once they take off!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiea6gwLVJvUGGjgZ6JE00u2MWcchZ_G1iFPp1nmkk2pnMl4U0RV5KqT8o8eNHlen73FN3pSjk7xDd-kPpbrluylrrEr5QbiBh9c_ObCCn6JvFOR1s2aD_agmw1ZBk-lK5E1JfNV9TlQG56/s1600/IMG_1604.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiea6gwLVJvUGGjgZ6JE00u2MWcchZ_G1iFPp1nmkk2pnMl4U0RV5KqT8o8eNHlen73FN3pSjk7xDd-kPpbrluylrrEr5QbiBh9c_ObCCn6JvFOR1s2aD_agmw1ZBk-lK5E1JfNV9TlQG56/s640/IMG_1604.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The wallaby - through the glass and at dusk!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The only problem with our lovely secluded cabin - it was so quiet at night that I hardly slept as I kept hearing little creatures (most likely those wallabies!) moving around, and at one stage heard something small scuttle across the verandah outside - possibly a marsupial mouse. Guess I've been a city girl too long if I can't sleep without traffic, sirens or planes flying overheard!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Apart from the marsupials we also saw lots of birds. I am not a "twitcher" and so apart from the blue fairy wren and the yellow tailed black cockatoo I can't list the species, however they were plentiful. Lots of sea birds waiting on the sandbanks of the lagoon for the molluscs.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiijp88tGlYJmZtFz5eUT0WbK0PAGKxAGH4ekWTd534uinvsgwAMtb6sX5RLOu4gIGuyZIxJKKNviRew81oUMyrqXL2w8uvr95jWYf0m4g8lh1adSb3lE-ej4ps7ysl6UA56KKiELKbB1RO/s1600/IMG_1625.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiijp88tGlYJmZtFz5eUT0WbK0PAGKxAGH4ekWTd534uinvsgwAMtb6sX5RLOu4gIGuyZIxJKKNviRew81oUMyrqXL2w8uvr95jWYf0m4g8lh1adSb3lE-ej4ps7ysl6UA56KKiELKbB1RO/s400/IMG_1625.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The yellow tailed black cockatoo</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And then there were the sea creatures. We strolled along the beach, and waded in the water up to our knees - it was surprisingly warm. And so clear! So we could see many little creatures - sea snails, </span><a href="http://www.sydneyfishmarket.com.au/seafood-school/seafood-info/species-info/species-details?specieid=193&specieDescriptionID=193#.VmkuLUp97IU" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;" target="_blank">pipis</a><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> (well I call them pipis, I think some people call them cockles, or they are similar or the same as vongole), crabs and jellyfish. I also saw a lot of lovely shells, we didn't pick anything up or disturb it though just photographed where we saw them.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Little crab making his covered hole.</td></tr>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzUkCBLd43o_cmL_9MclyDP-8YDOjKYSjqy1uljCzQrGpvq1qpC0acDKrnwjfeGPmAq4n6mzjYBqFQOaPfEMQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On the second day we were at Stanley we realised we were in town for the Show. Now my husband has been to the Royal Easter Show but he had never attended a proper country agricultural society show - so of course we went. Us and everyone from the surrounding area I think!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My favourite part is always the prizes for arts and crafts and gardening - and the Circular Head Show did not disappoint. The same names kept popping up (obviously some people have very green thumbs) and I have to say I can only dream of show worthy broad beans, garlic, carrots and other vegetables. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some of the prize winning broad beans</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">More prize winners - strawberries and lemons this time.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Another fun aspect was the "Mr Potato Head" and "Vegetable animals" section - awesome displays.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cauliflower mouse</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fish!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bit blurry but how fun are the Mr Potato Heads?!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I don't think Mr Crooked Cottage really understands the importance of those first prize awards, or especially a blue ribbon for champion, but I'm sure anyone who has ever grown up in a country town knows how much you covet those, especially when you are small. So I hope you are all growing prize winning vegies or cooking some delicious and champion ribbon cakes and scones!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-57233934163616263672015-12-08T15:07:00.000+11:002015-12-08T15:07:15.350+11:00Tasmanian holiday - Part One<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Well I have been neglecting the blog a little lately, mostly as I have been neglecting the garden and house! I do have a few posts I need to complete regarding some renos we have had done, but mostly between copious amounts of work travel and then the slide into the busy season that is December and Christmas - nothing has been done.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And now we are on holidays! Well actually the break is about to come to an end, and we will be heading back to real life (fingers crossed with some plants still alive, I'm hoping my improvised watering systems, coupled with sprinklers and a bit of normal Sydney rain will have kept everything going). But I really wanted to share some of our holiday with you all.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is our second trip to Tasmania, and we've enjoyed it as much as our last one. This is not a sponsored post in any way - however if anyone would like me to visit again and blog about it I would be more than happy to!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We have spent some time in Hobart as the husband had a conference here. Meandering around Salamanca markets has lead to far too many gift items to be lugged home in my already overflowing suitcase. Two trips to MONA - one for the free opening night party and then one for the fancy conference dinner have both been fantastic.