My 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.

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.

Boot full of loot for my #gardening today #goingtoneedabiggeryard pic.twitter.com/qaWcOVDolI

— Crooked Cottage (@crookedcottage1) May 22, 2015

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.

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 local markets (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 here.

So turns out I could carry a tree after all #gardening #tree Kaffir lime means we can use the leaves already! pic.twitter.com/UIHlotQtFh

— Crooked Cottage (@crookedcottage1) June 13, 2015

Spent up at Orange Grove Markets today- all for $27- dill, coriander, rocket, celery, kale, mizuna, chive, + flowers! pic.twitter.com/5Gb289or5p

— Crooked Cottage (@crookedcottage1) February 28, 2015

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).

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 Seed Freedom Food Festival 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.

So I don't suppose it really matters where you get your seeds from, but get out and get planting!

Garden Share Collective - August

I missed last months Garden Share due to work, planning a holiday and general laziness.  But despite my general neglect of the garden (or maybe because of it!) some of my vegies are going well - and some not so well.

So as I missed last month this is a sort of catch up post!

I have managed to do a bit of planting, most of which was done in mid July.  I put in broad beans, cauliflower, and baby beets.  All were bought as seedlings, some from our local organic markets, (Orange Grove) and some from the nursery.  I also bought a kaffir lime tree from the markets.

These are my broad beans and cauliflowers after planting.

Snow peas are going great - climbing up my improvised chicken wire lattice - and I have even managed to harvest a grand total of 4 peas - but there are plenty more coming.

Lovely snow peas flowering away -and some of the peas themselves

My first ever snow pea ready to harvest

Broad beans also look good, flowering away and have grown much bigger.  No beans yet but I'm sure they're coming.

The broad bean flowers are quite lovely.

Trying to be arty aerial view of the broad beans - but it means you can't see really how well they've grown

The cauliflowers have grown and my land cress appears to still be working to keep the caterpillars away, but no sign of any florets yet.

The pak choi has been half/half - two seedlings bolted straight to seed and are now flowering away - the other two are looking like we need to cook some stir fries!

Look at the pak choi go!

Silverbeet has grown well and we have been picking a bit as we go.

Need to get eating the spinach

Other vegies that have still been providing this month are my never ending rocket plant - the more we pick, the more we get!

Some of the celery I planted ages ago is still going strong.

Coriander has gone a bit to seed but there are still quite a few good plants, and the other herbs - oregano, mint, thyme, rosemary - are still ticking along.  I also put in a pineapple sage so will see how that turns out.

When we got back from our holiday I discovered the broccolettes had all gone to seed, so they have been pulled out. Likewise my chilli plants I decided to pull out as they had gone pretty straggly.  The garlic were looking a bit brown, which may have been from lack of water (I went away and had assumed it would rain enough to water my garden - luckily nothing died but I probably should have arranged some watering!) and the lemon tree is looking like it needs a bit of fertiliser.

Bit of a mess - but broccolettes gone to seed, coriander also heading that way, the never ending rocket and some chives hidden in there too.

The garlic plants are still going well.

I had to conclude my potato in a bag experiment as all the plants had died.  I think a variety of factors played a part in this failed effort - probably not enough sun as I had in my back courtyard, which gets very little direct sun.  Also I have a bad habit of neglecting the back yard and focussing on the front, so I may not have watered often enough.  And when I just dug out the bag I discovered the top soil was quite dry but the bottom soil was quite muddy and almost clay like, so I suspect the drainage in the bag was not sufficient.  So for my 4+ months of effort I only have 3 small chats and some tiny easter egg sized potatoes!  On the plus side, the soil in the bag was full of worms and will now be stored until I can use it for some more planting in spring.

The grand total of my potato experiment.  Not exactly successful.

Very blurry but we're hardly going to be self sufficient at this rate!

So my plans for the next month - I will be travelling a lot for work so realistically I won't get much done, and can't really plant too many seeds as I won't be around to care for them.  But I'm hoping to keep tending my peas and beans.  I also want to spend some time planning out my spring/summer garden as my pots seem to be multiplying and I want to dig up my front garden bed, which has been overrun with self seeded vincas and even a primula or two that have popped up - but I think I could use the space better for vegies given the full sun it receives.

A tropical escape from the Antarctic Vortex

Well I have to admit I have been quite neglectful of the blog lately.  First I was flat out with work and then we had a long awaited escape to Singapore.  It seems we lucked upon the best time to go, with Australia experiencing a cold snap of quite extreme proportions - and which was called (rather dramatically) the Antarctic Vortex.

