October Christmas ornament challenge completed......on time!!

Today is Labour day in New Zealand, which means a public holiday for most. Labour Day commemorates the struggle for an eight-hour working day. New Zealand workers were among the first in the world to claim this right when, in 1840, the carpenter Samuel Parnell won an eight-hour day in Wellington.

It was a miserable wet day in Christchurch, so gardening was out. So, I used today to finish my October Christmas decoration and complete 2 items for my Advent swap with Mrs HMM. I'm not quite at the half way mark yet, but I have some ideas. The handmade items are the hardest to decide on. The Internet is a wealth of inspiration.

All ready for Christmas.

I also did some more of my Christmas Garland. I think there are about 26 decorations to make for it along with numerous leaves that need to be embroidered. Oh, well a little bit at a time and I'll get there. 

Hopefully the sun will be out tomorrow and I can get back outside again- everybody will be back at work and school, so I'll have the house to myself. Talk soon  Mrs SFP XX

So much to do and so little time........

Oops, sorry, I realise it's been a while again. Although I'm not sure if anybody reads my humble blog, apart from my dear sister Mrs Hmm. I think she's the only one who gets bored with my lack of posting LOL.

I just wish I had a few extra magic hours in my day. I have several projects on the go at the moment. I've nearly finished this months ornament challenge set by Mrs HMM- just need to do a few wee finishing bits and then I'll post a picture. I had a blitz and sewed up all the other months decorations, so I'm on track there.

September's decoration complete.

Mrs HMM's working on her gorgeous felt teddy bear tree decorations. We meet every Friday for a coffee and a quick craft and she pulled them out to work on. I have a similar project, which I think might be 1-2 years old- a gorgeous felt Christmas garland. It's great crafting with someone else- she inspired me to find this and and pick it up again. (I still have a Mary Englebreit adorable felt house and cute penguin and snowmen felt decorations in the WIP basket- more inspiration please).

Gorgeous Christmas garland.

Gingerbread man is now finished.

I'm trying to talk Mrs HMM into buying and making this garland as well. Some bits look a bit confusing and I think it would be helpful (to me) if she was trying to work it out as well. So that's one ongoing project.

Project number 2 which I can't show you yet is Mrs HMM and my advent present swap. They always sound so much fun on other people's blogs that I thought we should do one between us. Other people always get so carried away and seem to spend so much money. I didn't want to let any body down with my humble offerings. At least with Mrs Hmm being my sister she'll have to like what I give her....... hopefully. Even then there is a certain amount of pressure!! We decided to do it next year as well, but start in January........LOL. I'll post after December 25th.

Project number 3 and probably the one that consumes me at the moment is the garden. I try to spend 1-3 days a week in it, depending on the weather. I think I'm seeing progress- considering I hardly spent any time in it previously, things must be moving along. Here are a few pictures of the garden taken today.

This small piece of bare earth took about 4 hours to weed today!!

Progress in the greenhouse- tomatoes are growing.

White Lady runner beans hardening off- Planted for Mr SFP.

Seedlings planted last week- more planted yesterday.

Potato tyre garden- almost ready for another tyre...just have to find a source and smuggle them onto the section. Mr SFP's not that keen on more rubber in the garden!

Here's my silver beet patch which I planted for Mr SFP- I can't stand the stuff. I picked some and steamed it for tea- he was most appreciative!

Remember Tom the Mega Tom? Well I am amazed to say he is bearing fruit and they are growing by the day. He's still living inside, but it may be time for him to leave the nest very soon.

Can't wait for these to ripen!!

I'll leave you with pictures of my 2 constant gardening companions- Zoe (Queenie) and Spock (son of Zoe). They each have bells on their collars and it's so nice to hear the tinkle and know I have company.

Queen Zoe.

Spock taking his catnip "fix".

Well, I'm off to work on the garland. It's Labour day here in New Zealand tomorrow which is a public holiday.....maybe crafting inside as it's supposed to rain, how sad LOL. Talk soon, Mrs SFP XX

Pretty white Rhododendron.

Having a play with the new camera.

I've been out gardening and having a play with the new camera. Very motivating to do more in the garden so I can take pictures to blog about LOL.

I haven't quite got the knack of sizing my pictures yet. I knew my old camera back to front and what size worked best for the pictures. It's a bit hit and miss at the moment. I might have to appeal to Mrs HMM for a little bit of help. She's a whizz when it comes to this sort of stuff.

My first job yesterday morning was to finish laying the floor in my green house. Trial and error as to how the pavers would fit in most efficiently. I had just enough with 3 left over for a step outside. Not as pretty as Mrs HMM's greenhouse, but it will do the job.

Crazy paving from the crazy gardening lady?

I could then go on to move in an old bench and a new cheapy set of shelves for putting any seedlings and small pots on. Now I just need to be brave and start sowing seeds......

All set to go........

