Native Plants and Bush Tucker

This morning I went and made a list of all the plants we put in over the weekend, and I must say I am pretty pleased with it and can't wait to put more in.


The driveway already looks better even with just these small plants in, and will look great when they are grown. Even though the ones on the fence line are smaller I don't think they will take long to grow.


This little one is a Water Cherry and I got two of these. According to the label it is a very rare type of native water cherry from Cape York Peninsula with snowy white flowers, and very decorative fruit. It doesn't say that I, personally, can eat the fruit but it is a bush tucker plant so I guess I can, better double check though :)


I think that this one is the NQ Bushy Form, Creek Satinash which has white flowers and edible pink fruit. I have made a map of what plants are what so that makes it easy to identify when actually looking at the plants.

I have also planted Lemon Aspen, which has fruit for jam, Satinwood, which has black fruit for eating and a Brush/Scrub Cherry,which has pink/purplish/red fruit which are good for jam. There is also another bush tucker plant of which I have two, but I didn't pick up one with a label and so am now waiting for my friend to ring me back with that info as she got about five of those ones (with labels I hope). Of course I also got Grevillia's and the tube stock were Bottlebrushes, Wattles and others whose names I don't recognise but look good.


I thought while I was out and about I would also do a map of the orchard, they are all still just babies yet, and I can't wait for them to grow and have lots of fruit.


The Indian Guava has made an incredible recovery and is looking magnificent, but the Abui just up and died :(


We planted the Tahitian Lime where the Abui was, just to even it all out. So glad we now have a lime tree, I was missing my tree from the old house, it won't be long before this one starts to fruit. Very good in many drinks and squeezed over avocado, YUM :D

Blanching and Freezing

Oops,been a bit since I have posted. Well, it has been school holidays here so I have been enjoying sleeping in a bit (would love to be able to sleep till lunchtime but 7am seems to be it) and just relaxing and not having to be anywhere much.

Last week we went to a native plant nursery with a friend and bought plants :D We started off with one trolley and ended up with two. I bought bush tucker plants and flowering natives and we have put them around the driveway to grow as a screen. I also got some tube stock which we put along the fence line to do the same thing, and I will be making a list and a drawing a plan of what we have put in as I have already forgotten :)



We have been picking quite a bit out of the garden lots of tomatoes, capsicum, zucchini, radishes, corn, cabbages. I blanched and froze the corn and cabbages as there was too much to eat, so it is good to not loose it even though it was ready all at once. With the tomatoes, I just put them whole into the freezer and now can use them in cooking whenever, tomatoes always ripen at the same time, though for about the first time ever I have staggered some of them so I have some Roma tomatoes coming along and other plants that just grew so they will be ready later.


The room for our number one and only son has finally started, the slab is getting poured this week however the shed still won't be put up till next month. The company we are getting the shed through is mucking around and has been for months so we are not happy but not much we can really do. We are happy it is finally moving along so our number one and only son should be in for Christmas, we hope.



On Sunday we went into town and saw a circus that a friend's daughter was in. It was really good and the kids ranged in age from about 5years to 17years and they did such a good job and there was so many people there watching them. Just great :D

Last we also went to the movies and saw The Sorcerers Apprentice and we really enjoyed it. We don't go to the movies very often and can't actually remember the last time, (there is often much on anyway that is worth going for) so we really enjoy it when we do go.

Off to the dentist today, thankfully not for me, we don't enjoy this much as they are always running late, so I will have take some crochet to do. May as well do something practical if we have to sit there for all that time, however, I bet now that our number one and only son will get in straight away :))

Another Water Tank

WOW, what a rush, not even 9am and I have just spent $2,500. Had to do it early before I got cold feet and thought about it too much. Had to be done though. I have ordered another water tank, have to get it in before the wet season hits and then we can have lots of water next dry, well, maybe not lots but sufficient that I should no longer have to bucket bore water into the washing machine so we can still shower every day with the rain water. YAY :D


So the tank will take 2-3 weeks to get here, then we just have move it into place, have it hooked up and wait for it to rain (lots). We are going to put it where this old trailer is (not sure where we will put the trailer, it was left by the previous owner and we are not sure what to do with it) and then maybe we will move the rock pile to around the tanks. I was just waiting for that third tank to be put in before I did anything with all those rocks, reeeally :)


The garden is zooming along and hopefully it won't be long before actual pumpkins start to grow on the vine. The plant is starting to creep across the paddock and at least my partner in crime and life won't be able to complain that there is pumpkin everywhere and that he can't mow (pumpkins and suburban backyards don't go well together if you want manicured lawns, so now we have loads of space).


