Almost Spring - and the garden still gives us pleasure

At the beginning of this year MOTH and I gave up our decision not to garden. We live in a rented house here... and I didn't like the idea of putting heaps of work into a garden that wasn't entirely ours. We just gave up... it is too nice to garden to go without. So - we have been dragging other peoples rubbish home building our gardens.

You are wondering why we erected the hideous corrugated iron fence before the garden shed?

WELL - that is to block out the view of the neighbours over the back. Sounds mean? tough. I LOVE it... and as I sit on my chair sipping my wine and apple & guava juice... I feel completely alone as my babies grow around me.

And we found all that old corrugated iron up the road when someone was replacing their roof. They looked very pleased at the two mad people dragging their bits of iron up the street and returning with a trailer.And yes we dragged home the bits of concrete to make the path when someone replaced their driveway.They also looked at us like we were mad as we hauled the chunks away.

See the pink Marguerite daisy - $2 markdown dead plants at the local supermarket. It has since made itself into 6 new plants.... by me pushing down the branches and covering with dirt .. waiting a little and then digging up with the new roots.

In the photo above is some rosemary I bought on markdown at the supermarket for 50 cents and shoved in the dirt. It has let me put another branch that did take into another garden already. The dwarf bean has produced about 30 beans. There is capsicum, day lillies. alyssum, nasturtium, a climber I just like that everyone else thinks is a weed and the piece of lattice I found at the recycle shop for $1.
The vegetable patch is still thriving. I planted so much pak choy that we couldn't eat it all! Many went to seed. The red and green salad lettuce we pick daily as we need it and haven't had to buy lettuce for months. Nor have we had to buy capsicum or tomatoes in the past three months.
No one needs this much parsley or coriander. There is more too in the other gardens. In the future one or two seedlings at a time will be sufficient. I got carried away. I only have one workmate who appreciates me bringing her bunches of it. My girlfriend Joy bought me the kaffir lime - and the leaves are great with fish.
My dogs have learnt to stop digging in the gardens.(Err well almost - that is why you can see ugly wires across the gardens sometimes - a deterrent of sorts) They are trying to compensate with the rest of the yard. I can sit on the sides of my garden and pull a weed or two - admire the growth, sip my wine and pretend to listen to MOTH's day. I don't have to bend over or dig madly.

Why are most of our capsicums growing a funny sideways? My son and his soccer ball - that is why. The plants keep supplying the capsicum so I don't whinge too much.
Ornamentals are mixed with herbs, vegetables, lettuce and weeds.
Slowly but surely... it is becoming our "other" sanctuary. Other peoples rubbish, plants propagated and shared from friends... the dogs and the illusion that we are alone out there. And the most money we spent was for the dirt in the vegetable gardens - so under $100. The only plant I paid full price for was the passion fruit vine (forgetting you only need one passion fruit a year for pavlova) and Joy bought me my lime tree.

Maybe this weekend we will get time to build another patch! (Yes - we will mow the lawns because we have daughter no3's and my girlfriend Megs' combined birthday party Saturday) And the boat motor has to go in for a service! So that will be exciting!

And the answer is YES - the dogs have dug heaps up and I often come home from work to dirt all over the ground and torn up plants. The dogs actually appear to be pointing at each other too.

Doesn't take a dreadful lot to keep me amused!