Weeding

the perfect man

Recently I mentioned to a friend that we were looking for people to build a bike, a dog-proof chook fence and an irrigation system. Said friend not only knew someone to do all these jobs but it was the one guy to do the lot!

As it turns out, Rob, or Mr Fixit as he has become known in our household (apologies to Stomper Girl), won’t be building a bicycle for The Dutchman after all, but he could have.

He is building a new Boef-proof chook fence, a necessary upgrade after certain infamous events earlier this year. He is also building an irrigation system for our raised veggie beds. We’ve been using our veggie beds for a few years now and I just can’t face one more summer of endless hand-watering. Now that we have 13000 L of water in our tanks an irrigation system is next on my wish-list.

Our chook fence is being built using a nice iron screen I found in a skip, split sleepers and other bits and pieces. Great progress has been made in just a few days and it looks like we may be ready for spring after all. Mr Fixit also brings Stella, his kelpie-cross, with him and she provides Boef with hours of entertainment and company. Everyone is happy!

Greens

We’ve been enjoying grapes for weeks now but this week they are literally falling from the sky (the grape is growing on a pergola). They have reached peak ripeness and even though we have shared several kilos with friends, family, possums and birds we are struggling to get through them all. Who’d have thought? Boef has taken to hoovering all those that lie on the ground, luckily, so far, without going into renal failure. It’s difficult to get them all picked up before he finds them, especially if we’re out for a few hours.

For the first time I also have Amaranth in the garden. It’s very handsome and grew almost wild from some seeds a woman at the local nursery pulled from a plant and stuffed in my bag. I scattered these at random so it’s great to see some have come up. But how do I harvest it? Anyone know? For the moment I’m happy to have it as an object of beauty but I’m curious about what one would do with it and what quantities do you need for it to be useful?

Smelly stuff

For twenty-five years I’ve been planning to buy some jasmine, just as soon as I’d bought a house.

And now, in all its early-spring glory, here it is. Gracefully draping itself over the chook-shed! That reddish fluffball in the background is a chook bottom.

Just to add to the elegance of our chook shed, our quince is blossoming. I luvs me quince.

jasmine
quincelove