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Tuesday, March 13, 2012

My week up till now.







Over the last week we have had the lovely Joe from Germany working in our garden. She has helped transform it from a paddock, back to a garden! After all the rain the weeds and grass had just taken over so when Joe contacted me about doing some WWOOFing at our place I couldnt say no! So she has pulled out all the weeds and picked the tomatoes, ready for chutney and helped us cut down some rather dead banana trees too.


The Canteloupe has two melons on it which I am watching like a hawk and now we really can keep an eye on the two bunches of bananas in the tree tops as we have a clear view. They are tiny but fat
 which I think is a good thing!



 The front garden is all but transformed too with the couch grass all gone and some weed mat down with some ground cover hebes planted awaiting a load of mulch to finish it off.




The sun flowers are on their last legs and I will go about collecting the seeds soon to keep for next year. I have been lucky enough to be contacted by a local seed production company, "Mr Fothergills",  to trial some seeds and seedling products for them. I am awaiting a small parcel of seeds and my garden is pretty much ready for them!


The banana trees which we cut down have been chopped up and i'm hoping to get hold of some horse poo to add to it and will leave it all to break down for a while. before adding it to the soil somewhere. I've been told they will make great mulch/compost  so we shall see.

Also this week I have started up my environmentally friendly cleaning business The Domestic Dragon and have put together a website so please feel free to have a look: http://thedomesticdragon.webs.com/ let me know what you think and if you need a cleaner in the Melbourne area let me know!

Comments are always welcome so feel free to leave some. I hope you have a lovely week .

Friday, March 2, 2012

Sunflowers A'Plenty and a Baby Canteloupe

Lilac Spray

Ice Lady

Lilac Spray

Double Dazzler Sunflowers



Baby Canteloupe

Even without petals sunflowers are still glorious


At the moment in the garden we have a tonne of weeds but also some welcome good cheer with the Sunflowers. We have 3 different varieties and they are all gorgeous. I am also growing canteloupe this year and lowe and behold we have one already!

Tomorrow we have WWOOFer arriving who is going to help out in the garden. We are going to pull out the green tomatoes and hopefully make some chutney, and get rid of all those pesky weeds!!!!!


Comments are always welcome so do not hesitate to leave one!

Friday, February 17, 2012

Todays Harvest and a Garage Sale




The sunflowers are out and are brightening up the veggie patch on a rather dull summers day. Along with them are several tomatoe plants with heaps of fruit but none of them seem to be ripening. We have had a rather cool summer and I suspect the tomatoes aren't getting enough sun. However if they fail to ripen I will just make green tomatoe chutney with them.
This morning in the garden we have lots of hidden goodies. I picked some big Lebanese zucchini and beans, green capsicum and little yellow peppers along with the last of the plums and some lemons.
 Enough to feed 4 of us this evening I think, I'm going to make some chicken and veggie kebabs for dinner so I think this will all tie in well.  The zucchinis never fail to reward, and the pumpkins are coming along nicely. although this year we dont have any wild pumpkins. A first in the veggie patch this year are the canteloupes and we have lots of flowers on that with several little baby canteloupes forming, yumm!  We also have bananas growing on our banana trees !












 

The beans are enjoying the cooler summer and the fruit trees have given us more than previous years so I am quite content with our  little productive plot.
 
We are getting ready for a garage sale tomorrow and have plenty of stuff to sell which is great, I have yet to go through my cd's and see what can be disposed of there although I am rather attached to them and will have trouble parting with many!

We have lots of clothes, books , garden stuff, a few pieces of furniture, toys, a brass bed, a flymo (electric Mower)  home made soap, home made cleaning products, a couple of kids scooters,some cricket gear, magazines  and heaps of other stuff.



If you're in Melbourne tomorrow and would like to come for a browse details are on our facebook events page here http://www.facebook.com/events/131473716975101/ we would love to see you there!
Thats all for now have a lovely Friday whatever you are doing and enjoy your weekend.


Sunday, February 12, 2012

Free Better Homes & Gardens tickets !!



Here in Melbourne Aussie Better HOmes & Gardens http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/better-homes-gardens/ are holding a LIve show at the Exhibition Buildings & Carlton gardens on 24-26th February. The 3 day event will host 4 stages with live demonstrations from Better Homes & Gardens TV presenters, plus 300 companies exhibiting their services and products.

So for all those readers who are going to be in Melbourne on those dates I am running a competition with free double passes for the Better Homes & Gardens Live show as the prize. Here is all you have to do.


Send a picture of your favorite plant /flower/tree or shrub with a brief summary about why you like it/them so much and how you came to find out about it, to my email at serenab2008@gmail.com. The first 10 complete entries  with photos and descriptions , will receive a free double pass to the Better HOmes and Gardens Live show, plus  I will publish all of them on my blog . Dont forget to enclose your
Name & email address (which I wont publish!). Entrants who arent in the first ten will be eligible to recieve a  double ticket (admits 2) for just $20 – that’s 50% off the door price!

Unfortunately this competition is only of any use to those of you who will be in Melbourne on 24-26th February but if you would like to join in for the fun of it that is fine too!

Good luck !

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

A Small Thought




In memory of all those people who were lost and the awesome people who survived the bushfires of February 7 three years ago.

Ordinary Australians who have rebuilt their lives despite amazing odds. To the suvivors of Black Saturday, the people of Strathewen, King Lake, Wittlesea, Marysville, Kilmore and all the communities who were affected by the fires, I take my hat off to you.


You are truly an inspiration to us all.

Random Pictures from the Backyard

Black Sapote or Chocolate Pudding trees first flowers

Burgundy Iceberg

Canteloupe flower


Fire & Ice Rose


Dainty Swallowtail butterfly

Dainty Swallowtail butterflies friends!


Climbing rose

Crepe Myrtle

Our first figs!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

An Invasion in the Garden


Currently our garden is growing splendidly as are all the weeds. Hard to keep up with the constant growth that is happening.

But it seems these little blighters are having a great time. They are absolutely every where and i think perhaps not dooing anything any good. I think they are harlequin bugs, but have no idea how to get rid of them, any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Sadly my photos aren't very clear here are some clearer pics I found on the Morewell Natinal Park website:









No prizes for guessing what these two are up to.

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