A little update on the Vegie patch. As mentioned earlier I was excited to be back in the garden. It was looking somewhat the worse for wear after 6 weeks of neglect.


I started by arranging my seeds, inspired by the Saucy Onion. I had an old worm box with a mish mash of stuff in it, so I made dividers and sorted them into planting months using my Diggers "Sow What When" guide.









The Lebanese cucumbers had been demolished by caterpillars, I suspect, so despite producing ~10 fruit, they had to go.





The beans have gone berserk, with all 3 colours (purple, green and striped from the Diggers 3 bean mix) represented. They are so sweet and crunchy, I manage to eat them all before I get them back to the kitchen. A very healthy snack.

I need to learn to squish these little buggers

My yellow zucchini are being attacked by something, but I have an army of yellow lady beetles (my favourite insect) on the job. Despite a shy beginning, I saw a hint of yellow at the base of some female flowers this morning so fingers crossed.

A hint of zucchini

The sweet corn has ears, albeit baby ones, and the ants seem to love them, but I don't think this is too much of a problem.


I have, so far, harvested 1 yellow cherry tomato. He was small but, still warm off the bush, he was delicious. Not big enough to bother putting in my lunchtime sanga, so I settled for cucumber and radish with my salmon, yum.

A handsome little tomato

So, this weekend I planted all the herbs that were struggling and pot bound, into the soil on the retaining wall. I can just picture their little toes stretching out like mine do after a night of dancing in too tight shoes, Bliss!





I also planted out my seedlings that I started ~8 weeks ago - they are completely stunted and never got much past the 2 leaf stage, but I am optimistic. There are a couple of Italian Fryers (capsicum) and some tomatoes and spring onions. I also got some more lettace seedlings from Bunnings and put them in the soil garden this time - hopefully will work better than last time when I just got lettuce trees??





I ripped out the devoured cucumbers and put in some dwarf snow peas. And in the no-dig garden I put in some coriander and fennel seeds. I will hopefully be able to thin that out and plant some broccoli in a couple of weeks if I manage to start some seedlings.

No-dig Garden

So I've been a busy girl. No I just have to sort out my disaster zone of a house!


Til next time.... L

I must say, I was surprised at how excited I was to get back into my garden today after 6 weeks of not being able to live at home. We awoke 6 weeks ago and Dean put his foot to the floor and landed in a puddle. During a huge storm, half of the Hinze Dam had managed to make its way out of a storm water drain and under our laundry door to completely soak every inch of flooring in the house, before receding.

Our street, this water had washed through our house before pooling here

So we took the birds and moved to the local Trailer Park, which we endured for 4 weeks before asking for an upgrade and being moved to a lovely, new high rise apartment in Surfers Paradise.

By Day

And by night

Inner city living was fun for 2 weeks (my liver is not so sure!) but I am glad to be home.

So into the garden today. My seedlings from last time are still alive, just, but living in suspended animation as they haven't grown at all in 6 weeks. I think I'll start again there. So it was more compost and cow manure for the no dig garden and also a bit for the soil. I decided to plant out my herbs that struggle along in pots, up on the retaining wall and added some Sage and Tarragon I couldn't help buying. I also tried again with some lettuce as the last lot grew into little trees??? Weird.

Unfortunately the Lebanese cucumbers seemed to get devoured overnight by caterpillars, despite producing about half a dozen tasty morsels. The beans are on fire and so sweet I eat them all before they make it anywhere near a saucepan or boiling water. The corn grew ears overnight and I think my zucchini is barren, or my bees are on strike! lots of flowers but no zucchini???

I'll try and post some pics tomorrow if it doesn't all get washed away by the cyclone!!!