Happy basil

The basil on our window sill is doing well. I am enjoying watching it grow. I will enjoy it even more when it's ready for harvesting. In the mean time, we get to pinch bits out of the top and eat them in the spirit of making it grow full and lush.

Baby veggies

Tatsoi, lettuce and broccoli, oh my!

Broccoli a-go-go

English spinach (I feel a smoothie coming on in about four weeks)

The Veggie Box

We've recently had this old apple crate installed as a raised bed in our garden. It's only 120x120cm, but the benefits are that it's free and clear of our dog and her toiletry habits and the height allows me to do my favourite kind of gardening without bending over. For some reason, bending to weed etc wreaks havoc on my neurological pathways, activating my MS symptoms something awful.

So far, I have planted six broccoli seedlings and, from seed, English spinach, carrots, rainbow chard, coriander, beetroots, lettuces, and leeks. Everything has germinated and seems to be coming along well (the broccoli is already getting inundated with cabbage moth eggs; fortunately, with a crop of six, I can obsessively clean the leaves). Next month, I will plant garlic and snow peas. This is going to be one full planter box. We are already talking about buying two more...

Pictures of veggies coming soon

Baking as therapy

Yesterday was a bit stressful. In order to alleviate my nerves, I baked this cake. I'm not sure that it significantly de-stressed me, but it was fun and easy and tasted great. It was also a good way to use up the excess of plums we always seem to accumulate in autumn. The offering was well received by other members of the household. Half the cake has now been sent off to lovely partner's workplace, so that I don't scoff the lot.

Yummy plum cake

Window herbs

For the first time ever, I have a home with north facing window sills wide enough to accommodate indoor plants. I have kicked off with some basic herb seeds - basil, coriander and parsley - which have all germinated and are coming along well. The coriander seedlings were showing signs of purple on the edges of the leaves, which I quickly diagnosed as lack of potassium. I have fed them some potash and they seem to be greening up, fingers crossed.

Happy herbs

Returning to the blogosphere

Three years is a pretty long time between posts, and a fair bit has happened. We moved from Brisbane back to our spiritual home, Melbourne. Lovely partner has two new jobs and is working super hard, but enjoying it. Our two canine pals went, one shortly after the other, to that big dog park in the sky. After a suitable period of mourning, we fostered the mighty Jezebel and eventually adopted her.

After a couple of years of limited gardening in rental premises, we have bought a new place. The garden is small, but perfectly formed. Looking forward to transforming it to an edible paradise and documenting the journey here.

The mighty Jezebel