I potted up 6 tomato seedlings in pots that Mrs HMM and I had bought last weekend. I read somewhere that if you add a couple of tablespoons of milk powder under the plants you get a better taste. I had some in the pantry, so I added it. Also recycled fizzy bottles to help with the watering. I'm determind to have tomatoes in good time this year!!

Talking of tomatoes Mega Tom the plant I bought a wee while ago has come ahead. The beauty of having a blog with pictures is that you can see the difference a month can make.

Mega Tom after.

Mega Tom before.

I'll leave you with a pretty picture of one of the Hellebores in our garden- I think from memory it's x sternii.

Have a lovely day in the garden     Mrs SFP XX

Thank you Mrs HMM

Dear Mrs HMM visited yesterday with her lovely camera. I had been dispairing the lack of quality in my blog pictures. This had been putting me off blogging as the pictures looked so blah. She felt sorry for me and did a photo shoot of the back yard. So here is a round up of the last couple of weeks in pictures.

Lettuces by the back door- easy reach salad.

Strawberry plants in the tyre garden- oopos didn't realise there were so many weeds.

Rhubarb fertilised with horse poo.

Broccoli and broad beans getting bigger.

Silverbeet and lettuces under bottle cloches.

Down the garden path with Miss Poppy dog.

The new potager- a work in progress.....just like the whole garden LOL.

My new baby, just waiting for the floor to be finished.

Mr SFP's new project- a car port which I'll pretty up with trellis and plants LOL.

So, thank you Mrs HMM. Your pictures so inspired me, that I decided I needed to upgrade my poor little camera. To that end dear Mr SFP arrived home this evening with a brand new camera!! I was so excited. You'll definitely see more of me from now on.....no excuses.....just do it!!

TTFN Mrs SFP XXX

Fabulous gardening weather!

Saturday

We've been very spoilt over the weekend, including today with the weather in Christchurch. Temperatures have been in the 20's celcius with clear blue skies. So, what do you do if you're a gardener.......embrace the day!!

My latest project (one of, um about 40) is one of our small lawns which leads off a brick path and is edged in bricks. Since the tree felling it's had green rubbish dumped on it which has killed some of it (not the dandelions unfortunately). It's shaped in a circle and was lawn edged by perennials. I've been tossing up between raised beds, or taking advantage of the bricks already there and making a potager garden. I think I'm leaning towards the potager idea. I have some bricks and this will be a cheaper option as this is not our "forever house". Our older house is not one we want to retire in as it is higher maintenance being wood and nearly 100 years old. You need to be a grown up and remember you're getting older and need to make sensible decisions. The section and location are perfect, just not the house.......

Future Potager garden.

I spent the afternoon clearing the accumulation of branches- chopping for firewood and munching the smaller stuff in my handy dandy home garden muncher (best thing I ever bought). Dear Mr SFP dragged the huge stumps to the other lawn with the mountains of dirt and munchings......but that's another story. I'm trying to ignore that lawn at the moment as it's part of the "big picture".

Sunday

Another glorious day, even better than yesterday saw me back out in the garden after Church. Today I started weeding the lawn, which was limited by where I could put the weeds, as once again my bin was full. I must have dug at least 50 dandelions out and there are still so many more to go, as well as twitch and clover. Mr SFP chopped down a tree on the back fence line which will let more light in. Still a couple more to be removed. The only thing is once you've chopped it down it takes a lot of work to make it disappear! Oh for a magic wand or a twitch of the nose, like in the old tv programme Bewitched.

New potager from a different angle.

New potager looking back the other way.

Still many more hours of back breaking work methinks. I've definitely earned my bath tonight LOL.

Monday

This morning I spent a lovely couple of hours with Mrs HMM. Had a wander around her garden which is coming along and a coffee with her. It's so good to have a fellow gardener as a sister and a friend. We then popped out to a local landscaping yard and I got 3 bags of crusher dust. This will hopefully fix the wonky floor in my greenhouse. Just have to work out how to get it a wee bit more level.......help!

When I got back I decided I needed to get my strawberry plants planted. I had some from last year which I'd lifted and some I won in an auction online. I'd had to nurse them back to health as the lovely lady who sent them posted 20 strawberry plants in a bit of wet newspaper in a plastic bag. They were held up when we were snowed in a couple of months ago and arrived crushed and dejected. 

Strawberry plants being nursed back to health.

I decided to grow them in the same spot as last year which will be sunnier now with the removal of a tree. I've grown them in tyres, which I've found works well. Each tyre had to be weeded and I added horse poo and more compost from the bin. I "planted" a fizzy bottle in the middle of each to act as a supplementary watering source. After the damage to our water supply following the earthquakes in Christchurch we were on watering restrictions last Summer. Added 5 plants to each tyre, which if they all survive will give me 35 plants. Mulched with pea straw and watered in.

Strawberries After.

I had my first harvest from the garden- 3 stalks of rhubarb, which I had trimmed away from another plant and potatoes hiding at the bottom of the compost bin. Master and Mr SFP said the potatoes were delicious!

First harvest of the season.

Well it's off to bed, hopefully it will be another nice day tomorrow and we gardeners are early risers  Mrs SFP XXX

 

Weekend round up.

