Seed Raising Frenzy

Despite the fact that it is still FREEZING here, it is apparently a great time to be starting seeds - inside at least - so I have been busy cutting up milk cartons and so on in order to get enough containers to start all my seeds in. I now have beans, peas, corn, tomatoes, eggplant, kale, sunflowers, rockmelons, squash, luffas and maybe a few others I have forgotten, plus a bunch of flowers, all happily sitting on the mantle above the fireplace. Hopefully the heat rising up will keep them warm enough to germinate and grow happily until they are ready to go outside.

These ones are near the fire - the mantle isnt big enough for all my babies!













All lined up, nice and cozy :) The ones down the far end are the seeds I am raising for the seedling swap in a couple of weeks.














This is why they are INSIDE! Check out the pictures Troy got the other day while I was at work.

Looking left from the front of the house.














Looking right...














My vegie patch...














Looking out the back at the neighbours wood pile...













It was very pretty and I felt like such a kid getting so excited over the snow but it is only the second time I have seen snow actually falling. It was all gone by lunchtime but was a real treat while it was here. I was very happy to see when I got home that the seedlings already outside weren't bothered in the least by the cold white stuff falling on their heads.

On the work front, I had two full shifts this week, one morning, one evening, and have met some great ladies and some lovely clients. Next week I have been given four shifts which is great in regards of the money I will be getting, but I have a feeling I will be very tired by the end of the week - they are all 7am starts! I picked up my first pay check yesterday and of course it was burning a hole in my pocket so I toddled off to the hardware store to pick up some more seed raising mix and of course a few seeds. I tried to resist! I really did!

I got a call while I was there from the lady I met at the gardening workshops so ducked in to say hi to her as she is just around the corner. We had a great chat and I got to see her garden set up and get some local advice from her. It has given me a few ideas for this place. She has just gotten a few chooks too so hopefully I will be able to learn from her beginners mistakes hehe. One of the things they have done is build raised beds to plant their fruit trees in, which can be unscrewed and taken with them when they move out to their property. I thought this would be a good idea for us as well - by taking the structure apart the dirt will fall away and you will essentially have a bare root fruit tree which can be moved easily, instead of having to dig a big hole to get it out of the ground. So brilliantly simple! And it will make the trees much happier than being in pots. Now to beg or borrow a trailer and head up to the tip recycling centre one weekend for materials :) And of course a visit to Mr BVVF to see what manure we can scrounge! Whoever woulda thunk I could get so excited about the prospect of getting my hands on some free sh!t!!!