Word for the Day A bit of a mess
Home January's Challenge: BE TIDY
Home January's Challenge: BE TIDY
The kitchen has been tidied. Now that does not mean that I will keep it tidy, it just means that it has been tidied!
Next job - the cupboards in the lounge room.
I marvel at the fact that we have more things in more cupboards than when we had our 6 children at home! That's what comes from treasuring the contents of cupboards... board games; train sets; photographs (some of which hubby developed himself in our darkened laundry when black-and-white was what we knew); written treasures from our children, some of which have now been stored in a big box for almost 40 years! Sometimes I take out the big box to once again devour some of their lovingly written notes and cards. These days I add to the box treasures made by tiny hands of grand-children. I think I will need a bigger box.
Next job - the cupboards in the lounge room.
I marvel at the fact that we have more things in more cupboards than when we had our 6 children at home! That's what comes from treasuring the contents of cupboards... board games; train sets; photographs (some of which hubby developed himself in our darkened laundry when black-and-white was what we knew); written treasures from our children, some of which have now been stored in a big box for almost 40 years! Sometimes I take out the big box to once again devour some of their lovingly written notes and cards. These days I add to the box treasures made by tiny hands of grand-children. I think I will need a bigger box.
Garden COMPOST, MULCH & FERTILIZER
Two years ago our soil was mostly "dead", composed primarily of sand as we live near the beach.NOTE: ALWAYS WASH HANDS AFTER GARDENING
It was very rare to dig up a worm. After the long journey of creating a more fertile soil, now one of my grand-daughters,1 year old Aila, loves to come with me to a patch of garden where I often dig in kitchen scraps. Together we dig up some strong and long worms, and she squeals with delight as we play with them in the palms of our hands! Compost and mulch have now created a "living soil", and even families of crickets love our soil, making quite a noise from our garden, while neighbouring gardens are quiet! I love the day-life and the night-life that habitates our soil.
Compost A few weeks ago, I picked up a compost bin at the council re-cycle depot (i.e. "the dump") and using it has saved me from daily burying the household scraps.
The past 2 years of compost was comprised of
*the daily bowl of fruit and vegetable peelings, eggshells, coffee grounds, tea leaves, household paper and cardboard;
*our grass clippings plus a year of lawn clippings from Jim's Mowing Service ("Jim" was happy for me
to take his grass rather than have to pay to dump it at the council dump); ;
*garden growth like old corn plants, sunflower plants, green manure, clippings from hedges etc;
*a weekly bag of rubbish-greens from the local green-grocer
*many torn up cardboard boxes from local shops
*truckloads of mushroom compost and
*many trailer-loads of free horse manure/woodchips from the local stables.
Mulch has primarily been bales of lucerne, although I now have a pile of old corn plants and other dried plants ready to be used as mulch. As the comfrey plants get bigger, I will also use comfrey leaves as mulch.
Hand watering in the mornings when necessary keeps the plants happy, and I also give the compost a bit of a watering.
Fertilizer plays an important role. I have been very irregular with fertilizing the plants, but am recognising the value of a fortnightly dose of fertiliser. I use organic seaweed fertiliser, which has a memorable smell! Soon I will start brewing my own fertiliser immersing a sack of leaf growth such as weeds without seeds, comfrey leaves and other garden leaves and stems into a container of water, leaving it to soak for a fortnight.
But even with the composting, mulching, watering and fertilizing, gardening still has its challenges. I may plant something where it too hot or too shady, or I may find that a plant that thrived in a certain position in winter did not like that position in summer! I am slowly learning from my successes and failures which plants like to live near the beach in our humid climate. And then there are the grasshoppers! But we are spared of snails, thankfully. Son number 2 has plenty of snails, and recently he gave them an evening saucer of beer - next morning they were dead drunk!
I have yet to master my farm of "compost worms", but I notice lately that as I give them plenty of household scraps, excluding banana, citrus, onion and garlic, they are multiplying quicker. No, I correct myself. I have just been out there to check my worms, and thousands are wriggling away very happily!
Thanks to our local council who offer us tips and training regarding composting and worm farming!
http://www.sunshinecoast.qld.gov.au/sitePage.cfm?code=compost-worm-farms
Night crawler,
Humus creator,
Passage maker
for water, for air.
Where
Would we be
Without the worm?
May all of our worms be happy worms.
from Robyn
Painting of robin by Brenda, Robyn’s mum