First Harvest

Welcome to my contented life Blog.


I am sure everyone has been busy in their
gardens planting seedlingsor seeds ready for summer.

we have been or trying to inbetween the wet weather and stormy days. Glad to get all the rain though. We have lots of self seeded cherry tomato plants, that are looking healthy as a result of all the rain. They look better than the ones we translplanted.

I plan on thinning them out and moving them to another section so we can make sure the chickens don't trash them when they have fruit on the vines.


As you can see from the picture we have been picking some green and purple snow peas and broad beans. The ones on the left are off the purple broad bean plant and are smaller than the heritage variety. We have also been picking lot of juicy strawberries.

I seem to have less time this year to plant in the garden and I fell I get stressed out just thinking about what needs to be planted so we don't miss out. I find that when I do spend some time in the garden the stress just melts away and I feel I have all the time in the world.

I am determined to have my garden so in the next week or 2 , I am planting out the tomatoes, sowing some pumpkin seeds and water emlon seeds . I also will be clearing out the broad bean plants and harvesting the cabbages.

Recently I came to the realisation that not only do you need time to plant and nuture the garden, but you also need time to harvest and enjoy the fruits of your labour. Sounds a bit like life really- need time to plan , nuture and enjoy your life.

I am looking forward to school holidays where I hope we will just not go anywhere to often - sounds boring, but I think I prefer that to the constant feeling of running here and there and never quite feeling like I have enough time to just sit and think and even have a cup of tea .

Cheers and happy gardening . I am going to try and grow 1000kg again this year. Wish me luck.

Lina

A New Growing Season Begins- Spring 2010

Welcome to My Contented Life Blog

This blog is about the simple things in life and how pleasureable they can be when we take the time to stop and smell the roses.

Enjoying life can be as simple as noticing the smallest of things , like a flower or the smell of some jonquils growing in the garden, noticing all the self sown seeds that in time, grow to give you nourishment.

We have a few things on the go in our garden- we have self sown Lettuce and Spinach plants.

We have been eating these. I have just used up my last harvest of tomatoes from our green house and manged to stop buying canned tomatoes for 1 whole year. I am so glad. we also have some strawberry plants that are in flower.

We are waiting for our broad beans to grow as well, and I am so looking forward to making broadbean meat pies with them. Yummy.

The next challenge is to grow everything we need and use it in our everyday cooking so we limit the amount we are getting from the grocers, so we can really reduce our carbon foot print.

Our Silver perch and trout are almost big enough to eat- they have taken a long time to get to this stage so this will be our reward when they are finally ready.

Here are some photos of our green house vegies at the moment. There is going to be an explosion of growth over the next month or 2 as it will be getting warmer and more things will germinate. I planted some cucumber seeds, but none came up and found some empty seed pods, eaten out by the resident worms. Very diasppointing, but I will not give up - I am imagining enjoyinh a mouth watering and succulent cucumber mid summer- so will have another go.

Thats all for now- happy gardening- It is still a little early to be palnting out the vegies, but if you have a small green house , start getting your seedlings ready.

Cheers- and have a happy life.

Lina

Winter Begins

Welcome all to my Blog.

What glorious weather we have been having and we also got a lovely drop of rain. Autumn /winter is such a good time in the garden as you can work all day in the garden and not get too hot like you do in summer.

Over the last few week ends my partner and I have been preparing this garden bed and it involved removing 50 wheelburrows of dirt out and back into this garden bed. Why did we do this? We did this as there was some deep rooted grass roots that if left here would just grow and take over the garden again. Steve my partner did most of the work, I helped towards the end.

I will get a photo of it once the plants grow a little more. I have planted garlic, Kale so far and will get some more seedlings soon. This week end has been very productive as I also planted purple snow peas. I cleaned out the chook shed ( very smelly work ) and dug up and cleaned the weeds out of another garden bed. I slept well that night as I was so tired.

Anyway I realised that you can get a lot done , just by putting your mind on the job.

I have been reading about attachments and detachments when it comes to our life . We could have attachements to our material things or our feelings. I was reading that if we let go of our attachments , we are able to do more and be more. Sometimes we may be attached to how we feel about something that is stopping us from achieving. Once we analyse why we are keeping these attachments and decide that we no longer need to and detach ourselves from them, we are free to do whatever makes us happy.- read this article as it explains it well.

