Gardening Update

So part of the reason for this blog is to help keep track of everything I'm trying to do, and you get to learn with me, share my successes, and hopefully guide me through the mistakes. To understand what brought me to this point I need to take you back to the beginning of it, just over two years ago when I started gardening for the first time.


I'd never felt the 'call' to be a gardener, I was happy with a tree or two and vast areas of lawn, or maybe yard is the better description (lawn conjours images of manicured greeness, which I've never had). When we first came here I fell in love with the block, the slope of the land, the big trees, and a nice yard. All was well with it as it just seemed to self maintain with enough rain & sun to require nothing of me, except to dig out the occassional plant that broke up my 'yard' or chop back something impedeing a view out the windows. And then the sad day came when I was advised I would need a new septic tank. In a moment of insanity I decided to move it from it's original location and needed to put in 64 metres of trenches to go with it. (My inexperience discounted the idea of a biocycle unit, which in hindsight would have been a much better thing to do). To cut a long story short, in came the giant Tonka toys, and when they left there was not a blade of green left anywhere. After spending an inordinate amount of money on this folly, and ending up with what looked like first images of Mars (yes, red clay everywhere & no visible signs of life) I didn't have the option of 'instant' buy it in & roll it out lawn. Never to be outdone I figured I'd just grow my own.
Nothing can prepare the non gardener for the joy of seeing those first few tentative green sprouts. We'd sprinkled lawn seed down at the first sign of showers & within days the red took on a greenish hue. Day by day you could see those first little signs of life getting bigger, greener, until the red of the clay was hidden, and my green paradise was returned, better than ever.
I was hooked! The satisfaction I got from watching something I'd planted grow and develop was like nothing I'd experienced before. I figured if grass worked, what about vegies? And so began my journey...