Mrs Goggins

Well this is it, I finally took the plunge and our family is now the proud owner of one young cat.

I really wasn't sure about getting a cat. I am a dog person, a sucker for a little puppy, and have never really been attracted to cats in general. Particular cats yes, but not cats as a rule.

But the boys are cat crazy. At every friend's house with a cat Felix would invariably hunt down their moggy and triumphantly parade around the house holding the poor creature of his affection right around the stomach, cat almost folded in half.

And they are loving Mrs Goggins. We got her last night, and Luka was up until 10pm, following her around, taking her to her water and generally exclaiming over any move she made.

"Mummy! Mummy!"

"What is it?"

"Mrs Goggins is on the couch, quick, come look!"

"Mummy, Mummy!"

"Yes?"

"Mrs Goggins is drinking water!"

And despite not being a cat person, I must admit, I am finding Mrs Goggins particularly appealing.

Figging Brilliant

With all the moaning and complaining I've been subjecting you all to lately, I thought I'd better show you something good that's come out of all this rain.

The fig tree is figging.

The fig tree has figged before, but that was a sad sad story... I pointed out the lovely half grown figs to the boys, and Felix took it upon himself to help mummy and pick them for dinner. I was close to crying over those figs.

So this year, I am not saying anything to either of the boys. There are quite a few little fig buds on the tree, maybe 7 or 8, and as long as they don't get Felixed, I have high hopes for them.

The one thing I am a little worried about however, is the fig tree itself. A few months ago, you might remember that I told you about my "dwarf" fig tree... well, I reread the plastic tag on little Black Genoa, and it's no dwarf.

My non dwarf fig tree is planted in an area of relatively limited growth potential. That is, my neighbours are not going to love having my fig invade their garden.

Hmm... good luck little figs.

26 Days of Planting: C is for Coffee

It would have been better if this photo had been in focus, but I really loved the green in the background and try as I might, I couldn't capture the same colour again. So an out of focus coffee plant you have.

Or a coffee plant photo taken after one too many coffees?

I don't actually drink coffee. I did when I was younger and lived in Europe, I thought myself very chic, and it wasn't until a long time later that I realised coffee made me feel sick in the stomach. So I stopped drinking it and now I am strictly a tea lass. And I love a good cup of tea.

But there weren't selling tea at that enormous hardware store we all know, they were selling coffee plants. I needed the letter C for my gardening project, and so a coffee plant is exactly what I bought.

I've no idea how it will do here. I am relatively sure though that I saw someone else in Brisbane growing them on BLF, so hopefully coffee beans will eventuate for me too. I do still love the smell of a good coffee, and I do sometimes wish I still drank it, but in the interests of a happy tummy, I content myself with olfactory pleasures only.

I am hoping to make chocolate covered beans from this bush. I'm reasonably confident I'll be able to bring myself to eat them.

From what little I know about growing coffee, they are an understorey plant, and so appreciate a bit of shelter. I also remember seeing banana plants all around coffee plantations in Brazil, and I think they use the bananas to act as a windbreak.

So I thought I'd pop this coffee plant in next to some banana trees, and try to recreate a little bit of South America for it.

Do you think it worked?

The Great Chicken Save

I think I mentioned yesterday that I had a chicken story.

To set the scene, please, take a look at the photo above. This is our chicken coop. It's not the first time it's flooded, and I'm sure it won't be the last. And compared to some people in Queensland at the moment, this is nothing. But if you would, please take a good look at the photo, just to get an idea of where I am trying to lead you with this story.

Now I don't have any photos of the dramatic events that took place on that rainy afternoon, and perhaps even if I did, I wouldn't post them. Why, you ask me? Well listen to my story and you'll see.

The Great Chicken Save

I sensed even before we pulled into our driveway that there would be some sort of Enormous Chicken Mission waiting for us. It had rained non-stop for nearly three days, and the coop was sure to be flooded... and the chickens, well, they have the brains of a fluffy, domesticated bird, through no fault of their own I am sure.

They were wet and standing in the water when we found them. They like to perch outside as a rule and weren't budging to get under cover.

I knew what needed to be done. Out into the pelting rain I ventured, intent on The Great Chicken Mission. Clad in my pyjama shorts and plastic shoes, I braved the flooded coop to grab the chickens and put them under cover. The two big chickens removals were fine, and I placed them out of the floodwaters in their favourite place near the house, a spot that they like and is warm and dry.

The little bantam removal however, was a different story.

Before I launch into it however, there is something I'd like you to keep in mind.

