My Garden Bed

This story begins with a wall. A large wall.

Our neighbours demolished their house and built a new one and in the process demolished the boundary fence between our house and theirs and put up a new one. The old fence had been just a thin line but the new fence is made out of limestone and is a lot higher. Since they put up such a huge fence I decided that I was going to utilise  our side of it. The block is sloping and I have always had trouble with all the water running off the bottom of my garden bed and the soil is just sand which is no good for growing anything.

So with Dad's help (to be honest he did most of it) I have put up one garden box and filled it with nice, rich soil from the garden centre.

Building a box sounds easy, after all I have done it hundreds of times with lego. But it is surprising how much work it actually is to lay bricks. You have to dig out a footing first (and avoid the reticulation) and mixing cement by hand is not exactly light work. So this is the wall ( the cement ran out before we got the last few capping bricks on so they will have to wait until we mix cement for the next wall).

I planted lettuce seedlings at one end,

2 rows of peas along part of the back, then capsicum seedlings. Several rows of carrots and baby spincah,

and pansies right along the front.

Seeing the garden grow each day is so rewarding. We have already had several pickings of the lettuce and baby spinach.

A raised garden bed is so nice to work with. The weeds can't just take over, they have to climb in and there is no bending over to work - it is all at waist height.

Next step: The rest of the wall and then two free standing garden beds on the other side of the garden. These are currently occupied by nasturtiums which are trying to take over the garden. I think that I will need the raised beds to keep them out.

The Adventure Begins...

Polka dots, pansies, pet lambs and pie.

I have always loved to cook, usually liked gardening and have recently come back (at the ripe old age of 24) to sewing and wanted to share my adventures. While I live (most of the time) in the city my real home is the farm where I grew up and which is home to a series of pets, some more permanent than others.
Since it is winter where I am there has been a whole crop of new lambs over the last couple of months, 4 of which my parents are bottle feeding as they have been orphaned or abandoned. They really are very affectionate when they are small (and even when they are big – there are few things more affectionate than a very wet sheep, wool holds a lot of water).

I have also recently finished my first skirt made entirely by myself with a hand sewn in zip (no assistance – not even advice). This marks my entry back into the world of sewing for myself. Mum loves to sew and taught me growing up. I think my first piece of wool on hessian dates from about the age of 2 1/2 years old. But I didn’t like sewing my own clothes, I wanted to buy them like everyone else and so was a stubborn daughter and haven’t done much sewing at all for the last few years. Now I have decided that sewing is fun (or rather having clothes that fit well and that I like is fun – sewing is how you get there).

So this will be my adventures  in sewing, my fun in the garden and kitchen and updates on my various pets after trips home to the farm.