21. Noah & the Beanstalk

Just over a month ago, Liam, Noah and I planted some vegetable seeds. We planted Heirloom Favourites (tomatoes), Dwarf Peas and Sweet Basil, all ordered online from Yates, and some Capsicum, Dwarf Beans and Sweet Corn all from Aldi.



We planted a punnet of each for Liam and the same for Noah. You can see Noah's peas, above, after just one week!



By day 17, most of the seeds had sprouted and were going quite nicely. Noah is convinced we are going to grow a beanstalk up to the sky and really soon we'll be meeting giants. Liam's peas had been tipped out, so we planted some new ones.



I had almost given up on the capsicum, but some of them have now sprouted, so they might be okay. We planted some snow peas as well, it says to sew early spring, so I hope they will be alright. The basil is still very tiny, we'll see how it goes...



Yesterday, we planted the beans and peas into the garden. The tomatoes are looking a little young yet, I would like to see more leaves on them before I plant them out. We also lost a punnet of them when they were tipped out by one of the kids. I might plant some more, but a different variety, Grosse Lisse instead.



This morning I took a few photos of Amélie and Noah watering the plants.



Do you have a vegetable garden? How do you contend with snails? I'm a bit reluctant to use snail bait with small children around. We're going to try putting some beer in a saucer for them. That sounds really friendly, doesn't it? If you can't beat them, join them, yeah!

8. Kids Clothes Week Day 1

It's day one of Kids Clothes Week and I've started with the skirt from the Oliver + S Sunday Brunch pattern. I have an idea for a skirt, and wanted an A-line pattern to base it on. I purchased the digital version of this last night from the Oliver + S website and now I'm about to make a toile using this cute embroidered fabric before I get stuck into the real deal. Of course, I have discovered I have no matching thread so I'm off to the local fabric shop with three kids, just as soon as Amélie wakes from her nap.



How is this for a happy mail day? No bills (always a good start) and a trifecta of little goodies for me! Some snow pea seeds from Yates, a New Look pattern from Patternplus (thanks Lara for sharing this store - my pattern was only $4.80 inc postage) and a copy of the Homespun magazine in which my snakes & ladders project is featured.

Happy (belated) Mothers' Day

Ok, so it's been more than a week since Mothers' Day, but I've finally gotten around to blogging about it. I've been wanting to make one of these knitting needle rolls for myself, and I will, but thought mum might like one to get her needles all organised too.



I followed this tutorial, but I made a mistake when cutting out the fabric. When I was supposed to cut two pieces of the main fabric 16" x 15" I managed to cut one of them 15" x 15". So then I decided that I would use it for the outer bit and splice in the contrast fabric instead of over-laying it. So I did that, making it bigger than it needed to be, and trimmed it back and then MADE IT TOO SMALL AGAIN!!! So I added those bits at the top and bottom, hahahaha. Let's just say it was a lesson in "Measure twice, cut once". Or even a series of lessons....



Anyway, I had a great Mothers' Day. The kids all slept in. AMAZING! Then I had breakfast in bed, where I was gifted Ferrero Rocher, fluffy slippers and some snap-dragon seedlings for the garden. (Any idea why the boys chose snapdragons?) We then went out to visit my mum on the farm and had a lovely roast dinner. We have had a few really beautiful, sunny days since Mothers' Day, which have seen me out in the garden, planting my seedlings and bulbs and moving around some rose bushes, and (ahem) not updating my blog....

What did you do for Mothers' Day? Did you get fluffy slippers and chocolates too? Did you visit your mother?

Harvest

Here are the boys showing off some of the vegetables that came from our garden. They were so excited and proud to cook and eat food that we grew ourselves. There isn't very much yet, so I had to supplement with a few other vegies, but they ate all their vegetables last night.

Anemones

Not much crafting has been happening here today. So I will leave you with some pictures from my garden.



These lovely anemones have been popping up out the front over the past couple of weeks.



I bought the bulbs in Liam's kinder fund-raiser. I'm all for bulb fund-raisers!



Don't forget, I am having a give-away. Tomorrow is your last chance to enter. Also, you check out this wonderful blogtoberfest link - now you can easily see new posts from fellow blgtoberfestians.

My Vegie Garden

Welcome to my vegie garden, come and take a look...



Liam and I spent yesterday afternoon planting vegetables in the garden. We started with the blueberry bush, which we planted right where I said I would, which technically isn't in the vegie garden at all. You will notice that I haven't gotten around to removing those weeds yet - all in good time!



Before we got started, I did a bit of reading about companion planting. Tomatoes and basil are good companions, so I will be planting some basil in the pockets near the tomatoes. Tomatoes and strawberries are bad companions for Broccoli, so I planted the broccoli at the other end of the garden bed. Mint is a good companion for broccoli so I planted it nearby. Corn and tomatoes share the same kind of pests, so are best not planted near each other.



I planted corn in the other bed, between the peas and the beans, which are good companions for corn. With the corn, there really was only enough room for eight (or less, they are a bit close together) and there were 60 seeds in the packet, with three years until the use-by date, so I planted two per hole. I figure we pull the weaker of the two after they germinate?

You can see that I have placed a board across the bed. I have planted carrot seeds under there. Apparently this helps to germinate them evenly. I'm not sure why. Dad told me of this trick, and it says it on the seed packet as well. At least it will stop the birds from digging them up. Does anybody know if it would be a good idea to do the same with my corn?



This is the potting bench that Maxx made for me out of old pallets - isn't he clever? He also made the gate at the start of this post - you can see it in the background here. My potting bench already looks a bit like my sewing table - covered in crap!

Check out the Blogtoberfestivities - over here, and don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Joining in with the Blogtoberfestivities

Welcome Blogtoberfestians! Feel free to take a look around. I've decided to join in with Blogtoberfest again. I'm not sure how I will go, but I will do my best to blog everyday for the month of October.



One of my other goals this month is to get these seedlings into my garden beds - hopefully very soon. I had a go at starting from scratch with seeds, but the ones that were to be planted straight into the garden were dug up by something (I'm suspecting a largish black bird - maybe a crow or magpie?). I also tried growing some tomato seeds but they didn't germinate. I'm not sure if it is my fault or if there was something wrong with the seeds. I have done it before, although maybe I didn't water them enough?



As you can see, it is a bit wet here today. Don't worry, when I realised that someone left his tricycle out in the rain, I brought it in.



I fear the seedlings will drown :( Hopefully, these strawberry plants that I planted earlier won't.



I am also a bit excited about this blueberry plant. I love blueberries. I bet birds like them too....



I think I will put it over here. I might get rid of those weeds too.



With all this rain, it seems today might be a better day for sewing than gardening. If you're new around here, that is what I mostly do. If you have any gardening tips, I would love to hear them. If you are a regular, and wondering what I am talking about, you can find more by clicking on this button:



PS: I am also having a giveaway over here

The Apple Tree

When we bought our house, just over two years ago, we were delighted to find it came with an apple tree.



Sadly, a couple of months ago, we had a small* flood and the tree fell over. The tree has to go eventually. According to everyone we have consulted, it can't be saved. It is still alive, however, and the apples weren't yet ripe, so we are letting it stay out the season**.



Of course, we have to share the apples with these guys...



....and that's my silver lining!



*we had a bigger flood last Tuesday, but that's another blog post entirely!
**actually, I think the chainsaw is broken, but why split hairs?