I keep all my manure in a bay in the coop to let it age. The chickens scratch around in it and break it down, it works really well. Of course this too was under water, and to get to the bantam I had to wade my way through it. I was trying not to think of it when the gunk flowed in through the holes of my flimsy crocs, because I had my hands on the prize, the bantam.

As I turned around, near knee deep in the flooded manure heap, I miscalculated my step and started to fall. With a delicate, wet chicken in my hands...

I couldn't save myself. In the split second that I understood that I was going to fall, I knew that if I landed on the chicken it would be her last day in this rain filled world.

Instinctively I held her up and out, away from my body, and then took the fall, chest and elbows first into the muck. Face and all. As my scrunched up mouth spat out bits of mud, and muck, and manure, I looked up, and grasped gently in my hands was the bantam, safe and sound.

One unsquashed but pretty freaked out chicken.

I took a lovely long hot shower throwing all 4 minute water restrictions to the wind and went out onto the deck to see how they were doing... three little chickens, lovely and dry and sheltered from the rain.

Face first into the muck, they'd better lay well next year.

I Learnt a New Trick...

And I think I'm going to drive you all barmy now that I have discovered how to do a photo collage.

With all this rain there really isn't much to photograph in the garden. There are one or two developments that I am very excited about (almost as excited as I am about being able to make collages out of photos now), and when I get a moment of writing inspiration I will sit down and tell the Massive Chicken Mission story.

It is still wet and soggy (and raining, although I can't hardly bear to think of the word) outside this morning, so the boys and I are kind of stuck indoors. When they've really messed up the house to their satisfaction though, we'll go for a splash in our new grass bottom pool.

So for the moment, I'm just going to have to play with photos I've already got. And I'm going to collage the britches out of this blog.

Thank Goodness It's Rhubarb

Well Christmas is all over and the boys and I are back home again... I hope you all had wonderful days with lots and lots of good food and good cheer.

We spent our Christmas down on the Gold Coast with my parents, and as usual I have come back as full as a goog (I've really no idea how to spell that). My mum likes to feed her people up.

So apart from a massive chicken mission (rain+chicken coop= swimming pool), I haven't really looked around the garden for a few days. It's still raining as I type, quelle surprise, so it doesn't look like much happened while we were away. But whilst on the massive chicken mission, I did notice something.

I trudged back inside to get my camera, and this photo is for Esther and Mark.

Remember the rhubarb?

I was a bit worried after your comments on the leaves not looking particularly rhubarbesque. And when I googled rhubarb images I realised that the seedlings looked nothing like rhubarb. Apart from the red stems. I was getting worried about what on earth my bizzare seedlings were.

But all that worry was in vain. Here's a photo of a new leaf.

Now it looks like rhubarb.

Thank Goodness, I could not go through another episode of look at my watermelon, oops sorry, that's a zucchini.

Merry Holidays People!

Merry Christmas Blogland

See you soon.

26 Days of Planting: F is for Five Spice

I don't really know much (ie anything) about this herb. This cutting was part of a bouquet given to me by my friend Stacey, she has it growing everywhere in her garden. Googling it produces heaps of alternative names, Mother of Herb, Country Borage and Three in One to name a few, but Stacey called it Five Spice, so that's what I'm calling it too.

Five Spice is a little bit fabulous. Its leaves are fat and furry, every time I go into the kitchen where I have it sitting in water I need to touch the leaves. And of course touching it releases its lovely lovely aroma. I can't really explain what it smells like, other than to say it smells like a herb... does that help?

I wasn't sure how to treat Five Spice, so I stuck it in a vase of water. That was last Thursday, so a week ago now. And if I am not mistaken, Five Spice is shooting teeny tiny roots from the stalk under the water.

I haven't tried to shoot anything in water before, and I am not sure at what stage I am to plant this out. I want to do it right, because I am quite excited about Five Spice, and don't want to kill it. I have read, although am skeptical, that apart from culinary uses, a leaf steeped in boiling water will send you to sleep.

I'd like to try that.

Though not on the children of course.

Pumpkins or Presents?

It was a choice between venturing out Christmas shopping or writing a blog post tonight, and for the moment, pumpkins win out.

I don't really love shopping. I don't hate it, but shopping for presents I find blooming hard. Everyone is so difficult. Not the children, they are easy. Small children want everything. Not one special thing, but any thing you might think of to wrap up for them, yep, they want it. Potato peeler, yep. That wrapper on the ground, yep.

But big people... what a pain.

"Mum, would you like a pair of gardening gloves?"

"Got 'em."

"How about plastic shoes for the camping showers?"

