Garden Update
A lot has been going on in my garden recently and as it all surrounds my efforts of making myself more sustainable, I thought I would update you all on it.
I never used to consider myself a green thumb until I got my own garden. I used to enjoy the idea of gardening but couldn’t see myself really taking it seriously. Now, I love every moment I can get in my garden, I love my compost, my worm farms, my citrus tree’s, my lawn and everything else out there. It’s something that a lot of people take for granted but its all so beautiful.
My Compost
Initially I had just a single Tumbleweed compost bin, I wrote about my initial composting experiences in a post back in October 2008. Well, that bin got full very quickly once I started putting my lawn clippings in and if I wanted it to break down, I had to stop adding to it.
The compost in there is looking great but because the bin is in a shady spot, its not happening quite as quickly as it could if it had full sun. So, because it was full and because I continued to get about 150L of grass clippings every 4 weeks from my lawns, I went and bought a second ‘cheapie’ 240L compost bin from Bunnings (for only $40! Bargain!). This is taking a little bit of our food waste, but mainly the grass clippings which I am turning every few days.
I am also reading Tim Marshall’s “Composting: The ultimate guide to recycling your garden” to help me make my compost as best I can.
My Worms
My worms. I love my worms. These little blighters are so fantastic. We feed them all sorts of stuff, they just keep on chewing and reproducing and giving in return nothing but fantastic nutrient-rich castings. What amazing little creatures they are. When I first started my worm farm, I got a little discouraged as it seemed like the worms were staying down below the food and not coming up very often. I think its because they weren’t too strong in numbers (although, I did introduce 2000 of them). These days they are covering the food in there, they never stop! We are putting more and more in at a time (over-feeding can be very bad for a worm farm) and they continually keep up with the demand. I am going to grab a few and pop them in each of my compost bins to help with the breakdown process.
Because of our worms and compost bins, we don’t throw out anything organic. They are all working a bit much at the moment, so once the chook’s arrive, they can have a breather. I am reading David Murphy’s “Organic Growing with worms” to better educate myself on these little fella’s.
My Plants
Our garden here was beautifully landscaped when we bought the place. Lots of palms, ferns, a pond, teirs, steps, paths, everything. We loved it, but now I am starting to think that while all these plants are beautiful, they don’t produce anything except shade and privacy. So I need to start introducing food producing species’ to our garden. The whole garden is hooked up to a drip irrigation system too, but I don’t like turning it on as its still on town water. Need to wait for my water tanks (post on that coming soon). So far, we have a Cumquat tree, its beautiful except my bloody naughty dog pulled the biggest branch off it last night (with the most mature cumquat on it too) – so cranky!
But how can you get angry at her?
We also have a nice little lemon tree that I got for my birthday last year. Its been planted in full sun on our fence so it will eventually provide yummy lemons as well as some privacy (not that Harold and his wife are intruding…). See the 2nd pic in this post for the lemon tree.
We also have some potted herbs that we brought from our unit. They now get very little wind and a lot more sun so they are growing extremely fast. We have mint, parsley, Shallots and Chives.
Anyway, that’s my garden. I am getting my water tanks soon and will need to plumb in my down pipes etc, will post about that soon. Also, I have built a chook coop and will write how I did it soon.
Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOPHIE! She is my sister and turns 23 (give or take a decade or so) today. Go and check out her blog at herheartmyhands.com NOW! 
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