I wrote last week about our battle to grow a coffee bush from seed in Melbourne, and how only one seed germinated, and it seemed to be still somehow stuck in the husk of the seed. Well, I turned on the heat in our propagator and it seems to have had an effect. Here is hte seed today – still far from fully fledged, but showing a trace of green. I’ll keep you tabbed.
A very depressing report in today’s newspapers about a new report on global warming predicting all sorts of terrible things. It makes me feel so helpless, and also as though I should be doing more…
We already:
Save water in every way we can, watering the garden entirely from grey washing machine water and other drips
Are signed up with a provider of green energy, so our electricity use does not add to global warming
Are members of greenfleet Greenfleet, which plants trees to offset the emissions we can’t get rid of.
It still doesn’t feel like enough.
Why garden at a time like this?
Perhaps it …read more
At long last I have gotten round to taking some pictures of my pride and joy – the window-box style flower pots I planted up with pansies and other bits and pieces about a month ago. They sit on a narrow wall alongside our pocket handkerchief of a sundeck, and they cheer me up every time I look at them. Total investment: more than I like to think. The pots were not cheap. But now I am determined always to have a colourful display. Our lounge room windows look directly out on to the sundeck, so it’s worth the …read more
Why is it that pumpkin seeds survive so well in compost, even when the heap has heated up well enough to kill everything else? I use compost all over the place – in pots and in the main garden. Everywhere I get volunteer pumpkins. I pull most of them out, but we planted one in the narrow strip of earth at the front of the house, and now it is rambling all over the place, threatening to trip up pedestrians if not kept in check. I yell “down boy” to it everytime I pass.
I was just looking through some old photos, and came across this one – a picture of Vita Sackville West’s wonderful garden at Sissinghurst. These photos were taken on a trip I took with my family in 2002. A perfect day.
This is a photo taken from the tower, in which Sackville-West used to write her poetry.
The entrance, with wonderful climbing roses.
Me and my Mum – sadly she is now dead. Mum always loved gardening, and was disappointed in me as a child because I was completely uninterested. Thankfully I came to my senses in adulthood, and we were able to …read more
I went hunting last night to seek guidance on the care and nurturing of our little coffee seedling, and found this. The picture looks so cute – not at all like our little capped dude. I suspect I need to switch on the heat pad under our seedling tray to convince our coffee bean that we are in the tropics – but it doesn’t sound as though we will be drinking our own any time soon!
Nearly three months ago John and I planted coffee beans in the hope of getting a bush. I had just about given up on them ever germinating, but look at this! A perfect little stalk, with leaves still all folded into the bean, which sits like a little muffler on top of the stalk.
John used to live in far north Queensland where he had a coffee bush in his garden. He used to pick the beans, roast them and make his own brew. In Melbourne of course we will have to grow the bush inside, but we still have …read more
I must remember to take a photo of this in daylight hours, but my pots on the back verandah are looking really spectacular, with the poppies in full bloom. I am particularly proud of this because we have been keeping the whole lot alive with just grey water from washing vegetables and general kitchen use – not a drop of straight tap water has been wasted.
We have dug our first potatoes, and boy are they good! You only realise how stale most vegetables are when you eat them really fresh, and get to appreciate the difference. We steamed these, cut some chives over them and added a dab of butter. Bliss. The children ate them like they were lollies which isn’t surprising because the did taste sweet!
Tonight we had to use up some of the old, shop-bought potatoes before going to harvest another lot of our own. The shop bought ones tasted of cardboard by comparison.
Potatoes have to be the easiest things to grow, although …read more
I haven’t worn pantyhose since I was in my 20s. There was a feeling of great liberation when I turned 30 and decided that I no longer needed to make myself uncomfortable for the sake of appearances. I have never regretted my decision, except…
when the tomatoes are sprawling everywhere because I have nothing stretchy with which to tie them to their stakes
when I want something to tie over the neck of the watering can to filter grey water
when the raspberry canes are out of control
when the kids’ tennis ball comes off the string they use to tie it to the …read more
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