Weed Control

Hurray! Great news! One of my raised beds is ready! Or at least ready in the sense that construction is complete. It needs a bit more work before I can grow anything. 

The first task is to kill off the evil kikuyu grass which currently occupies the bed (see bottom right photo). Having read on the internet that smothering can be quite successful, my weapon of choice is old underlay saved from our renovations. I laid it out and pegged it down with tent pegs, narrowly avoiding the white tail that was clinging to the underlay. 

Now we just have to wait and work out where we're going to get 12 cubic metres of good, weed free soil from.

Sacrifice

I had a very sad task this morning - stripping off the unripe apples from our tree. I should have done it sooner - one branch had already broken. I was very disappointed as the ripe apples were so tasty last year but it has been a very squally summer and I felt sure that more branches would break if I didn't take this step. 

I then had fun throwing all the apples into the long grass so that pests aren't encouraged to hang around the tree. I'm sure the possums will be delighted until they realise that the fruit isn't quite ready for consumption yet. 

Sun and shade

When it hasn't been raining, it's been scorching hot here. The rabbits and the chickens sunbathe for a bit and then tuck themselves into the shade to recover, a bit like us.

Remember this?

Does this play kitchen look familiar to you at all? 

Yep - that's right! It's the old vanity unit from the original bathroom suite that's found a new lease of life after being ripped out during our renovations. It makes a pretty fine kitchen, doesn't it? 

Red Herring

I was excited to see this wild strawberry trailing down our retaining wall, close to the house. I was rather disappointed to discover that it is not a Wild Strawberry but rather a Mock Strawberry or Indian Strawberry with edible but tasteless fruit and a noxious weed. Oh well...

Grass Seed

The heavy rain has helped the grass grow and I've been astounded by how many different types of grass have grown and gone to seed along the fringes of the lawn. I counted at least seven different types along six feet of lawn - plus some chives which must have escaped from a long-disappeared herb garden.

Happy New Year!

2012 brought some homegrown fruit, lots of baking, some interesting nature finds, home comforts, my first cheese-making attempt, exotic visitors, new arrivals, several big machines and a homemade Christmas.

What will 2013 bring? Who knows?!