Seed ordering ticked off the "to do" list

I've been procrastinating for ages about ordering seeds. Here in New Zealand we have a fabulous site called Trade Me where you can sell things you don't need and buy things you do need. One of the sellers lives in Christchurch too, and specialises in heirloom seeds. I figured this would be great as they are grown in the same conditions that I will be growing them in. They offer bulk deals and I thought I'd be able to get away with their 20 lots of seed for a special price. Think again, I ended up going with the 30 lots of seed, and that was a struggle.

I wanted to get some interesting heirloom tomato seeds and these are some of the ones I narrowed my list down to:

Tomato Black Elephant

Tomato Green Zebra

Tomato Black Krim

Tomato Believe it or Not

Don't they look exciting and exotic. I can't wait for them to be delivered and make a start. I've quizzed Mr SFP as to if he'll be keen to eat a black tomato. He said yes, but then asked me if it was REALLY going to be black?? Yes, sweetie it will be.

If you're interested here is the whole of my list:

1. Tomato Black Elephant
2. Tomato Green Zebra
3. Tomato Sub Arctic Plenty
4. Tomato Dr Walter
5. Tomato San Marzano
6. Tomato Believe it or Not
7. Tomato Abraham Lincoln
8. Tomato Black Krim
9. Tomato Baxter Bush Cherry
10. Chilli Ancho
11. Lettuce Heirloom Buttercrunch
12. Lettuce Salad Trim
13. Sunflower Giant
14. Bergamot Bee Balm
15. Bean White Lady Runner
16. Bean Top Crop
17. Pea Easrly Massey
18. Zuchini Black Beauty
19. Pepper Topepo Rosso
20. Onion Red Amposta
21. Spinach Santana
22. Black Cumin
23. Cucumber Spacesaver
24. Cucumber Market More
25. Basil Fino Verde
26. Onion Stuttgart
27. Phacelia Tanacetifolia
28. Carrot Mini Sweet
29. Beetroot Cylindra
30. Chives

Well, I'm committed now, and hopefully I'll be a successful seed raiser.

Talk soon Mrs SFP XXX

More from the garden trenches.......

Well, I couldn't do much in the garden last weekend as my green bin full of weeds missed it's weekly collection. This weekend was a different story.

Saturday I put away a load of wood for Mr SFP as he was studying. We have had a particularly cold winter in Christchurch and had run out of wood for the log burner. As we were expecting a lot of wet weather this week I didn't want to get caught out. Very satisfying to see it stacked in the wood shed- made Mr SFP go and admire it. A little dark in the shed for a picture.

Sunday after Church I donned my gardening clothes, gumboots and rolled up my sleeves. I've decided to try and concentrate on one small area at a time. I'm in awe of gardeners who have every part of their gardens organised, utilised and neat and tidy. I have such a long way to go, but am looking at the small, rather than the big picture. I worked on the garden where we have 2 feijoa trees which are in front of my compost bins. They reward us with a fabulous crop each year for very little effort on my part.

Feijoa trees

I trimmed the trees away from the washing line and compost bins and mulched under them with pea straw- they look much tidier now. I mulched the foliage in my muncher- amazing how a wheelbarrow full of branches becomes a small basket full of goodness.

Compost bins- see the horse poo.

One job in the garden always seems to make another. I then needed to reorganise the compost bins so I could add the munchings. So I turned the middle one into the end one and covered it with pea straw and some weed mat. Mrs HMM needs some worms for her worm farm and I was happy to see there were hundreds of wiggling ones there. Told her we would have a worm hunt on Friday when she comes to craft. We have got a lot braver at handling worms since our first attempts. Started the new bin with the munchings and the horse poo collected earler in the year.

Chicken corner

My big news of the year is that we're seriously thinking about getting some chickens. Since having bantams and chickens growing up, I've always wanted to have some of my own. We have a HUGE convolvulus problem in this area which should be the vegetable garden. In the past few years it's gotten away from me to the point of despair. I've now decided to move the vegetable garden to an area without convolvulus which means this can be chook corner. Hope chickens enjoy eating convolvulous!! Next step is getting a friend to help us build an enclosure and chook house, I can't wait!!