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The view back to Hobart from MONA</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYmanSwfmtBoVi8TOLhpRZ_aCZIbTL8DX8m-w8Aa8SDL6rdaJyqE0ojIKXSDk7luKXhPmtQqOuyPPHpWbzVOjqpFtJdC-uJE3e5Wwf4DK6T03dgVrf7GhHwN7PRCFbDUcx7TOHFRLMJNJ_/s1600/IMG_1535%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYmanSwfmtBoVi8TOLhpRZ_aCZIbTL8DX8m-w8Aa8SDL6rdaJyqE0ojIKXSDk7luKXhPmtQqOuyPPHpWbzVOjqpFtJdC-uJE3e5Wwf4DK6T03dgVrf7GhHwN7PRCFbDUcx7TOHFRLMJNJ_/s400/IMG_1535%255B1%255D.JPG" width="300" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Gilbert and George retrospective exhibition</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I also got a bit of renovation inspiration while walking around the suburb of Battery Point. So many houses are similar to our little cottage, they seem to have been built around a similar time period (probably mid to late 1800s) and although many are stone there are still plenty of weatherboard homes with gorgeous cottage gardens to aspire to. I have taken some pictures of potential paint colours for our place, and I really loved the names on the glass panel over the door - also something I will be looking in to.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One of the pretty blue colours I am considering for our external paint job</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One of my prospective colour schemes - already have the white fence - although our front door is white. </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJnwPmxMQS_cRO9UGSrm7wWN5McI4bRdmIT6T9WltRPlmpXr2yUARTgt56R6kh7wefE3Y3EC0O6KBCCAy0JNtGFUBh-0Vt3luXE1cSo8xGJqwcns2QkKjHeoqk3qb1sMCcVnDU7yzDfYJR/s1600/IMG_1541%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJnwPmxMQS_cRO9UGSrm7wWN5McI4bRdmIT6T9WltRPlmpXr2yUARTgt56R6kh7wefE3Y3EC0O6KBCCAy0JNtGFUBh-0Vt3luXE1cSo8xGJqwcns2QkKjHeoqk3qb1sMCcVnDU7yzDfYJR/s640/IMG_1541%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I haven't seen the name on the top panel before and in Hobart I saw it often - I think this a great idea and I will be looking into it for our front door too - currently the panel is painted white but I need to get to it and see what is underneath!</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYEZUNha53L6RfM7-TM9S-jr4Mw4FsqDWNISTQWDtQcm7XVARA57vomAbnVWT-obYHK9_wG7xVaMZwptFr3oWs4_j_53Ewicdj9LTqxL6q4eOWjTYtWh01GdzsWFW2zGBvM1rfCO40eny_/s1600/IMG_1542%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYEZUNha53L6RfM7-TM9S-jr4Mw4FsqDWNISTQWDtQcm7XVARA57vomAbnVWT-obYHK9_wG7xVaMZwptFr3oWs4_j_53Ewicdj9LTqxL6q4eOWjTYtWh01GdzsWFW2zGBvM1rfCO40eny_/s640/IMG_1542%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Glistening water off Battery Point - I could get used to those kind of views.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj94xHeJpXwPmZER_42I7gNrzls0gXk93NlNwZj1a03TePjxFKqsnYvujjf0EPKgqLCXdqn3hvjUOXS1MPHqvrXz0JVFz7AdKcgISDjnADOm9Lmy7cNCJDRrMCCBs9_yU6EPGkqam7FuEC/s1600/IMG_1543%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhj94xHeJpXwPmZER_42I7gNrzls0gXk93NlNwZj1a03TePjxFKqsnYvujjf0EPKgqLCXdqn3hvjUOXS1MPHqvrXz0JVFz7AdKcgISDjnADOm9Lmy7cNCJDRrMCCBs9_yU6EPGkqam7FuEC/s640/IMG_1543%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Another shot off the pier and looking towards Sandy Bay</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">After Hobart we headed up the middle of the island to Launceston, and spent three lovely days. Mostly it was about the wine tasting (I can't say no to a sparkling or pinot grigio) which has meant that our Christmas guests won't be short of something to drink - three cases are currently winging their way (ever so slowly - Australia Post isn't what it used to be) home to meet us when we get back.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcGn-soUVwIEhLJl2q3rDclTDpKCQ7xI38gVqgaLlSw3tiIhEOphZ-Y0C3Se-x9xBJIVjmuf3yP5_TQtsaxGhu5NroFHaVsyz0I0AamAvSbiQyCj5uG4XIbPKRYaoXIKFZcEL5gpUBUjS2/s1600/IMG_1548%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcGn-soUVwIEhLJl2q3rDclTDpKCQ7xI38gVqgaLlSw3tiIhEOphZ-Y0C3Se-x9xBJIVjmuf3yP5_TQtsaxGhu5NroFHaVsyz0I0AamAvSbiQyCj5uG4XIbPKRYaoXIKFZcEL5gpUBUjS2/s640/IMG_1548%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The Bay of Fires vineyard - their sparkling has been winning awards left right and centre (and is very tasty!)</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvyQOmLIC-DaeajavRPisJ0kJv84A5r5qL9cwEPgOZ-xefPkd-ZnxET_4BYNJUq_8f1QTl0N_pFfnnVhyphenhyphenn7Ojg7zn096GKcPN0jGjeG0A1pCi7Wppcvn0bbUOh_5Nz_d8lgPMCKrLbADuM/s1600/IMG_1549%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvyQOmLIC-DaeajavRPisJ0kJv84A5r5qL9cwEPgOZ-xefPkd-ZnxET_4BYNJUq_8f1QTl0N_pFfnnVhyphenhyphenn7Ojg7zn096GKcPN0jGjeG0A1pCi7Wppcvn0bbUOh_5Nz_d8lgPMCKrLbADuM/s640/IMG_1549%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We couldn't go there without tasting some of the award winners with lunch. </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Also in Launceston we took a cruise up the Tamar and Esk rivers - very educational - I should have taken more pictures as the orchards, vineyards and farms along the riverbanks were all fantastic, along with the old farm houses. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I really would recommend a trip to Tasmania if you've never been - there's something for everyone!</span><br />
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-53462794628367839062015-11-30T21:14:00.000+11:002015-11-30T21:14:05.885+11:00December Garden Share Collective - Growth (and neglect!)<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Well my stats overview on my blog tells me my last post was on the 1st of October. Pretty slack really! Life has been busy, lots of travel for work (I think about six out of the eight weeks or so since my last post I have been away). But the wonderful thing is that the garden is now established enough that it keeps on keeping on despite my absence and my almost total neglect.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBMYiYEpTAKo_ce5-vKqSwMjjyGo4bhpMzkq3mEtp8SrZhCVOA7E8YzwAh7A-Qkbb_nvCH9z5E_p5eEOyGhWNaTPu5yDz5UrRTWlwa-EC76py6hq_WujiIGgMmMKREgD1WzJXDiuMJujsV/s1600/IMG_1530%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBMYiYEpTAKo_ce5-vKqSwMjjyGo4bhpMzkq3mEtp8SrZhCVOA7E8YzwAh7A-Qkbb_nvCH9z5E_p5eEOyGhWNaTPu5yDz5UrRTWlwa-EC76py6hq_WujiIGgMmMKREgD1WzJXDiuMJujsV/s640/IMG_1530%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is my lemon tree, and I'm not sure what is going on - I thought they weren't suppose to fruit in their first year. Also it's not the season. But here are my little funny green lemons.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This months Garden Share Collective (hosted by Krystie at <a href="http://afreshlegacy.net/" target="_blank">A Fresh Legacy</a> and Kate from <a href="http://rosehipsandrhubarb.com/" target="_blank">Rosehips and Rhubarb </a>has the theme of Growth. Which really can be taken a few ways I think.