Just a couple of days until the end of January and it’s been quite a year already! 😂 I managed to take a week or so off at the beginning of the month which was good but of course didn’t seem long enough.

It’s been way too hot for me in the garden so I’ve done very little out there but this week I have been getting into my shade houses and tidying those up. Mr T has been looking after the gardens though so they are all doing pretty well. Apart from the asparagus bed which I managed to kill off by mulching it with sugar cane. Sugar cane is pretty good at stopping water evaporating from the soil, but it’s also good at stopping the rain from getting into the soil, so my asparagus basically didn’t have any water for a good few months. Ah well, I think one or two crowns survived and I’ll get some more when I can.

With the help of Mr T I rejigged my stall. It’s got a lovely nice long shelf that sits on the fence and means I can have some work space while I’m tending to the plants. The next thing I want to do is get another sign and put some shade cloth over at least some of it. I also attached some trays to the table which means that the plant pots have a more even surface and aren’t constantly falling over.

Other than that we painted our lounge room and I’ve been getting everything ready for back to school for the kids. Oh and we are all now vaccinated with at least the first dose, the teens have had two doses and Mr T and I are fully vaxxed and boosted.

Ooops 4th Feb and still haven’t posted this. Better do that now. A couple of nice things that finished off the month were being interviewed by someone from The Guardian about the rise of urban honesty stalls; and one of my fellow Green Bums (friends that collaborate on the Green Bums FB page) has also started a plant stall over in Stafford! 😁 Ok better get this posted….

Ah December – end of school for the year, then two weeks later Christmas and then that weird 26th – 31st period where everyone seems to lose track of time. Or maybe that’s just me. I’m writing this on the 20th so only 5 sleeps to go until Christmas Day. This year we are going to my sister & brother-in-law’s house for lunch which will be lovely, and then Mr T and the two younger kids are headed up to Bribie to his mums place for a few days.

It’s the 22nd now – I keep losing my computer to my daughter so writing this in bits at a time. It’s been a huge year with all four kids at school – my youngest in prep and eldest in grade 12. I knew it was going to be hard but the other two threw in a few extra challenges just to keep me on my toes. Lots of executive functioning going on, and when you have ADHD that is doubly exhausting. About the end of November I really started to feel the exhaustion and burn out so decided to start doing the bare minimum and focusing on rest. And it is working. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I just have to remember I’m still in the tunnel, I need to keep resting to get out the other side properly.

So now it is the 31st. My daughter now has a computer of her own so I can actually reclaim mine! I decided to take a break from doing my honesty stall, propagating, and pretty much everything for this week. I have been doing some things around the house but also being careful not to overdo it. I really like this not being completely exhausted feeling. I’m at a regular level of tired. One thing that happened was my gp tested my cholesterol levels and told me they are way too high. We agreed I’d try diet and lifestyle modification for 3 months and then retest to see if I need to take meds. As much as the timing sucked for Christmas day it did give me a good nudge to look at my less than ideal diet. I come from the UK so doing things like soaking bread in the drippings off a roast is normal (and extremely yummy). I actually have a good memory of my mum and I doing just that and giggling like school girls. And I am a big fan of pate, salami, cheese, chips, and lots of other foods that are really not great for cholesterol levels, and don’t eat enough fibre which I’ve learned is important for your body to get rid of cholesterol. Also the relationship with carbs is interesting because from what I have read if you eat too many carbs it encourages your body to produce more cholesterol so you need to watch that.

I decided I didn’t want to make my diet restrictive so instead of just cutting out things, I’ve been finding replacements. So snacking on mixed nuts, bhuja mix, popcorn, and vege chips (because sometimes I miss the crunch of potato chips), and I’m still eating red meat but smaller portions and we are watching how we cook it. I made a lamb ragu the other day and I drained so much fat out of the sauce. And when we have tacos I just have a little cheese and skip the sour cream.

I’ve been using My Fitness Pal to help me record what I’ve been eating. And now that I am not eating all the things I mentioned above I have had many days where I am not eating enough calories at all. And I really struggle to get enough protein. So my focus for the next little while is going to be getting that balance right. Unfortunately I can’t eat yogurt, but I’m going to try and make cheese (labne) with it because I think that will go down well.

