Kids help out!

Well another Day in the garden......with a small difference.......”SLAVE LABOUR!”
Yes Tania and Liz actually managed to get the kids involved, of course this was designed as a ‘learning’ experience for them!
But really I think it was just a cunning plan to have help while pretending to be ‘good’ parents! (He he) I’m sure there are laws about min wage etc guys!
And the success! Very proud of them all and much achieved, in fact almost ready for planting! YAY!

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Water Works

Here is Liz and Tania using the experience of having kids around to actually behave like a couple themselves, (mind you I do question their maturity anyway!) first trying the sprinklers.......actually just trying to wet each other with them if at all possible!
And what’s that you have done to yourself Liz? I’m sure you are way TOO OLD to have an ‘accident’! (He he) (Bottom Photo)
And Tania, I love the left hand, just so dainty! I can almost imagine you skipping!

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Moving onto the second ‘push’!

So much for feeling loved, I am given a crate to sit on (and NO CUPPA?!)........am I not acting crippled enough? But hey we can’t have anything distracting from the actual work on the garden right!
So here they are....digging the garden (turning the soil over so ready for planting again) see I’m learning right! And we find KUMERA’S!!!!! Ok maybe a few too many exclamation points but what can compete with the “kumara dance”?
Now it is only fair that I explain. Liz got so excited that we found kumara’s that she literally danced! (Now I am seriously starting to worry about our decision to follow this woman)........but hey, she has produced kumara’s! Only a year later than planned and with obvious surprise BUT?!!
Now of course that lead to a wonderful array of jokes regarding dancing and various vegetables........I don’t think I need/should elaborate on this! As I’m sure you can all get the idea! All I will end on is that I even pretended to do a toe dance (OK the rest of me was in pain......and the crate was not working for me! He he)
So home and bed bound was I!
Which is also why I was told about the latest addition to the garden after the fact?
They also have started a ‘worm farm’. Now sorry for showing my TOTAL ignorance, but WHY?
Don’t get me wrong I have actually seen one before, at Playcentre where my son had wonderful joy watching them etc......but in an actual garden? I thought the idea was to have worms IN the ‘garden’? So why take them out into a ‘farm?’!!!
It’s not like we need to contain them......or do we? I just hope I’m not given the job of checking the ‘ladies’ are pregnant and if not? What then, send them to the ‘works’?! How about milking them? Twice a day? (OK I learned later that they actually lay eggs......SO????)
I just can’t picture it myself but hey? Who am I to point out the obvious!
Maybe I need another night of KGB’s and a lesson on WORM FARMING! (Watch this space)

So now we are off with a ‘hiss and a roar’!

Or should I say....the others are off with a hiss and a roar, I again was in Hosp (very convenient, but who am I to complain!) As soon as I was out I made sure I was at the second major push and to be shown all the work that had already been done! (Didn’t look like enough to me but did make sure I ooooohhhhhh and Aaaaaahhhhed at the appropriate points!)
They had WEEDED! YAY, mind you have you seen the size of this venture? Maybe I should be way more appreciative of ground gained!
Also a compost heap has been started; this actually makes sense to me! Ok saves on compost and also recycles food waste right? WRONG! Something that makes that much sense has to have a flaw in it (just to keep me on my toes!) No the food waste goes to the pigs! The WEEDS go in the compost!
So to be clear on this, we spend hours ‘weeding’ to get these annoying (looks like veggies anyway to me but apparently not) plants out of the garden, to only let them rot, so we can add them again later! Like we don’t have enough weeds without adding more, but again.......who am I to point out the obvious?
I also made the (stupid?) mistake of pointing out this flaw in the compost plan to Liz (Garden guru) to actually have a lesson.....it went something like this:
“Weeds go in compost ......blah blah yada yada.........hot.....blah blah yada yada............breaks down..........yada yada blah blah...........kills seeds...........yada yada blah.......making safe to use as compost!”
Thanks for the lesson Liz, but maybe next time I should get another KGB (or three?) first!

This is how our group REALLY started!