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">When I look at the last 18 months of living in our lovely Crooked Cottage I think what we have managed both inside and out can be considered growth - and definitely the garden shows that. I have gone from a few dry beds overgrown with succulents to now an abundance of pots plus my overflowing beds. I've learnt (by trial and error) which vegetables are fairly low maintenance (hello snow peas and lettuce, plus radishes and all my herbs) and which I probably won't be trying again, or if I do will need a new plan (I'm looking at you cabbage! Closely followed by potatoes...) So I am growing as a gardener as well.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy7GLoDIsg6bbWbvaZcZrSspoEgy9LEnxMYQd_hI4XJZwC455NlbmNe9YZJRKwFG-fyADu7ORe1Dw6S_UbewkkQ89iyeGvjV8T8Piy063YAovii_rspAE-pqp3_5jjSO18N4CMBcHKh8Uz/s1600/IMG_1520%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy7GLoDIsg6bbWbvaZcZrSspoEgy9LEnxMYQd_hI4XJZwC455NlbmNe9YZJRKwFG-fyADu7ORe1Dw6S_UbewkkQ89iyeGvjV8T8Piy063YAovii_rspAE-pqp3_5jjSO18N4CMBcHKh8Uz/s640/IMG_1520%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Did I mention my neglect?! My pots are all higgledy piggledy around the front yard, and I desperately need to weed and remove all those ones that have bolted to seed. But for now it's just a bit mess, at least the sprinklers reach them all.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihY3BznX4MSgGqBBk6NsIxxpnirvr49HLW7_0tETTz1Oz9TxbcOpiwJNeK7shya8n2Qun28P1XKHmnz6A-C-lahNrMpJ3SihtLHb14weT2SskOmnqrYyYcnMw-icc83jxSe_7S5gpOYnPL/s1600/IMG_1521%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihY3BznX4MSgGqBBk6NsIxxpnirvr49HLW7_0tETTz1Oz9TxbcOpiwJNeK7shya8n2Qun28P1XKHmnz6A-C-lahNrMpJ3SihtLHb14weT2SskOmnqrYyYcnMw-icc83jxSe_7S5gpOYnPL/s640/IMG_1521%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My rosemary is very vigorous, and the chilli plants have kept going for another year.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But just from a purely plant point of view - well with my DIY irrigation system on the timer and a few token efforts at pulling weeds, spring has meant my garden grows without me. Which has lead to some nice surprises, like the gigantic cucumber I found hiding on the fence, and the very tasty " "Pink Pearl" cherry tomatoes which have appeared on my non staked plants.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmopL3ztZ3kNZh-1fLPxRwTLRsxw1pDTRnGiTqxd8wZPXUQIphmdTtwjZoMjQmGUFNhz5otA1lQPF7f3woyhWSjEJvszpijQEtVsmhw6NyZDhehbcjkei4Jm-fcOWhXNVTy-FFLMMc3PKQ/s1600/IMG_1526%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmopL3ztZ3kNZh-1fLPxRwTLRsxw1pDTRnGiTqxd8wZPXUQIphmdTtwjZoMjQmGUFNhz5otA1lQPF7f3woyhWSjEJvszpijQEtVsmhw6NyZDhehbcjkei4Jm-fcOWhXNVTy-FFLMMc3PKQ/s640/IMG_1526%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The very large cucumber which I found hiding behind the chives - made a lot of salad.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5xJ4JuV3YDNck7C8eCK5yNy1_QMskVk4LmPwPVB1lH-FfaFwQzgOZr9D6jtM6vuhcWiWY0wuuxINe52AH0LFTsczC3KDIc5m-9FhHah__U-SPWtiZqsb0NpLcmOgYY9Q6EVlSpfvMIbpL/s1600/IMG_1533%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5xJ4JuV3YDNck7C8eCK5yNy1_QMskVk4LmPwPVB1lH-FfaFwQzgOZr9D6jtM6vuhcWiWY0wuuxINe52AH0LFTsczC3KDIc5m-9FhHah__U-SPWtiZqsb0NpLcmOgYY9Q6EVlSpfvMIbpL/s640/IMG_1533%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here's my pink pearl tomatoes - very tasty and so far they have avoided last years curse of fruit fly, even though I haven't been home much to pick them as soon as they turn orange.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfn0e2nG0XMWlRKbP-VL1HMtTk0zh8yy7gG0VvOwFY0V4-J21mojIpC2blnG_T7lbwwmUPmir7K5U9UlUFV-xiPzj9bQbIzIHbECsRaKDZarQWkkTmBUQm-G6aIE5NWM20Y72LPNsCDTRj/s1600/IMG_1532%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfn0e2nG0XMWlRKbP-VL1HMtTk0zh8yy7gG0VvOwFY0V4-J21mojIpC2blnG_T7lbwwmUPmir7K5U9UlUFV-xiPzj9bQbIzIHbECsRaKDZarQWkkTmBUQm-G6aIE5NWM20Y72LPNsCDTRj/s320/IMG_1532%255B1%255D.JPG" width="134" /></a></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgunbxjq7MImooyFcCDiRbzR_oiWfMTx5ehYH_hcG6jY9BUe0qy78MbVuCxA78lJdoWmechD34o030w79080qBNaqT_53iEOP9WCA9kGyrad3XVc-Kvd7QZbJtOBooGOGkiIj2zjktH8tnw/s1600/IMG_1531%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgunbxjq7MImooyFcCDiRbzR_oiWfMTx5ehYH_hcG6jY9BUe0qy78MbVuCxA78lJdoWmechD34o030w79080qBNaqT_53iEOP9WCA9kGyrad3XVc-Kvd7QZbJtOBooGOGkiIj2zjktH8tnw/s400/IMG_1531%255B1%255D.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Another blurry picture (I clearly haven't grown as a photographer) - this pot of spinach has been just growing and growing for months.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUV2kGovd_Sgjujz6GzUnJEkGFMZ9bIrCXXm9gYAHSdT5MrLQLvWcWLTp9r1eEsxGNKXE7eB-VBHy2QWIQbREi6Kl72Nm6qIUtdmWK44YHkCgJ1bkxMJyBCcWqFfqTzZNV9H8FZLqV5PdO/s1600/IMG_1529%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUV2kGovd_Sgjujz6GzUnJEkGFMZ9bIrCXXm9gYAHSdT5MrLQLvWcWLTp9r1eEsxGNKXE7eB-VBHy2QWIQbREi6Kl72Nm6qIUtdmWK44YHkCgJ1bkxMJyBCcWqFfqTzZNV9H8FZLqV5PdO/s640/IMG_1529%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This years attempts at zucchinis have been far more productive and so far (touch wood) no powdery mildew in sight.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIeYM5bCo6At7TZZEVFl3I5zI0lKeOKw7K21DrZAykvn3VbNppVpsczocDz_rL_xFOZqRZoknfqAokHjkOPb7x9sJWU8ZtpNmpzPI_8dDd9v1T6fxEGcnyCtbHRhQD0KQpVY98hibgsbOn/s1600/IMG_1524%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIeYM5bCo6At7TZZEVFl3I5zI0lKeOKw7K21DrZAykvn3VbNppVpsczocDz_rL_xFOZqRZoknfqAokHjkOPb7x9sJWU8ZtpNmpzPI_8dDd9v1T6fxEGcnyCtbHRhQD0KQpVY98hibgsbOn/s400/IMG_1524%255B1%255D.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Some little critter has been attacking my eggplant - hopefully though a few holey leaves won't mean no produce.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQRzMwb0Gbo8iZsnudwEv7fDfU9Ep8pSMIPhzedWa3UM9RGz9nzFdKlSHfuvJo3TctBByq_yeZIrW1rgPJV0NymEkd7UtoH7FaUDiJ9vC_tbXLMfr4QJ1VD1Ml0l1eWh8ZsTRHa2FBSmbs/s1600/IMG_1522%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQRzMwb0Gbo8iZsnudwEv7fDfU9Ep8pSMIPhzedWa3UM9RGz9nzFdKlSHfuvJo3TctBByq_yeZIrW1rgPJV0NymEkd7UtoH7FaUDiJ9vC_tbXLMfr4QJ1VD1Ml0l1eWh8ZsTRHa2FBSmbs/s400/IMG_1522%255B1%255D.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Poor lettuces didn't survive our 40 plus degree day in Sydney - wilted and bolted </span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY9Ozw3dE5v_nG566Y9QQYkkcqDCpqqhnfc8Ry0PwuTrUtRqnJI8YAzIaDXEARvJUXCpf2lNkoj-1KGJXRyT2zA5iJUok5MwvWTvPtHKCbsqcyCSqU7YVAxcPDSB9xGQt9CHBuiOCRB4mX/s1600/IMG_1527%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY9Ozw3dE5v_nG566Y9QQYkkcqDCpqqhnfc8Ry0PwuTrUtRqnJI8YAzIaDXEARvJUXCpf2lNkoj-1KGJXRyT2zA5iJUok5MwvWTvPtHKCbsqcyCSqU7YVAxcPDSB9xGQt9CHBuiOCRB4mX/s640/IMG_1527%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Who knew this cucumber plant could be hiding that big brute of a fruit?