The Garden

Life is slowly entering my garden. Yesterday, a willy wag tail hopped and bobbed around as they do. Today, a butterfly flitted in and out of the geisha flowers.  It makes me happy.  Seeing butterflies and birds makes me realise how disconnected from nature and the cycle of the seasons I have become since J leaving and me moving to this little block.  I've had a bird bath in the garden since I moved here two years ago and it's only now that I am beginning to see birds.

I built a raised garden bed in the back yard a few weeks ago and filled it lasagne style with layers of cane mulch, compost, and manure.  I let it sit for just over two weeks to start to compost down into soil and it sat happily in the long rainy days since then.  This morning I went for a quick trip to Bunnings and picked up some seedlings to plant.  I came home with strawberries, chives, dill, thyme, capsicum, zucchini, mini snow peas, baby roma tomatoes, kale, rocket, lettuce and a pentas plant for the butterflies.  While Sophie sat inside in the airconditioning refusing to leave the house, I went out and planted up the garden.  I've crowd planted it to maximise space and to reduce weeds - not that weeds should be a problem in this style of garden.  I have a few more seedlings to plant into pots around the side of the house but it is too hot there at this time of day so that is a job for later.  Hopefully I get a good yield.  The garden is such a happy place.

 

 My raised garden.  A Birdies brand from Bunnings which was easy for me to put together by myself.

Dwarf snow peas with a cheap climbing frame from Bargain Max.

I've planted two varieties of strawberries. They make me think of my childhood on the farm.  I earned my first ever pay packet picking strawberries, a round fifty cent piece and a small perfume bottle.  No doubt I ate more that went into my tray.

My basil it going great guns after the recent rain and here is the pentas I purchased for the butterflies. I'll transplant it into a larger pot and nestle it in the garden bed.