In other news we adopted a puppy. My youngest named him Ruffles. We got him on Christmas Eve – I think his foster mum wanted to get him to his new home for Christmas. He was 13 weeks when we got him, and was rescued at 2 weeks from an outback pound. He is a Border Collie cross – dad is most likely an Australian Cattle Dog but not sure. He’s an intelligent little pup and got lovely manners, and he’s encouraging me to get walking which I need to do. I want to get back to running eventually, but for now walking is best.

And of course because it’s NYE I am thinking of all the work possibilities for next year. I am very keen to continue with the VA work, and maybe get some more hours of that, but I don’t think I’ll aim for more than 5 – 10 hours per week. That way I have time to dedicate to my family, my honesty stall, and crafting, without rushing around. I like not rushing and having time to rest. Probably my main goal for 2022 is resting more. I haven’t been doing much in the garden at all. Watering, moving plants into the shade house and taking photos is about it.

So I guess that’s it for 2021! What a year. And I haven’t even mentioned Covid yet, but I don’t want to forget. We have just finished the second year of the pandemic. And we were in such a good spot in November, the Qld borders have been shut a lot this year so we haven’t had many cases at all, and those that did pop up we went into snap lockdowns for a few days. I’ve been impressed by how the Qld government has handled it. And then just before the Qld borders were due to open the new Omicron varient started spreading. And it has spread so fast. The borders still opened, and requirements for entry seem to have been relaxed. It seems the plan now is to rely on vaccinations, boosters, people doing the right thing and wearing masks and distancing. Close contacts have been redefined from anyone in the same place to people that have spent 4 hours with the person. So the locations on the Qld tracking app are not being updated to the Qld health website. People are starting FB groups so that people wanting to know where the positive cases are occurring can find out. Very important if you are unvaccinated, elderly, immunocompromised or anxious. I think 2022 is going to be an interesting year, and hopefully we see covid turn into a manageable virus and some kind of end to the pandemic.

(AKA November 2021 Update)

Well it’s the first of December and I completely missed doing a November update. Honestly this time of year always feels like a rollercoaster where I’m just hanging on for dear life. November was when my first born finished year 12, had his formal, graduation and first driving lesson. I’ve been taking kids to paediatrician and psychologist appointments, taxiing my eldest two around a lot as their dad is very unwell, and I did two weeks of part time Virtual Assistant work (15hrs per week) which was fantastic but in hindsight probably a few more hours than is ideal for me. So it was a hectic month!

I haven’t been gardening very much – once it started to heat up at the end of October I remembered how much I suffer in the heat & humidity and how in previous years I’ve started to dislike being in the garden when it is too hot/humid. So rather than push through and “just do it” I am going to honour that part of me, let myself stay cool, and the garden can rest over summer. As you can see below, I’ve started to pull plants out and we will dig in some compost, and sow green manure for a cover crop.

Choosing not to garden over summer got me thinking about more about the whole idea of self-sufficiency – it’s practicality and whether it is actually a good idea for everyone to try and be self-sufficient. I think it’s probably better to aim for self-sufficiency as a community, rather than as individuals. There’s reasons for thinking this (resources used, carbon footprint, available time in the modern world, etc) but I’m a bit too tired to think coherently about it just now. Maybe I will come back and revisit the topic sometime. But certainly for my situation it makes more sense to support local farmers / growers for some produce; and for pretty much all summer produce when I find the garden too hot. So I think for the next couple of months we will only aim to be self sufficient in fresh herbs, and I will make sure that I support local farmers the rest of the time.

Fortunately my potting bench is in one of the shade houses so I can continue with my propagation over summer! So I am still getting out into the garden for that 🙂 Propagating plants, and now selling them on my honesty stall, is bringing me a lot of joy. My stall has been garnering a lot of positive feedback that has been so nice to hear; and of course the sales are pretty cool too. 😉 I do have some lovely customers! I also donated 2 trays of gazanias to a local primary school which was fun. Gazanias spread well, make a nice ground cover and don’t require maintenance, so they should be useful.

One project that Mr T completed in November was to remove the rest of the white gravel from around the pond, put in more pavers and plant some native violet. I have to say it’s looking pretty good! I’ll take another photo once all the violet has grown in.

