Over the past few days I have been suffering with a rather severe back ache. It is severely limiting my garden activity, as well as impacting the Christmas preparations. We are done in terms of gift shopping, but there is house and yard cleaning to be done. That activity is also impinging my garden time. That said I had to break my self enforced curfew today and visit the big kids toy shop Bunnings today for some supplies.
The primary reason is that the four bean seedlings that did not get trellis space at planting really need something to climb. So I managed to get two more pieces of downpipe trellis. I will be once again cable tieing these back to back and training the sprouts up the trellis. It will give the seedlings a good start. I do though have a concern that it will not be tall enough. I do though believe it would be possible to join more in a vertical position. This will require an anchor stake, something that may not be possible in a pot.
Also, we spotted some horrible little caterpillars attacking my newly fruiting beefsteak tomatoes. As such we knew that we needed to take some action immediately. Due to the nature of the holiday season, especially when hosting the family dinner, we have elected to take the easy way out. As such we purchased some chemical pyrethrum based spray to kill the pests dead. This also necessitated a garden pressure sprayer. All well and good and the tomatoes have now had the treatment. I though will be trying the suggestions from Rid Pest Control Services in the future.
We also picked up another three storage tubs to be converted into planter tubs. One, or two of these will hold the carrots, corn, and other vegetables that will be grown from seed. The others will be hosting some Australian wildflowers, gerberas, poppies, and sunflowers. These are aimed purely at attracting bees to the yard to ensure the vegetable are getting sufficient polenation. Also, they will add a splash of colour and vibrancy.
We also procured two more bags of the fantastic Rich Gro Pro Mix potting mix. This will be used for the above projects.
I will be taking a look in the worm farm soon after Christmas, as they have been busy with another litre of worm juice harvested last week. I am thus optimistic that there will also be some worm castings available to further enrich the potting mix. So I still have 5 litres available even after using it this week. Needless to say the worm juice will not go to waste and will certainly be put to good use.
Also, tonight we had a BBQ. Rump steak and sausages was the meat on offer, and it tasted great when washed down with Grolsch beer. I also managed to try the ebony fire chilli I harvested last week. Socko sliced the chillis up and licked her fingers. Socko is not a keen spice-a-holic and we could hear the effects upon her from 10 feet away after verifying that she was indeed fine I was prepared for the fire that was to come. I tried the chilli and it is definately up there in the heat steaks. The seeds had been removed for drying, and reuse next year. So I can only imagine the heat had the fire crackers been left in the chilli. I was also to try the mystery chilli, but after the ebony fire I thought better of it.
The salad that accompanied the barbecue was also nice. It contained some of the Ku Chai (garlic chives), the first time we have used it. It worked well within the simple garden salad. We also used more of the parsley, not that it looks like we have used any of the stuff, it is simply growing prolifically. No doubt it will get a hammering in the coming days across Christmas. The mint, that has gone nuts in a largish pot, will certainly be getting a hammering as Socko is going to prepare a Jamie Oliver Ezy Peezy Ginger Beer recipe. It will be good to taste, and good for the plant.
The worms are also living it up with a lot of egg shells being introduced to the general fare of salad greens and tea bags. The egg shells are coming courtesy of my mum that has moved into overdrive with preparing Christmas food. We must surely have a life times supply of short bread, rum balls and fruit mince pies in the fridge. Not to mention the White Christmas that I prepared last week. If anyone goes home hungry from our place on Christmas day then there will be something seriously amiss with them.
