COLOURFULWORLD

Saturday 10 September 2011

Productive Saturday

This morning I decided that some gardening jobs had to be done!  I went out into the backyard after breakfast, the day was so beautiful and warm, that soon I had discarded my track-suit top in favour of a t-shirt.
I had a corner of the garden full of pots of all sizes that my husband had planted with seeds a few months ago, and they were just standing there being an eyesore. Some of them seemed to be struggling to grow in the tiny pots they were in.
A very messy backyard

Pots galore...
So armed with some bags of soil and some styrofoam boxes I had been collecting, I set about re-potting the small pots.
First I made a few holes with a screwdriver in the bottom of the boxes, then broke the lids into small pieces to fill the bottom, I then filled with some old soil from the pots, added the new soil and replanted the small plants.
I had so many to do, that with the exception of a break for lunch and some occasional breaks for a drink, the sun was already setting when I finished tidying up.
Of course every time I would lift a few pots I would encounter either slugs, snails or roly-pollies. YUUUKKKK. I am terrified of any creepy-crawlies as harmless as they can be, and even though I hate killing any animals (pests in this case), I decided to boil a couple of kettles of water and just poured it over anything that moved. But where do these things comes from?
Roly-poly or Pill bug (they roll into a ball when they feel threatened)

I think you will agree the backyard looks much neater now and the veggie box corner looks good too.
I set the boxes against the side of the shed, but we have an old Hills Hoist rotary dryer that we covered with shade cloth, and once the sun starts to get hotter the boxes can be moved to that area to be protected from the heat.
Pot free at the end of the day!

The new veggie garden in boxes - lettuce, garlic, parsley, shallots, chillies, strawberries...

My husband has also started putting together some jarrah wooden beams to make a square box and that will go under that rotary dryer area and eventually we will be able to plant a lot more vegetables in there.

All in all I felt quite pleased with the result, it was a relaxing afternoon, although my back is a bit sore from all the bending and carrying....
Mommy playing with tree branches
This is the life!!! Snuggy relaxing in the sun.


4 comments:

  1. I'm very impressed with your repotting efforts there Sami - if you have a spare afternoon you can come and attack our garden perhaps! Just kidding, in fact you inspired me to replant our seedlings too - my little boy always "helps" - and I just did it this evening. So I thought I'd come back to your blog and say so!

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  2. Thanks Amanda, I used to be a "brown" fingers, no I´m getting more into gardening and actually enjoying it!

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  3. Great job, the yard looks so nice now. We keep saying that we are going to start a potted garden, but that takes a little start up money, and we keep using it for other things!

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  4. Plants and soil can be expensive, try starting with seeds, which are cheaper, although they take longer to grow...I actually have some lovely colleagues with whom we swap some plants or veggies, so we all benefit.

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