Sticks and Stones

Here is a list of the seeds I would like to buy for Spring planting:

Beans – 4 packets in July

1. Lazy Housewife – climbing bean. I have bought these once before and I kept collecting the seeds every year for the past 3 but in the move I have lost them. I really like these beans, prolific and nice to look at. The catalogue at Diggers suggests that they get around 561g per plant….I am going to weigh them this year and see….if I remember…. .
2. Rattle snake bean – climbing bean. This bean is rated highest in the Diggers Club taste tests and yields for 4 months!
3. Dragons Tongue – bush bean. It looks great and will add excitement for the kids and I when we are picking them.
4. Sex without Strings – bush bean. It’s an heirloom variety and golden so a bit of variety for us!

Broccoli – 1 packet in November

1. Green Sprouting – It’s an Italian Calabrese heirloom variety so close to my heart. I’ve had this one before and it was great, in fact, one plant stayed producing for well over 12 months until we went overseas and my house mates forgot to pick it.

Brussels Sprouts – 1 packet in November

1. Ruby – heirloom variety that looks stunning.

Cabbage – 1 packet in November

1. January King – It’s a green heirloom variety (have red left from my last lot of seeds).

Cauliflower – 1 packet in November

1. Mini – it crops in 4 months

Capsicum – 1 packet in July

1. Seven Colour Mix – An heirloom mixture that includes Sweet Chocolate, Purple beauty, White Cloud, Yellow Macaroni, Chinese Giant, Cubanelle and Orange Bell, it’s a bit of fun, we don’t eat all that many capsicums when we are not growing them ourselves – I like the sound of the Chocolate ones….

Carrots – I think we’ll need at least 4 packets in July

1. Heirloom mix – includes 3 colour purple, Orange Chantenay, Yellow Austrian Lobbericher and Belgian White – once again I just think this is a “fun” group to keep interest in the garden. Sophie has learnt how to pull up carrots so imagine her delight when they are all different coloured!
2. Baby – these can be harvested from 8 weeks so they’ll fill gaps in carrots
3. All Seasons – they can be planted all year round
4. Mini round – an heirloom carrot that would look great in stews

Corn – 2 packets in July

1. Dwarf – it’s a cold tolerant variety which grows to 1.7m tall
2. Golden Bantam – heirloom variety

Cucumber – 1 packet in July

1. Lebanese mini Muncher – heirloom variety that bears about 16 fruit per plant

Eggplant – 1 packet in July

1. Listada de Granida – Italian heirloom and beautiful

Kale – 1 packet in July

1. Tuscan Black – heirloom – the name just draws me and I think it would look great in the garden

Melons – 2 packets in July

1. Jam melons – for Pete’s Mum as she loves these and hasn’t been able to get seeds.
2. Golden Midget – watermelon that changes colour when it is ripe.

Parsnip – 2 packets in July

1. Hollow Crown – surely if I get 2 packs some will germinate!

Peanuts – 1 packet in July

1. Virginia - these were on my Growing Challenge list so they are an absolute must for my Spring planting .

Peas – 3 packets in July for Spring planting

1. Snow Pea Climbing – a favourite in our house, so versitile and yummy.
2. Purple podded Dutch Pea – an heirloom that can be eaten fresh or dried.
3. Greenfeast – heirloom shelling pea.

Potatoes – 2 packs in July

1. Potato Club Combo - Bison, Desiree, Toolangi Delight, Bownwell and King Edward varieties.
2. Kipfler - yummy!

Pumpkin – 2 packets in July

1. Turks Turban – love the look of these!
2. Heirloom mix – this includes Queensland Blue, Jap, Waltham Butternut, Blue Hubbard, Red Kuri & Ironbark.

Silverbeet – 1 packet in July

1. 5 Colour Mix – again, a sense of adventure for my budding vegetable gardeners.

Tomatoes – 3 packets in July

1. Tigerella - an absolute must for me as I once had plants that bore fruit for 12 months against a north facing wall. All the older Italians in the street want to know my secret….neglect and forgetting to pull them out when they looked dead .
2. Amish Paste – for preserving.
3. Tommy Toe

Zucchini – 1 packet in July

1. Crookneck – I know my in-laws will grow their usual Black Beauty type ones so for something different I’ll try these.

If anyone is interested in going “halves” in any of these seeds let me know!  I intend to save the seeds this year to keep my garden perpetually self sufficient .

Last week I got the chance to have some time out from being a full time Mum. I got to spend 3 whole hours being pampered at the hair dressers while my MIL looked after the kids. Needless to say she was happy to see me at the end of the 3 hours but I really appreciated the time to give a bit of care to me!

Before:

After:

Excuse the red eye, I forgot to edit it. It may not look all that different but I got heaps cut off and got it coloured (foils) and felt thoroughly spoilt – 3 hours of uninterrupted knitting time! They’d never had anyone knit in the shop before so I felt pretty unique.

And, thanks to Pete’s Cousin and Aunt we were able to go out on the Saturday night!

At the moment I am working on about 4 projects doing a little on each and watching them all progress at a reasonable rate. I have so many on the go because I couldn’t decide between the fibres so all at once seemed a good approach.

My first stop of each day is some sock knitting. This is the second in the pair, the first was a pleasure to knit and such a joyful thing to watch the colours self stripe. I am especially enjoying this project knowing that I have processed the fleece from raw state to knitting.

After I have done a few rows of the sock I usually pick up the charity knitting:

I am trying to knit 12 rows a day which I think works out that I’ll have it done in 30 days, plenty of time to get it in. This is much more pleasant to knit than I had anticipated as I don’t usually like to knit with acrylic. This lot is surprisingly soft and doesn’t feel too yucky on my fingers.

