Casual Bushland Walk

I'm fortunate that a trail has been created in bushland 2 minutes drive from home. Winter has slowed or made my exercise non-existent, so today with the sun shining, Neddie and I went for a stroll, trying to take notice of the little details through the lens of my camera.

This weed looks pretty up close

Pine cone laying on the ground

Beautiful green paths, that turn red and sandy in summer

Fencing up close.

Pretty patterns on a fallen tree trunk

My little dog Neddie enjoying the fresh air, the smells and the bounding kangaroos.

I  do love this old rusty sign

Homemade Pizza

I've discovered the easiest pizza base recipe.

1.5 cups of self-raising flour
1 cup plain greek yoghurt

That is it!

Mix in a bowl, turn onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes.

The recipe is from here

The first time I made this recipe I found the base too thick, so the second time I made it, I halved the recipe and it made a delicious thin base. Definitely recommend.

I bought a super duper round pizza tray with holes in it, only to discover that it won't fit in my oven. Thankfully turning the oven up as high as it goes and rotating the pizza works.

Tomato paste, roast chicken, baby spinach leaves, fresh tomato and cheese.

Animals thought my pizza smelt good too!

The second time I made it I used tomato paste, fresh tomato, baby spinach leaves and cheese.

Delicious!

Signs that Spring is on the Way

Walking around the garden amongst the weeds, very healthy weeds, I see signs that spring is on the way. Spring is my favourite season of the year.

I planted 200 bulbs. A lucky dip mixture I bought from Online Garden Express for a good price. It is exciting to see the bulbs starting to shoot. I am excited to see a garden bed full of flowers, hopefully.

...and another bulb shooting up from the ground.

...and another! 

The random selection of bulbs I was posted.

Small amounts of winter colour in the garden

The honeyeaters love this tree

Beautiful flower colour

I love the golden wattle colour in winter

A little green bud appearing on my apple tree

Stinging nettles growing where the chook coop used to be.

One of my girls

The first sign of green on the almond tree

The ducks and chooks always enjoy the weeds.

My Gardenate app advised me my rocket was ready to harvest today. I don't see any rocket here. The snow peas are doing well, but the seed mat I laid down hadn't done very well yet.

I was surprised to discover that my garlic has started to develop green shoots, even with the ducks digging big holes with their beaks. 

The sack of potatoes seems to dry out a lot, so not very hopeful that this will work. 

Pottering in the Garden

It was freezing cold, with rain on and off all day, but it was great to be out in the garden again.

I am starting to feel inspired once again. I am excited to try growing my own herbs, vegetables, and fruit. I have 9 fruit trees that are about 8 years old. I am hoping to give them a lot of love this summer and see if they will give me fruit. Water and protection from the birds seems to be the secret, I'm guessing. Although our summers can be so hot that it burns the trees.

Some photos from pottering in the garden today.

Testing out a seed mat. Lazy gardening.

All the seeds are spaced out and labeled. I had to cut the beetroot and broccoli off the main sheet, as they wouldn't fit in the pot

Beetroot and broccoli being planted

Created a raised garden bed, filling it with soil from around it. It looks a nice dark colour from all the scraps that have composted, eaten, dug into the ground by the chooks. Planning to plant tomatoes, cucumbers in spring.

Chooks will get it ready for me to plant in

I love watching my chooks scratching in the garden, but once my seedlings are planted, the chooks will need to be kept out

My girls

Feeding my girls some scraps

I bought 4 bulbs of garlic from the fruit n veg shop for about $12, which worked out to be almost 40 cloves of garlic to plant out. 

My little family of chooks and ducks

Garlic ready to be planted

Garlic planted

Chooks spreading out the pea straw for me

Hoping the metal frame will stop the chooks digging up the garlic and spreading the pea straw everywhere. Bit of an experiment.

Another experiment. I have read about growing potatoes in a bag. The potatoes are put in the bottom, a little soil added on top, then as the potatoes grow you add more soil on the top until finally, the bag is full of soil and hopefully also potatoes. 

Bag folded down ready for soil

Soil and potatoes added

Potatoes ready to grow

Jasper enjoys following me in the garden

I purchased this app many years ago, called Gardenate. It looks like it has been updated since I last used it. I like that I can add when I plant things and it tells me when they should be ready to harvest. It also has advice and when things can be planted.