</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwRmDrnfGb_x7bGFR9mYu-k9gSrk0jgdY1wLAbRVRAm0iCkw9CRsoTB-nw3rH5SjuhsrVusetgAEMxNxhPSIw8DiWeD5Jbrw7f6PdFDVSgwxZxlZHMrVNb6v9YAutaxk_uC8KMjvnCdVJE/s1600/IMG_1525%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwRmDrnfGb_x7bGFR9mYu-k9gSrk0jgdY1wLAbRVRAm0iCkw9CRsoTB-nw3rH5SjuhsrVusetgAEMxNxhPSIw8DiWeD5Jbrw7f6PdFDVSgwxZxlZHMrVNb6v9YAutaxk_uC8KMjvnCdVJE/s320/IMG_1525%255B1%255D.JPG" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Furry caterpillar creature and another pest of the roach kind - perils of Sydney (don't look mum!)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br />So this month I will be harvesting tomatoes, zucchinis, cucumbers, a few straggling snow peas, spinach, kale, celery (another never ending producer), hopefully some capsicums and lots of herbs. I will also be ending my garlic experiment - I am not sure how that will turn out, I have a feeling they may not have grown as I would have hoped. </span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">If I get a chance I will be weeding weeding weeding, plus all my pots really do need some fertilising.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I am hoping to do a little planting, depending on the weather, and would like some more lettuces (I will need to try out succession planting so I have a continuous supply this summer), radishes, and probably some more chillis if I'm not too late. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So happy gardening and happy Christmas - how the year has flown by! </span><br /></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-87092815078766787182015-10-01T19:30:00.000+10:002015-10-01T19:30:33.651+10:00October Garden Share Collective - spreading the seeds of a love for gardening<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So another month has disappeared in what seems to be the blink of an eye. And so it is time for another <a href="http://www.strayedtable.com/garden-share-collective/" target="_blank">Garden Share Collective</a> post. This month the theme is Seeds. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I have to admit, when I started to plan a garden, I bought lots of seeds. How hard can it be right? Sprinkle some seeds, bit of dirt, water, and hey presto, lots of plants. Ok so it doesn't go like that. I can grow seeds alright, but once I transplant them they seem to die a thousand deaths. Too dry, too hot, too wet, too mouldy, too many slugs - the list goes on. So I admit that I know cheat a little bit and now I mostly buy seedlings.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">However I have had a bit of luck with seeds. Radishes and coriander work well, plus I've had success with capsicums. Cucumber and tomatoes haven't been so great.</span><br />
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en">
<div dir="ltr" lang="en">
"Even a child can grow radishes" <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/thingsmydadsays?src=hash">#thingsmydadsays</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/garden?src=hash">#garden</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/vegetables?src=hash">#vegetables</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/herbs?src=hash">#herbs</a> <a href="http://t.co/YBuYdCQ1gL">pic.twitter.com/YBuYdCQ1gL</a></div>
— Crooked Cottage (@crookedcottage1) <a href="https://twitter.com/crookedcottage1/status/563430186772078592">February 5, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On the non food front, I managed to grow lots and lots of flowers from bulbs this year (they're seeds right?)</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYyX6evVtEPkvaY5vI1PWRlGtTRaKZbtjyZ2z7TvfJDO5c3xMC4Vf2zgPlyfY25FnXlUUxWgIkDFVywIFpNi5f-DMHSDnB-08iG-rm8xlgKxv9xY4J_38whuEjIGVuA_kh3duCH36hLjF7/s1600/IMG_1333%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYyX6evVtEPkvaY5vI1PWRlGtTRaKZbtjyZ2z7TvfJDO5c3xMC4Vf2zgPlyfY25FnXlUUxWgIkDFVywIFpNi5f-DMHSDnB-08iG-rm8xlgKxv9xY4J_38whuEjIGVuA_kh3duCH36hLjF7/s640/IMG_1333%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">One of the lovely hyacinths I grew earlier this year.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Es7pDTAjxqvaxGdp_qGu6AWTDymkvRylmAExJh84IQH-XNPjl8them2CZMaaPmbx9YCqSmrJJBjwVaoKjHFqNNrzDvjCO6YrgpOu095AXdylHfZcJcoTjJXzn_QhnEi2wuoUpiIl8Alq/s1600/IMG_1388%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6Es7pDTAjxqvaxGdp_qGu6AWTDymkvRylmAExJh84IQH-XNPjl8them2CZMaaPmbx9YCqSmrJJBjwVaoKjHFqNNrzDvjCO6YrgpOu095AXdylHfZcJcoTjJXzn_QhnEi2wuoUpiIl8Alq/s640/IMG_1388%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My pretty ranunculus - any excuse to put more pictures of these out!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Despite the fact that I am not great at growing from seed, I have still been collecting my seeds religiously. Possibly a waste, but I have hundreds of seeds of basil, coriander, pak choi, broccolino, and chillis. Plus of course capsicum. I have one lettuce that went to seed but those little babies are so fine I am not sure I could catch them in anything. And I'm thinking about trying to keep some of the snow pea and broad bean pods just in case I get better at this seed growing gig.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So this month I finally grew a cauliflower. I was pretty proud of that!</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Nacu_yLTJerqKNnyuJCQx1H7U7Lh4MQPwkbEDgEZC-SWRC4AO6d4Q6PvThyphenhyphen7oOjkYWeL-aX7q9YImCGqWyoYi9bMaOX4vgjyvbGNB8qxodq2q4OUyFbQlfAM66t-90DSZJQBDMvkIver/s1600/IMG_1421%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3Nacu_yLTJerqKNnyuJCQx1H7U7Lh4MQPwkbEDgEZC-SWRC4AO6d4Q6PvThyphenhyphen7oOjkYWeL-aX7q9YImCGqWyoYi9bMaOX4vgjyvbGNB8qxodq2q4OUyFbQlfAM66t-90DSZJQBDMvkIver/s640/IMG_1421%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My very first ever cauliflower - completed with moth eaten leaves and some friendly bugs!</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The broad beans also bore fruit (or vegetables?) but I have decided they are a total waste of effort. By the time you pod the beans, then repod again you end up with about a quarter of the plant to actually eat.