We have finally got our chooks! Hooray!
Simon, Alfie and Peter worked over a weekend to put up the frame, then the wiring and cat/fox proofing happened the following weekend, and finally the chooks arrived this weekend!
The girls are 18-week-old ISA Browns, vaccinated and about 3 weeks off laying. We have tenatively named them Eeny, Meeny, Miney and Moe.
They are still a bit unsettled but we are sure it won't take long for them to enjoy The Mulberry Hotel!
Happy gardening!
Showing posts with label kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kids. Show all posts
Monday, October 15, 2012
Monday, August 6, 2012
Goodbye carrots and beetroot
So ends our beetroot and carrots! And a fine display they put on too and kept the kids interested and involved in garden adventures!
Great to see both Alfie and Clancy develop confidence in gardening as they explored whether the vegies were ready to pick or needed more time. And fun too just to pick and eat straight from the ground (or bush, in the case of the snow peas!) - with a quick wash of course :-)
Now we can start to think about spring crops - oh, the choices!
Happy gardening!
Great to see both Alfie and Clancy develop confidence in gardening as they explored whether the vegies were ready to pick or needed more time. And fun too just to pick and eat straight from the ground (or bush, in the case of the snow peas!) - with a quick wash of course :-)
Now we can start to think about spring crops - oh, the choices!
Happy gardening!
Friday, May 4, 2012
Eco Fair in Mosman Park
If you have some time tomorrow you might like to check out the inaugural Eco Fair at St Luke's in Mosman Park.
Here's hoping the rain holds off ...at least for some of the time!
Happy gardening!
Happy gardening!
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Autumn goodness continues
We've had close to 60mm of rain over the weekend which makes it a perfect time to plant and sow in the garden!
We picked up two olive trees at the local garden shop: a kalamata and a manzanillo.
Kalamata
Manzanillo
We had two half wine barrels from a friend down south which are a perfect size for these.
Alfie and I also planted out our Desirée potatoes on the weekend, plus some mixed lettuce and rocket.
Simon and Clancy planted some purple garlic on ANZAC day which sprung up only about 5 days later with the rain and the relative warmth!
Water (via rain) is an amazing elixir. You can just see how alive everything becomes after a decent rain! It's renewing and rejuvenating :-)
The birds obviously love it too - the Willy Wagtails are such great gardeners too!
What a special time in the year! Happy gardening!
We picked up two olive trees at the local garden shop: a kalamata and a manzanillo.
We had two half wine barrels from a friend down south which are a perfect size for these.
Alfie and I also planted out our Desirée potatoes on the weekend, plus some mixed lettuce and rocket.
Simon and Clancy planted some purple garlic on ANZAC day which sprung up only about 5 days later with the rain and the relative warmth!
Water (via rain) is an amazing elixir. You can just see how alive everything becomes after a decent rain! It's renewing and rejuvenating :-)
The birds obviously love it too - the Willy Wagtails are such great gardeners too!
What a special time in the year! Happy gardening!
Friday, April 20, 2012
Kids in the garden
Alfie will be one next month - who knows where the time has gone! As he engages more, especially outdoors, I'm reminded of when Clancy was a toddler and how we spent lots of time out in the garden when we lived in Canberra.
Now Alfie can spread his wings (or should that be green thumbs?) in the garden! How do you best engage the highly physical toddler without unleashing total garden destruction? My answer is pots.
And a big sister helps too! Alfie follows Clancy everywhere and no doubt is learning heaps from observing her and then copying where he can! He was stoked to "help" sow some peas in these colourful pots. If he decides they need not be in pots anymore, well, at least he hasn't destroyed the bigger garden beds! :-)
I've also noticed that Clancy can now focus on the whole process of choosing and filling pots, choosing seeds, sowing, watering - the lot, when she only need deal with one or two pots. This detailed experience combined with the bigger picture experience of exploring the garden in its entirety (we often walk a circuit in the morning to check everything out) is a good overall development process I reckon.
Little jobs, exploring and discovering, pretend plantings (planting cut flowers for example) all help to develop Clancy and no doubt Alfie into engaged and confident gardeners!
And if course it's simply gotta be good fun... Happy gardening!
Now Alfie can spread his wings (or should that be green thumbs?) in the garden! How do you best engage the highly physical toddler without unleashing total garden destruction? My answer is pots.
