Saturday … brilliant day’s work. The weather was beaut, so nice to have a ‘breather’ from the copious amounts of rain we have had. I feed all the garlic, onions and leeks with home seaweed and fish fertiliser. Splashed that liberally about … and yes, I got it all over myself.

Andrew got out the wood chipper and was busily stuffing the feijoa branches down the shoot. Not one of his favourite jobs … but me I love it! The fact that this material will end up back in the garden as mulch is brilliant. I also dragged up some of the banna grass which I had chopped out a few weeks ago and into the chipper it went too.

This mulch will get left for a month or so and then it will get used in the new beds when they get planted. I always put back into the garden the greenery that has been removed plus a host of other organic material. To finish a good thick layer of mulch, perfect! It will protect the soil from the summer sun (when it get’s happening) by keeping the soil moist and provide a home for some of those garden microorganisms!

Hard at it! What a guy …

Finished product … brilliant!

Andrew started removing the pineapple sage from one of our raised beds. It got planted a few years ago in a school project – a square foot garden which was part of my practicum. At the time, it was perfect within the mix of plants. But typically, I hate hauling out plants and this one was left in the bed for quite some time – how does 2 years sound? So I shouldn’t be surprised that it had got seriously woody, made itself at home. It had an amazing root system .. sending off underground runners which come up all over the show and soon become other plants. Impressive! Getting back to the real stuff, I managed to break my small spade while endeavouring to lever the woody stem…. Pooh! A tomorrow job now.

Forgot to mention, my fab chooks have really starting to lay some eggs now. The winter blues are nearly over, the days are getting longer, so in their appreciation they are laying more eggs. Quite a few more actually. We got 8 the other day … not bad at all, mind you, there are 15 of them. Gladys has gone clucky yet again. I can’t remember how many times she did this last year … but it must have been at least 3. Plus she ended up raising 5 chicks into the bargain. Did a splendid job! She weighs nothing, so each morning I pick her up and pop her outside … ever hopeful that she will go and join the others for breakfast, or at least go and get a drink!

One of my girls … a buff orpington, plymouth x …

Sunday! Great weather … sunny but with some cloud. Nice.

Andrew got out the pump sprayer today which gets attached to the battery and sits in the tray of our ATV. So into the 60 litre vessel went seaweed and fish fertiliser (commercial) and yes you guessed it, 60L of water. Then like a man on a mission, he was off to spray the olives, feijoas and trees in the orchard with leaves. Sounds daft to say … ‘with leaves’ but there are still many that haven’t woken up from winter yet. And then of course, there are those too … that have a blaze of blossom, so they also get missed, don’t want to put off the pollinators.

I took over the spraying and did the citrus in the backyard and our solitary macadamia. Then I hosed all the vege gardens with the exception of the brassicas which really should be hauled out. Speaking of ‘hauling out’ …

I dug out the rest of the pineapple sage – the air was full of the pleasant smell of pineapple. It must have been a ‘dig it up day’ as I also dug up the tansy today too … another of my plants that has been in the garden for considerable time. Again, it has gone woody and had got quite sizeable. Not great in a vege garden as it was screening plants attempting to grow behind. Good news though, I dug up another small tansy and planted it in the same garden but strategically in the top right corner. Much better positioning. It never ceases to amaze me how important it is where you put your plants … they are always relatively ‘small’ when they go into the mix, but you need to think about ‘how big they will grow’ and be a bit smarter … Julie!

Grabbed a rubbish bin full of horse pooh from the neighbour’s place and tossed that into the space where the pineapple sage used to be. The worms will love it! … Shame about the weeds yet to come.

I really hate to say this … and I’m a tad baffled, but the Kumara is not heating up at all … so I cheated and threw in some blood and bone yesterday. Makes me think the size of the vessel is wrong … not deep enough. Might change the box as a last resort and pop all the material into something deeper. Spuds? Well they are super slow to start, but I have been dipping them into fish fert regularly and keeping them in the warm windowsill for good measure.

And to finish a super day, I sprayed my roses around the house with seaweed brew and lavender water.

Brilliant weekend!