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLZN-jHeq9ux7Nx6NdawjINW25INu1w1zIMfnrO7XkDSyaQJLll6Nw-IznpFbJTu7BksRni8e8_zUYE1lxHgfaOSIsXySjLWq7z-9LYapuuuePPWEw5368UBZ1PEAy9uQDyH_FKJLi4ErC/s1600/IMG_1403%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLZN-jHeq9ux7Nx6NdawjINW25INu1w1zIMfnrO7XkDSyaQJLll6Nw-IznpFbJTu7BksRni8e8_zUYE1lxHgfaOSIsXySjLWq7z-9LYapuuuePPWEw5368UBZ1PEAy9uQDyH_FKJLi4ErC/s640/IMG_1403%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Broad beans</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU1mwoiHEXmQFg57qmH3SXGpmDNJyPcTwvkgqg4fDC-D2w8aHgEPbhK0FunVtvO36r8dev9-_K4yJLztMTXD9PmFnqoZVF6ZeUSs0LNP0l7WGqYMiCAgNDKPll-ZkoSq_zfwjsHbO39VLd/s1600/IMG_1402%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU1mwoiHEXmQFg57qmH3SXGpmDNJyPcTwvkgqg4fDC-D2w8aHgEPbhK0FunVtvO36r8dev9-_K4yJLztMTXD9PmFnqoZVF6ZeUSs0LNP0l7WGqYMiCAgNDKPll-ZkoSq_zfwjsHbO39VLd/s640/IMG_1402%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">More broad beans</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Snow peas kept on going, as did my asian greens and spinach.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0ikBSwPA5aT0xb80bSG5NWsGPrPw4zQvm-bqQ4C8SBvpVPLBye5N4lyFQ4h1P-BwIqj2VUOlMS_Z5tdS8ojMZeeprX7oarDQ17Y7RsqoTl-Gn9zEj4_TtASC6Q6LO6o9vKYFieZQ4d1e5/s1600/IMG_1408%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0ikBSwPA5aT0xb80bSG5NWsGPrPw4zQvm-bqQ4C8SBvpVPLBye5N4lyFQ4h1P-BwIqj2VUOlMS_Z5tdS8ojMZeeprX7oarDQ17Y7RsqoTl-Gn9zEj4_TtASC6Q6LO6o9vKYFieZQ4d1e5/s640/IMG_1408%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Spinach, chives and land cress - which all went in to a very delicious scrambled egg breakfast!</span></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhL_bLP0U6tr5zndqex29qcIDjybz8qhLvMTXByf7apYJ_XPgGkAM0Rc3A1QjvS090NGZbXvF7hllPXH9XAfv1Naf8PqcFGG7O003ERB6hg56XwTUqJND7vXOOVSIaSSII65LXKYRDKlIO/s1600/IMG_1404%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhL_bLP0U6tr5zndqex29qcIDjybz8qhLvMTXByf7apYJ_XPgGkAM0Rc3A1QjvS090NGZbXvF7hllPXH9XAfv1Naf8PqcFGG7O003ERB6hg56XwTUqJND7vXOOVSIaSSII65LXKYRDKlIO/s640/IMG_1404%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The asian greens are growing well</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The garlic looks like it might be ready sometime soon.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I made a rookie error when planting out cucumber and sugar snap pea seedlings with no protection fro the marauding slugs, so I had to do that all over again!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My land cress has gone crazy, and now that I don't have very many brassicas to protect from white cabbage moth I will be putting it into salads.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And it's getting hotter, so my tomato seedlings are growing well. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Happy gardening to you all for spring!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitS23jnyMKuD69bqC3Mgzmh5kI6DcZmEpi1zHrXaNzcpOFUlhi5cZviTsfY-lrrF0mx1D15ltAuxxNkHSv9Dk2-pkDIQ5xRNWXFe40KGHve8V6kGlAzTUAhew_DUXepn1jsh-DxFuKGF68/s1600/IMG_1420%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitS23jnyMKuD69bqC3Mgzmh5kI6DcZmEpi1zHrXaNzcpOFUlhi5cZviTsfY-lrrF0mx1D15ltAuxxNkHSv9Dk2-pkDIQ5xRNWXFe40KGHve8V6kGlAzTUAhew_DUXepn1jsh-DxFuKGF68/s320/IMG_1420%255B1%255D.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another shot of my cauli</td></tr>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-24823684080850024302015-09-07T10:56:00.002+10:002015-09-07T10:56:26.213+10:00Hidden delights of Rozelle - Callan Park Bush Track<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAQ_RLO9lt72PRNGdx4wDE-JPzfKP-77g3llJSSe66IjzCJBWuGyrSV0HuUQVZCMsrZrujoPYcTr4d8Qr31jHfZDq4xAQt1nDnacQuRq5M5y-hwl3WurmjVtrwbDKhgo8-uDXAAfa_pXwd/s1600/IMG_1384%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAQ_RLO9lt72PRNGdx4wDE-JPzfKP-77g3llJSSe66IjzCJBWuGyrSV0HuUQVZCMsrZrujoPYcTr4d8Qr31jHfZDq4xAQt1nDnacQuRq5M5y-hwl3WurmjVtrwbDKhgo8-uDXAAfa_pXwd/s640/IMG_1384%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Glimpses of the water from the bush track</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So spring has sprung and everything looks brighter. And as often happens when the sun comes out I get slightly more enthusiastic for health and fitness. So I headed out on a morning walk.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Lots of people are probably familiar with the <a href="http://www.leichhardt.nsw.gov.au/Recreation/Walking-and-Cycling/The-Bay-Run" target="_blank">Bay Run</a> which circles around Iron Cove Bay. Living near Callan Park means I can cut through the park to meet up with the path, and take a lovely walk around the water. It's very popular for cyclists, prams, and plenty of different levels of walking and running fitness. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Callan Park itself is quite a hidden secret, and includes the gorgeous sandstone buildings of what was the Rozelle Hospital (or the <a href="http://www.callanpark.com/?page_id=29" target="_blank">Kirkbride Complex</a>) which are now used by the Sydney College of the Arts. But today I found a previously undiscovered (by me) path - the Callan Park bush track.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I also have recently been reading on the very excellent blog <a href="http://gardenamateur.blogspot.com.au/2015/09/native-beauty.html" target="_blank">Garden Amateur</a> about native Australian plants and the lack of knowledge in the general public (and certainly I fall into that category) about them. So this seemed to be quite timely as well to see some of our natives in their (almost) natural setting.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So I have to admit that I have no idea what any of these plants are, but I wanted to share with you all some beautiful examples of the beauty which is hidden away and so close to the city!</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikI2A6_7_WdpxzU8is08CWdwxLiQ9gaJiDkA2SuK1vn9CtQf0bdcVZbOBE3F58-L47jb6X8LYpBRHxccd_B3WMJJ9ZGiR15en4JcPwiir5Z_ZROIVTZ2YWj3VV7UyASRYXv8e3MxG9wfKO/s1600/IMG_1374%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikI2A6_7_WdpxzU8is08CWdwxLiQ9gaJiDkA2SuK1vn9CtQf0bdcVZbOBE3F58-L47jb6X8LYpBRHxccd_B3WMJJ9ZGiR15en4JcPwiir5Z_ZROIVTZ2YWj3VV7UyASRYXv8e3MxG9wfKO/s640/IMG_1374%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bush track in Callan Park</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_lQZEdhyrQYcvIjteW4gqOva0dCgF45kuX_9sg8drBmmPOX0SWl9TxO-vrZtgA_LMnG0wznO_ITLtVDCY4Pt9cuXmrIOHQONFoIF3hcFJ1CVytsMZl_6MNkexHj9I46r_b9-43yDWPN64/s1600/IMG_1377%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_lQZEdhyrQYcvIjteW4gqOva0dCgF45kuX_9sg8drBmmPOX0SWl9TxO-vrZtgA_LMnG0wznO_ITLtVDCY4Pt9cuXmrIOHQONFoIF3hcFJ1CVytsMZl_6MNkexHj9I46r_b9-43yDWPN64/s640/IMG_1377%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The track is level and easy to