And a big sister helps too! Alfie follows Clancy everywhere and no doubt is learning heaps from observing her and then copying where he can! He was stoked to "help" sow some peas in these colourful pots. If he decides they need not be in pots anymore, well, at least he hasn't destroyed the bigger garden beds! :-)
I've also noticed that Clancy can now focus on the whole process of choosing and filling pots, choosing seeds, sowing, watering - the lot, when she only need deal with one or two pots. This detailed experience combined with the bigger picture experience of exploring the garden in its entirety (we often walk a circuit in the morning to check everything out) is a good overall development process I reckon.
Little jobs, exploring and discovering, pretend plantings (planting cut flowers for example) all help to develop Clancy and no doubt Alfie into engaged and confident gardeners!
And if course it's simply gotta be good fun... Happy gardening!
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Gardening companions
Clancy decided our garden needed a scarecrow. And he couldn't be happy, he had to be an angry scarecrow to scare the birds away!
The weather has been warm enough to give our seeds a cracking start too. The beetroots are already surfacing, as are the peas and beans planted at the same time. Its been barely a week!
Haven't seen the carrots yet. I have a feeling the seed was old. Will give them a week's grace.
Enjoying Autumn, happy gardening!
The weather has been warm enough to give our seeds a cracking start too. The beetroots are already surfacing, as are the peas and beans planted at the same time. Its been barely a week!
Haven't seen the carrots yet. I have a feeling the seed was old. Will give them a week's grace.
Enjoying Autumn, happy gardening!
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
It's Autumn, what shall we plant?
Clancy and I are looking at the Gardening Australia Vegie Guide to see what we can plant in our garden beds, now the Summer seems to be over.
We found this article by Millie Ross which shows how to plant out a bean chubby house! Clancy thought that would be very cool :o). As our grapevine is beginning to lose its leaves, it would be good to plant beans at the end of the raised bed that is next to the vine so we can string the beans across to it to provide a tent-like cover for Clancy (and Alfie) to play under. Worth experimenting anyway.
Other things Clancy would like in the garden include beetroot, potatoes (we haven't planted them in our Perth garden yet, only back in Canberra, Clancy says), sweet potatoes and of course some purple, yellow and orange flowers!
Happy gardening!
We found this article by Millie Ross which shows how to plant out a bean chubby house! Clancy thought that would be very cool :o). As our grapevine is beginning to lose its leaves, it would be good to plant beans at the end of the raised bed that is next to the vine so we can string the beans across to it to provide a tent-like cover for Clancy (and Alfie) to play under. Worth experimenting anyway.
Other things Clancy would like in the garden include beetroot, potatoes (we haven't planted them in our Perth garden yet, only back in Canberra, Clancy says), sweet potatoes and of course some purple, yellow and orange flowers!
Happy gardening!
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Saturday, February 4, 2012
A few of our favourite things
We harvested the last of our vegetables from our no-dig garden today - much cooler day and conducive to gardening - we've missed it!
You can see our budding gardener, Alfie, is already quite confident and may well be a vegetable connoisseur by the looks.
Beetroot and carrots turned out well in the end, although some are a little bitter, probably from being in the ground for a while and perhaps the irregular watering?
Anyway, looks like we'll be feasting tonight!
I just love the harvest it's such fun and even better is the anticipation of what's new - we're already thinking about what to sow next!
Oh, and we beat the rats in the end by 3 corn cobs! 3 to the rats and 6 to us in the end! :o)
Happy gardening!
You can see our budding gardener, Alfie, is already quite confident and may well be a vegetable connoisseur by the looks.
Beetroot and carrots turned out well in the end, although some are a little bitter, probably from being in the ground for a while and perhaps the irregular watering?
Anyway, looks like we'll be feasting tonight!
I just love the harvest it's such fun and even better is the anticipation of what's new - we're already thinking about what to sow next!
Oh, and we beat the rats in the end by 3 corn cobs! 3 to the rats and 6 to us in the end! :o)
Happy gardening!
Monday, January 9, 2012
Children in the garden
Well, Christmas has come and gone and our two weeks holiday already seems a distant memory (but memorable to say the least!).
The extra time we could spend in the garden has meant Simon and his Dad could get the mulch in on the kids' playground area at the back of the garden - and it's looking a treat!
More mulch to go in of course, but the space is much more inviting already. Check with your local council to see if they offer a free mulch service, otherwise you can expect to pay about $60 (or more!) for a trailer load. I want to get more trees in pots around the area, including some fruit trees, plus some herbs for that extra sensory element. :o)
Unfortunately our grapes, while producing a large amount of yummy looking bunches, was struck by powdery mildew. Sulphur doses came too late I'm afraid and we had to remove all of the crop. Better luck (and preparation) next year. The vine provides lovely shade over the sandpit as anticipated and the lattice fence some extra shad on the area in general.
