Spring has sprung 2 - spring gardening

Wasn't the weather this weekend just gorgeous? We had lunch outside on the back verandah on Saturday, then got stuck into the garden on Sunday. I had seen some cheap punnets of seedlings at Woollies - but they had run out of cheap potting mix - so needed a trip to both Bunnings & the supermarket to get started. Vege seelings at 2 for $5 was too good a deal to miss, so I bought lettuce, snow peas and spinach. Earlier this year I bought lettuce & parsley seedlings at the supermarket (50c each because they were looking well past their prime). The lettuce is still growing - waiting for the last pants to go to seed, we have baby lettuce plants popping up all over the place! And the parsley is going strong, this one in a pot-






And this was in the ground, but I moved it into a pot yesterday, because it was growing next to the fence, which needs to be replaced, so I have started moving some plants so save them being trampled later on.





Hopefully the parsley will survive both being transplanted to a pot, and being placed outside the chookyard. I figure the mint and cress both have very strong tastes, so the chooks won't touch them, plus it is nice to have some greenery next to the chookyard.

I also planted some raddish seeds in a foam box, and spinach seedlings in an old tyre which has been lying around in the backyard for ages.







I have been saving eggshells for months, not sure if it does actually deter snails from eating the seedlings, but it does look kind of pretty around the baby plants!


Hopefully the snow peas will take off and climb up the wire behind the tubs they are planted in.





The chooks and rabbit do make great pets, plus they are useful in other ways - eggshells for the plants, and plenty of poo! My goodness can those chickens poo ( which reminds me, the chook house needs cleaning out AGAIN!). We put the chook poo, bunny poo, bunny litter ( recycled paper pellets) and straw from both bunny & chooks, into a series of tubs/ plastic barrels. I was elbow deep in very stinky poo yesterday ( rain had got into a tub of chook poo unfortunately!) but it is mixed with the dry bunny litter now, and in the compost tumbler to be tumbled every day of the holidays. The stinky liquid poo has been layered with dry poo/ pellets/ straw in another barrel, and is no longer stinky!

I buy the el cheapo potting mix, and then mix it up with the wonderful worm filled compost from the bunny/ chook mix, hopefully it makes a great growing medium - even better than the top shelf potting mix! And the rabbit gets to eat some of the parsley, lettuce, and leaves from the raddishes, so it all goes around in the circle of backyard life!

Now I just have to find another foam box to plant the lettuce in...and get the fence fixed!



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