Hello everyone. I'm so pleased, and a bit surprised, that so many people have flooded back in here. I've had over 47,000 visitors since Sunday. It's lovely to be here with you again.
This is where I sit to think about life and plan changes in the garden.
Like most of you, I'm suffering with the higher cost of living now. Hanno and I had a good nest egg to fall back on if we needed anything out of the ordinary, however, that has shrunk a lot in the past year. At my age it's very difficult to earn money but I want to do a set of online Zoom workshops to help get me back on track. They will cost $50 each (I want to keep them as cheap as I can) and we'll have 10 people in each 90 minute session. There'll be plenty of time to ask questions and discuss your own circumstances. If you would like to take one of the workshops, I'd like you to comment on what topic/s you'd like to talk about and what days and times you're available. Please note, I can't do workshops in the evening because I'm too tired and you wouldn't get your money's worth. I can do weekends though. So let me know as soon as you can. If no one comments, I'll start with Gardening for beginners and Cutting costs in the home. I'd like to do other topics as well such as Pruning, Watering, Mulching and Compost, Keeping chickens, Seed saving and heirloom seeds, Living alone, Baking, Cooking from scratch, Making laundry liquid/powder and other simple cleaners, Ageing and Living well through each decade. I'm sure there'll be more topics - I have so much I'd like to share with you.
The photos above and below are gardens Hanno and I tended together.
So far this week I've been organising my garden. It hasn't been a good gardening year here because of the humidity. The monsoonal trough up north has been very active and it's cause high humidity and with that comes lots of chewing and sucking insects. I had some bugs here that were chewing through rose buds and the tops of radishes, and there has been a lot of powdery mildew. So I gave up on the weekend - normally I'd start winding down from summer and cleaning up and pruning in early March but I started a month early. I've almost finished the rose pruning and I'm topping up the pots with potting soil and straw mulch this afternoon. Going into autumn there'll be an organised wild garden just growing a few of the vegetables I always eat.
My home care plan has agreed to rebuild the roof of my bush house which I'm delighted with. I'm buying the materials. The floor, walls and shelves are all still in fine form, they were all built by Hanno. 😊 However, over the years I've had three roof repairs and replacement of shade cloth. That's where the problem lies now. The repairs were disorganised and casual and I've been lucky not to have been clonked on the head by falling timbers. When that's set up properly again, they'll be no stopping me.
In the meantime, over the weekend, I'll be planting six borage seeds, two Lebanese zucchini seeds, Long White Icicle radish, lettuce, a mix of miniature heirloom tomatoes, Lebanese cucumber and Rainbow Chard. These are the vegetables I use frequently and it cuts costs if I buy good seeds and grow them myself. I have enough seeds in most of the packs to do multiple plantings.
I try to sound very relaxed about the garden but the truth is I'm obsessed. I love gardening and it's the one task I do every day. But I see that as a good thing because I need to keep moving at my age. I'm not going to spend time on the computer or watch TV when there is fulfilling work to be done in the garden. I reckon not looking at life through a screen of some kind, being outside and getting my hands dirty, is a good way to live.
🌿 🌾 🪴
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