Winter Hope

It's that time of year. Slightly longer days. More sunshine. A little bit warmer. Spring gardening inspiration is bubbling away. The kids and I have started weeding a couple of the garden beds we have here.

Hubby's pruned A5's little apple tree and I've popped some new herbs around the base. M10 is planning her own mini-medieval style herb garden too.

I've started to sort through our "seed bank" and peruse catalogues. I missed planting the seeds by the moon calendar this month but we'll forge ahead.

I bought some seedlings for a bit of instant satisfaction.

We've put in a bit of prettiness at the front of the house. Allysum, lobelia, geranium, chamomile and lavender are there to keep the bees and Mummy happy too.

We've prepped our small plot at the Community Garden on our street. We discovered wee strawberry plants dotted around so we've popped them together so they're easier to protect from the birds. Some calendula has gone in there too. We still have our two larger allotment plots, and are deciding what to put in them.

So what's happening at your place?

Our Play Garden in Winter

Our little play garden has pretty much been lying fallow over winter. We'd meant to put a green compost crop in but time rolled on and it hasn't happened yet.

The rhubarb is doing well. It's in the first year so we haven't been able to harvest any yet.

We transplanted some of last seasons strawberries and have put another ten crowns in the same bed - all snuggled under a layer of peastraw as winter hasn't finished with us yet.

We're probably a bit late with our garlic but we always think it's worth a crack trying new things. We put some shallots in as well.

Hubby built me a weeny poly house for my seedlings out of bits and pieces we have lying around. He'll pop a shelf or two in there next.

In the meantime I've started my spring seedlings: broad beans, roquefort beans, sugar snap peas, purple broccoli, rainbow beets, spinach, thyme, sage, borage and allysum. I'd like to try capsicum and chilli in the "hot house" as we've never had any luck with them here.

We're going to put a quick mustard crop in the community allotment, then "The Three Sisters" - corn, beans and squash. The whole venture is a great learning curve about soil quality, crop rotation and what our local seasons support.

Harvest

We spent a productive couple of hours up at the community gardens yesterday, meeting other participants, sharing information and harvesting almost the last of our Maori spuds. We've both been ridiculously and naively astounded at our awesome rate of return from a few measly kilos of seed spuds. That's what I call a good investment.

Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is

We're challenged by Sharon Astyk's list of "Things you can do to get ready for Peak Oil, Climate Change and Difficult Times" in her Depletion and Abundance.

Firstly, we're trying to feel encouraged about the things that we are already doing. Here are a random selection of some of them that have been very achievable for our family, so maybe yours too:
* Plant a garden and grow some of your own food.
* Start walking and biking more.
* Start baking your own bread.
* Start a compost pile outdoors.
* If you don't have a lot of space but are trying to grow much of your own food, grow root crops like potatoes.
* Encourage your religious community to reconnect with the agrarian roots of your faith.
* Learn to preserve food.
* Teach kids how to ride a bike and about basic bike safety.
* Put up a clothesline! (Actually I consider it a patriotic duty for New Zealanders to do this!)
* Buy a hand-pushed lawn mower.
* Have you considered homeschooling? Why yes, Sharon, we have!
* Brew your own beer.
* Learn a skill that can be done in very low light conditions. Knitting, crocheting;-)
* Now is the time to convince your business, school, church, mosque, synagogue to add a garden on that empty lawn.

And our exciting new one!
* Join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) if you don't garden, and learn to enjoy the bounty of a seasonal diet.

We are anticipating our first delivery on Thursday from the Simply Good Food CSA that we just joined. It feels right to "invest" in an alternative positive venture in these times of instability in the traditional financial sector. We know we are unable to grow ALL our own food in our small suburban back yard and our allotment at our community garden so this is another step towards food security.

Yet More!

It was the beret pattern that prompted me to buy 101 One Skein Wonders and I finally got around to knitting it this week in The Wool Company Possum Merino Double Knit. Cozy and for me! (Should have blocked it.)

The Indian Summer is over. A southerly swept up the valley this morning so on went our first fire.

And in Good Life news...we have an allotment!! Husband and Eldest went to our community garden meeting this morning. The lupin is about 20cm high and will be dug in in July. It sounds like there's a really interesting group of people involved who all have different gardening methods. Husband was most intrigued with an older German gentleman who seems to know a LOT about gardening and chickens (Chickens! Imagine having chickens up at church! Now that would be cool.)...we're hoping to learn heaps from him. Our current plan is to put a crop of potatoes in our allotment to break up the soil.

Ok...off to find a pair of woolly socks and decide what to cast on next.