Saturday 

I was up bright and early and at the supermarket at 7.00am!! I wanted to get my shopping done as we had a small load of pavers to collect at 9.00am. These are for the floor of the greenhouse. Shifted them down the back in the wheelbarrow and layed them down- just to see how far they will cover. Not quite as many as I thought there would be, but probably enough to suit my purpose. I relocated a "table" from our wee shed which will be perfect for potting up on. I need to get a shelf system to house my trays of seeds once they are sown. However before I do all this I need to get some sand to put under the pavers as they are a little uneven and wobbly. I guess I'm a typical woman and want everything done yesterday- things just can't happen fast enough!! 

I did more weeding in our back flower garden and filled my big green bin. Frustrating as this won't be collected until Tuesday morning. I'm trying to just have tunnel vision at the moment and focus on one area at a time. If I looked at everything that had to be done I'd get very disheartened. I've gone from spending one day a week in the garden to up to 4 days a week depending on the weather. That must make a difference at some stage........surely?

Sunday 

I was out weeding again and filling buckets with weeds. My bin will be half full before I start again on Tuesday. My aim was to get the plants I bought last weekend with Mrs HMM in the pouring rain planted. Goal achieved and ticked off.  

Dining room garden planted and mulched.

I've planted a daphne, white penstemon, lavender, scabiosa and butterfly plant. Plus 2 other penstemons which I had potted up as freebies from around here. I now really appreciate "free" plants. Final straw (sorry) was mulching with pea straw. This had been out in the rain and was literally smoking when I laid it down. Just need to finish the other end of the garden now. Unfortunately I broke my big fork inherited from my dear Dad. Ended up on my bottom in the garden calling out to Mr SFP much to his amusement.

Haven't had much time for cross stitch this month, but I managed to get July's project stitched and started on one for August. Mrs HMM will be pleased. I don't want to let her down.

July Christmas cross stitch project.

Monday 

Today was cold and wet so I did a few errands, including a stop at the local plant nursery and went on to visit Mum. She lives in a lovely sheltered valley which doesn't get many frosts and her garden is always so inspiring. We had a cuppa and then headed out to inspect the garden in the misty rain. Mum is so generous with her gifts from the garden- came home with a bag of lemons and tamarillos (you don't usually see a tamarillo tree growing in Christchurch because of the frosts), a gorgeous white hellebore, purple and violet violets, a rasperrby hydrangea and a little fuschia which was from my childhood home. Gardening has always been a part of her life, I'm sure my love of gardening has been inherited from both my green fingered parents. I want to add to that love and become more self sufficient. I remember our vegie garden growing up. Dad's pride and joy that would feed a family of five, sometimes from necessity. I also have fond memories of our back yard chooks and collecting fresh eggs. All done on a quarter acre patch. In those days everyone had a vegie garden and I want to get back to that philosophy with my garden.

Brought my plants home and admired them in the rain from behind the window.

Lovely gifts from Mum's garden- in the rain.

Tuesday 

Today has turned out to be a glorious sunny day- one out of the bag. I started the day in front of the computer screen, but felt the garden calling me........and I had to obey.

Our garden is quite big (for one gardener) and I have been concentrating on the back, getting ready for vegie production. Today I felt the front needed me to at least make a start on it, so I did. Brought the big bin in from the curb after just being emptied and managed to fill it up again. Hopefully the more I weed the less will have to go in the bin. I compost lots, but still have lots to go in the bin. I'll take some pictures tomorrow if it's not raining, which it is supposed to be doing again. I realised that as I blog tonight I really need to take pictures as I go.

I also got some of the plants I bought yesterday planted. I'm trying to be good and plant as I buy. I have a VERY bad track record of buying and not planting. New motto "just do it!!" is very good for combatting this.

Blackberry plant and pansies.

 Blackberry is now in down the back and pansies will be in the new dining room garden soon.

Tom the Supertom.

Tom the Supertom has now been potted up and will live inside with us for a while. I am determined to get a jump start on tomatoes this year, so Tom is part of my cunning plan. I added milk powder when I potted him up which is supposed to improve the flavour I think? 

Phew, busy couple of days in the garden, but very rewarding. I'm off to have a bath and rest my weary bones. I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of our beautiful big boy Mr Spock, alias Spocky do da. He always seems to know how to relax! TTFN Mrs SFP XX

 

Edible City The Movie- very inspiring!

When I visited Gavin's blog (The Greening of Gavin) he had a very inspiring clip from You Tube on the Edible City. Being a computer novice I hope I've managed to upload the trailer for you from You Tube..... we shall see. If you want to be inspired go and visit Gavin's blog- see side bar and view the movie in its entirity. Well worth it.

Makes you wonder how to get more involved in your community, gardening and your own food production. The film makes lots of very valid points and is about taking care of everyone in the community. 

I think I will make enquiries about volunteering at our local community garden.

I'll leave you with this "food for thought"- Mrs SFP XXX