Turning the Plan into Reality Part One!

We have been mulling over the planning of the garden ever since we first inspected the house. We want to make sure we do it right and don't have to re-do anything. But towards the end of last week I had a brainwave with it all and all the elements fell into place. Matt took Friday off so we've had a lovely weekend starting to put all the planning into action!

We're planning to have as much of the veg and fruit garden behind the house as possible, leaving the front as it is (oodles of grass) for now. Down the track we'd love to get some grazing animals to help keep the grass down but we're unsure of what. That is a while away anyway! Also, speaking of the front, we're lining the driveway with a hedge of lavender on either side. It should smell divine!

So below is a photo of my little mud map that came to me quite out of nowhere! I'll do my best to explain it to give you an idea of what we're thinking we'll do with our little piece of Eden.

Firstly, the narrow rectangle running along the bottom of the card is the house, with the back stairs going down to the garden. The squiggly lines coming from the bottom of the steps is a path going off to the clothes line to the right and the parking area and shed to the left. The big blank area to the right of the shed will be edged with bricks and re-gravelled. There will also be a rosemary hedge around this area at the top and along the right-hand side. The little dots to the right of the parking area will be a herb garden with culinary and medicinal herbs. The rosemary hedge will be on the left-hand side of the garden bed and a brick path on the right-hand side. That path will continue past the herb garden, up around the parking area to the left where we'll have the chook house which will open onto the orchard. The line going across the top of the card is going to be a fence to separate the orchard from the rest of the garden so the chooks will have a safe, contained place to free range (away from dogs!). Heading left from the chook house is the bore pump surrounded by a little stand of trees and then beyond that will be the compost bins. We're also thinking about placing a bed of asparagus here because it will be shaded by the shed and should be nice and cool through summer. To the right of all of this will be the veg beds, the eight small rectangles on the card. The veg beds will actually be right up next to the path, but my drawing is not to scale! We're planning to fill up all the remaining space with lots more edible and medicinal plants so that there are lots of windy paths and no grass out the back at all! I'm sure that is a long way off though so we're just taking baby steps for now.

To give it some scale, the shed is a four bay shed. The herb garden is approximately 14m long and 1.5m wide. The fence for the orchard will be about 16m from the back boundary fence of the property. The area we've got organised for vegetable beds initially is 8m x 14m.

Now that I've given a bit of background about what the plan is, tomorrow I'll post more about what we actually achieved over the weekend!

Slightly Taken Aback

Over the past few days this blog has gotten a few more followers and a lot more new readers leaving comments. I absolutely have to say a massive and heartfelt thank you to those of you that have left comments and decided to join up and follow.

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed and taken aback that people are interested in our little lives and this journey we are on. I love being able to share it with you all and offer a little glimpse into our wonderful, mundane, not-always-exciting lives. We're not off tramping all over the globe (although have pangs of jealousy when others do, my brother is getting ready for 3 weeks in India!), we're not out chaining ourselves to trees or picketing MP's offices (although I've always wanted to have a good demonstrate. I'd love a boob-in or feed-in even more!!!).

We are however, changing our lives and making changes that affect our world from the 'inside' out and I believe that is equally, if not more important than all the protesting and letter writing and grandstanding. If we each live whatever changes we can, surely the collective of all these changes will make a difference? I am daily reminded of Ghandi's quote "Be the change you want to see in the world". Sometimes these changes are small, easy and seemingly insignificant. Other times they are much larger and increasingly difficult. Each has their place and each are important.

So thanks again for the bottom of my heart for sharing this journey with us!

Vic xx

My Creative Space

Today is a very exciting day for me because tonight is ... wait for it ... our first ever "Craft Circle"!!!!!

Over the past few months I've developed a lovely circle of womenfolk, most of whom are crafty or want to be. After talking about starting a formal 'craft time' last week I decided to take the plunge and really get things happening! So tonight is the night! We decided evenings would be better because the children would be asleep, therefore less distracting, plus we could legitimately indulge in wine and dessert! Bliss! In fact the catalyst for these nights was a lovely night a friend and I had one Saturday evening when she came around for a knitting lesson and brought the most decadent chocolate mousse!

Anyway, there should be about 7 or 8 of us which I'm sure will make for an enjoyable evening! Some are knitters, some are crocheters, some are sewers and some are beginner knitters! One lady is even bringing a lino tile that she is designing on. I'm so excited to learn new skills and share my (somewhat limited) skills too.

As well as this, My Creative Space today is continuing on these slippers I've made as a bit of a prototype. I tend to practise on cheaper wool when projects contain new elements, just in case I stuff it up massively. I want to make another pair of these (in decent wool) for a friend's birthday coming up. Luckily for me they're really quick to knit up. I did the first one in a couple of days, so could easily whip up a pair in a week.

