Wednesday, October 10, 2012

The long awaited vegie patch

Before we moved into our house in 2009, I dreamt of owning our own home and being able put all our plans into action.
I longed for chickens, collecting fresh eggs, room for the kids to run, and a huge vegetable garden.
We were given 2 chickens the day after we moved into our home, and a rooster a couple of weeks later.
We have hatched over 30 chickens since then, and have feasted on many a fresh egg.
Chicken dream, check!
We bought 2 acres, 3/4 of which is paddocks and trees.
We have a dam, which was almost bone dry due to the drought but is now full enough to swim in during the summer. I built the kids a fort so they have their own hang out place to go with their friends, complete with a huge slide, trap door entrance, a pulley system for me to deliver treats via a bucket from the house to the fort, an armchair, pouf and bookshelf full of Goosebumps books.
There is plenty of room to run! And there is also a lovely veranda to sit back and relax on.
Room for kids to run dream, check!
The one thing I havn't done yet is the vegetable garden.
It has still been there in my plans, but there has been other priorities.
We excavated our whole backyard, and put in a huge retaining wall where there was once a hill.
It's still not finished - it's such a huge job!
There's garden beds still to do, a fence to put up, and then there's the dream of a decked entertainment area. 
Pizza oven, fire pit, tables, chairs - it all takes money!
I feel like it will never be finished, like we'll never be able to afford to do all the things we want to do to it.
(But take a look here at what we have done!)

For a while I hadn't even thought about my vegetable garden.
Perhaps it was the weather, perhaps it was my work situation, who knows.
But the spark came back to me this week!
I was reading blogs, which I also havn't done much of for a while, and I felt that old familiar tingling of inspiration!
I remembered I had a collection of vegie seeds in my pantry that were waiting for me to plant them, so I got to work on them straight away.
I decided to try the cotton wool way of sprouting the seeds, as I'd seen someone do on instagram earlier that day. (That and maybe I was too poor to buy some decent potting mix. Maybe.)

Then all that I needed was a garden bed. This is always what has always held me back. Always trying to find the perfect spot for the beds, then changing my mind a zillion times!
This time I was determined.
I've had this annoying garden bed for a while, it's a funny shape and is on a slope, and I could never get it to look right. So it went neglected for a while. A long while.
I decided to use it for this year's vegies, and tackle my 'proper' beds later. At least now I can get it started and start seeing results!

On Monday I weeded that garden from 9:30am til 6pm, stopping only to eat lunch, pick up Jess from the bus stop, and to groan about my aching body.
It's still not done.
Onion weed is my nemesis!!
I am very excited now though, even though there's still a couple more hours weeding time to be done. 
Ben helped me put a sleeper in to make it split levelled rather than sloping, and wow! What a difference it makes to the look of it!

Isn't it a great feeling when you get a start on a job that you've wanted to do for ages?
Now the challenge is to grow these seeds into seedlings and try my hardest not to kill them.
Did I mention I'm not much of a gardener?
Haha!
Wish me luck!

10 comments:

  1. I love the sound of the kids fort, I wouldn't mind hanging out there myself! I love your little chickies..so cute! No ducklings yet? Hoping to pop in and see the new shop soon, looks great on IG. Xo

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  2. I LOVED that first picture of your chook-close-up. I'd love to have chickens one day. One day! I'd also love to have a vegie patch once day too.

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  3. Ooooo I can't wait to see more progress!!

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  4. We are in the midst of prepping our vegie garden, and there are many discussions over what type of tomatoes to grow this year...we should do a vegie swap later on in the season!! x Tash

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  5. There is so many good this i want to say about some of these new posts but it all comes down to is = YOUR JUST SO GOD DAM RADICAL!!! ox

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  6. Oh absolutely.

    Here's wishing you bucket full's of luck...though I'm sure you won't need it.

    Nina x

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  7. Totally agree, we've been in our place two years now and everything takes so much time, I've a head full of ideas and it can be frustrating how slowly they come to fruition, but we'll get there, just keep plodding! The whole garden thing was totally new to me too, but I'm loving it, such a great way to chill out and so exciting when things grow and turn out nice. I'm sure your little seedlings will be fine :) you care for all your lovely animals so the plants are sure to be fine too!

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  8. No one mess with a girl on a mission!! Well done, and good luck!!!

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  9. We are putting together a new bed ourselves this weekend. It's taken me AGES to decide where to put it and get things organised. Go you! x

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  10. Your photos are always amazing....
    Love it!

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Thanks for your lovely messages! They really make my day :)

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