"Got thongs."

"A welcome mat?"

"Nope, got one."

"Well what would you like then?"

"A small plastic chopping board."

Wonderful.

You can see why I chose pumpkins.

I am worried about them. It's almost Christmas day and it's freezing blooming cold. I am wearing a pair of tracksuit pants. In summer. In Brisbane. It's been raining near on every day for months, and there is not a single surviving pumpkin on the pumpkin vines. We just saw the weather forecast and there's rain predicted for the next seven days. Welcome to the Soggy State.

They are trying hard, but it's so wet, the pumpkins are getting nowhere.

Is there any hope for pumpkin soup?

26 days of Planting: S is for Sunflower

So the sunflowers have grown, bloomed (blossomed?), drooped, had the chop, and are now drying... so... now what do I do with them?

Elaine from BLF has suggested that I soak the seeds and grow sprouts, and I am thinking that is a pretty good idea. It also takes care of the S for Sunflower, because soaking, growing and eating is planting in my book. So some of these sunflowers will be turned into sprouts. Which is wonderful. But I planted around 40 of these decidedly lovely flowers. I question my ability to enjoy the sprouts of 40 of them.

I did discover another use for them, and it's really very simple.

You need:

Two sunflowers, two children, two bowls.

Give one sunflower to each child.

Give one bowl to each child.

Tell them it's a competition.

First to remove all seeds wins.

Do this outside.

Gets messy.

They lose interest halfway.

Produces at least 10 minutes of distraction, which in my humble opinion, makes this use of sunflower seeds far superior to any other I have seen so far.

With that in mind, I am off to scour the net for other uses of sunflower seeds, hopefully most of them edible. I'll keep you posted. Ooo that's funny. Literally.

26 Days of Planting: G is for Ginger

Can I just start by saying that it was actually sunny today? Because this year, the sunshine state we are not. The pouring down every blooming day state, yes. The roof leaking state, yes. And we certainly all have swimming pools in our backyards. All this rain is making me a leetle nutty.

So as my mind thinks of nutty raining things, I am naturally leaning towards plants that can cope with tropical jungle like conditions and nutty owners. And I am hoping that the lovely Thai Ginger fits the bill.

Thai Ginger is also known as galangal and is commonly used in Thai and Indonesian cooking. According to his little ticket TG will grow to 1.5 metres, likes full sun to part shade and also sported the winning blurb, "Once established, requires little maintenance."

So let's get established. I dug, fertilised, watered and mulched. That's established, isn't it? I'm not sure at what point I can start digging up the rhizomes and get cooking, but presumably that's what you do once establishment takes place. Maybe in a year?

I think it looks a lot like a peace lily... I hope I haven't been plant-conned. Presumably when I get cooking I'll be able to tell the difference. Although who knows, it's possible that peace lilies are delicious too.

I love plants that send up those tubey shoots from a rhizome. They seem to be able to take a lot, and once established, there's no getting rid of them. That's my kind of plant.

Apart from being decidedly delicious in soups and whatnot, the rhizome of Thai Ginger is also reputed to have all sorts of medicinal uses. According to the Tropilab Inc website, it can be used to treat anything from bad breath and ulcers to whooping cough and rheumatism.

What's not to love about Thai Ginger?

Carrots and The Life Aquatic

I learnt something about interesting about carrots today. Did you know that they are not an aquatic vegetable?

Nope. they're not.

The water table in our yard has just given up. I can't believe the amount of rain that we have already had, and the amount of water that just keeps on coming. Everything is sopping wet, our yard acts as a bit of a bowl so it all just comes flooding down towards us and then overflows and rushes through under our house. The chickens have a duck pond, there are buckets out under leaks in the roof, and the vegetables, well, you can see my poor carrot.

It's not all bad though. The fruit trees are fabulously happy, as are the strawberries. The banana trees are growing exponentially, and it even looks as though the eggplants are happy. And that's not something that happens very often here.

Next year I will put the carrots in a different type of position, a much higher bed for drainage and maybe even a little sand in the soil. So all is not lost, because today, I feel like I Learnt Something.

I also know that in a couple of months when it's stopped raining I'll start complaining and asking where all the water's gone.

Twigz Giveaway Winner

Congratulations to comment number 2, Suzanne from Enchanted Moments!

Please email me on alikxy@hotmail.com with your postal address, and I'll get it to Chris from Twigz asap.

With some posting luck your wonderful prize will be there by Christmas.

Thank you so much to everyone who showed interest in the competition, I was bowled over by the response and all your lovely comments. I can't wait to do another one. Enjoy your Sunday marvellous people!