I think that about covers November! Other than having to constantly tell a couple of spiders “my shade house, not yours!” as I break their webs in order to get to my plants. 😂

Oh and my current crochet project – a big floor / couch cushion. I did make one already but decided I needed another. I keep meaning to make some items to sell, but get distracted with things I want for myself…. or the kids…. or friends…

Well here we are almost at the end of October – this month seems to have flown by pretty quickly. I guess that happens at this time of year. There has been lots going on, but I can’t for the life of me think what it is in any coherent way. Term 4 started and my son is doing his final exams. I feel like I’m just as nervous about them as he is! And he’s my eldest so of course I’m all emotional about my baby finishing school!

What else has been happening … I’m going to have to look back on my FB pages I think! Ah yes, my San Marzano tomatoes… Well I am just about to rip them out. After taking for ever to actually produce anything every tomato either succumbed to blossom end rot, had something nibble it or it was struck by fruit fly.

Will I try again? Yes. But I’m going to sow the seeds in early Autumn and get them started in a green house situation before planting them. Actually I might experiment and sow some in March, some in April, some in May and see which works the best. Apparently when planting out tomatoes you can plant them right up to their seed leaves as they will develop roots along their stems which makes them stronger, so I will do that as well. For now I have some Mini Amish tomatoes coming up that have self seeded so I will see if they produce anything.

Other than the tomatoes everything else has been growing along fine. I thought the pak choi I put in was all going to get eaten, but turns out if you plant enough there is enough to share with the garden critters 😉 The zucchini and beans have produced well, although I put too many zucchini plants in (we really don’t need more than 1 or 2) and so many just rotted before I was able to pick them. The zucchini plants died with the recent heavy rain so I will take those out and put in the two seedlings that I prepared earlier.

The asparagus hasn’t done much so far which is a shame, we’ve had a few small spears come up but we normally have enough to harvest for dinner at this point. Hopefully something will happen soon! And after I harvested the garlic last month I sowed some kidney bean seeds but none of them have come up! Even the ones I sowed in a punnet didn’t appear – well one did but that’s it. I remember I had given up on them last time before they appeared as well so you never know.

I’ve got some beautiful flowers around the place, and my foliage plant bed at the side of the house is starting to look quite nice too. I was taken by surprise the other morning – I went outside to have a wander around the garden and saw a flower that was stunning but I didn’t recognise it at all! Turns out it was the walking iris that has been here since we moved in, I have just never seen it flower before.

Our water tank ran out of water this month but then over the past week and a bit we have had lots of rain and it’s full again! We also had lots of water in the buckets and tubs that I left out so instead of wasting it I grabbed the mini water tank that’s been sitting around the side for about a year and manually filled it up. I used a towel to try and filter as much dirt and stuff out as possible and I managed to pretty much half fill it – so that 50 litres I can use to water all the plants I’m propagating before I even need to touch the tank water. I was pretty proud of that idea! The tank is destined to be installed to catch rain water from our courtyard roof, but I think I might get another just so I can manually fill it.

Talking of propagating – I’ve been doing a lot of that with pretty good success. I’ve actually started to label things, and write the dates of when I pot them up so I can keep track of how long I have grown them on for. I like to keep them for a few weeks before putting them on my honesty stall, just to make sure that they are growing well.

My honesty stall is going really well and I am loving it. I get so much enjoyment out of putting plants out, tending to the stall and even seeing it as I drive in and out of the house. It’s been well received by the local community as well which makes me feel rather proud 😊

I need to update my sign though. I mention produce on the sign because originally my aim was to put any excess produce on the stall but I am finding the logistics of that a bit hard. Things aren’t going to last well on the stall in the heat and if no one picks them up relatively quickly they will just end up as food waste, which defeats the purpose! So I think instead I will share any excess via the Homegrown 4178 & 4179 Facebook page.

I also want to modify the stall in some way so that I can put shade plants on there and possibly the craft items I make. It’s easier to sell things that way – otherwise I never get around to taking photos, listing items, etc. I’m not sure exactly how to do it – for the craft stuff I imagine I’d need some kind of cupboard type set up or even a perspex box with lid. Alternatively I could have a garage/craft sale every so often… that might work even better. I’ll have a think on that because in a way it is good to keep the stall simple.

The other thing that has kept me busy this month has been the virtual admin work I’ve been doing. I was covering for someone on leave and it was great to have that 2 weeks of work coming into the end of year period. I am hoping to keep doing some VA work in the future because I’ve found that it really suits the way I want to work. At the same time I want to make sure that I leave myself time to do what I want to without having to rush around. I’ve done enough of that over the years. I like moving much more slowly now 😉

Dutch Cremes and King Edwards

A couple of years ago (well 7 to be exact) we decided to have a go growing potatoes. When I was growing up we had a big potato bed and would end up with huge hessian sack full of potatoes. We didn’t have the space for something like that but I figured it would be nice to try growing a few.