walk</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJYkOF7kwH5lXZp-ET_P3VD8wW1eGAym5Vucp9E47NP5jsbN_RMml5VFTgwOXpm-jTeJCujt27WRO8stJVf1fesrNwnpweKBIflLZQHZ8XESQKaAdf8BNoC4V-M_WI5LOm-IGIoF2kmPBr/s1600/IMG_1387%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJYkOF7kwH5lXZp-ET_P3VD8wW1eGAym5Vucp9E47NP5jsbN_RMml5VFTgwOXpm-jTeJCujt27WRO8stJVf1fesrNwnpweKBIflLZQHZ8XESQKaAdf8BNoC4V-M_WI5LOm-IGIoF2kmPBr/s640/IMG_1387%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The steps run up to the road at one end of the track</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJDEbpWyvlpiZdVjXa-mJyDQeBsFDYzxOdIvGF7gxDzxwDS_GOPnVMve3K8r9l3rS_XdOz3PM-RISu3iy8Ld6ctvmRmLEJ05gV43uU3HMy_Z_kyCZSLOX8H8OSodLF6HBpL3Tdv5Qfy4e5/s1600/IMG_1380%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJDEbpWyvlpiZdVjXa-mJyDQeBsFDYzxOdIvGF7gxDzxwDS_GOPnVMve3K8r9l3rS_XdOz3PM-RISu3iy8Ld6ctvmRmLEJ05gV43uU3HMy_Z_kyCZSLOX8H8OSodLF6HBpL3Tdv5Qfy4e5/s640/IMG_1380%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tiny purple flowers </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixM9YQUlz-i218Yc9KdzuFGSyIYsKDNR35SIo59KplWQKzahnAQaMkPPRxVK9ZVqpUAYdfXT0uCZ1ak7BP2uSDmhFPYh3MOVmApsYRBXIpR9-ZaCbBNQUN0h1mchE8UEHWEs2X_R3PBCSe/s1600/IMG_1381%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixM9YQUlz-i218Yc9KdzuFGSyIYsKDNR35SIo59KplWQKzahnAQaMkPPRxVK9ZVqpUAYdfXT0uCZ1ak7BP2uSDmhFPYh3MOVmApsYRBXIpR9-ZaCbBNQUN0h1mchE8UEHWEs2X_R3PBCSe/s640/IMG_1381%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fern</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOBfyBhLANasWr74MIk8Urc7T6xQPew6-FlCIR4031yJ-OytjtXQAn5qbtV5-7-ImtKu933Nwwq8zjJOAloTwId6qqrGc67zx2H7tQKuqJzteeLg8hthLjlpSMArp3ZiiADZpXQgb1-suw/s1600/IMG_1383%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOBfyBhLANasWr74MIk8Urc7T6xQPew6-FlCIR4031yJ-OytjtXQAn5qbtV5-7-ImtKu933Nwwq8zjJOAloTwId6qqrGc67zx2H7tQKuqJzteeLg8hthLjlpSMArp3ZiiADZpXQgb1-suw/s640/IMG_1383%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mass of tiny white flowers</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF9Yg9TLQR-_OHg-N3OvYPg3xF2x9hyKs-H9hK8K_Y97t4MIlh7jFyZgQyc4vo0gR6XhmkWz3tadSEVO8aIwJBA8V2ySiIJ19DPplKCzT_ZW4CF0CXVl8TUhnkGYvyMkqBUZdjeRUvaGeA/s1600/IMG_1373%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF9Yg9TLQR-_OHg-N3OvYPg3xF2x9hyKs-H9hK8K_Y97t4MIlh7jFyZgQyc4vo0gR6XhmkWz3tadSEVO8aIwJBA8V2ySiIJ19DPplKCzT_ZW4CF0CXVl8TUhnkGYvyMkqBUZdjeRUvaGeA/s640/IMG_1373%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don't know what this one is but I think I have a lot of these self seeding in my garden - but I pull them out before they flower!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ugKeS3GsqY8NTrc5bcmYyHEd_Jal5i4mqxNAjX3DyjxdzvfTIjCHN8eQWf8K6WfYPgXqqCcZG4AyWGo2gJta_XMaSrOd6gr1Ai0G3BHHIpDfp6FME6dhFJcoGNueLj4zCAvhdTIXwoM5/s1600/IMG_1379%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ugKeS3GsqY8NTrc5bcmYyHEd_Jal5i4mqxNAjX3DyjxdzvfTIjCHN8eQWf8K6WfYPgXqqCcZG4AyWGo2gJta_XMaSrOd6gr1Ai0G3BHHIpDfp6FME6dhFJcoGNueLj4zCAvhdTIXwoM5/s640/IMG_1379%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flowers are a bit blurry but these are yellow flat kind of flowers</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZP5BVn-eW865ub9kRy3eiP1-4EF6ggyiSIpWAFrhcz6lDuIWnT31_zJRQ1dpyEWk_wbF38rx_zZ9FZHDs_LVO6aNSk22S6vYIclvb4g_wBPQGWruq5HCXAchSLoyNPlUaPgyWq_Fr0uWK/s1600/IMG_1376%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZP5BVn-eW865ub9kRy3eiP1-4EF6ggyiSIpWAFrhcz6lDuIWnT31_zJRQ1dpyEWk_wbF38rx_zZ9FZHDs_LVO6aNSk22S6vYIclvb4g_wBPQGWruq5HCXAchSLoyNPlUaPgyWq_Fr0uWK/s640/IMG_1376%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pink grevillea type plant, flowers about one inch wide.</td></tr>
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Much as I do not want to give away the secrets of Callan Park and have it full (there was no one on the track today at all) I have to say it is worth a trip to visit this beautiful area so close to the centre of Sydney!</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp45R8ejget5SbTB4ZI5pZp130gygb6ZoBAA5uusBVi78JW0neVW-5Wt0n-V-CBV32cB17sYQXRAsMg0NNuAumL0cvLaJbLGbQSPrsLEvfbtAjMzxICl1YgEFfiQeSGv4KWJXjvdeAQ-g2/s1600/IMG_1386%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjp45R8ejget5SbTB4ZI5pZp130gygb6ZoBAA5uusBVi78JW0neVW-5Wt0n-V-CBV32cB17sYQXRAsMg0NNuAumL0cvLaJbLGbQSPrsLEvfbtAjMzxICl1YgEFfiQeSGv4KWJXjvdeAQ-g2/s640/IMG_1386%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The blackbutt eucalyptus mentioned above</td></tr>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-79243561153744539422015-09-04T21:14:00.002+10:002015-09-04T21:14:18.881+10:00Garden Share Collective - Does Size Matter???<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So I'm quite liking the idea of the themed posts for the Garden Share Collective. And this first one is on size. I think of it as that age old question - does size matter???</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I tried to use a fancy program to draw a plan of my garden. But it didn't work, so I have hand drawn it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Because when it comes to size, my garden is on the "it's not the size it's what you do with it" side of the argument. The majority of my garden is planted in the front of my house as this is both the largest area and the area that gets the most sunshine. However, this is still a small courtyard. The garden beds are basically one long bed running almost the length of the courtyard on the southern side of the courtyard, which is about 6m long and probably 70cm wide. Then two beds at the front of the house, around 2m long each and also about 70 cm wide. My neighbour is replacing the fence on the northern side and when this is complete I am considering digging in another bed, however it will not get very much sun so I'm not sure if I will be better off just using the fence as a vertical garden.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So I really won't be likely to become self sufficient growing here. But I can still have great fun in the garden and provide at least some nice fresh additions to our meals.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The plan (please excuse the fairly slap dash manner) is here.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuV0VstqN5jVM3-ohC7Z79IQy5ipJvLS5aWtrfnVMZeJkPMTXXYqiHMdF3c-G_p3iXPVnguhzx7ajDYunSUIeu9Muu_KKqq05QoXVCp16z08C_uhCLcFwyB2P0PFcdP5obp77X7ibT8iaB/s1600/IMG_1357%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuV0VstqN5jVM3-ohC7Z79IQy5ipJvLS5aWtrfnVMZeJkPMTXXYqiHMdF3c-G_p3iXPVnguhzx7ajDYunSUIeu9Muu_KKqq05QoXVCp16z08C_uhCLcFwyB2P0PFcdP5obp77X7ibT8iaB/s640/IMG_1357%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A pretty rough and ready drawing of our front yard. Note the lovely feature of the bins, which have to be stored at the front of the garden as we have no side access to hide them out the back!! Entire yard is 6m x 5 m and most of this is paved courtyard.