biodiversity at home: the benefits of indigenous plants

I'm beyond excited to say that we recently planted some indigenous grasses and ground covers in the front garden. We bought the plants over Easter from the State Flora Nursery at Belair National Park, where we were provided with a comprehensive list of plants that are indigenous to our area. I can not say enough as to just how amazing the staff were. They really were super helpful and very patient. 

Benefits of planting local natives 

• Planting local natives preventing their extinction
• Planting local promotes your local biodiversity
• Planting local suits your garden's climate perfectly (in the case of Australia this means low/no water plants)

Our new plants, in order of appearance:

1. Dianella Revoluta 
2. Lomandra Longifolia
3. Wahlenbergia Stricta
4. Isolepis nodosa 

ikea shelving, white bins and school art

When we bought the two Ikea Billy Bookcases for Kym's Hansard collection, I assumed I'd paint them in the same Blue Ink of the panelled wall to help the books hide sink in to the wall. After a lot of advice from friends, we've decided to leave the shelves white... for now. 

I'm still holding on to the paint in case I change my mind again. We'll wait to finish a few other changes to the living space which may help them settle in more comfortably.

In the meantime, we bought two white bins from ikea to store paper and wood for the fire, which I am completely in love with. 

I've also switched the art on the right side of the wall to a piece I did in my final year of school! I've waited for somewhere it would 'work' and think I may have finally found it! 

What small updates have you been making around the home? 

grow write guild: describe your garden right now

Our garden was well established when we moved in, but some of those 'established' plants are now aged and weary. The garden waits for a new lease on life, for new plants and new beginnings, but this is all on hold until we start finish putting up new retaining walls.

Where some parts of the garden represent achievement and change, like the vegetable plots, fruit trees and chicken run, other parts are bare, dormant until their time comes.

Our garden is greening up with the coming of winter, which I suspect is a bizarre concept to those in the northern hemisphere. Our summers are hot and dry, our plants struggle and leaves turn brown. Autumn has brought a few heavy showers and cooler days, giving the plants time for healing as they remind me of nature's amazing resilience. 

The cooler weather also brings weeds. From our front door I see sour sobs attempting to make their mark. I see leaves shedding from the deciduous trees and new growth on native shrubs. Autumn is like that. 

My little gardener heart jumps a beat or two every time I see new growth on the plants we've added to this grown-up garden, and I look forward to caring for it in a big way through building it new retaining walls. I hope that with new structures and plantings the garden will have a greater representation of us. 

This post was part of You Grow Girl's Grow Write Guild.

garage makeover: pegboard tool storage

We are slowly making progress on the garage, with our pegboard tool storage finally up! Kym's parents gave us a couple of pegboards they had lying around and we used screws we already had. The only financial cost was a 'top up' of pegboard hooks totalling $6.50!

A few lessons from our pegboard project: 

Ask around: See if you can get something secondhand before spending money on the 'unnecessary new'.

Borrow tools you don't already own: We borrowed a couple of drill bits for this project, as it seemed a waste of money to purchase special tools we'd use only once.

Use what you have: We used mismatching nails we already had to hold the pegboards up, knowing this achieved the same goal (and we'd be the only ones who would notice the difference).

What's left to do? 

1. Send the two large wardrobes to the Salvos (cheat: I did this before our recent holiday)
2. Organise tools and give all 'doubles' and 'triples' to the Salvos (we have about three sets of tools from those passed down to us from family) 
3. Put a pegboard up on the wall to store the smaller tools
4. Find a suitable place for the bureau inside the house (it's taking up all kinds of room in the garage and isn't being used to store anything) 
5. Organise hard rubbish collection with our local council (we desperately need a junk collection session sooooooooon for that stained carpet and disassembled furniture!) 
6. Implement a new garage storage system... shallow, open shelving is my preferred option for tools that can't hang on the pegboard (e.g. sander, drills, plant pots). 
7. Take all the bottles/cans to the recycling depot
8. Sell the weights bench
9. Find a new home for the mini-fridge (we're looking after it for someone else)
10. Finish re-upholstering the 30's chairs so they can live inside the house
11. Get an electrician in to check the power point and light (we're concerned they were a home job by previous owners and not entirely safe)
12. FInd a permanent and more practical home for the garden tools to leave more room in the garage for house and car tools (and maybe one day even a car *gasp*)

Progress is happening, even with some new tasks added! 

We have some added motivation because we need space in the garage to temporarily store materials for our retaining walls as we work on those. Nothing like a second incentive to finish a job, even if it is going to re-fill the garage with project materials! Thankfully, the retaining wall project has a deadline as they are so desperate to be replaced! 

What did you do this ANZAC weekend? 

weather girl goes rogue and reports on climate change

take earth out for a picnic this april

Are you joining in Earth Day celebrations this April? Earth Day is officially 22nd April and The Nature Conservancy are encouraging people all over the world to Picnic for Earth any day this month.

What are the requirements? Spend a meal outdoors, invite who you like and encourage them to source sustainable and local food to share. There's so much amazing food grown, raised and made in Australia (SA has stacks of amazing wineries to boot) so this shouldn't be too hard. Earth Day is about celebrating the amazing planet we've been given, so the last requirement is... HAVE FUN!

To find out more, visit the official earth day page here.

Happy Earth Day!

Kate xx

grow write guild: my dream garden

I'm joining You Grow Girl's Grow Write Guild for the first time, and this week's topic is dream garden. Before I start, I'm keen to note that in my dream garden I am also a dream gardener, with a wealth of knowledge, skills and experience to pull this dream garden off.

My dream garden sits on a 1-2 acre property, with my dream house in the centre. It is primarily a productive garden, built on the principles of permaculture. Every metre of ground is used purposefully and thoughtfully.

The garden has a small orchard of dwarf fruit trees providing ample fruit throughout the year. There are a few raised vegetable beds rotated with new veggies each season, providing enough vegetables for our needs. All the perennials (ginger, asparagus, rhubarb, rocket) sit separately and there are pots and plantings of companion flowers everywhere. As an artist, I'd have a few sculptures throughout the garden, as well as places to sit and watch, ponder, draw. There'd be a small area of lawn for entertaining and spending lazy afternoons. The garden would also host a zone of local natives and indigenous plantings to support local biodiversity and encourage local animal and insect species to wander. Close to the house would be a kitchen herb garden and a wood fire oven.

The garden would be fully sustainable, watered solely on rain and grey water, the structures made of reclaimed and repurposed brick, stone and wood. Vegetables would be heirloom varieties, and seeds from each season would be saved for the following year. We'd use green waste to feed our chickens in return for eggs and worms for fertiliser. Fallen branches and fast growing trees would be used for wood to heat our home and cook with our outdoor wood oven. Maybe we'd have a couple of goats for milk.

DREAM GARDEN BLISS.

What's your dream garden? Do you have a green thumb (or like me, wish you did)? Do you prefer a garden-less lifestyle?