My third project is Panel B of the Mohair Blanket, 1 finished Panel A a long time ago and have B,C,D & E to go. I love the feeling of the Studio Mohair as I knit it and surprisingly I am not finding the stocking stitch boring but I think I can attribute that to the range of projects on the go!

The fourth project is a spinning one. It is the same wool as my sock yarn and it is intended to be another sock yarn. I have finished spinning the blue and am now onto the white – I am going to make it a 2 ply with the contrasting colours. I have prepared the white by scouring it, flicking and then drum carding and have pre-drafted the batts prior to spinning and seem to be getting a reasonably consistent single.

I know this has been done to death but I finally get it together to provide some OH&S within the family home in respect to my knitting!  Last week I finally bought some tubing to encase the ends of my needles:

It’s such a great idea as it keeps my needles together, covers dangerous points that little boys love to play with and makes sure the needles can’t be pulled out and stitches lost!  I bought 50cm of 2 different sizes which cost a grand total of $1.35, now I have plenty to play with …..wish I had done it sooner.

My sock knitting is progressing in leaps and bounds and I am so happy with the progress.  Here is the hand spun, hand dyed and hand knitted beginning of the first of the Cable Rib Socks by Jenny Occleshaw.

This sock is actually finished now and I am onto it’s partner but I just wanted to show off what I have been doing !

Writing weekly (which I don’t seem to be able to do 1/2 the time!) makes me even more enthusiastic in the garden and so, to have something to write about, I have been out scratching around.  I employed Pete to put up a small trellis for me and have planted most of my climbing peas…42 seeds in all…. along either side of it.  I have been putting climbing peas in here and there around single tobacco sticks as I pull up cabbages but have been largely unsuccessful with the strike rate so I am hoping that by having them all in one spot I may be able to keep a better eye on them!  In my weeding I have found my Welsh red stemmed bunching onions and most are doing ok – a happy find.

It is surprisingly mild here through the middle of the day – the nights and mornings are almost bitterly cold – and I already feel myself gravitating towards spring planting and it’s only June!  In my dreaming of spring planting I have made a rough plan.  In August I am going to plant out some of my seeds in trays covered with plastic.  Once these have 4 leaves I will plant them out with milk containers over them to provide a warm micro climate and then I will mulch around them with lucerne, maybe covering the milk containers a bit too.  This will assuage my spring urges (I hope) even though I realise that these plants will probably grow no less quickly than those planted later when the earth warms up.

Today as I was planting the peas I was dreaming of Bananas… do you think I could grow them here?  I think there are probably enough warm spots to try but where would I get some suckers from?  Any ideas?

I also NEED to acquire some asparagus crowns….  I think there are some asparagus farms around here so I’ll have to do some research in my spare time !

I have cast on another project, this time back to my charity knitting.  At the start of the year I said that I wanted to knit one item a month for charity (on average) and so far I have only managed to make 1 thing so I have cast on a scarf out of the Guardian Angel Knitting Book with some acrylic I think I was given by Trudi.  Once again I had dilemmas about what sort of yarn to use but the pattern calls for wool or acrylic and I figure it’s easily washed and I wont be using it for my family (yarn snob that I am coming to be) so it seems to be a good fit.  I am starting with the 2-4 year old size because that age group is currently close to my heart and it’s a quicker knit!

If you feel so inclined, pick up a brochure at your local Guardian Chemist or download some of the patterns online and knit an item for some children in need.

We’ve been having some night nappy issues over the past few weeks and I am beginning to feel a little frustrated!  I have previously written about what we use at night here and it has always been fine but lately we are having leaks, falling off/coming undone and really really smelly!  I asked Lisa over at The Tin House what she does and it really reassured me!

I am reinvigorated in my efforts to find the “perfect” solution and I have ordered a Sandman night nappy to complement my night nappy supplies.  I am also intending to knit another wool cover like the last one but with 3 strands and leg bands for over night – I want to try and do 3 of these so one can be in use, 1 can be airing and 1 can be in the washing/drying process…..

Any thoughts on night nappies?  What do you use?

My sister in law sent me a really cool gift the other day:

The coasters match the cushion she made for my birthday and the pot holder she sent as a house warming gift!  She is soooo thoughtful!  The last photo is of a few patches she made for my ailing favourite jeans and the red thread that is holding the coasters together is a match for some blanket stitch edging on the patches!  I’m ashamed to say that the patches still haven’t been sewn on but there is a lot going on a the moment….maybe next week or over the weekend when Pete is home…

I think she should open a Etsy shop and sell her wares online – she is so clever and really has the knack with colours and combinations!  I don’t know what is stopping her…could it be the 3 beautiful babe she has?

She puts me to shame really.  I still have a Calorimtery sitting here for her eldest and a Guardian Chemist booklet for the World Vision Ange l thing…. I WILL post them today!

I am not sure where the growing challenge is at for me, I really need to go back to the beginning and see what I wanted to achieve but I know that being a part of it has really propelled my gardening to a higher level. The garden needs a lot of TLC at the moment but I am giving it slowly, day by day, in 5-10 minute doses and a little more when life permits.

Today Sophie and I did some weeding, scarified between some of the rows, fed some of the plants with diluted worm juice and did some planting. I found a sprouting garlic bulb when I was preparing the slow cooked leg of lamb so we divided it up and planted it out covering each bulb with a milk container to a) provide a micro climate, b) identify where they are until the shoot nice and tall and c) to help protect from weed invasion and chooks while establishing. We also planted out some tiny Welsh bunching onion seedlings that we’ll cover with milk containers (for the same reasons) as we drink more milk. Sometimes I feel like I am just growing milk containers!

We are eating out of the garden pretty much every day – mustard leaves, bok choy, tatsoi, lettuce and rocket(all picked leaf by leaf), cabbages and carrots. Here are the photos of the garden at the moment: