Snapshot of my Week

Another week done and dusted.  Have achieved quite a bit at home, at my son's and in the community garden. Also spent time with my Aunt who had to have some surgery on Tuesday.

Monday: Animal Flow and a 4 km walk/jog along the beach. Another beautiful day in a beautiful setting. Did some weeding at Ross's, played with Tamara for a bit and then home to make Mango and Vanilla Jam. Tea at Aunty Marienne's - my cousin and his partner became engaged while on a cruise last week, so we had a celebratory dinner for them.

Tuesday: PT, helped Ross get washing out, dishes done and got Tamara down for her morning sleep, before heading off for acupuncture. Then I took my Aunt to have her day surgery, spent time at Currimundi Lake with Ross and the girls, even had a swim with Annika in the outflow of the lake to the sea. We had fun floating down in the current and then pretending to be some sort of fish with giant 'hand claws' that dug in to the bottom to pull ourselves back up to the starting point and begin all over again. Annika loves the water and Tamara even had a play which she enjoyed, until she decided to take a big mouthful of salty water - she was not impressed. As with most babies, Tamara managed to find the empty beer bottle Ross's mate who was with us had had. Spent the night with Aunty as she wasn't allowed to be left on her own after her surgery.

Wednesday: Animal Flow and Move class at Moffat. Back to Aunty's until 10.30 ish then off to see Leslee. She is doing really well, has even put on 4 kg in 2 weeks - the benefit of steroids to keep the swelling of the tumours in her brain down as long as possible. The steroids have given her an appetite and if you sit still too long, she may just start munching on you. This weekend she is having her "wake" which will be fun, and very sad all at the same time. Easy tea of eggy banana pancakes topped with Quark and Mango/vanilla jam.

Tomatoes ripening at community garden

Thursday: HIIT class at the gym, where my lower back gave me grief. It's been sore for two or three weeks now, stupid thing. I've lived with an "iffy" back since my late teens. Working in horticulture for 18 years didn't help. I went to water the community gardens and picked some of the beetroot which I preserved. I also made more jam.  Back up to Aunty M's for the night. She is recovering well. We had a couple of games of Rummikub, won 1 each.

Friday: I gave Beach class a miss today. I actually listened to my back for a change. Instead I went to my son's and mowed their lawns, feed and watered the chooks. Mulched my vegetable with sugar cane mulch. Spent an hour of the afternoon watching Episode one of Big Little Lies and finished knitting another dish cloth. before meeting a friend at our local tapas bar/cafe for a drink and tea.

Saturday: Gym, housework and then off to Indoor Rock climbing with the 12 week challenge crew, but more about that later. Then it was Leslee's "living wake". Lots of people there and she enjoyed catching up with friends and family. I left early to pick up a teenager who is having family issues at present and brought her home to mine for the night.

Me up the top of the wall. 

Sunday: Chill out day. Picked Purple King Beans from the self seeded ones in my garden.

Leave a Comment Beach, family, leisure, Vegetable Garden

Community Garden

A friend and her husband and myself are resurrecting the local community gardens. When I first moved to Beerwah, 3 years ago, the gardens were very productive, however it has become unused and very overgrown.

Prior to weeding. 

We started off by clearing one of the beds, harvesting sweet potatoes as we went, added manure and compost and planted it up with seedlings bought from Bunnings and some seeds I had at home. Since then, we have weeded, watered, fed with seaweed fertiliser and then yesterday I did some more planting. We now have beans, both dwarf and climbing, lettuce, eggplant, zucchini, silverbeet, spring onions, broccoli, spinach, carrots, beetroot, tomatoes, apple cucumber and capsicums growing.









Currently approximately 2/3' of this bed is planted up. This photo, to the right, shows the some of the first seedlings we planted. They are flourishing. It would appear the fact that the garden lay unused, except for weeds, probably didn't do the soil any harm. As you can see, we need to add lots more soil to the bed to get the  level raised up enough that we can easily reach the centre of the bed, without having to climb in it. Maybe, if we get enough people interested, we may be able to get some local sponsorship or some good garden soil donated. Keeping my fingers crossed.


The next step is to get the other bed cleared and keep on planting. I am setting up my little plastic growing house at home and have ordered seeds from Diggers, so I can grow the seedlings we plant. This will not only cut down the costs of the garden, but will keep our heirloom plants growing and in use. To the right is what it currently looks like. A little daunting to know where to begin!



We intend that the produce we don't use ourselves for our two families will go to the local community centre where they run Emergency Relief from for families in our area who are in need. It is way we can give back to our community in a small but meaningful way.

Leave a Comment Community, Gardening, leisure, Vegetable Garden

Vegetable garden

The soil, if you can call it that, in our yard is compacted, lacking any hummus and is, I think more subsoil than soil, hence making built up gardens. I reckon when they developed this subdivision 10 years ago, they removed all the topsoil and sold it – rotters!

My husband kindly built me a raised garden bed, about 8 m's long and 1 m wide. We filled in with "super soil", purchased from a local garden supply business - it is terrible and I'm not at all impressed with it and certainly won't be buying it again. I think it has too much clay in it, as it forms a crust on the top that water does not penetrate.  Certain plants will grow in it, like spring onions, beans, cucumber and tomatoes, but not much else. I have been digging in mulch, compost and animal manure and predict I will have to add a lot more of that to make it into a "good" soil.

I grew Blue Lake and  Purple King climbing beans along with Snake (or yard long) beans. Unfortunately black aphids decided they loved the snake beans and as I'm not a fan of using sprays on the food I am going to eat, gave up the battle and ended up pulling them out. I'll try again later with them, but grow them up a trellis instead of a teepee structure this time.

The next raised garden I am developing I have been putting grass clippings, shredded paper, hedge trimmings, animal manure and bagged compost into, in layers and now I’m letting it settle before topping it off with more bagged compost and garden soil before planting into it. I’ll have to keep topping it up after each crop until the decomposition of all the grass clippings etc finishes.

I’ve also started a “lasagna” vegetable bed in another area that used to have an above ground pool in it (previous owners of the property). I drenched the soil with water, then put down two layers of heavy cardboard, soaked that and put animal manure, mushroom and normal compost on it, a layer of rotted grass clippings and then lucerne mulch.  Pete (husband) isn’t keen on me converting that area to a permanent vegetable garden as it is right by our outdoor sitting area and he has plans for it – a fire pit and such like. Although why we need a fire pit to sit around on the tropical Sunshine Coast beats me! I’d much prefer putting in an in-ground pool.

The Banana Passionfruit is finally flowering, however they don't seem to be getting pollinated, so I will have to get out with a little paint brush and give them some assistance. I did find two small developing fruit peeking out from dying flowers - success. This is a fruit from my childhood in NZ. It brings back many happy memories of time spent with Uncle Rob, stopping on the side of the rode to pick banana passionfruit on our way to Kai Iwi Beach, and climbing up onto the ute shed where a vine grew all over it to gorge on the delicious smelling fruit – summer scents! Amazing how a scent or sight can take you back to childhood, a person or memory in less than a blink of the eye.

Leave a Comment Vegetable Garden