As I sit here pondering over what to write, I started thinking about my first ever post on here many many years ago. So much has changed in our lives since that first post - perhaps 7 years ago. The boys have certainly grown from the two little lads that use to dig holes in my lawn with their trucks, and many things in society have changed. But one constant that remains, has been my love of our gardens.
Over the past few years as we have faced challenges with being stuck at home, the garden has become our sanctuary; our escape; and a necessary part of day-to-day living. We may have been absent on here for a few years, but we have certainly continued to garden, and expand on our knowledge.
Like many others, having a garden and providing for our family has changed from a hobby to becoming more of a need. It become a way of ensuring that there was always something we could make a meal out of, and a way of keeping costs down as prices increase everywhere. Admittedly, over the course of the past few years, we have changed what we grow, as we looked at ways to maximise production using the space we have; and looked at what we needed more of. Most of this was achieved by moving structures around, and a bit more forward planning.
To give you a sense of what we are all about - we live on traditional urban quarter acre section complete with our own chooks. Both my husband and I work full-time, so what we have, has been built around being as low maintenance as we possibly can.
The layout of the house and other features allows us to maximise growing areas without affecting play areas for our two boys (almost 10 and 12 now). To date, we have equivalent to approximately 24 square metres of veggie gardens (made up of numerous raised beds and planter boxes); 10 fruit trees; a dozen vines; half a dozen blueberry bushes; and numerous pineapples scattered around the place (the prickly red pineapple variety).
Currently, most of the gardens are a mixture of empty spaces; produce that was planted earlier (peas; broad beans; onions; garlic); and spent/flowering brassicas. The next few weeks are going to be filled with gardening chores as we start sowing seeds; prepping beds; mulching areas and tidying up areas.
All that being said, I just need the roofer to finish up; the scaffolding to be removed so I can access areas properly; and most importantly, the rain to stop.
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Date:01 Sep 2022
Blog Type:Vegetables, Flowers
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