Freshly sown lawn seed, with the hope it grows into a lush lawn

The start of the junk removed from the moonscape (future orchard), hopefully I can reuse some of it

Moonscape before the weed pulling, rubbish collecting etc

Moonscape after 4-5 hrs over the weekend

Can you see any difference?

I think I'm going to start spraying the little stuff now, and try and pull out more of the marshmallow. No idea what I'm going to do with the rain water tank. Once the area is free of weeds and rubbish, I'll put out the call for free clean fill to fill up my moonscape...

First lot of natives go in today!

Starting construction for my veggie garden

Herb garden kindly planted for me :)

Little tubestock native, hiding between the blue flower bush and the white flower bush

Three large native shrubs planted here (hard to see), but hopefully will start to screen the fence

A prickly bush for the birds to hide in, away from predators, a couple of ground covers and another large shurb.

Tiny little ground cover next to the white tag.

I'm really looking forward to taking progress photos in a month or three to see the progress of my natives. Hopefully they all survive! Great day for planting with it raining whilst planting and still raining now...

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!