As Tutu As it Gets

It's my staff work party tonight, and I promised you a tutu... it's not quite there, but tiered baby pink netting is a pretty close match.

I love a good party, and the staff where I work are a brilliant bunch... I'm very lucky to adore the people I work with, although I probably blather on too much for their liking... but tonight we will eat, drink and be very merry, and hopefully someone will do something that we'll remember for a long time.

Equally hopefully that someone won't be me.

Merry Christmas Party everyone.

What's Wrong with my Corn?

My corn is going to pot... I've always done well with corn in the past, but this crop look terrible.

The corn in the photo below is fine, and it's growing across the path from the dodgy stuff. I would have said the soil, but it's the same soil on both sides of the path, I put it there myself. Is it the mondo grass taking away from it? There is mondo on the other side next to the good corn too though.

I've got no idea what's wrong. The leaves are going brown,

bizarre cobs are forming way too early, and the corn is only knee high and on very thin stalks.

It just looks dodgy all round... and I don't think it's going to get any better. But I am not sure if I can bring myself to just rip it all out. I was looking forward to it :(

What on earth is wrong with my corn?

26 Days of Planting: B is for Blueberry

And coincidentally, ballet...

Yep, I went to the ballet last night. To see The Nutcracker, which contrary to popular belief, ie mine, does not feature squirrels. It was a bit fabulous, the costumes, the set and of course the ballerinas. I cannot go past a good tutu, and I'd give quite a lot for it to be socially acceptable to wear one in public. Like to the shops and stuff, popping out for bread and milk. Don your tutu and swift feet all the way to the store.

Anyway, back to more concrete matters. It is bucketing down outside, huge fat droplets of water splattering everywhere... it's hard to imagine that we have problems with water over here, it's been like a tropical jungle for months now. A lot of the vegetables are rotting away, but not my awesome new blueberry!

I'm sure I've been told not to buy trees that already have fruit on them from the nursery, but seeing as this one is to be kept in its pot then I can't see any harm. Anyway, I like to see a bit of proof that fruit might actually happen.

This kind of blueberry (Sharpeblue) is one that is allowed to fruit in the first year, with other kinds I think you are supposed to pinch out the flowers and wait until the second year to allow a crop to grow. It's also supposed to love to grow in containers, specifically the one that it's sold in.

I am not very great with plants in pots. I forget to water them, or I remember but then I get distracted, but I am going to make a big effort with this one. It doesn't go into a bigger pot for another 12 - 18 months though, I don't know how I am going to resist the temptation to repot... I love repotting. It makes me feel like I am doing a Good Deed. For the plant I mean, it can't be comfortable to be all scrunched up in a pot, and the repotting makes me feel like I am gifting the plant with root freedom.

Oh the ballet has sent my creative thoughts flying.

This morning I told my neighbour that I had gone to see The Nutcracker, and she replied, "oh how lovely, that's Tchaikovsky, isn't it, isn't his music wonderful?" She's not the first to have mentioned good old Pytor when I brought up the ballet I was seeing either.

Tell me, how do people know these things? And much more worryingly, why did everyone else know this apart from me?

26 Days of Planting: R is for Rhubarb

I couldn't resist this lovely lovely plant... I know it's completely the wrong time for this to happen, I know it probably won't work out between us, but there is no going back now, it was love at first sight.

It just looked so healthy and perfect. The fresh green of the leaves irresistibly appealing, the unblemished surfaces a compelling argument for their purchase, it was softly and quietly faultless amongst the crowd.

So I bought the rhubarb. It really did look so much nicer than anything else at the nursery, and so many things in my own garden are battered and rotting from all this rain. Baby pumpkins are falling off the vine, the tomatoes have given up the will to help me transform them into jam, even most of the cucumbers have succumbed under the attack of the ladybugs.

I've got no idea how it's going to go. On my Digger's planting guide it says to plant rhubarb in May in the subtropics, so I'm well and truly in queue for that boat. I have read that they are a perennial though, so surely it's worth a try.

It looks happy. Planted out in the shade under the watchful eye of the chickens, nestled in between some beans and lettuce.

I can only hope to be eating rhubarb pie come winter.

Possum Magic

I am pretty sure that I deserve some sort of medal for bravery... last night, at three o'clock in the morning, I heard a noise in the kitchen, and I went to investigate. Straight up, no baseball bat, no torch, no dithering, I got up, put on my slippers and faced the intruder with nothing but bed hair as my weapon.