Singapore is a great place to visit.  I had been before, 10 years ago, and mostly remembered the heat. And it certainly is warm.  The humidity is high, and the temperatures seem to only vary between about 27-33 degrees Celsius almost year round.  What really struck me was how green and lush it seems.  Everywhere there are plants.  Even on parking garages, on road overpasses, all along the road verges, there are green plants on all levels.  A lot of bougainvillea, which I am not that much a fan of, as it is so spiky. But other plants I am not so familiar with are also in abundance.

And of course, there are the official gardens.  This time I didn't go to the Botanic Gardens, but instead to the relatively new Gardens By The Bay.

52 Places to Go in 2015 http://t.co/wpSHEdYf38 pic.twitter.com/gGXxexf3ju

— Gardens by the Bay (@GardensbytheBay) July 9, 2015

As you can see (hopefully) from the tweet above, the gardens are extensive, with a number of structures which you can walk between, and two special domes which you can walk through.  We visited the Cloud Forest dome.  The temperature drop was a welcome one, but the plants themselves were also gorgeous.

The whole enclosure is a "mountain" with waterfall, and is to represent the botany found high above the clouds.

A nice coleus (I think!)

I would definitely recommend a visit if you happen to be passing through Singapore.  I didn't get to see the Flower Dome but next time I will definitely have a look!

And just to prove we really did go at the right time -

Wow it's snowing at home- so glad we are on holidays! #snow #snowinqueensland http://t.co/AMjtBaZotx

— Crooked Cottage (@crookedcottage1) July 17, 2015

How to remove paint from sandstone

This post really should be titled "How on earth do you remove paint from sandstone?" - followed closely by "why would anyone paint sandstone - particularly dark green?!"

The latest project for The Crooked Cottage is trying to do something about the horrible front fence.  You always hear about "curb appeal" when you see any kind of home renovation show, and our place is seriously lacking in appeal.  

First we have a retaining wall.  In the past year I have noticed some deterioration, and I have to admit I have helped it on its way by pulling off bits of paint that have flaked off. During some of the heavy rain some small stones have dislodged and I have realised some of the green colour is actually moss.

Underneath that green paint I was pretty sure it is sandstone, although the left hand side does also seem to have some layers of brick on top.  But then at some stage (and I imagine it was some time ago, as all the neighbours talk about the green wall like it has been a long standing eyesore) it has had cement render type substance sprayed on, and been painted green. Maybe to blend in/hide the moss?!

The dastardly green retaining wall.  Complete with cracked render, flaking paint and random weeds.  

And above the retaining wall we have the paling fence.  Like every other painted surface in this place, it's quite clear that paint just keeps getting put on over the top.  Blue is the most recent (apparently done for sale - which probably explains why I don't recall so many rotten spots or obvious cracking on the palings) over green, over white.  But apart from an occasional paint coating this fence hasn't been cared for, and it is now rotting on many palings.  

Rotting palings with cracked paint

So I decided that I would change the fence palings.  I pulled one off (very easy as they keep falling off due to being rotten) and took it up to Fedwood - I figured I could just buy some new palings, nail them on, paint them white, and hey presto - new fence.

But the posts are also rotten.  And palings are more expensive than I realised (particularly custom made ones to match my rotten ones).  So then I thought - ok I should get the fence replaced.  And that started me thinking about the retaining wall, as it seems stupid to redo the fence, only to late do something about the retaining wall.

As my neighbour is always a) out working on his house and b) probably very keen to get rid of the eyesore too we had a bit of a discussion over what I could use to get rid of the paint.  First up I borrowed a pressure sprayer - we thought it would be fairly easy, but unfortunately we were wrong.

Next step - and by this time another neighbour had joined our conversation - so he brought over some acetone to try out.  We didn't want to use paint stripper, as we didn't want to eat into the sandstone.

Acetone didn't work either.

So then we tried a heat gun - which sort of worked.  In a slow way.  Heat gun, peel paint, and repeat.  Followed by another go at the pressure spray, which worked a bit better on the brittle paint.

Initially I put in about 2-3 hours of effort last week.  

Initially I just worked on the steps.  Hard to believe this is a good two hours work!

Then my husband and I spent the better part of Saturday on the same jobs.  Add a few burns for me (it's easier to peel the paint without gloves on - I know that is not as safe - and I have the burns to prove it!) but a bit more result.  Then we also started on the retaining wall - using a hammer and chisel to remove some of the render areas.  This was more successful - but still slow.

