Matching pants and environmentally friendly weed killer

My little monsters today....

As soon as the temperature rises above 12c, they are ready to get their gear off and race round like mad things outside. It didn't actually reach 25c I'm sure, but that did not deter them one little bit.

Do ya like their matching shorts?

Haaaahaha, yup, I've turned into one of 'those' mums, but I just couldn't help myself when I found them in Mr 3's size. The boys think it's cool, so I'll milk that for what it's worth while I can. Poor things.

I thought I'd give the new veggie garden a sprinkle but that soon degenerated into a bit of a free-for-all with the hose...

They don't need a beach to have fun with their bodyboards, either.

And, just LOOK at these dying weeds:

( I just know you're drooling with excitement)

My mission was to find an environmentally friendly weedkiller.

Answer to problem: straight white vinegar in a spray bottle.

Now, these are not huge weeds, as evidenced by the toe of my shoe, but I sprayed them yesterday afternoon and they are surely looking very much worse for wear now. Whether or not vinegar would work on the waist high jungle that was our backyard a few years back I'm not sure.

So, armed with vinegar for weeds, and a torch and my husbands big ol' shoe for snails, I am all set for gardening this summer. Yeah.

HeLLLOOO Garden!

Look at this.....

This piece of dirt is the garden bed that runs down the side of our shared driveway. The lady we now share the driveway with recently suggested we should clear it out of the random trees and ugly box hedging and use it for a veggie garden.

Brainwave!

So we promptly did just that.

Actually, she and hubby did it as I was heading out just as she came and suggested we make a start right then. The lady seems to have a knack for finding me when I'm busiest.

So, we have since dug in about 5 bags of composted cow poop and planted some tomatoes, capsicums, cucumbers which I hope to get climbing up a trellis, spring onions and an asparagus plant. Still waiting to see if that's growing or if it rotted during the rainy spell that happened right after I planted it.....

I'm waiting for some yellow capsicums and chillis to sprout and my own baby toms to grow a bit bigger before I put them in the ground. Oh, and there's baby spinach and lettuce there too.

A while before all this went down, I had shot off an email to a local community garden I had found through Landshare Australia. The boys and I will go and check it out tomorrow morning, it's a permaculture garden run on the grounds of a local high school and in return for a few hrs work a week all workers get a share of the produce. They have 55 heritage fruit and nut trees planted, compost, chickens and water tanks, and I was told they would be delighted to have children around. It's fairly newly established from what I can tell and they are still very much in need of man/woman/people power.

Updates on how that goes later, a balmy 25c is predicted, and I'm really looking forward to checking it out!

My garden

First up, check out the colour of the pumpkins we grew!

All two of them, albeit, one giant one.

I picked up this passionfruit vine at the farmer's market a couple of weeks back, it's still looking for a home though.

And in the seed tray, can you spot the two baby apple trees?

Might need to enlarge it to actually see them...the boys and I saved the seeds from any apples that got eaten for a couple of weeks and planted them about three to a.......space? what do you call each individual space in a seed tray?.......patch of dirt in the seed tray!

Since this picture, two more have come up.

I have no illusions about how they will grow and whether or not they will produce, but still, it has been kinda cool. We just sat the tray out in the cold and after about 2 weeks the first one came up, about a month later the second one, and at least a month after that, the last two.

And, we've had a strange bird nesting in the garage.

Hmm, wonder what sort of creature will hatch out of those?

No rain today....

so we managed to get planting!

As well as what was shown in my previous post, we picked up two of these today...

They should be ok in pots for the first year, beyond that, not sure what we'll do.

And the beans that Mr 5 brought home from pre-school found a home too.

I also noticed a miniature nectarine, a dwarf lemon, boysenberries and blackcurrants that I wouldn't mind bringing home, but I do need to be somewhat realistic.

Don't I?

New babies

Baby plants that is.

Seeing as how we'll be staying put here longer than we'd (I'd) planned, I thought I'd try and get as much use out of our small piece of land as I can. While it doesn't need to look pretty......it will need to when we sell it....I'll have it looking functional instead.

The boys and I have a variety of seedlings to plant out and we have made a start.

But seeing as how this has been the wettest October in Melbourne in 30 years (most of that rain falling yesterday apparently) our planting hasn't got far this weekend.

However, it won't rain forever (surely?) so some of these baby tomatoes will be going in the ground shortly.

Also in the seed tray are seedlings of basil, roma tomatoes, calendula, marigolds and zinnias. Those last three are really for the boys, particularly Mr 5 as he has an affinity for growing flowers at the moment. Though marigolds are supposed to help keep bugs away from the toms, so they'll go in the ground, and a few pots, together.

And an orange tree, to go with the feijoa tree and blueberry bushes...

I've got some spinach in pots and a few seedlings of parsley too, that are holding out against the snails.

I didn't realise how many snails were hiding in the cracks and crevices around here, until a couple of tiny marigolds were sheared off at ground level, the vandals leaving plenty of evidence behind them to let me know who committed that particular crime.

So the boys and I went on a snail hunt a couple of days ago and rousted out about 5 of the slimy critters, which I tossed over the fence and out on to the road. Mr 5 thinks they were landing on the nature strip and heading off happily to a new home. Er, not so.

But during yesterdays continuous deluge the snails were out in force, so I braved the conditions and did a bit more snail tossing. Then a few more when I went out just before dark, and yet a couple more this morning.

Hopefully all of our snails have now found new home.

In snail heaven.