Pottering in the garden

It's not just the strawberries lapping up the sunshine

One thing I love about working in the evenings instead of the day is that I get to enjoy the sunshine while pottering around the garden. Not that getting home after dark has ever stopped me gardening by moonlight...

Yesterday I planted lots of seeds. All but one cauliflower has a head on it now and being impatient and craving salads in this weather I sowed plenty of mesclun, rocket and purple basil seeds underneath them. Once the caulis are ready the plan is to just chop them of at the stalk rather than pull up the roots.

I bought another square garden off trademe today ($50 including delivery) and ordered lots of compost from Zoo Doo ($32 for 160 litres, free delivery). My pay comes in tonight so the first day I have free next week I'll head out to the big Bunnings by the airport to stock up on courgettes, cucumber, chili plants and perhaps a capsicum. The landlord better let us renew the lease in January otherwise I have no idea how I'm going to move all this gardening stuff!


There's nothing better than going out to water the garden and coming back into the house with something to cook up. Yesterday I came in with 2 largish carrots, cos and red oakhill lettuce. I added to it capsicum, cucumber and a bit of balsamic vinegar and it was so good! I'm holding off picking more oakhill until next week as I have friends coming around for dinner and what better to serve up than a fresh salad from the garden?!

I'm on budget lock down until I go on holiday (not that the holiday itself is that expensive - taking more than a week's unpaid leave from work is) so I'm not allowing myself to buy food there. It's so tempting working a cafe, especially while slaving away in the kitchen making things like boysenberry muffins, to buy the finished product. To get around this I'm trying to bring something really tasty from home, better than a toasted panini! Tonight it is rice with stirfry - the cauliflower, mustard, coriander and pak choy we grew ourselves. By the end of summer hopefully we can whip a stirfry using only homegrown ingredients!

Alright, enough blogging. I'm going to go out and enjoy the sunshine before work. Here's some photos I took of the garden today, enjoy.

I can't wait for these to ripen!

Making the kitchen pretty with flowers from the backyard
and flax from over the road