After another days worth of work

Chipping off the render haas assisted - some of this green is now moss not only the paint!

Sunday - I bought sandpaper, 40 grit so it is super coarse.  With no luck!

So I have to just face the fact this is going to be a long, slow process.  Unless I decide to get a sandblaster out - although I am not sure how expensive that would be, and also I don't think that would be very safe for the cars in our very narrow street.

After more work on Sunday - please excuse the weeds!  They will be destroyed by the heat gun when I get to that part

And a little bit more removed after a few more hours.

Any suggestions will be happily taken and tested out!  I'll just be outside my house peeling paint.  At least it is good for meeting the neighbours - I've never had so many stop and tell me what a good job I am doing, and how it is worthwhile, and it will look so good once it is done.  Fingers crossed!

A productive Saturday

I do love the feeling of being productive on the weekend.  Although it is nice to have those lazy days where you do nothing much, I've decided that I prefer the weekends where I manage to garden (or DIY - or maybe both!), catch up with friends AND have a bit of a relax.

It's only Saturday night, and I already feel pleased with my achievements.  So naturally, self congratulation is only so good - I feel the need to share with everyone!

Friday night was quiet but I did watch Better Homes and Gardens, and then my new favourite show - Selling Houses Australia.  I admit I do occasionally end up feeling a bit smug that we did buy one of those houses without the "Shayna Blaze dressing"-  and paid less because of it.  I always wonder if the people who did buy the houses see it on TV and curse that they could have bought it cheaper. 

Then this morning my productiveness (is that a word?  Probably not) began.  A trip to the Orange Grove Markets was first order.  I have blogged about the markets before (read it here) - I'm not so interested in the organic produce (after all I am trying to grown my own!) but the plants and flowers are good.  So today's purchases were cauliflower and broad bean seedlings, and a kaffir lime tree. 

So turns out I could carry a tree after all #gardening #tree Kaffir lime means we can use the leaves already! pic.twitter.com/UIHlotQtFh

— Crooked Cottage (@crookedcottage1) June 13, 2015

The broad beans and cauliflower seedlings prior to planting.

I came home, and spray painted another pot (there were quite a lot of large pots left here, but all were ugly and scratched, so I am gradually trying to pretty them up).  I weeded, and I sifted an awful lot of dirt (I've been sifting dirt for months, as the previous owners seemed to have had a pebble landscape at some point - which means there are rocks in every garden bed.  I use a colander that I bought for $2 at the local Vinnies, which we then drilled larger holes into.  And I decided to remove my basil plants, which had become very woody and were totally gone to seed.  I am going to try to dry the plants and keep the seeds though.  

My excellent dirt and pebble sieve.

The flowers of the basil plant, which I hope I can dry out and keep the seeds from.

Once the garden bed was prepared I planted out my cauliflower and broad bean seedlings.  I also planted beetroot seedlings I bought last week, and finally planted the hyacinth bulbs which have been sitting in my fridge for a good month or so waiting to be planted.  

Caulis and beans planted out in my freshly sieved garden

Beetroot seedlings planted out

Hyacinth bulb is already shooting a little

Once the pot was dry I planted the kaffir lime tree out as well. 

I took a few more photos of my garden - just because some of the flowers are looking lovely, even if it is June and the middle of winter here!

One of my snap dragons 

Quite an extreme close up of one of the snap dragons

Lemon tree blossoms - hopefully that will mean I will have some fruit.

Plus I took a trip to Fedwood timber to try to find out about replacing the palings on our fence.  It seems it will be a lot more expensive than I expect, so I'm still considering.  I discussed it with my neighbour, and we have decided that to start with we will try to remove the disgusting green paint on the retaining wall  - so tomorrow morning I will be borrowing my neighbours gurney and taking on a green painted sandstone wall.  (yes that's right.  They painted sandstone green.  Why??)  

So that was just the morning!  I had lunch with a friend and a wander through Rozelle.

And then this evening I was lucky enough to go to see the screening of the film "Women He's Undressed" as part of the Sydney Film Festival at the Hayden Orpheum in Cremorne.  I went with another friend who was able to get tickets through her work.  It's a documentary, directed by Gillian Armstrong, who was at the screening.  The film was great, and I've never been to the Orpheum before - it's beautiful.  Definitely recommend checking it out! 

The organ being played before the performance

The ceiling in the theatre (The camera phone doesn't really do it justice!)