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_IMN3BMdY_bECRm3isyL7yzY89-8Gut4EoREy7R7dELBcdERnP5ZZJmqco50l7PnH4zP1mOTz3WS9Y7D169NdfSipsitYBeZTKO6El-PIVx3u51uuUvW5St1w7v8jKh8dcIdu4HCFSA7r/s1600/IMG_0941.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_IMN3BMdY_bECRm3isyL7yzY89-8Gut4EoREy7R7dELBcdERnP5ZZJmqco50l7PnH4zP1mOTz3WS9Y7D169NdfSipsitYBeZTKO6El-PIVx3u51uuUvW5St1w7v8jKh8dcIdu4HCFSA7r/s640/IMG_0941.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An older shot of the garden bed on the southern wall - it's now a lot more full and green!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgMEtjrwFh1t1gXQRBQ90tN8Vh9dS_s_OrALRrXoPD0w_WiOvZZJdeGuMmPgEraREhQnc20y5ax3CNlKO3o83IaWTnCopKobf9eAunCiuoUl4KfV6wq5Dd0kaCH4oOhewT6Eh6HtVzbCE1/s1600/P6130197.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgMEtjrwFh1t1gXQRBQ90tN8Vh9dS_s_OrALRrXoPD0w_WiOvZZJdeGuMmPgEraREhQnc20y5ax3CNlKO3o83IaWTnCopKobf9eAunCiuoUl4KfV6wq5Dd0kaCH4oOhewT6Eh6HtVzbCE1/s640/P6130197.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The pak chois grow well</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5yu1eALEgYRBWLcZkbR43X4d_IuRMjhp_qZZjlD2aYz4P2gK9gWNpwLeH_ChoKx1hWv8X4D2yF1ighNagMjADsvHNsrnuXHJG4MQ3aFgJCC4a-xHhuaYoUGjYDuwle4uWk2eMSPgTC7qu/s1600/IMG_0681.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5yu1eALEgYRBWLcZkbR43X4d_IuRMjhp_qZZjlD2aYz4P2gK9gWNpwLeH_ChoKx1hWv8X4D2yF1ighNagMjADsvHNsrnuXHJG4MQ3aFgJCC4a-xHhuaYoUGjYDuwle4uWk2eMSPgTC7qu/s640/IMG_0681.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hard to believe the whole garden started out looking like this </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge6-rJy5MnyQurEKqBDVMFIatI9pmA7JiUwwYz9zzD_CxMRCKz_j5QHYzVNj1m9hPYVfJLXkNmnFHKb9zH8kEhKRVIGioQ-b9zc4tOtgP-GGFOMeKGYe0FDCd76FXPLmh8VnICgSjIpInm/s1600/IMG_0863%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge6-rJy5MnyQurEKqBDVMFIatI9pmA7JiUwwYz9zzD_CxMRCKz_j5QHYzVNj1m9hPYVfJLXkNmnFHKb9zH8kEhKRVIGioQ-b9zc4tOtgP-GGFOMeKGYe0FDCd76FXPLmh8VnICgSjIpInm/s640/IMG_0863%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another shot of the main garden bed on the southern wall - this was during last summer and before I realised my tomatoes were being attacked by fruit fly.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So because of my lack of garden beds I have to use a lot of containers. Lots and lots of containers. I am gradually filling up the courtyard with plants in pots. My neighbours have taken to donating their unwanted pots to me (which I'm very happy to accept) so it probably won't be long and I won't be able to walk through the courtyard.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My dwarf lemon tree in one of my many brightly painted pots</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Two lovely low line containers planted out with asian greens.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8m-TzknPh4kP_R5gsDWiZxoF2EurBP9ht2ixDg_Nt3bdHp3hnroOcUzcMP24PB_ExCzVURf9mnHt0XrdgDKuO7duBnyVlq-Aa509SMtXrvldIfZ5sFjW4asL8eezJFXWpwEUgJjd-ZdYC/s1600/IMG_1206.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8m-TzknPh4kP_R5gsDWiZxoF2EurBP9ht2ixDg_Nt3bdHp3hnroOcUzcMP24PB_ExCzVURf9mnHt0XrdgDKuO7duBnyVlq-Aa509SMtXrvldIfZ5sFjW4asL8eezJFXWpwEUgJjd-ZdYC/s640/IMG_1206.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My kaffir lime also planted in a pot</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjcUO3nUSqhBtl5YpKiLNqatiyaSa-LRtVuCWR0fVSemDpiR2D4WDzk1PFm2_VjXl1wzdd98OMoB9-J1Ig3BMRD2WYM3KlSysprpAYdRRFTcg2LF_E-n3_DsXMB6g5V9BmrCLm2CrTtL77/s1600/IMG_1348%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjcUO3nUSqhBtl5YpKiLNqatiyaSa-LRtVuCWR0fVSemDpiR2D4WDzk1PFm2_VjXl1wzdd98OMoB9-J1Ig3BMRD2WYM3KlSysprpAYdRRFTcg2LF_E-n3_DsXMB6g5V9BmrCLm2CrTtL77/s640/IMG_1348%255B1%255D.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My lovely pots of ranunculus with the never ending flowering snap dragon next to it.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I also struggle a bit with the sun. The front faces east, and so the front yard gets morning sun. The southern wall gets sun for most of the day, but the western side has the sun go off by late morning. The back courtyard gets almost no sun due to buildings around it and a very large oak tree in our neighbours yard.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Even though I don't really have enough room to properly grow vegetables I am really enjoying learning about gardening and from my successes and failures. I am quickly realising that given the space constraints I'm better off planting and growing those plants which are fairly high yield for small space. Pumpkins are out!. My snow peas have been brilliant and I have just planted out a crop of sugar snap peas to see how they go. Mind you, there has been carnage as I didn't properly protect them from snails and slugs.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0LFlgP43AVRwlOV4Df1GV2h_3mpNIRjyJhniTvZVM-68nL2KnxO3eXkabFRHQtpV5GxZyf0CX0N9zAggtHoIYPvmHOkd4YRAMl3-y-Crfbjkb7dmOwfzZMdPJMXfsjRNyuO-MCnHlFAEY/s1600/IMG_1352%255B1%255D.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0LFlgP43AVRwlOV4Df1GV2h_3mpNIRjyJhniTvZVM-68nL2KnxO3eXkabFRHQtpV5GxZyf0CX0N9zAggtHoIYPvmHOkd4YRAMl3-y-Crfbjkb7dmOwfzZMdPJMXfsjRNyuO-MCnHlFAEY/s640/IMG_1352%255B1%255D.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Prior to my snow pea harvest on Saturday - the wire trellis was being pulled off the wall!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">My tomatoes yielded well in summer but the fruit fly ruined those. Still, the capsicum plants are good for fruit and lettuce and rocket are always favourites and easy to grow. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXBdjbCbVDKJtOz-WejGrTGby9O6p_Ral87qQ99YlRhQGq8OVtQJJFqnnq1iOQYFzqjOMwB6l9i2yr2M3-QuazaimH2wDbASD2PZTsX7GBC2CBvXMgvxgMESkrTmpHVlZKhTm2v014YHo-/s1600/IMG_0935.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXBdjbCbVDKJtOz-WejGrTGby9O6p_Ral87qQ99YlRhQGq8OVtQJJFqnnq1iOQYFzqjOMwB6l9i2yr2M3-QuazaimH2wDbASD2PZTsX7GBC2CBvXMgvxgMESkrTmpHVlZKhTm2v014YHo-/s640/IMG_0935.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My capsicums went quite well so I will be planting some more this year.