Current landscaping...

...with many changes to come.

I am planning my landscaping around vegetable/herb gardens, fruit trees and lots of natives.Planning on recovering the gazebo with brush fencing or bamboo

Don't mind the washing, been a busy week.

Rubbish tip next door (my land and future fruit tree orchard)

A lot of work to be done before I can even start thinking about planting fruit trees. Getting rid of the rats will be a good start :(

I think this is going to need lots of weed spray as much as I don't like using it. I can't see any other way.

Front yard after removing lots of bushes and trees, future vegetable and herb gardens.

Moving house and Before Photos

Loaded and ready for the drive to Callington

Photos below are my house just before we moved everything in.

Bedroom 2

Main Bedroom

Hallway

Toilet

Bathroom

Bedroom 3

Kitchen, dining, lounge room

Lounge room

Kitchen

Dining Room

Cottage is sold!

I have to be out by Friday 11 March and will be moving here, more photos to come soon.

Roasted Baby Eggplant Halves with Herbs

The inspiration for tonight's dinner came from here with a few changes of my own.

Ingredients fresh from the garden:
Baby eggplants
Rosemary
Thyme
Parsley
Chives
Garlic (dried and stored)
Green Beans

From the store:
Potato
Olive Oil
Salt
Butter

Eggplants hanging on the bush, I purchased a punnet with 4 eggplant seedlings from Foodland. I planted, watered every couple of days and was surprised to find little baby eggplants growing. No pests or diseases and they are planted in a thin layer of good soil with thick clay underneath.

Three baby eggplants for dinner (I'm not sure what size they should be???)

Freshly picked parsley, rosemary, thyme , 3 cloves of garlic, salt and olive oil waiting to be processed in my rocket blender. Only a new purchase and it is going fantastically. Picked up for the bargain price of $30 from Cheap as Chips.

Blended mix

Eggplant with crosses cut into the flesh, not through the skin though

I've spread the herb, garlic, oil mix over and into the eggplant

After being roasted in the oven @ 200 degrees for about 25-30 mins

Freshly picked and steamed green beans, mashed potato with chives and butter and my baby eggplant with herbs.

I was hesitant to taste the eggplant as it doesn't look appealing, but after the first bite I was hooked and ended eating all three little baby eggplants. A few things I noticed was that the skin of the eggplants were quite tough and chewy, but still ok to eat, not sure if that is normal or not. I also would like a little more garlic and the rosemary could be chopped a bit finer. Otherwise I am rather pleased how this turned out. I have only eaten eggplant in a stew, so I am really looking forward to experimenting with my baby eggplants.

Freshly picked cherry tomatoes

I picked these tomatoes last night ready to eat during work today. The tomato bush sprouted out of the soil/compost, it nevers gets water, expect for maybe a few splashes whilst watering the rest of the garden, but it is full of tomatoes. This is the easiest form of gardening!

Garden Update

Peta asked for a few tips on my garden. I am in the very fortunate position of living in an eco-village and when our area was developed the landscaper shipped in the best soil, loam compost mix. I had a huge hole in the front of my cottage, which was filled with 23 tonne of soil, yep that's right. I couldn't believe it myself, neither could he (the landscaper).

So I have learnt that in gardening it is very important to start with a very good soil mix. I have mostly planted bought seedlings, but I did have success with starting zucchini, corn, green beans, one watermelon, one cucumber and one tomato plant from seed (plus one tomato plant grew from nowhere).

I have really surprised myself with how well the garden is going, it has limited pests at the moment and everything is growing so well. During winter I had to weed a lot, but during summer all I do is water every 2 or 3 days, plus check for produce.

Out of my garden I have eaten, spinach, silverbeet, kale, garlic, parsley, rocket, chives, zucchini, green beans, potatoes (grown in pots) and cucumber. I've probably forgotten something.

I started it around February, March 2010 and my only failure would be the carrots I think. I bought round ones as seedlings, but harvested on the weekend and they were about the size of my thumb and tough.

I'm wondering if the limited pests in my garden are because the area is new (e.g. it was a barren construction site for quite a while) or because I have planted marigolds, which are a good companion plant. The main reason could be because there is no order to my garden. It is all growing over each other and I love it. I was looking at my carrots on the weekend and to my surprise and delight I found a watermelon hidden in the carrot tops the size of a soccer ball maybe. It is my largest yet. No idea how long to wait before harvesting?

I am waiting to harvest asparagus (takes 2 years before ready to harvest the spears), eggplant, watermelon and corn. Can't wait to see how these go!

Welcome to "At Home with Kristy"

Thank you to Deb for her suggestion and Peta backing her up :D

This is my special place to share my experiences of growing, cooking, eating and preserving fruit and vegetables. Making my own furnishing and clothes and hopefully encouraging more wildlife into my backyard at the same time.

I will upload a few of my recent photos of my garden soon :)