I'm really happy with how they've turned out! It's been a steep learning curve because I've never knitted in the round before, nor have I knitted an attached I-Cord. Both went off without a hitch I'm pleased to say! I can also say it was a pleasure to not have to sew seams at the end of the project. That is definitely my least favourite part of knitting!

 One more thing for those mums reading, I should have listened to that Mother's Instinct when things were too quiet yesterday. Elliot and I were on the verandah. He was doing puzzles, I was knitting. I thought Archie was inside playing in El's room. I thought I'd better go and check, just in case. This is what I found:

I knew it was too quiet! I just relieved he didn't put it in the toilet!

Head over to Kootoyoo to check out what some others are creating!

Happy creations!!!

Let There Be (Solar) Light!

For other Wordless Wednesday posts click here.

Fortnightly Menu Planning

After a weekend away at my parent's for my brother's birthday I was feeling very uninspired when it came to planning our dinners for the coming fortnight. After a status update on Facebook and some trawling through websites and recipe books I finally came up with a varied and hopefully balanced plan.

So it looks like this:

Monday - sweet potato, lentil and silverbeet curry (from freezer) with brown rice and steamed veg
Tuesday - Matt's specialty savoury mince with steamed veg
Wednesday - Roast beef (slow cooker) with roasted potato and pumpkin, steamed veg
Thursday - Silverbeet and ricotta frittata
Friday - Italian lentils (slow cooker) with cous cous and steamed veg
Saturday - BBQ (Matt)
Sunday - Jamie Oliver's meatloaf with mashed potato and steamed veg (Ministry of Food p161)
Monday - Chicken and pesto pasta
Tuesday - Pumpkin soup with homemade bread rolls
Wednesday - Chilli con carne (Matt) once boys are asleep!
Thursday - Homemade fish and chips
Friday - Wonton soup

An Old Friend Returns!

I logged on to Blogger the other night to find a favourite blog of mine that had finished, had a new post! Yay!

My dear friend Helen had a blog A Little Life in Pictures where she posted a photo a day for a year. When the year was up she decided to not continue the blog and that the project was over. Now, after a couple of months break she's back, albeit in a bit of a different form! Yay Yay YIPPEE!!!

Her new blog A Little Life in Stills is going to be a photographic blog, but without the pressure of posting once a day! Helen is an incredibly talented photographer (in her spare time) and her photos are funny, quirky, irreverent and thought provoking. She has an amazing, quick wit and her ability to play on words is second to none. In fact, I'm still waiting for her suggestions for a name for the new house (hint hint).

Anyway, I just thought I'd share this wonderful new blog that I'll be visiting and also let it's owner know how excited I am that she's back!!!!!

Breaking Ground

Now that we are in our own place we can start getting serious about our food production. The rental we were in was good because it had a big weed-infested garden bed that we turned into our veg patch but now that we've got 2.5 acres of our own space the feeling is completely different. Overwhelming, exciting and daunting all at the same time. We want to plan things properly, taking our time and really thinking about where the chickens will go, what is the best site for the compost etc etc. Luckily for us the site for the orchard was pretty obvious.

The previous owners told us that they had great plans for the gardens and yard but simply did not have the time to devote to it (they are running their own small business). Luckily for us they spent some time (and money) on some pretty good garden infrastructure. There is a bore (that pumps up ground water) connected with underground pipes to many sprinklers (think big farm sprinklers) all over the grounds. This means that we'll be able to water gardens without using our precious rain water (We aren't connected to mains/town water) Two of these sprinklers are behind the house towards the back fenceline. Confusing I know. Sorry. Anyway, we're planning the orchard to be along the back fenceline, two rows 7 metres apart with the trees in each row 3 metres apart, then another row in between with trees 3 metres apart staggered to the outside rows. Even more confusing? It makes sense in my head!

There was one citrus tree already there so we're taking our spacings off that one. Saturday we planted a new mandarin (Emperor variety) and Sunday we planted a very sick Eureka lemon that we've had in a pot. My parents gave it to us for Christmas last year and unfortunately it hasn't been the same since it got decimated by grasshoppers a while ago. Hopefully now it's in the ground it will recover!

I've decided that I'm going to try and stretch my grocery/market/housekeeping money a little further and buy one fruit tree every fortnight, maybe two if they're a good price or need a friend for cross-pollination. After looking around the markets and a few smaller nurseries in town I found that the only place I could get a mandarin tree (it was Elliot's request) was Bunnings. Good for the budget because it was only $20, not so good for the ethics of supporting local businesses.

Oh well, you can't win them all.