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm looking forward to harvesting my first garlic crop, and I'm hoping my square metre of precious sunny space will be worth giving up for 6 months for a good crop! The broccolis and cauliflowers haven't really returned enough on my investment of space.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhghI6WeOp7p6boztCN65A0T-nOFjeU_ZqqU-30qBfObX95zP6U7A1fkueCbaFEfGBnR3lvfkIb8TJPqLeBGgen-IXGO0ZowsxiHDPbFKnSvBc7cjQuojG2RlF_M9uOU7Cy61Cy11nVJX1U/s1600/P6130202.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhghI6WeOp7p6boztCN65A0T-nOFjeU_ZqqU-30qBfObX95zP6U7A1fkueCbaFEfGBnR3lvfkIb8TJPqLeBGgen-IXGO0ZowsxiHDPbFKnSvBc7cjQuojG2RlF_M9uOU7Cy61Cy11nVJX1U/s640/P6130202.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The garlic took up a fair amount of space but if I get 20 bulbs out it will be worth it.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Celery is going well in lots of different pots and my herbs are growing even out in the shade of my back garden. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So this month I have started planning my spring garden, planting cucumbers (destroyed by slugs) sugar snap peas (also attacked) eggplant, zucchini, rocket, parsley, lettuce, tomatoes and asian greens. Once I deal with the slimy critters (been out liberally applying table salt to them all tonight!) I will try again with some of my seedlings. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I think as well I will try my hand at growing some carrots, and also some radishes and capsicums - all from seed - which will be next months GSC theme! Happy gardening to all and look forward to seeing you next month. </span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7032084199007167121.post-31459720677847798982015-08-08T13:37:00.001+10:002015-08-08T13:37:21.905+10:00My nursery obsession - and getting started on your garden.Most of my friends are of the age that when you say nursery they think change tables and nappy holders and giraffe growth charts. Me on the other hand - I think gardening! I don't seem to be able to drive past a nursery without stopping and buying another punnet of seedlings, or a fruit tree, or a half price pot, or all of the above. So this post is really for people like I was a year ago - very new to gardening, and maybe you don't know where to start. <br />
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My usual go to nursery is Flower Power. This is not sponsored, (although I'd be very open to some sort of barter arrangement - I promise to post my purchases if I get some freebies!) but it is the most convenient place to my inner city suburb where I can still buy plenty of reasonably priced potting mix, and seedlings galore. And even though it's a chain store I still think of it as being better than going to your generic Coles or Woolworths owned hardware caverns.<br />
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Boot full of loot for my <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gardening?src=hash">#gardening</a> today <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/goingtoneedabiggeryard?src=hash">#goingtoneedabiggeryard</a> <a href="http://t.co/qaWcOVDolI">pic.twitter.com/qaWcOVDolI</a></div>
— Crooked Cottage (@crookedcottage1) <a href="https://twitter.com/crookedcottage1/status/601889482867015680">May 22, 2015</a></blockquote>
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For herbs I think it is worthwhile going to your local fruit shop. Sounds unusual, but mine certainly has herbs such as basil, coriander, mint and many others in pots rather than your usual bunches - you might as well pick up a plant, use what you need for dinner and then plant the rest. Sometimes florists have things like this for sale too, or maybe that just depends on your local shops - but probably worth having a look.<br />
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Then I have the local organic farmers markets. I can't go every week or I really would have too many plants to even fit in my yard. Our <a href="http://www.organicfoodmarkets.com.au/markets_solo.php?market=LEICHHARDT" target="_blank">local markets</a> (at Orange Grove Public School) have fruit trees, seedlings and plenty of potted colour, all at very reasonable prices. You can read about some of my adventures with seedlings from Orange Grove <a href="http://crookedbluecottage.blogspot.com.au/2015/03/a-productive-trip-to-orange-grove.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
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So turns out I could carry a tree after all <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/gardening?src=hash">#gardening</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/tree?src=hash">#tree</a> Kaffir lime means we can use the leaves already! <a href="http://t.co/UIHlotQtFh">pic.twitter.com/UIHlotQtFh</a></div>
— Crooked Cottage (@crookedcottage1) <a href="https://twitter.com/crookedcottage1/status/609551028594151424">June 13, 2015</a></blockquote>
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Spent up at Orange Grove Markets today- all for $27- dill, coriander, rocket, celery, kale, mizuna, chive, + flowers! <a href="http://t.co/5Gb289or5p">pic.twitter.com/5Gb289or5p</a></div>
— Crooked Cottage (@crookedcottage1) <a href="https://twitter.com/crookedcottage1/status/571468946689290240">February 28, 2015</a></blockquote>
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And then there are the online nurseries. I purchased a landscaping bulk buy of bulbs in March (the results of those will be posted at a future date - but it's looking pretty good so far. Mind you, with 400 bulbs - yes, I have one of the smallest gardens you will ever see and I bought 400 bulbs - so I had to give a lot away to my dad). <br />
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I haven't even tried any seed swaps yet, but I've been seeing them the more I read of other people's blogs, and they certainly seem a great idea. Not sure what my coriander and basil seeds (the only things I have managed to be able to save yet) would really be worth, but maybe I could swap hundreds of them for something more exotic.... I saw some information about the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/seedfreedomfestivaladelaide" target="_blank">Seed Freedom Food Festival</a> when it was posted in the Garden Share Collective group on Facebook and although I won't be in Adelaide it does look like a great event.<br />
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So I don't suppose it really matters where you get your seeds from, but get out and get planting!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11139607616813813628noreply@blogger.com0