My how this year has flown by. I seem to be more and more amazed at the swiftness of time these days but it's still a shock that we're bearing down on Christmas at a great rate of knots.
I'm so very at ease and at home again in Brisbane now - our time on the downs seems like a distant memory, if not a dream. It feels like we never left. The weather has been beautiful and I'm loving the longer daylight hours as we move towards summer. Time to get outside and enjoy the world after work is done for the day.
The one thing I've been lamenting since we moved down was my lack of veggie garden. This rented unit, while it has a courtyard, doesn't have much in the way of gardening space. It was the lack of fresh herbs at the back door that started it all for me - all that missing my own patch of dirt to dig and plant and potter around in, the walk through in the morning to see what was out there and finding new fruit, new seedlings, fresh strawberries.....I've been missing that without wanting to allow myself to.
Strange how my outlook has changed now though. Before we left Brisbane I had this idea in my head that to garden you needed space, lots of space, and all the equipment and tools etc to get started. Gee I wasted a lot of time with that mentality - I could have had a ripper garden down here then like I eventually had out there!!
I'm glad I've changed my thinking - I've been waiting so patiently for the onset of springy days so that I could dig out the gardening gloves and get cracking. I was about to go to the supermarket and pick up a few of those polystyrene boxes to use as planters when a sneaky birthday appeared and gave me some pots and potting mix with which to create my patio garden. I love a good gardening gift and Lucky Phil knows the way to win my heart is via dirt and plants (or a good book or something crafty!) :)
And so now I have it all happening. A great selection of my favourite herbs - coriander, basil, parsley, mint, chives - and some veggies to top it all off - tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, snow peas, corn. And I can't forget the flowers for a bit of colour - this time around some snapdragons and lobelias. I even managed to keep alive some strawberry plants from my garden on the downs - they have really taken off since they have been repotted and mulched.
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| Pineapples that have been growing roots in containers on my sink for about three years now - finally in soil and they are lapping it up! |
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| Tomato seedlings from the self-sown cherry tomatoes from our previous home |
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| A Mulberry Tree that somehow was sown, sprouted and survived in a pot that I brought down with me. He much prefers the soil in this one.... |
I'm loving the greenery at my back door now - so much better than the stark tiles and concrete walls of before. I'm out there a whole lot more now too - soaking up the view and taking in the 'outside-ness' of it all. I'm just waiting now on the pumpkin seeds to sprout on the windowsill and get a bit of size to them and they'll go out too - into the wild garden bed for those, they'll be in their element.
The countdown is now on until I can be eating the fruits of my labours! Can't wait!!
