Make, Create and Grow

Well it’s been awhile since I’ve done a post! Life has been busy, with lots happening, but not a lot of projects. I am currently 17 weeks pregnant and it has been a very consuming and trying period, with fatigue and sickness. I’m slowly coming out the other side of that at moment and finally feeling some motivation to get back to sharing our project updates!

Garden updates! We were predicted to have a very hot and dry summer and I knew there was a very good chance I would be sick with the first half of the pregnancy so I had planned to not plant much out towards the end of 2023. We had a very early start to summer, it seemed like we missed spring, which was very hot and dry. Then summer officially arrived and it has been wet, wet, wet and so incredibly hot and humid. Very challenging weather for people and plants!

The pigeon pea trees are just thriving though which is great. They grow so quickly, offering privacy and shade as well as mulch. The food forest is having to fend for itself these days. I do have irrigation set up to the fruit trees which got turned on regularly during spring before the rain arrived. We have lost 2 avocado trees and an apple recently. I’m not sure what caused that yet, but keen to replace them soon. I was waiting for warmer weather to get some bananas and paw paws in, so hopefully in the next few weeks/month we can make that happen. The support plants are coming back with some rain which is really nice to see. The cover crop is prolific and needs chopping and dropping more often than I can keep up with at the moment, so it’s a little overgrown. The weeds have also been loving the rain and heat. They have been challenging to keep up with and definitely getting the better of us most of the time.

Louis took on the project to complete the front of the house with mulch, he was sick of the maintenance with whipper snippering it weekly! 20m3 of mulch delivered and wheel burrowed uphill by him alone over 2 days, huge effort!! Now to get some more natives in there and a little forest out the front growing while we still have some warm weather and rain predicted. It looks so much better already though, we’re just battling the grass and nutgrass growing through the foot of mulch.

The edible food gardens have been very sad with very little planted or harvested for probably 6 months now. The beds are overrun with grass, nutgrass (this one is killing me!) and weeds. The few pumpkins and watermelons that managed to survive were eaten by something before they got big or ripe enough. I have very very slowly been able to get out into some of the raised beds and start weeding and trying to eliminated the nutgrass by hand, working on 1m2 at a time! I have finally got 2 of my raised beds to an accessible and usable state, with a few bush beans starting to flower, some eggplants and cucumbers coming on. I’m grateful to have a few herbs that have been self sufficient, sage, parsley, rosemary and thyme that I have been able to use still. I’m hopeful to get a few autumn crops in and a harvest before baby no. 2 arrives in July sometime.

I bought some IBC’s for wicking beds at the end of 2023 and managed to fill one before I was taken out with morning sickness. Hindsight, there are lots of things wrong with it. Wrong location, wrong material as the liner etc. I have learnt a lot already and will be moving them and starting again, hopefully soon. I am going to be optimistic and say I will do a dedicated post to the whole journey of the IBCs when I have them set up.

We are currently working on a greenhouse. We have bought a frame and will cover it with shade cloth. I’m still trying to decide between 30% and 50%. I am planning to have a little section of hydroponics to help diversify our growing options in this space. Again, I am optimistic to have a dedicated post to the greenhouse and the hydroponic set up.

We also added a little worm farm to the garden, it was a Christmas present to Ruby. She just loves them. She takes the lid off most days to check on them, picks them up and kisses them… I’m excited to see them established and be able to use the castings.

Sewing updates. I love that sewing is something I can just come and go to when it suits. I have been working my way through projects as they come up. I started some Christmas sewing early and got most of it done before December. I don’t have pictures of everything but there have been a few little dresses for Ruby, some for myself for the summer heat and growing tummy! A shirt for mum, some more shirts for dad, a dress and pencil case as a birthday gift for a friends daughter and some super cute tog covers for Ruby and a friends children.

I’m starting to prep for the new baby with adding a few more cloth nappies to the collection and wet bags etc. We are having another little girl, so hoping to be able to reuse most of the things we have already though! I’m looking forward to sharing some pictures of the nappies. I might even go back and take some of the ones I made for Ruby as there were a few different patterns used for different stages.

My poor spelt sourdough starter, Espelia, is no longer with us. Months of neglect didn’t suit her. I had enough trouble keeping myself and a toddler alive, let alone anything else! It is on my to do list to get another one started when the weather starts to cool off slightly.

Inside, I finally caved this summer and we are installing air conditioning. Its our third summer in the house and its been a tough one. We don’t have the shade trees established as planned, or the pergola off the north/west side, all on top of being pregnant and sick, and an incredibly long, hot and humid summer. I am very grateful that it is being installed next week, mid Feb, better late than never! Im sure well enjoy it next summer.

I am also wanting to put shelving into the BIR in both kids rooms. I have been back and forward on this with many options but have finally settled on the easiest option! Buying premade flatpacks and installing them around the existing shelves. I’m not sure it counts as a homemade project but its still on the list!

So in summary, I have lots on the to do list and a little bit of a ticking clock now. I will need to start project managing and outsourcing, or maybe adjust expectations and be patient! If anyone has any advice on achieving this, please let me know!