The vegetable garden...

Beans, lettuce, strawberries and mint... yummy!

How things are growing with the recent rain! The cucumber plants have doubled in size, seeds are awakening and showing there first leaves. There is 3 reasons I grow our food.
1 the cost is so much cheaper
2 it is better for us and the enviroment
3 I am happiest in the garden!

I was thrilled to walk out to the car this morning and see the corn tips peeking out of the mulch. Last year I tried corn and it ended up a dismay display of tiny cobs and little to no kernals. Why you ask? Irregualr watering and possibly poor pollination.
I am growing alot more in containers this year as I can not dig up much more yard. I have quickly discovered chooks love sytrofoam! That is why in the picture the boxes are covered up, it seems to deter them.

In these boxes I have tomatoes, sunflowers and more tomatoes growing. The green box in the middle is the carrot box. It is a hydroponic method of growing carrots.

It is concerning how expensive fruit and vegetables are becoming. I was reading an article recently that 50 years ago most families grew their own food. If you did not, you went without as most families couldn't afford the high prices. Now backyards are so tiny that this would be impossible for most families to do, with the increasing cost to food! I wonder how they will cope if the drought continues?

I am currently harvesting - mulberries, lettuce, mint, cos lettuce, broccoli (still!), chives, strawberries, silverbeet AND Eggs!!!

Currently growing - brown bush beans, princess climbing beans, golden corn, pumpkins, zuchinni, cucumbers, tomatoes, potatoes, chickpeas, capsicums, chilli's, red and green lettuce, carrots and peacharines (cross between a peach & nectarine)

Now I am sure I forgotten afew things but that is a good start. Most of winter went to preparing the garden for summer plantings, filling tanks and finding containers. So we are having to buy most of our vege and fruit at the moment. What are you growing?

Have a wonderful afternoon.....

And the rain came down....

Such wonderful wonderful rain fell from the skies Thursday night.

The earth in the gardens was beginning to feel bone dry and the plants were beginning to wilt regardless of how much water we poured onto them.

We recieved 24mm in about 5hours which for Toowoomba is pretty good. At the end of last summer it went for 40 days with no rain. At the time I only had a 500L tank. It was empty so I had to use the kids bath water to water the vegies, luckily they don't ge very dirty. (Please note you should not use greywater in the vegetable garden. Especially on vegies that are eaten raw!

Our kids bath in plain water and I only used it plants such as the pumpkins and the capsicums.)

I find it fasinating that people can come up with clever ideas to save water. I have read several articles & blogs about people using their kitchen water, for the garden. The water is cleaned and filtered though a worm farm, usually in a bath tub and the resulting water is clean enough for the garden. Small amounts of washing liquid must be used and very dirty water is not put through the system, but how clever!

Our shower water is used in the front vege garden and the flower garden. A diverter is connected to the main line out of the shower. This line is then sent to a large storm water pipe, to which a funky purple hose is attached to. Yay no more buckets!! The kids water goes into the vege patch and our water goes to the flowers out the front.

This is our grey water system. It can be removed or turned off if necessary. We had to use such a large pvc pipe to allow for the water to be able to drain out the tub. Otherwise you have a shower whilist standing in 2inches of dirty water. Basically it is just a very large hose that avoids greywater being stored. Oh and no more buckets!!!!

Funny how it only once a precious resource is nearly gone before people understand just how important it is....

The start of my journey

I have always been 'weird' as my husband would say, I have grown my own food since I was 10 and sewn my own clothes since I was 13.

So when I said to my husband lets stop being consumers, get some chickens, grow more food and live more enviromentally friendly he just said 'Yes Dear.' Now as my post will show you, my husband will often say these words, that is why we have a Kombi waiting to be re-painted but that is a whole different story.

So now I have chickens, well there chooks. 3 to be exact, they are either called Henny Penny and little chook or roast, drumsticks and sunday lunch (Not really) depending on how many vegie patches they have gotten into and eaten on me...

This is our chicken tractor made out of an old fence and a dog kennel.

I looked at aquaponics to grow vegies, but the water needed for the system was just too much, so I am starting hydroponics instead. Yes it was another 'Yes dear' moment. It will need slightly less water and all the parts we had already.

We live in a town that has harsh level 5 water restrictions (unlike our neighbours Brisbane who are still allowed outside watering!) Rumours say if we don't recieve decent rain by Christmas, we will be in deep trouble!

These are just a few of the things, I have time to list, that we have brought into our lives which I hope will make a difference to our footprint on the earth. Stay tuned for more!

Thanks for stopping by....