How Does Your Garden Grow?!

This last weekend, we had a minor miracle here on top of our hill ... it was mostly SUNNY for the WHOLE weekend!! YAY!! Washing was dried on the line - nothing quite like that 'sunny' smell to clean clothes and towels - and my Beloved Geek Boy and I headed out into the yard to bravely hack through the jungle of weeds and unearth our poor neglected garden ... which we did in spades! :0)

You might remember a while ago I showed you where GB had started to give our pond a makeover ...

Well it's all finished and looking rather schmicko ... if I do say so myself! :0) We have a system in our garden ... I design them, Scott does the heavy digging and lifting to get the structure in place, I plant, mulch and maintain them ... it's a pretty good system! :0) So here's what the pond looks like now ...

Bit different, hey! Here's a bit closer look ...

The waterfall has been re-configured, the new poly pond has been disguised with some great bluestone rocks that were in the yard when we bought the house (about the only part of the original yard we've kept besides the gum tree!!) some gorgeous sandstone rocks are now keeping the garden where it should be, there are some pretty new plants, the existing plants have been thinned, trimmed and everything has been mulched with sugarcane mulch. I even managed to find a spot for my terracotta pot that got broken when GB was heaving logs around after trimming the gum tree earlier in the year. :0) Best of all, Bertie the Bunyip has a new seat near the waterfall where he can sit and watch the goldfish swimming around. (for non-Aussies, a Bunyip is a mythical creature who lives in billabongs ... er ... waterholes ... and munches on the occasional unsuspecting tourist! Tee! Hee! Hee!) I'll show you a photo of this area as the plants take off and fill in the gaps a bit, but I'm pretty happy with how it looks now. In another corner of the garden, we also gave some new rock edging to this little garden ...

You will notice there's chicken wire in front of this garden ... no, we're not afraid of the garden taking over the world and trying to cage it in (it was the snowpeas that were trying to take over the world ... you have to try to keep up with our backyard alien infestations! Tee! Hee! Hee!) it's because this garden had become a favourite 'lookout' perch for our inherited dog, Lily, when people walk past our house and she had managed to trample EVERYTHING in this garden. The plan is that she will get used to not being able to stampede through it and we can eventually take the mesh down and put a smaller, prettier barricade up ... that's the plan, anyways .. it's always good to at least START with a plan! :0) And we've done the same thing with this garden ...

You can see that the daisies and alyssum I planted a few weeks ago are really taking off nicely ... and will do even better now, I'm sure, since the mesh stops the mutts wandering through and sitting on the plants. SIGH! I was NOT happy when I saw that happening. The nasturtiums are starting to head for the sky and looking bright and cheerful along the way. This is a self-seeded plant, so it's pretty tough. :0) Let's see ... in other parts of the garden we have ...

Some VERY happy zucchini plants ... like this one. This is the biggest zucchini so far. Another day or so and he's going to be dinner! :0) And while we're in the vege patch ...

The marigolds are flowering, the tomato plants are thriving with some fruit already forming and the poor lemon tree is finally getting some fresh new shoots after it was attacked by militant caterpillars at the start of spring. I've also planted some beetroot and spring onions, but didn't take a photo of those, as they're a bit hard to pick out in the photos yet ... but small! :0) Then, beside the vege garden I have a few pots ...

Don't these colours look great together! Gorgeous deep blue lobelia, vibrant green lemon balm and lemon thyme in the strawberry pot (why be normal and actually put STRAWBERRIES in the strawberry pot! Tee! Hee! Hee!) and at the back is a pot that I sprinkled some Heartsease seeds into, then when they hadn't done anything for over a month, I stuck in a sickly little parsley plant that someone gave me. Then we had a bit of rain and suddenly, my pot is brimming over with cheerful purple and gold Heartsease and masses of dark green parsley.

After watering everything up yesterday, I decided I really should put some of the fresh produce to use, so took a little stroll with the kitchen scissors ... a bit of this, a bit of that, a sprig of this, some stalks of that ... felt a little bit like Witchipoo gathering ingredients for a magical brew ... it IS almost Halloween after all! Tee! Hee! Hee!

A big mound of mint at the back (did I mention that the mint also has world-domination delusions of grandeur?!) some of the lemon balm to the left, some parsley beside it, a fist-full of garlic chives to the right and some lovely long sprigs of rosemary. So what brew did these create? Well ... I brewed a jug of mint tea with the mint (funnily enough!!), which I then poured into ice-cube trays ready for refreshing drinks, the lemon balm was added to a pot of tea and was very tasty indeed, while the parsley, chives and rosemary were blitzed to be added to one of the YUMMIEST quiches I've ever made! :0) See ... KITCHEN MAGIC! Tee! Hee! Hee!

So there you have it ... the reason I'm behind on answering emails and didn't get much stitching done this weekend ... I was too busy pottering around in the garden. Oh! I DID, however, remember to take a photo of the goodies that followed me home from the craft show that Lynette and I toddled off to on Friday. I was really very good and didn't buy much - GB was impressed with my self-control ... told him I was just balancing out what I'd spent on line taking advantage of the higher-than-usual Aussie dollar last week! Tee! Hee! Hee! Here's what I bought ..

The bag was from the "Better Homes & Garden" stand and inside was a big-girl's version of a kid's show bag ... product samples and a couple of issues of the mag, including the current Christmas ideas issue, which will come in VERY handy and the bag is a great size, as well as being waterproof. And some fabrics followed me home ... as they do! :0) The ones on the left are fat 1/8ths that will probably become gifties and I just couldn't walk past these ruby red beauties - I use a lot of red, so they'll be used quick-smart, I'd say.

So there we have my round up of the weekend. PHEW! I'm exhausted all over again just thinking about it, so I think I shall go brew myself a witchy pot of lavender tea! :0) Hope you had a fabulous weekend and that your week is off to a great start.

Don't forget to pop across to see was "Simply Christmas" goodies Kerryanne has in store for you today ... ooooh! And she's having a crazy sale all this week, too, to celebrate her birthday, so pop on over, say HAPPY BIRTHDAY KERRYANNE! and stock up on her fab patterns!!

And just before I sign off and go boil that kettle ... one of our OPAM gals, Kiwifruit Shiree, has not only opened the doors to her very own quilting shop, The Rowan Tree, across the waves in New Zealand, she has also launched her on-line store, so pop in to say 'G'day' to Shiree (don't know the New Zealand equivalent! Tee! Hee! Hee!) and check out her great range.

That kettle is calling my name, so to quote (MIS-quote?!) Shakespeare ... "double, double, toil and trouble, kettle boil and teapot bubble!" :0) Til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!
CHEERS!
KRIS