So to start: Or should I say….This is how our group REALLY started! (As per Trina’s version anyway!)
Picture this…..3 of us ladies sitting around having a nice relaxing cuppa, (and maybe a little ‘gossip’) when someone (LIZ) suggested that we start a gardening group!
Now to be clear, this seemed a good idea at the time (while comfortably inside, hot cuppa in hand) and we did all recognize that Liz has a wonderfully ‘huge’ greenhouse that is way too big for one family, so YAY we were in! (I personally not as enthusiastic as others, but hey I was in for all the ‘social excuses’ to get together anyway!)
Liz had already had her neighbor Linn helping out last year so hence there were 4 of us!
So a little about us all:
Liz = Grandeur plans = Actual gardener = BOSS (Or just ‘bossy’, yet to decide which!)
Linn = Eager and def Helpful/motivated (Just met, so don't know her too well but looks like she knows what she is doing anyway!)
Tania = Eager Beaver! (Also comes with experience with a small garden at home!)
Trina = Me??? Official Blogger, Bottler of goods and support team! (Never gardened, in fact comes with a “never garden at all cost’s” philosophy! - Not to mention ants!!!)
Luckily about now I managed to have surgery (unplanned but very convenient!) so I can now just lounge around with said cuppa’s and pretend that I would actually be helping if I could! (He he!)
So second ‘official’ meeting/ social gathering then took place at Liz’s, under the guise of a get together for lunch! (My kind of meeting!) Unfortunately Linn couldn’t be there till later but the rest of us had fun!
Official outcome was a list of plants we planned on doing! I personally took this as a challenge of just suggesting any plant that may qualify as a vegetable, after about 5 min (and only 5 veggies) my personal list was exhausted, so I just sat and listened while those other two ran through a heap of plant names that sounded more like alien’s to me, resulting in a list of over 20 plants planned (Or it seemed that many anyway!)
Also resulted in a general concession that I know as little as anyone can know about these things, so welcome to the new job of blogging Trina! (Happy with this, so hope you all like my blog’s or I may find myself OUT!!???!!) No pressure!

New Beginnings

Well, this spring we are gardening for four families. So... introducing Lin McQ, Tania C and Trina H.

We are well under way, having weeded the greenhouse, dug over 2 of 4 beds and started setting up a tyre compost system which will ultimately grow pumpkins as well.

Very proud of our group, we are achieving great things...

They will all become administrators on this blog so that we can get some practice blogging about our triumphs, trials and silly nattering, before we try to win the Yates Spring Garden Challenge for the first time.

We are even planning a Gardening Girlies Getaway to experiment with creating some home made (perhaps partly home grown) beauty products... well most of us just want a drink in our hands really, but I'll get them testing out potions.

Some pictures from the other day...

We found kumara's that actually did become something and I had a happy dance 'cos out of two attempts this is the first one to work.

No-maintenance Gardening

God said:
"Frank, you know all about gardens and nature. What in the world is going on down there on the planet? What happened to the dandelions, violets, milkweeds and stuff I started eons ago? I had a perfect no-maintenance garden plan. Those plants grow in any type of soil, withstand drought and multiply with abandon. The nectar from the long-lasting blossoms attracts butterflies, honey bees and flocks of songbirds. I expected to see a vast garden of colors by now. But, all I see are these green rectangles."

St. FRANCIS:
It's the tribes that settled there, Lord. The Suburbanites. They started calling your flowers 'weeds' and went to great lengths to kill them and replace them with grass.

GOD:
Grass? But, it's so boring. It's not colorful. It doesn't attract butterflies, birds and bees; only grubs and sod worms. It's sensitive to temperatures. Do these Suburbanites really want all that grass growing there?

ST. FRANCIS:
Apparently so, Lord. They go to great pains to grow it and keep it green. They begin each spring by fertilizing grass and poisoning any other plant that crops up in the lawn.

GOD:
The spring rains and warm weather probably make grass grow really fast. That must make the Suburbanites happy.

ST. FRANCIS:
Apparently not, Lord. As soon as it grows a little, they cut it-sometimes twice a week.

GOD:
They cut it? Do they then bale it like hay?

ST. FRANCIS:
Not exactly, Lord. Most of them rake it up and put it in bags.

GOD:
They bag it? Why? Is it a cash crop? Do they sell it?

ST. FRANCIS:
No, Sir, just the opposite. They pay to throw it away.

GOD:
Now, let me get this straight. They fertilize grass so it will grow. And, when it does grow, they cut it off and pay to throw it away?

ST. FRANCIS:
Yes, Sir.

GOD:
These Suburbanites must be relieved in the summer when we cut back on the rain and turn up the heat. That surely slows the growth and saves them a lot of work.

ST. FRANCIS:
You aren't going to believe this, Lord. When the grass stops growing so fast, they drag out hoses and pay more money to water it, so they can continue to mow it and pay to get rid of it.

GOD:
What nonsense. At least they kept some of the trees. That was a sheer stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. The trees grow leaves in the spring to provide beauty and shade in the summer. In the autumn, they fall to the ground and form a natural blanket to keep moisture in the soil and protect the trees and bushes. It's a natural cycle of life.

ST. FRANCIS:
You better sit down, Lord. The Suburbanites have drawn a new circle. As soon as the leaves fall, they rake them into great piles and pay to have them hauled away.

GOD:
No!? What do they do to protect the shrub and tree roots in the winter to keep the soil moist and loose?

ST. FRANCIS:
After throwing away the leaves, they go out and buy something which they call mulch. They haul it home and spread it around in place of the leaves.

GOD:
And where do they get this mulch?

ST. FRANCIS:
They cut down trees and grind them up to make the mulch.

GOD:
Enough! I don't want to think about this anymore. St. Catherine, you're in charge of the arts. What movie have you scheduled for us tonight?

ST. CATHERINE:
'Dumb and Dumber', Lord. It's a story about....

GOD:
Never mind, I think I just heard the whole story from St. Francis