On Being happy and contented , I know I talk a lot about being contented and I would like to clarify a few things incase I lead anyone astray. It is most desirable to be happy most of the time, but sometimes we do feel sad and that is natural and good for us to feel sad every now and then. I always say that if you never feel sad, then you would not know what feelig happy was like. Things happen to us that make us feel sad , as long as we go back to being our normal happy self once you have dealt with the issue at hand. Also being sad makes us analyse and perhaps change direction of our lives for a better outcome. Hopefully that clears things up.

In the end you have be happy with the person that looks back at you in the mirror.

Parting Advice:

Love makes us happy and smiling at people we don't even know can bring joy to them and you when they smile back. Practice simple acts of kindness often and you will be amazed. Material wealth rarely brings everlastings happiness, love does.

Cheers for now.

Lina

A bountiful Table

A Bountiful and Abundant harvest- Ye Shall Reap What Ye Sows!

May your lives be as abundant and happy as this table is full.

Hello Dear Friends.

Autumn is here and it is my favourite time of year as the weather is just gorgeous. I also love it as it is the time of year when you harvest all of your hard work in the garden and it is so rewarding. The best part is that the vegetables are fresher and more tastier.

Here is a picture of some of my pumkins, I feel so lucky. Some of these were planted , but half were from self sown plants. Also we grew about 50kg of cherry tomatoes and all were from self sewn plants.

Gardening is not that hard- you could do it too- all it needs is for you to have a go. It also doesn't have to be expensive- just start out with 2-3 plants ,prepare your ground before and see what happens. Don't worry if you don't succeed the first time, just try again - a goal with purpose and determination will always find a way.

One tonne challenge update- 275kg

Here are our chickens- looking for food in my car. There are probably some crumbs where the kids sit- unfortuneate for the chickens as they couldn't get in there.

Planting now

• Broadbeans


• Lettuce


• Brocolli


• Garlic


• Cabage


• Cauiliflower

Bye for now.

Lina

One Tonne challenge- 30 days to go

Welcome once again to my gardening blog.

Hope everyone is having a lovely and safe Easter.

My family and I have had a blissful 2 days so far and we have not drivem more than 5 km in 2 days. How wonderful .

In this time I have pulled up all the Gladiolis and replanted some strawberry plants. We have also ripped out all the strawberry plants from one of the aquaponic grow beds as they were aphid infested and no amount of garlic spray was going to get rid of them.

I am so tired now , but at least it has been done. Next thing is to get the garden beds ready for broad beans and brocoli. Time for planting garlic as well. We are going to try to plant some in the aquaponic grow beds with the strawberries as a companion plant to see if they will keep the aphids at bay.

One Tonne Challenge Update

With only arround 30days to go, I have managed to harvest more than

155kg of food.

I am so pleased. I still have quite a lot in the garden so keep posted for the final amount.

Gardening Tips

• Gardening is fun and you can do it also . Set your self an easy target first and you will be suprised and the result will make you want to keep going. I recomend growing cherry tomatoes , they are healthy and easy to grow.
• Canberra region vegies to grow now- Garlic, Broad beans, Kale, cabbage,cauiliflower, brocoli, lettuce.
• mulch well to keep mositure in the the ground.
• Gardening is also good for you - forget the gym get out there and grow some food it will keep you fit.
• Did you know that looking at a garden or nature lowers your stress level. Surround your self with a garden and enjoy a less stressful life.

Cheers hope life is treating you well.

Lina

One Tonne Challenge Update

Hello Everyone

Welcome to my blog. I just love writing about my garden and hopefully you are enjoying what you are reading and I hope that I am inspiring you to grow some of your own vegetables for a healthy and more rewarding lifestyle.

Update on my one Tonne Challenge.
So far I have harvested a massive 105.7 kg and I think I will make to to close to 300kg as there are a lot of vegetables still waiting to be picked.

All this lovely recent rain has revived my garden and especially the pumkins to sprouting lots of new shoots. Keep posted for the wonderful photos that I will post when I get a minute.

photo:Chickens waiting at the door for food.
Gardening tip.
Keep trying and don't give up, if you really want to succeed you will- just need to have patience.

Gardening is so good for us and your health. Growing your own vegetables is one way of looking after your health.