I hope you had a relaxing Christmas in the garden and here's to a productive 2012! Happy gardening!
The extra time we could spend in the garden has meant Simon and his Dad could get the mulch in on the kids' playground area at the back of the garden - and it's looking a treat!
 |
| Simon raking mulch over a cardboard barrier. |
 |
| Work in progress with trees, pond 'to-be' and mulch. |
More mulch to go in of course, but the space is much more inviting already. Check with your local council to see if they offer a free mulch service, otherwise you can expect to pay about $60 (or more!) for a trailer load. I want to get more trees in pots around the area, including some fruit trees, plus some herbs for that extra sensory element. :o)
Unfortunately our grapes, while producing a large amount of yummy looking bunches, was struck by powdery mildew. Sulphur doses came too late I'm afraid and we had to remove all of the crop. Better luck (and preparation) next year. The vine provides lovely shade over the sandpit as anticipated and the lattice fence some extra shad on the area in general.
I hope you had a relaxing Christmas in the garden and here's to a productive 2012! Happy gardening!
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Universal playground, Mueller Park Subiaco
We recently visited the new universal playground developed at Mueller Park in Subi. It's a wonderful play space for all ages and abilities! We've been filing away ideas for kids areas in our garden and just loved hanging out in this space.
The water feature was a hit with Clancy (plus a few bees vying for a drink) where she dropped leaves into the "stream" and watched them travel into the "puddle". Other kids were dressed for the water action too!
The other aspect I really liked was the contoured sandpits which enabled all to enter them for a play - there were crawling babies dipping in and out - the level of the sandpit was below the walkways, making it really easy for them to get into and out of it!
There were some musical pieces too - drums and hollow tubes linked underground across the playground - kind of like submarine walkie-talkies. Very cool!
The area is planted with native shrubs and trees and some grasses. Would also be nice to see some aromatic plants - herbs for kids to pick and taste for example.
A great space for kids parties too I reckon. We'll certainly be back for more of a play here!
The water feature was a hit with Clancy (plus a few bees vying for a drink) where she dropped leaves into the "stream" and watched them travel into the "puddle". Other kids were dressed for the water action too!
The other aspect I really liked was the contoured sandpits which enabled all to enter them for a play - there were crawling babies dipping in and out - the level of the sandpit was below the walkways, making it really easy for them to get into and out of it!
There were some musical pieces too - drums and hollow tubes linked underground across the playground - kind of like submarine walkie-talkies. Very cool!
The area is planted with native shrubs and trees and some grasses. Would also be nice to see some aromatic plants - herbs for kids to pick and taste for example.
A great space for kids parties too I reckon. We'll certainly be back for more of a play here!
At Home with Josh Byrne
We visited Josh Byrne's home garden last weekend. It's amazing what you can do in a small space! The front garden is a water wise native garden and looks so lush. The retaining recycled limestone wall really gives the garden form and structure and no doubt acts as a bit of a water diversion to other parts of the garden. Clancy loved the sleepers, stepping along to different areas, one part with a sort of wishing well again made from the same material as the retaining wall - there was a sense of adventure about it all.
The rear yard is amazing: an edible garden and sensory feast using raised beds, pots, bins, a vertical herb garden, plus a sandpit and cubbyhouse for the kids, surrounded by aromatic herbs.
I'll say Josh certainly has an eye for design, using the space well to create areas of activity and relaxation - I especially loved the pergola overgrown with a passionfruit vine and the inviting lounge suite beneath!
Mostly, I wanted to see firsthand his greywater set up - very high tech (well it looked that way) - water is probably the biggest issue Perth gardeners face.
Well, happy sustainable gardening... it's going to be another long, hot Summer!
The rear yard is amazing: an edible garden and sensory feast using raised beds, pots, bins, a vertical herb garden, plus a sandpit and cubbyhouse for the kids, surrounded by aromatic herbs.
I'll say Josh certainly has an eye for design, using the space well to create areas of activity and relaxation - I especially loved the pergola overgrown with a passionfruit vine and the inviting lounge suite beneath!
Mostly, I wanted to see firsthand his greywater set up - very high tech (well it looked that way) - water is probably the biggest issue Perth gardeners face.
Well, happy sustainable gardening... it's going to be another long, hot Summer!
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