Monday 25 February 2013

Zucchini planting at CERES!

A mildly hot and sunny day at CERES! :) The beds had been dried up since last week to prevent the weeds from taking over. We started re-weeding a bed in preparation for transplanting some zucchini plantlets. After lots of tugging, pulling and digging, it was time to fertilise the soil. We sprinkled some pellets around and rolled them in.


Then, we positioned the stakes into the ground for a guide to plant the soon-to-be-massive zucchini plants. Transplanting time! After all that, it was time for watering and positioning of the automatic-timered- watering hose.

Before we left, we helped cut down some basil plants that had started to flower. MMM... that night after a few hours of our nightly training, we had homemade vegan basil pesto with pasta for dinner :).

Sunday 20 January 2013

Babies no more! :D The summer ROAR!

Summer time has brought a lot of growth in our garden.....From springtime sprouts to beds of chlorophyll rich green!

My baby bean seedlings have grown! :) Out they are in the garden bed, no longer under my watch in their initial jars. Everyday I watch in awe as they grow. The chickpeas have grown into lovely shrubs with gentle & soft leaves. They are even flowering now! Small white flowers are delicately basking in the sun! I just found an interesting sac looking thing :). Exciting! 

Chickpea! :D 
interesting sac...

One of the adzuki bean plants is competing with its comfrey neighbour ~ TALLER!! TALLER! :)

Adzuki bean plant :)
Miraculous looking thing! 
We came back from our road trip and immediately checked the garden beds! BEHOLD THE MAGNIFICENT COMFREY! It was just a tineeeyyyy little plant when we left, only around 5inches in height. Now, its HUMONGOUS! :)

Our lemon tree we recently found had been swamped by gall wasps. :( We had to unfortunately shave most of it off, so it is now looking quite miserly. The cos lettuce didn't survive the heat while we were away on holiday. Two weeks later with lots of watering and compost, it is finally showing more signs of vigour. :)



tomato bed!
The eggplants are looking very wrinkled even with our dedicated watering regime and fertilising, while the tomatoes have gone wild! I've done a poor job staking and they have grown onto the footpath! :p ... We had the pleasure of having some Yellow Bush Taxi tomatoes a few nights back and WHOA, they were the yummiest we've had so far!

I can't wait to try some chilli from the garden. They are reddening! Yay! More tomatoes are on their way too :) While trying to put their succulent stems back under the netting, I spotted a few hidden juicy fruits, almost ready for harvest!










Friday 18 January 2013

ROAD TRIP!! Melbourne to South Australia and the amazing Kangaroo Island!


Ten days on the road in our little cute van! After a full day of packing and preparing the van, we were finally ready to head off on our road trip. We took an esky full of produce for cooking, all our other essentials, jerry cans for water and petrol, sleeping stuff, juicer & blender, and bathers!

Cooking was fun on the road. :) We only cooked one meal ~ lunch! While shoo-ing flies & other insects, we had the shield ourselves and the cooking materials from the relentless wind. Magpies watched us from close range and some even wandered straight up and squawked for food. Some days we managed to find lovely picnic areas; shaded and shielded!

As the days went on, we grew accustomed to rising early as the sun shone through our booth window and slept once the sun went down. We were lucky to visit a couple of National Parks throughout the trip - The Grampians in Victoria, Flinders Chase on Kangaroo Island, and the Coorong National Park alongside the Murray River. Walks were rejuvenating and meditative. Look what we found on one of our walks at the Grampians~ Echidna!! <3
"You don't see me... you don't see me... "
Silverband Falls, Grampians.
Almost at the peak of another of the Grampians' walks.
We were lucky enough to find power for a juice every breakfast! Yumm.. On those hot, humid days, I was thankful to have these in the esky. Also, we have developed a love for coconut juice. We went through a stunning amount of coconut water during the trip. On the 41 degrees day in the van without air conditioning, we gulped down carton after carton and 4 more glasses at a Thai restaurant in Adelaide upon arrival.

Kangaroo Island was stunning! So far, I haven't crossed paths with such beautiful bays and beaches. Sun, warm sand, clear blue sky, crystalline pure water, life amongst the rocks, fishes swimming along, limestone caves, and freezing breeze. We took the Sealink from Cape Jervis to Penneshaw, Kangaroo Island. 

Along the road to Cape Jervis
Our ferry!
Bales Beach
Chirstmas Lunch
We spent Christmas Day at Bales Beach and wandered to Flinders Chase National Park. Since all was closed on the 25th of December, we took a 3 hour afternoon nap at a lovely picnic hut at Bales Beach. Wallabies hopped around and bees were buzzing around the taps. :) We took our time making a special Christmas lunch ~ egg noodles with fried ginger, blanched broccoli, eggplant, omelette, and topped with Goji berries and Incan berries. Yum! <3 Ginger. 

The next day at Kangaroo Island, we got lucky and embarked on the most breathtaking nature walks we've ever been on - Ravine de Casoars at Flinders Chase National Park. Even the pictures don't do it justice. This magnificent place was a portrait of natural beauty, left so untouched by man's hands. We explored the caves, dipped, admired the starfishes, and stood jaw dropped at it's grandeur.  






More at Flinders Chase - we tiredly strolled amongst the giant rock formations at Remarkable Rocks. It was almost sunset when we got there so we didn't stay long. Finding a place to park our van and the process of bunkering down was quite tedious, especially after a long and full day! 
me with the giants! :P
FUR SEALS!!! :) What a sight! A beach dotted with these loveable bundles of fats and blubber!! Some had wandered closer to the boardwalk (lucky for us!) and we got a good look at these wonderful creatures.

Then it was byebye to Kangaroo Island. We spent another night at Adelaide to watch Cirque du Soleil - Ovo, another amazing feat of :O. Definitely was worth it! On the drive home, we stopped by the Coorong National Park. The picture below shows a massive bed of Murray River Salt! Besides being a cemetery of insects and other bugs which might have died from it's high salt intensity, it was quite a sight. Pink, crystalline lakes of salt. SALTTT EVERYWHERE! We tasted some and WHOA.. that got us jumping around ;)


One of our final stops was Port Fairy! Lovely area! We took the walk and enjoyed it's inconspicuous beaches. 

Port Fairy
Thoroughly sunburnt and relaxed, we arrived back to bustling Melbourne. Nothing like some Chinatown traffic to tickle our senses ;) .... HOME! BED! SHOWER! And sweet sweet dreams of an amazing road trip <3.







Thursday 17 January 2013

Sunburnt at CERES


Another great morning of voluntary work at Honey Market Lane, CERES Environment Park!

The garden had over grown during the Christmas break! There were huge zucchinis and cucumbers ready for harvest. Beans had grown too old so the other volunteers put them into the compost pile. Also, the weeds were popping up everywhere!

After harvesting the succulent cucumbers, we tied some of its sleek vines back on the frame.

Then, off to weeding! We managed a bin-full of weeds :o Their root systems were very challenging... In the meantime, I forgot about my slowly burning skin!
After weeding! 
 The other volunteers harvested some amazing looking zucchinis.


I love plums! What a treat to be harvesting fresh plums straight off a tree. :) These succulent fruits loaded this old tree of more than 12 years of age! Some branches had broken under the immense weight of its fruits. SO MUCH PLUMS! We were lucky enough to try them fresh too. Mmmmm... so lovely and juicy :). The garden is looking great and is slowly regaining its usual tidy look. Can't wait for another gardening day next week!