It is going to happen!
Today I bought straw to mulch the back vege bed. Tomorrow I will give it a good water, after cleaning out the dog poop and then lay the mulch.
I have pumpkin seeds sprouting in the kitchen and it looks like the melon seeds are starting to sprout also. I'm not sure what is going on with the capsicum seeds - they are from a batch purchased a few years ago so they not be viable any more.
I think I will also make up some paper pots for zucchini seeds.
I also got some bamboo stakes to support a bag around the seedlings - hopefully that will keep the dogs away until I get the fence up.
I would really like to use pine trellis for the fence as it a bit sturdier than wire but it is a lot more costly at $19 per 1.8m length as opposed to $27 per 5m length of wire mesh fencing.
The pros for the pine: It looks better, more stable, easier to make a gate out of.
The cons for the pine: It needs to be cut into smaller sections to fit the curve of the vege beds border, cost.
The pros for the wire mesh fencing: Cheaper, can be formed to fit the curve of the bed easily.
The cons for the wire mesh: Not as stable as the pine so will need more uprights to attach it to, harder to make a gate out of, the dogs may not see it when doing laps of the yard and run into it and injure themselves.
I have yet to measure how much fencing I need, but I am guessing it will be more than 5m.
I also bought 3 strawberry plants for $4 each from a local building/garden superstore. Thought that was a good price. They can join the last remaining strawberry plant in my tower pot.
I need to dump out the pots in the front yard that had strawberries in them that died. The everlasting spinach is huge and going to seed. I also need to fill up the 6 front beds with manure and compost and straw. Though I may redo them using the no dig method - Sara Lee style - layer upon layer and then plant into the top layer of mulch by making holes in the mulch and adding in potting mix and then the seedling.
The raspberries have fruit setting!!! Now to keep the birds away as they ripen. Hubby reckons we need to net them.
The orange tree has some flowers too - hopefully we get an orange to two. Not too sure whether to leave them on the tree and see what we get or to knock them off so the plant has a change to grow and get stronger.
The Nashi Pear had flowers and then something came along and ate them - methinks it was the resident possum. I sometimes have broken stems on my roses and we hear the possum going across the roof of a night.
The apple is still not much more than a stick. I imagine it will take a few years to do much. I have been tempted to order some more apple trees.
So much I want to do and so little time to do it. I probably need to take a leaf out of my Dad's book - 1 hour a day and eventually it all gets done.