We will also soon have quite a few zucchinis, which is good as we put them in lots of meals. We are actually eating quite well out of the garden at the moment, however I am sure it won't be long where we won't be, as I haven't planted anything new for a while. Admittedly, some things take longer than others to grow, and also we are starting to get into the part of the year where some things won't grow as it is too hot, but we will see how we go.


The potatoes are going well, and seeing I have never grown them before it is an experiment. If things go OK with this little patch, I will have a big patch next year, or maybe lots of patches, as long as I get a couple of potatoes from this one I will consider it successful, seeing I have no idea what I am doing.

We have finally decided where the chook pen will go. We couldn't get any chooks until I could see it in my head (the pen and the chooks), so we even have a rough design and plan of how to keep the snakes and bush pythons out. We are going to have the pen on the other side of our table and chairs over near the creek (but not too close or they might fall off) and they will be partially shaded by the trees. We know people who have lots of chooks with lots of babies, they are Jungle Fowl, they are a bit wild, beautiful to look at and they are tough, so we may get some of those if we build the pen soon. I would like it done in the next couple of months.

Well, better go ring and see if I can get some besser blocks for my last garden row, haven't been able to get any recently, so maybe today is the day :P

A Few Days Away

Had a lovely few days away last week with friends, just wish it had lasted a week, wasn't ready to come home so soon. It was a bit colder there and it rained a little, but the tent held up, the views were spectacular and the company magnificent.


Haven't done too much since coming home, though we finally planted the passionfruit plants (the poor things). We went and got some soil and have planted them on the other side of the containers where they will be protected and it makes use of that space. We are going to put a wire fence directly behind so they can grow on it, and plant two more plants on either side so it will take up the length of the container. We will also be painting the containers, we have picked out the colour, now just have to motivate myself :D

We now also have a new laptop, the old one was slow beyond belief and now I am learning about the new one, different programs and ones that don't do what I am used to. I have to transfer all my info and photos and important emails, but for the time being I am just enjoying a fast computer with modern functions. We had been talking about getting a new one for a while but the tipping point was when our number one and only son came home from school with a school project on his USB stick and it wouldn't open up on the laptop as it was so old.

So I am enjoying surfin' the net, learning is never ending with technology and life, must work both sides of the brain, that is why Tai Chi, modern technology, craft, gardening and reading all go hand in hand, mind and body :))

I Love Technology

I have a new laptop and it has all the mod cons in it. It is so much faster than the old one and can do all sorts of things, fast. I was starting to get to the point where it was becoming a hassle to use the old one, and the final thing was when our number one and only son brought home his USB stick with a school assignment on it and it wouldn't work. The laptop was so old that it just wouldn't open it up, so that was it, the old one still works (slowly) but any modern software won't work on it, so now we are all technologied (I can say it therefore it is a word) up :D



However, despite all the technology, we still want the simple life, and I have been doing some cooking. I have a thing for peanut butter at the moment so I have been making peanut butter slice and biscuits, so yummy that I have pretend that they don't exist or I will eat them all ;)


I am going to a friend's place for a couple of days for a retreat, the first day I will be coming home at the end of the day, but the next day when I return I will be taking our number one and only son with me, and the tent. It should be good with lots of homemade food and cups of tea and good company, I think there will be about ten or so people there. I have made two banana cakes to take and I will be making quiche and a salmon mornay as well, can't wait to get there and have some food :D


I have picked a lonely cucumber out of the garden and also some more corn, there are many beans and the tomatoes are slowly starting to ripen. The pumpkin patch is getting larger and I can't wait until we have pumpkins on it.

The reticulation in the garden is slowly starting to work the way I want it to, still some more tweaking as I find patches of garden that are being missed by the water. The next bit to do will either be the other mounded gardens but I think they can wait as I haven't finished building them, so I will probably do the orchard, which is going along rather well. I think before I put reticulation in the orchard I will plant some more trees first, if I am going to do that much work I want to have as many trees in as I can.

Well, no rest for the wicked, have to have our home clean and tidy before deserting for a few days, get out the gear to take away, cook food to take away and get our dinner for tonight started. I need another me to help me :P