Cheers and happy gardening

Lina

Harvest Time- Reaping What You Sow

Welcome

One tonne Cahllenge update

So far I have harvested 88kg of fruit and vegetables

This month I have been harvesting some yummy vegetables, and it feels great to pick your own vegies. Not only are they fresher and free from chemicals, it is rewarding to wait for something and then finally pick it. A bit like having a layby ( which I absolutely love) working for something and then finally getting it, make it more worthwhile.

I feel like I was playing with my food as I was arranging these

vegetable to make a lovely display and photo.

Would you believe that these Romana and Cherry tomatoes all came from Self sown plants. I have picked about 16kg of produce and I did not even plannt one plant. This is another benefit of having chickens and a compost.

I did however rescue about 20 plants from the compost and replanted them to a position of better soil and water accessability. I unfortuneatley still have to share soem with the chickens as they seem to love them just as much as me!.

The capsican plants were last years. I saved them at the end of summer and replanted them in mid spring.

Good luck with your gardening endevours.

Tip for a contented life.

We only have time in our lives for the things we make time for. Make time for things that will make your life happier and you will be content.

Until next time

Kindest regards

Lina

Rain - A Blessing- Brings New Life

Welcome


I hope you are leading a happy and contented life.
Well I was certainly happy when the rain came and down poured.

We needed the rain, and even though there was some damage to our newly laid drive way , it was very appreciated.

There is nothing like a good soak for the garden. Watering the garden with a hose is not quite the same.

My dying pumkin vines have spung back to life with a mutitude of new shoots and growth and now there are quite a few female flowers with fertilzed buds that will develop into pumkins.

My cherry tomotoes have also srung to life and I have been leaving the tomatoes on the vine to vine ripen. They have grown to about 2-3cm diametre. There is nothing like the sweet taste of a warm vine ripened cherry tomatoe to quench your thirst.

I even have a small melon vine that suddenly grew lots of new shoots and I may even get a melon or 2 before the season end, if the chickens don't hack into it.

The rain also coinsided with the hatching of our eight new baby chickens - 5 white and 3 black. They are so adorable and I have been having cups of coffee with them nearby. I sit and watch them scratch arround and listen to how mother hen calls and coos when I throw bits of food to them.

I hope your garden is growing well as mine is and that you are finding solace from the non stop busy days in your garden. Nuture your soul and spend some time in the garden. Not only will your be doing your mind some good , but also your health and reaping vegetables as payment of your hard work.

Tip.

The best fertilizer in any garden is the foot prints of the gardener.

Kindest regards
Lina

A Sight to Behold

Welcome to my Blog

Happy New Year to you all. Hope you had a great Christmas and wonderful new year.

Here is a lovely photo of our frontage lined with these majestic looking Red Hot Pokers. We haven't watered these so it's amazing
to see so many flowers.

One Tonne Challenge Update

Just Updated my One tonne Challenge- Now have harvested 39.4Kg of produce.


Here is Fred the rooster Crowing


Did we all make resolutions?. I made one about consuming less and trying not to rush around so I can enjoy the here and now more. So far I am living up to the consuming less- we bought a soda stream and have saved about 10 plastic bottles already. Also stayed at home ( bliss) for a day or 2 without going anywhere (saved some petrol) and sorted out some stuff and donated some toys , blankets and threw out some rubbish ( old toys broken , missing pieces). It made me think of how wasteful we are.

Do you know that sometimes when we want something, it the conquest in aquiring it and once it is aquired it no longer holds its appeal and soon we are pining after another object of our desires? Does this sound familiar? Do you know if you go to the after christmas sales, you are not really getting a bargain unless it is something that you need or wanted for a long time. Are you buying only because it was reduced to 50% off- in which case you have paid 50% too much.




I just love this time of year and how relaxing it is compared to the end of the year. This January I have been in business for 18months and I use this relaxing part of the year to plan whatI want to achieve for the year ahead. This year I hope to support more charitable causes through my handmade jewellery business and support other handmade artists. If you would like me to come and do a jewellery show at your office, please contact me and we can discuss how we can raise funds for your charity.








My Jewellery Website- http://www.zanildesign.blogspot.com/


Email: zanil.design@bigpond.com



I leave you with some photos of our Vegetables growing in our green house.

Lina