Mr T came up with the idea of having part of the garden bed adjustable so it could grow upwards with the potatoes. Clever fella.

We planted some seed potatoes in June and then in October harvested these

That’s probably not too bad for 4 plants, but it seemed like a lot of work and time that the garden bed couldn’t be used. So we didn’t grow potatoes again. Until this year.

This year I decided to try something different. Potatoes in tubs! I was going to use grow bags but this seemed even easier. I got the idea from the people at Tullamore Farm (they are on Facebook, check them out) as they plant potatoes in 20l food grade buckets with drainage holes drilled into them. They stagger plant from around March through to September, which would mean they are harvesting from June/July through to Dec/Jan. Growing in buckets has the advantage that you can just tip over the bucket rather than having to dig, and you aren’t using up valuable garden space if that is at a premium.

I have to admit that we didn’t use food grade tubs, I was impatient and just went and bought cheap tubs. But after doing a bunch of reading I decided the risk from leached plastic was pretty low. I was able to utilise a bit of garden behind the trampoline and next to the water tank so that was another benefit of growing in tubs.

The other day I noticed that the tops of the first lot I planted had started to die off. So today I dragged the tub over near the compost bin and tipped it out.

Ok so maybe not a huge harvest but that is just from the first tub and I have several things I will do differently next time.

• Source food grade tubs because I think they will be easier to manoeuvre
• Put in more drainage holes – I think I lost a few potatoes to rotting because the mix was quite wet.
• Choose a better spot because while they were nicely out of the way, getting in to them was a bit of a pain. So better access needed for watering and topping up the soil/mulch.

I can’t believe it’s almost the end of August. It’s been such a strange year. On the one hand it’s been quite hard / exhausting with the Covid situation getting so much worse in Australia, advocating for one of my kids at school to get the support she needs, dealing with my own mental health, perimenopause, and learning how to manage my neurodiversities. But on the other hand I am really loving what I have done with Bayside Homestead and my honesty stall so far; I have other opportunities opening up to me as well, which is pretty exciting; and I am making some good progress with learning to live with the way I operate rather than feeling I need to fit into someone else’s idea of how the world should work. So it’s all very mixed emotions around here!

Anyway… what’s been happening? Well garden wise we tidied up the herb garden, I mulched the asparagus bed, pulled out the beans I had growing in the netted bed and planted some pak choy and daikon there, and I pulled out the remains of the Mini Amish tomatoes and put in some beans, artichoke, turnip, carrots, and a capsicum in there. I need a name for that bed, for now it is Bed A. In the top half I have carrots and San Marzano tomatoes – I’m not sure how good an idea it was to put carrots in with the tomatoes, but never mind. Live and learn.

One of the things I’ve been trying to do is narrow down exactly which vegetables and herbs we want to grow. and then figure out how to have a relatively good supply of those. I have a tendency to read a list of what can be grown and want to plant everything. But there’s really no point if a) we don’t eat it or b) it’s not really worth the garden space to grow it. I’m still learning but so far the list is: zucchini, eggplant, rosemary, thyme, oregano, dill, taragon, basil, chili, asparagus, beans, snow peas, capsicum, tomatoes, carrots, spring onions, chives, spinach, rocket, asian greens (pak choy, bok choy, etc).

I’ve also got a crop of garlic in that should be ready to be harvested next month I think. It’s an experiment to see if we get a reasonable crop and if it is worth the space/time or not. I put some mesh down to stop the cat from sitting there but I think something has been getting underneath it and digging as there is a hole next to a couple of the plants. But what on earth would want to eat the garlic (other than us)?

Apart from gardening I’ve been crocheting in the evenings. This is one of the baskets I made and it’s actually gone off to a customer! *squee* I’m nervous to see what she things of it – I think it should arrive by next week.

And with it being winter I cooked one of my favourites, Pulled Pork. I am a big fan of recipes where you can do one cooking session and then get several serves to put away into the freezer for times when you can’t be bothered to cook. It’s much quicker and cheaper than takeaway! I used to cook it on the oven but I tried it in the slow cooker this time and that makes it even easier and cheaper as you aren’t heating up a big oven for several hours.