Beans are up

I'm also excited that my beans are up. To date all are up, except for one. This is my first real attempt at seed raising and it's definitely given me confidence to keep going. It's still a miracle to me that you can plant seeds, raise plants and get food from them. I'm a true believer. Mrs HMM and I will be scouring seed catalogues for tomato seeds to plant in August.

Blueberry plant

I treated myself to a visit to the garden centre today- one of my favourite places to shop. Decided I would invest in another blueberry plant. I have one and harvested 2 blueberries last year. Hope to do better with another plant, maybe enough for a muffin this year.

Well that's my garden round up. I must admit I'm very excited about my new adventure. I go to sleep with gardening books next to the bed and gardening dreams.

TTFN Mrs SFP XXX

Oops it's been a while, sorry

Sorry, I know it's been a while since I last blogged. I seem to have gotten bogged down by life, Winter and reading other people's amazing blogs. Everybody else always seems to have a clear vision about what the purpose of their blog is. I haven't got to there yet. I guess to some point I want it to be about my journey to a more purposeful and sustainable lifestyle. I realise the planet is in big trouble and we all need to be responsible and reduce our carbon footprints. I've always wanted to have a proper grown up vegetable garden that helps supplement our families diet. So, to that end this in part will be a diary of my adventures in the backyard.

Welcome to my new follower Miriam from Make it Give It- let it Shine. I read your blog every day and it always leaves me feeling a little lighter :-).

It was a beautiful day here in Christchurch, New Zealand today. A little surprising for this time of the year, being Winter. I spent the morning doing some sewing on an order I need to get finished. After lunch I treated myself to a distraction and went to our local plant nursery. One of my favourite places to hang out after the library and Spotlight LOL. I was after some broad bean seedlings to replace the ones that the dogs had destroyed. Alas there were none to be had. So, I made do with some pretty rainbow silverbeet and some seed raising mix.

When I came home I made use of the empty toilet rolls I have been saving for the last few months and planted some broad bean seeds. Much more economical than buying seedlings

 

Planted broad bean seeds.

Each year I mean to plant my own seeds and I always procrastinate and the season passes me by. I grew up with a wonderful Dad who was a great gardener/handyman and nothing was ever a problem.......he just did it. Didn't think that he couldn't, didn't google it, look at You Tube, just did. So, from now on that will be my motto, just do it!! I often feel Dad's keeping an eye on me as I potter about the garden.

After that, I thought of a few more things I could do. I planted out my rainbow silverbeet in one of my raised beds and covered them with hoops and a bit of netting to stop the dogs, hopefully. I'm always very good at buying plants.......and never planting them. Not anymore.

Raised bed, neat and tidy. Potatoes in a tyre- left overs gone to seed.

I also had a weed out of some of the tyres I have filled with dirt and added some pretty pea straw. The rhubarb is starting to come away again and will benefit from the horse poo I added.

Can't wait for some desserts using it. Confession- in all of the 16 or so years we have lived here, I have only cooked it up a couple of times. Bad person, just do it!!

Blueberry, blackberry, rhubarb and mint.

The 2 empty tyres will be for garlic, I know they should have been planted sooner, I guess I didn't "just do it", but I will tomorrow.

I have made progress here- I'm getting it ready for 2 raised beds.

The small back lawn doesn't look much different, but I have disposed of and mulched quite a bit here, believe me. The grass has died off, and was never very good anyway. With 2 dogs, there's not much chance of replanting a lawn. So I've decided to buy a couple more raised beds and turn it into a food productive area, how exciting!!

I've been totally inspired by Gavin's blog and philosphy over at "The Greening of Gavin". Wow, what an environmental super star. Reading his blog this afternoon prompted my visit to the garden centre. I just wanted to get something planted in the ground. I am reading my way through his blog from the start and eagerly awaiting new posts. Well worth adding Gavin to your list of blogs to visit.

Hopefully with the nicer weather, inspiring blogs and partner in crime in the garden Mrs HMM, I'll be blogging my garden revolution more regularly.

Mrs SFP XXX