What A Difference A Day Makes

Well, well! Thank goodness for the Kevin Rudd Surf Team, as I now have time to throw myself headfirst into the gardening before it gets too hot (= vegetables for Christmas lunch... maybe) and a major working bee was had yesterday from midday onwards. Remember what the back yard looked like before? Check it out after a day fuelled by Huggie on Gold FM with the radio sticking out of the bathroom window:

But as Talking Heads said, how did I get here? Well, I'm glad you asked. The first star of this amazing makeover has to be my trusty mini-greenhouse. Bought from Bunnings many years ago for about $25, it's moved with me from house to house and is a fabulous way to raise seeds and oompf-up seedlings before planting them. Smile for the camera:

I keep bowls of water at the base of the house, mainly to keep the climate humid, but also to catch any runoff from watering and save it for use somewhere else in the garden.

And inside, its precious cargo:

As you can see, I've currently got some rocket and basil seeds coming up. The parsley seems to have gone dormant but that's not much of a drama. Today I'll be sowing some carrots and zucchinis, too.

Back to the garden! Upon consultation with a Bunnings fellow who had not one but eleven Outstanding Customer Service medals on his apron, I decided that building up the plots would be a) too expensive and b) take longer than I'd like, so we decided upon doing a modified version of the 'rows' mounded up by commercial growers. Here they are in the beginning stages:

I stomped down the 'walkways' between them and laid in some wet newspaper and mulch/tanbark from the front yard (yes, Super Mario's "pruning" leftovers), patting it up the sides for a little extra strength. Then I dug in some organic potting mix at the top of the rows to give the prepared soil a little sum'n sum'n:

Then the vegetables started going in! Above you can see the three tomato varieties that I've been bringing up in the greenhouse, and some baby corns along the back. That wall (photo taken at 6pm) gets sunlight for the bulk of the day and will be great for sun-loving vegetable frenz. I have some potted chives for companion planting, as well as some insect-repellent pelargoniums nearby. Eventually the basil will go between the tomatoes and the corn.

Finally, as you saw in the first photo, the pea straw went on and one third of the backyard was finito! Now it's time to enjoy my favourite bit of compost bag artwork ever:

More updates after today's continued working bee!