Tasmanian Holiday - Part Two

Well I have already written about part of our recent trip to Tasmania, so here is the last part of our travels -

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!

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!)

The view from our cabin

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.

The porthole window seat

We also had gorgeous views of the sheltered lagoon.

So this few days was all about wildlife!

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!

The wallaby - through the glass and at dusk!

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!

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.

The yellow tailed black cockatoo

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, pipis (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.

Little crab making his covered hole.

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!

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.

Some of the prize winning broad beans

More prize winners - strawberries and lemons this time.

Another fun aspect was the "Mr Potato Head" and "Vegetable animals" section - awesome displays.

Cauliflower mouse

Fish!

Bit blurry but how fun are the Mr Potato Heads?!

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!

Garden Share Collective - Does Size Matter???

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???

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.

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.

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.

The plan (please excuse the fairly slap dash manner) is here.

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.

An older shot of the garden bed on the southern wall - it's now a lot more full and green!

The pak chois grow well

Hard to believe the whole garden started out looking like this 

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.

 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.

My dwarf lemon tree in one of my many brightly painted pots

Two lovely low line containers planted out with asian greens.

My kaffir lime also planted in a pot

My lovely pots of ranunculus with the never ending flowering snap dragon next to it.

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.

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.

Prior to my snow pea harvest on Saturday - the wire trellis was being pulled off the wall!

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.  

My capsicums went quite well so I will be planting some more this year.

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.

The garlic took up a fair amount of space but if I get 20 bulbs out it will be worth it.

Celery is going well in lots of different pots and my herbs are growing even out in the shade of my back garden.  

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.  

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.  

Garden Share - June 2015

My how time flies!  Can it really be time for another garden share?  The month has flown.  As before, I am joining in the Garden Share Collective which is hosted by Lizze from Strayed from the Table, Kate from Rosehips & Rhubarb and Krystie from A Fresh Legacy.  You can also find it Facebook if you want to share your adventures in growing your own food.

But this month I feel like I can actually claim to have done some good work.  Mostly on one particularly busy and productive day, but however I did it I have managed to get started with some new vegies!  Mind you it appears that after all my hard work on that day I apparently couldn't hold the camera steady - I do apologise for the blurry photographs!

I finally put in my garlic.  Whether I am a bit late we will find out I suppose, but they are actually already shooting up (although I noticed this when I got home today after a few days away and it was too dark to photograph).  I counted 27 cloves off just two bulbs that I have planted. (I initially had three bulbs, but didn't need any more to plant, so we cooked that last one!)

I bought the garlic from an organic fruit market - and to be honest I don't know what kind it is.  I read that you can plant any garlic, however you shouldn't buy them in the supermarket because they have been treated with chemicals to stop the cloves shooting.  Also they come from goodness knows where in the world.  So organic it is.  Once I peeled off the outside layer I realised these ones were already shooting.

I just broke apart the bulbs into individual cloves and dropped them into little trenches which I made in my specially made garlic patch - in the prized and much too small section of my garden which does get almost full sun.  Covered up with some good organic vegetable mix and fingers crossed for a great haul!

When I was turning the soil for my garlic I was quite pleased to find a number of worms - hoping that means my garden is nice and healthy.  After I found this one though I stopped using my trowel and used my hands instead - I didn't want to kill all these lovely earth turning creatures!

Also planted this month - 

Pak Choi - last year I had a lot of success growing these and we used a lot in stir fries, so this year I'm trying again.

  
Silverbeet - my spinach growing has not been great, but I'm hoping these might be more successful.

Snow peas - possibly not the right time, but I have saved another small part of my sunny side garden bed and hopefully the snow peas will climb up my chicken wire lattice.

Cabbage - along with some land cress to try to prevent caterpillars.

Landcress has also gone in around my broccolettes, as they continue to be attacked by caterpillars, despite my best squashing efforts.  These are some of the critters I did find.

Spring onions - always a good addition for stir fries.

Mignonette lettuce are also always useful, and I find not too difficult to grow, always good to have on hand.

So apart from my new additions, I continue to have chillis, coriander, basil, oregano, and those late tomatoes are still green but getting bigger!  I've harvested some more broccolettes and some rocket and lettuce, otherwise a bit of a lean month.

So for the next month I think it will be mostly looking after my new seedlings, and starting to plan for spring which I am sure will arrive before I know it!  Happy gardening to all.