My little garden.

Okay, here's the confession: I am blogging at half past ten at night because I just found His Majesty's baseball whites laying in a stinky pile on the laundry floor, and they need to be pristine again (not rancid and orange dust stained) by the morning. So, forgetting that tomorrow is 'Hell Sunday' for Nine (a show I am appearing in) and that I will probably go crazy with exhaustion, I am waiting up to finish the washing. His Majesty is, of course, off being a social butterfly somewhere, while I am in my strawberry pyjamas, bleaching the whites.

No, I complain again! Honestly, I chose to stay in tonight. We went out to a show with friends last night baby-free. Going out for me these days includes trying to eat my body weight in cheese, drinking way too much, enjoying insulting someone's girlfriend (she was being "not-very-nice"), and falling asleep in the car on the way home to crawl into bed like the living dead before 12 midnight. Had my fill of young and single this week? Hell yes I have!

Today the weather in the afternoon was particularly fine. Ava and I were putting in some beautiful heirloom tomatoes that we had luckily found at the shop, and weeding the various parts of the garden, when I was amazed at my own brilliance. Modest, I know. My garden is particularly wonderful. When we moved in, 6 months ago, it was mulch and weeds, and the owners were really happy for it to stay that way, and over the moon that I asked if I could put some veggies in.

6 months on and I have:

Parsley, Mint, Oregano, Thyme, Basil, Chives, Garlic Chives.
Oranges and Lemons (pre-existing, but still very useful!)
Silverbeet and Kale
Beetroot
Capsicum
Corn
Butternut Pumpkins
Onions
Tomatoes
Carrots
Strawberries and
Potatoes growing nice, big fat vegetables for my little family.

At the moment we are harvesting big, fat, juicy beets, BIG, waxy, royal blue potatoes and every couple of days another strawberry turns red and the girls ask if they can eat it. It makes me so proud I could almost burst.

The biggest things that has surprised me is that it has taken very little effort for so much from my back garden. Of course, my back garden is extreme, in the fact that it is all veggies. There were very few plants when we moved in, just garden beds full of mulch. The soil was fairly virgin, as the previous owners had not cared too much for the gardening. (Although, word is, that the hydroponics inside were amazing!) So, for the first month, we used roundup to kill the remaining weeds, and then let the soil rest, added veggies, loads of seasol and that was it!

For dinner we had a massive kale and facon quiche, and it tasted beautiful. (Yes, facon = fake bacon. It's not a typo.) Thank you, garden! After the watering the veggies, Ava and I ate some strawberries off the bush and pulled up some sweet baby carrots to nibble on. We cleaned up the lemons that had fallen off the tree and thought about going hunting for more potatoes (too dirty...) before we headed inside for our bath.

Growing your own vegetables saves money, is healthier, is cheap, easy, relaxing and a great learning experience for kids. Honestly, I am so impressed with myself, I could just pop. I don't know why more people don't do it.