Shoveling Shit

The chook run has about a 10centimetre layer of the most wonderful black fertile, poo-enriched soil, so with the hope of growing the best asparagus and potatoes in the world, today's task has been to start digging it out and putting it into "raised beds" (the old compost bins I'm moving from beside the shed). It seems to go a long way, and the rhubarb that's already planted in it is doing fantastically well. We'll see how the spuds (or potentially, beans) do.

Pumpkin Time!

The pumpkin and zucchini seeds were sown in paper pots less than a week ago. DS wrote some lovely misspelt labels - I think somehow it adds to the charm of the whole operation.
The tomatoes have taken a little longer (they were started on the bathroom windowsill), and I don't know whether they'll actually give us any tomatoes before the season's out.
We've invested in a heating mat from Nuklear Products, which has worked wonders! I leave the adjustments of the growing rig up to Dear Husband, and things seem to just sprout!
Now I've made some space on top of the heating mat, time to go through the seed collection and decide what's next!

Pom Pom Pom!

We revisited a childhood favourite with the kids today - a great way to waste an afternoon!

Warm Cabled Beanie

OMG this beanie is sooooo warm! I found the awesome pattern on The Loop Craft Cafe and adapted it to have a ribbed fold edge. I'm getting jealous of the things I'm posting off, better make myself something soon :)

This can be re-made for sale in any colour for the following prices excluding postage: $15 NZD, $10 USD or £6 GBP

Herb Garden Eye Candy

We've decided to plant our front lawn up as a herb garden. So as we are finishing the plans for the vegetable garden out back and planning in the time to complete it we are now looking to the Herb Garden. I've found a few cool websites along the way:

Our Red House - this lady takes amazing photos! She blogs about family life, cooking and gardening and the post that drew me to her was 'Herbs and Herb Gardening'

The Gardens of a Golden Afternoon blog just left me drooling. This is what I want for the path from my gate to my front door:

And you must see these 2 posts on treehouses: Part 1 & Part 2.

There are a few Herb Garden Designs in a nifty book I bought for just $2 at my local library - The Herb Garden Displayed by Gilian Painter & Elaine Power. Written in my birth year no less! The book has a basic, easy introduction followed by a very large section of plant descriptions. And the best bit is...its written for New Zealand...yippee!

I also bagged Flower Works by Hilary Walden for $2 - what a find! No planting guide with this one but I think the latter has that area covered. This book gives a quick look at how flowers can be brought into the home as food, drinks, cosmetics, medicine, gifts and much more. Lots of great recipes!

Our plan is to ... um ... get a plan. We know we want something structured but are torn between the formal and wild looks. There will definitely be a sundial in there :) As I'm looking for useful plants rather than pretty I guess we can have both as Rosemary and Lavendar are great for formal hedges.

We plan to fashion our back porch somewhat like a bigger version of this:

I would like an area like this somewhere round the back of the house - with a mirror on the door for added effect :)

Now there's an idea for a playhouse, but how to build it to look like stone and stop it crushing Chrissy in an earthquake? hmmmm

July Gardening

Wooohooo, I've just planted: garlic, peas, beans, onions, swedes, cabbage, cauli, broccoli and more spinach. It's been a long weekend in the garden for our family and my good friend Sally helped me on Friday too creating the garlic bed and giving me lots of free canes - sweet!

Basically, the bald turf bed...


turned into a full plot of vegetable promise...


It's taken heaps of planning and although I'm still not 100% sure it'll work, it sure has been fun :D The 4 plots will be rotated somehow and next time round they'll get fertiliser as this time we just don't have the money. Yes horse manure is free but we'd prefer not to use it.

Last night I made 2 great internet garden finds:
http://www.gardengrow.co.nz/ - tells you what to plant when given 3 climate zones of New Zealand

http://www.thekitchengarden.co.nz/ - an inspirational gardener in Wellington who sells her produce and provides real yummy recipes and courses in gardening

Now I need to plan for August in the garden and sow some cabbage, cauli, broccoli, shallots and onions. mmmmmmm yummo!

Rainbow Chain Blanket Free Pattern

I haven't got much to say right now as I'm knitting like crazy and planning a garden so here, have a free pattern off the internet - the Rainbow Chain Blanket - but remember...it's copyright for personal use only ;o)

Rainbow Jumper in the Making

I've been swatching like mad to get the feel of this new acrylic wool bought from TradeMe (thank you Kiwicat63!) and make it chunky for my friends requested jumper. I've really enjoyed it! Knitting in 1 strand of 8 ply (DK) then 2, 3 and 4 strands of it using different needles and variegating stripe styles. I know my friend only really wanted a random striped sweater just like the one Mick Aston from Time Team wears -------------------------------------------->
but I couldn't help myself, I had to play!

It's also taught me the wpi (wraps per inch) of each thickness and how the scale of stitches x rows pans out. All in all its been fun and I'm now ready to start my new project of a home-style, Mick Aston Jumper with a roll crew neck and drop sleeves...watch this space!

After this I still have a child's fluffy, striped coat, socks, fairy dog, legwarmers and shawl to complete :)

Knitted Fruit/Veggie Bags

Surprisingly, these net shopping bags didn't take too long to knit up. Well, after I stopped trying to knit it exactly to instructions with only 3 double pointed knitting needles, I've never done that before you see and so didn't know that it's common knowledge that you use the forth to then actually knit. You can imagine me sitting there knitting one lot onto another pointed needle that already has stitches on it and wondering why it's now all straight and un-knitable :) I knitted this bag flat on 2 lovely normal needles and then all I had to do was sew up the join. It was after this that a friend told me (through much laughter) how you must use a forth needle, even if the pattern doesn't mention in. I did try to use the forth needle but my brain sorta collapsed as it tried to fathom the reality of using it.

Something for another day me thinks

Knitted Balaclava

Just for Helen and her recent post about how cold it is here in New Zealand right now, I've found this free balaclava pattern - I think its pretty nifty. Keeps your nose warm too!! I might make myself one for when I'm standing at the stall selling my knitting :D