The noise wasn't just a little rodent like sound either, it was the big bold sound of a coffee mug breaking. But I obviously don't watch enough CSI, because I strode into the kitchen in my uggs, ready to bop the intruder on the head for interrupting my sleep.

And saw this little cutie sitting on top of the kitchen window. Isn't he lovely? We both sat there we two, just looking at each other for a while, before he'd had enough and hopped up onto the roof... I say hopped, but I should perhaps say struggled. Either he's eaten too many tim tams, or he'd gotten into the neighbour's home brew. He resembled a fat child trying to get over a high fence, who knows how these creatures manage to cross the high wires so gracefully.

After quite a number of attempts, he did make it off the frame eventually.

Where Are the Eggs?

We built the chickens a new coop the other day... it's a little bit spectacular but unfortunately I didn't quite match its spectacularity in my photography... anyway, since the new coop, we've had one egg in the box, and that's it.

I've searched high and low around their yard, and I can't find anything... it's been a week now since we've had any eggs - do you think they've just up and stopped laying?

26 Days of Planting: A is for Acerola

I had intended to post about something else today, but when little Malpighia Glabra turned up this morning I got excited and started snapping away. And anyway, it fits well with the letter A.

And plenty more letters it seems, among other names Acerola is also known as Barbados Cherry and Wild Crapemyrtle. It would have been way handier if it started with an X though, that would solve a posting problem or two.

You can see where the cherry tag comes in, the fruit looks a lot like one. Unfortunately the fruit pictured above is not on my Acerola, but I'm hoping it will get there.

This is my Acerola. It's a dwarf variety, or that's what the sticker slapped on its tag says, but I think with good pruning you can keep them at 2 metres anyway. If you take dwarf as meaning when you buy it it's very small, then that certainly fits... Now that's cynical.

When I looked up Acerola on the net, most of the information there is about the health benefits of the fruit. It's become rather fashionable as a bit of a wonder fruit, and you can read all kinds of things about it, from curing headaches to reversing the aging process. So if I start to look remarkably like a spritely 12 year old, you'll know I've been popping berries.

I'd just like it to taste good on toast. Apparently the fruit can be a bit tart, so if this little one ever reaches fruiting stage, I'd love to try making jam out of it.

So that's the letter A planted, mulched and watered... 2 down, 24 to go.

26 Days of Planting: W is for Watermelon

"It's time to wind things up in the garden for the year", said my dad a few weeks ago. "It's getting too hot to plant, too hot to be outside, and the bugs are on the munch (dad didn't quite put it like that). I'll start up again with the veggies in February."

I am not very good at winding down. When I am enthusiastic about something I want to go go go... unless you put cake in front of me, I find it very unrelaxing to sit still.

Relaxing for me is throwing myself into a project... that's how I empty my mind of worry. This summer, I don't want to wind down, I want to dig.

And our backyard is perfect for being outdoors in summer. It's cool and shady underneath, just perfect for pottering around in. The boys can play and dig, the dog can eye off the chickens, and I get to fuss over the dirt, which is easily my favourite way to pass the day. And besides, I like to sweat in the hot weather... it makes me feel alive.

So I have had a project in mind for a while, and what better time to start it than now, when I feel like getting down and dirty. Or thereabouts.

I am going to plant 26 different things over the summer, going through from A - Z. But not in order, because my quality is enthusiasm, not organisation. I want to do this because I am running out of ideas of things to grow in the garden, and a project will give me something to focus on, a goal to achieve over the summer I guess. Or at least try to achieve, I can't imagine what I am going to plant for X.

But anyway, you have to start a project somewhere, and I thought we'd start off near the end with one of my all time favourites, a big fat W for Watermelon.

I still have not managed to produce the elusive watermelon. I have had a vine flower and produce a little baby teaser, but nothing ever came of it.

At least I can identify them now, thanks to Elaine from BLF. I had been telling everyone for months to admire my watermelon, which actually turned out to be a zucchini. Nice.

These little babies have all been grown from seed, planted directly into the ground. None of them look particularly spectacular yet, I think I planted most of them a little early. For my A -Z planting project I am getting most of my ideas from this planting chart, and they say to plant watermelon now in the sub topics, but mine have been in for months already. This is perhaps why they are not doing so well. They seem much too delicate a vine to grow such a big fruit.

I think they like a good feed and water, it hasn't stopped bucketing down for months, so they are fine in that respect. I actually think some of the ones that didn't make it may have rotted, that's how wet it's been here. As for feed, just the usual from me, lots of composted cow and horse manure.

So that's it for the letter W, wonderful watermelons.

One down, 25 to go.