Living in the outernet

Here is Hanno bent over planting seeds and seedlings in the late afternoon sun.

Not only is March the best time of year for me with the weather, it's also when we see the re-emergence of our beautiful vegetable and herb garden. We're both looking forward to a good growing season this year and hope to have an abundance of fresh organic food to eat and share. We are committed soil gardeners, we don't like no-dig gardening. We look after our soil, dig it over and it produces vegetables that contain minerals from the earth as well as all the vitamins we need. The heavy work of weeding, turning over and soil enrichment happens here at the beginning of every growing season, and Hanno breaks that hard work up into smaller chunks that he can manage. Many of the vegetables are thriving already and some are big enough to pick.

Hanno planted 36 Glen Large garlic cloves yesterday - they're suited to warmer climates, so hopefully they'll do well here. Last year's garlic crop rotted away in the rain. He's also planted bok choi, sugarloaf cabbage, cauliflower, beans, tomatoes, lots of curly kale, pickling onions, shallots, leaks, beetroot. lettuce, silverbeet (chard) and zucchinis.  There's still a lot to go in but this is a very good start. Next step - root vegetable seeds. We have carrots, turnips, radishes and daikon to be sown.

I have a selection of flowers too. I've planted sweet peas in a big pot and have Queen Anne's Lace to attract bees and other beneficial insects to the garden and at some point through the season, I'll probably add calendulas, alyssum and maybe some borage, if I can find some seeds. We already have a number of culinary herbs growing - parsley, sage, basil, thyme and lemon basil and of course, the ever present chilli bush is still producing more than enough medium-hot chillies. We have three ginger sprouts to plant too.

In the foreground, on the left, is the bench we sit on under our elder tree. Finally, after those five weeks of rain, the ground has dried out a bit and the elder is flowering.

This patch of lettuce, bok choi, silverbeet and cucumbers was planted on 14 February. You can read that post here.   Almost six weeks later, most of it is ready for the table.

This is Giuseppe, the guardian of the garden when no one is around. He is the recycled top of a Villaroy and Boch jar. My friend Kathleen was going to throw him out because he had a chip in his hat. As we all know, I have no requirement for perfection and therefore Giuseppe sits in our garden, with his hands full of carrots, watching when we can't.

This year we decided to let strawberries grow as under-storey plants around the vegetables. Hanno put the container next to the garden, the runners are self-rooting in the garden and when they do, he snips them off.

 The dark, bare area in this first garden is our garlic patch.

Hanno will be making comfrey fertiliser soon so we won't have to buy nitrogen fertiliser for the green leafy vegies. We'll probably put some on the compost too as comfrey will accelerate the decomposition there. It's a very helpful and versatile herb. If you can get some root cuttings, grab them and plant them close to your compost heap. A lot of people think comfrey runs like bamboo. It doesn't, but you have to be sure of where you plant it. If you dig it out, even the slightest piece of root will allow it to regrow in that spot.

There is no doubt about it. Having a garden to spend time in and being able to grow food and keep chickens helps me find balance in my life, especially when I'm busy writing and out working. It's even more important then. Walking out there into the fresh cool air makes me relax and I know that right here, right now is all I care about.  Life here is simple and apart from our clothes, the scene in our backyard on almost any day resembles scenes from hundreds of years past. We are just two people providing for ourselves. And sitting there under the elder tree - and I think everyone over 60 should have an elder tree - I'm calm, thoughtful and slow. There isn't much I want in life but I would like to put in a request to stay here, tending vegies and collecting eggs until I drop. I know I'll go out with a smile on my face. This is the outernet at its best.