I'm excited about garden tools?

My new toy. A brush cutter that does start first time.

It has a full harness, safety glasses and ear muffs.

Brush cutting still isn't one of my favourite jobs (I have a friend who says he loves his brush cutter) but it just got a darn sight easier!

I had a little go today before I realised that I needed to adjust the harness to hold the weight. My arm is slightly sore tonight but I was also pulling out weeds today too so I'll give the tool the benefit of the doubt. More to do tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day.........

What to do?

There are 39 seedlings here, four different types of beans (bush not climbing) but the labels all washed out so I don't know which is which now oh doh! But they look like they need to be moved and our Pete (Cundall) says the ground is still too cold for beans. I decided to transplant 8 of them into bigger pots and have put my extravagant see through covers (tonic water bottles) over them and put them on the top of one of my half water tank gardens. So I don't want any more frost or wind thanks!

In the front bedroom I still have 78 assorted tomato and eggplant seedlings. I've been brave and put a couple of the zucchinis into the tank and covered them, just to see what happens.

I have a cheesecloth full of feta cheese draining in the laundry tub and I'm trying to stop myself from going out and giving it a prod, to make sure it is draining...... The ricotta which I made from the left over whey is already salted and in the fridge ready for some crackers. Hmmm that sounds like a good idea. M is going to be late tonight so I could have a little nibble, couldn't I?

The little bit of sunshine that we had on the weekend has encouraged my potatoes to finally show they're still alive and not drowned, great. I had almost given up on them. But one of my fennel has definitely given up, helped along by a certain cat called Fiddle I think.

And the big news is that yesterday M and his work team removed all the false brick from our little old house so now we are back to weatherboards. Dirty, old weatherboards, but I don't care. It will be painted this summer and will look glorious.

J

Babies on the bed!

I've just spent the morning transferring millions of tiny seedlings (well it seemed like that many!) from a seed tray into little plastic cups to continue their growing.

There are three types of tomatoes, Roma, Siberian and an ordinary red one which I can't recall the name of and all my little labels got washed clean when I sprayed them with some water (the plants not the labels). They're all bush tomatoes. I have more seeds of different types but how many tomatoes can we eat? There's quite a few eggplants too, but only four zucchini. I've learned my lesson about zucchini!

I still have four different types of beans in the other seed tray yet. The weather here is too unpredictable to even think about putting them outside, never mind in the ground. We could have frost tonight and there has been snow on the high peaks again. Yes it is spring but we are in Tasmania, far south Tasmania, next stop Antarctica.

By the way, the rest of the little pots are on a table by the window in the same bedroom. It's currently unoccupied, except for these babies, but I am expecting my son for a visit on the

10th November so they have to be ready to be moved outside by then.

I just went outside to see if any of my Dutch Cream potatoes had dared to sprout in the above ground garden. It's been sooooo wet I had resigned myself to the fact that they may have drowned. But wait, there are a few darker looking little leaves just showing. Now, they could be weeds, I'm very good at growing weeds, but lets hope that we have enough sun over the next few days to encourage them to get a bit bigger and then I should be able to tell.

So in the garden beds I now have three lots of broad beans at different stages; silver beet and ruby chard; mixed lettuces; peas and snow peas; raspberries; coriander; Italian parsley; thyme; sage; chives; chamomile; and rosemary. In pots I have 4 baby fennel; garlic chives; parsley, mint; Thai mint and strawberries. I have never ever tried to grow so much, I hope it all does grow! The fruit trees have started to blossom too, crab apples, lemon, apples, pears, peaches, plums and one nectarine. I forgot the fruit trees in pots, lemon, cumquat, lime and olive. I'm almost overwhelmed with it all.

So, please could we have some more sunshine and warm up the earth?

J

Chook Shed is coming

This is a work in progress. This old shed which was a hen house originally was due for demolition because of the precarious slant it had.

But, M said that he could probably fix it and he has, the slant that is.

He's now converting it into the Taj Mahal or Chook Palace (as he calls it due to it being larger than his bedroom).

It won't be long now I'm sure, although he only has time to put one day a week into the project.

I should have little chooks by Christmas, I hope...

J