Monthly Archives: November 2010

It’d be great to see you there!

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We don’t have much of a yard, but ‘down the back’ there was a weedy border that may have been a garden in the past.

As soon as the first signs of spring appeared I started some garden dreaming and made tentative steps into setting up a vege garden in the weedy patch. 

First came digging… the area was suprisingly easy to dig over and I started with a plot of around 3 square metres. I threw some blood and bone about the place, raked it in and started planting.  Tomatoes (4 heritage ‘cherry’ types and 5 of a larger variety), broad beans, cabbages, cos lettuces, two types of curly leaved lettuce and capsicums (which didn’t survive Jasper’s enthusiasm)

I was delighted to see that things started growing!  I had to run out a few nights to cover the tomatoes when it threatened to frost – I put them in 2-3 weeks before the ‘rule of thumb’ which tells us to wait until after Hobart Show Day.  I started to experience some serious garden love 🙂

So I extended. More digging and weed removal.  More nursery visits. I planted poppies (flowers for the house hopefully!), basil, coriander, carrots, peas, butter beans, a second attempt at capsicum and spinach. And I installed a compost bin.

By this stage I was already supplying all our lettuce needs which was very encouraging!

Seasol was administered on a regular basis and tiny weeds uprooted the minute they appeared.  I enthusiastically mulched everything in sight – I started with a bale of sugar cane waste then tried out pea straw.

Another extention was then required as my garden dreams became larger and larger.  In went sage, thyme, origano and a chilli plant. 

A visit to the Farmers Market seedling stall lead to temptation.  I put in a couple of zuchinnis, a miniature cantaloupe and I’m checking everyday for signs that my beetroot and cucumber seeds have germinated.

And now… I officially declare my garden FULL.

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Market preparations are coming together very nicely 🙂 

Christmas ornaments:

And little paper mache boxes decorated in a similar manner – I think they’ll look nice displayed on our table.

My favourite things to make have been these covered button hair slides:

Ohhh the colour balance on this pic is way out… but you get the idea 🙂 

The things I disliked making the most were these brooches

In order to scupt the petals on these flowers I melted the edges very carefully with a naked flame.  This all started with me trying to convert some lovely red silk dupioni into flowers.  But I couldn’t work it out so I ended up with nylon chiffon which isn’t the most enjoyable material to work with.  They look good though 🙂

I’ve also got bags, swans, zippered pouches and gift tag sets…. I’m nearly finished with the packaging/presentation side of things so this leaves me with a whole week to create more things!!  I just can’t decide what I should make! LOL

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