Sunday Garden Makeover (part 2)

So here are the final shots of the garden. There is still a lot of work to do, but it's starting to look a little better. Now - if only the weather would warm up so I could sit outside with a glass of wine and enjoy it!

Sunday Garden Makeover

After a trip to the gym and then onto the farmers market, it was time to get out into the garden. Although the sun had been shining and the sky blue all morning, as soon as I opened the back door the wind picked up and the clouds rushed across the sky. It was still warm though, and the rain that kept threatening me stayed away until I came inside.

I had a fairly large garden clean-up due after months of neglect over winter. Everything was overgrown and my pots were filled with all sorts of unidentified plants. There were self seeded parsley and unidentifiable weeds growing everywhere, and so much clover!

First step was to attack the morning glory and ivy that has grown over, under and through the fence. This is one job I kept up over winter, as unless it is tackled on an almost weekly basis it gets completely out of control. I do like the look of morning glory, and it adds a bit of privacy by extending the fence hight, but it grow several meters in a week choking everything in its path. The ivy likes to squeeze between the fence posts and is quite successfully pulling the fence apart. As there wasn't too much growth this week, I cut it back a little and attached all the dead vines underneath this months new growth.

Before:

 After (slightly less messy):

And finally - the massive bag of vines that came off:

Next I moved onto the garden beds.

Before:
These silvery grey plants were looking really tatty and had not only taken over the whole garden bed, but had self seeded in every pot and every bit of space in the garden. They were even appearing between the pavers:

After:
I pulled up most of them, but left a few baby ones, and added a few from pots in a small patch. I was tempted to get rid of them entirely but they do have a lovely purple/pink flower in summer. I also planted a lavender and some other flowers that had grown too big for their pots, then added the broccolini and spring onions from last weeks farmers market trip.

Before:
This patch of marjoram and mint has seen better days.

After:
Although the photos don't look all that different, in a few weeks this area should pick up. I cut back all the dead growth and pruned it right back. There was actually a lot of new growth under all those sticks, and if anything like last year, this will take off now it has been cleaned up. I've taken the mint out of the plastic pot, and added in some pieces that were growing between the pavers. I was a little hesitant to do this as I'm concerned it will take over the garden so I'll need to keep an eye on it.

I then moved onto some of the pots...

Before:
These pots were filled with just about everything you could imagine. Strawberries, sage, mint, clover, parsley and all sorts of unidentifiable greens. I have a tendency to leave unknown plants alone to see if they become anything recognisable as they grow, and this has lead to some interesting discoveries (ugly plants that suddenly bloom amazing flowers) and also a spread of weeds. So while the plant in the bottom right corner looked healthy and potentially could be something beautiful - I decided to pull it up anyway.

After:

The end result here looks a bit bare, but I'm going to work on these pots. I removed everything but the strawberries from the top pot, and plan to add a few more runners when I get to that garden bed. The bottom pot has just the sage remaining. If this doesn't pick up soon I might need to add some more, or change it to something new. The other two pots are now empty waiting on some spring seedling. 

Before:
These pots were a mess of everything!

After:
I removed almost everything, just keeping the self-seeded parsley and transferring it all into one pot. I've planted the purple silverbeet and red russian kale, and moved a pot of the garlic over here. The lettuce has been dug up and I'll use the last few leaves for a salad with dinner tonight.

Before:

After:
I've not done too much here, just removed some weeds from the thyme and succulent pots, and pulled out the dead basil.

Before:

After:
I discovered under all that mess there were a few strong silverbeet plants that had either self seeded or were hanging on from last spring. The lettuce and parsley have gone to tonights dinner and all the weeds have been removed.

I'll leave the wider garden shot for another post as this one is getting rather long!

PS - If it isn't yet obvious I'm new to blogging and trying to get my head around these templates. Does anyone know how to arrange photos better so they aren't all in a big long list? Is it possible (using blogger) to put them next to each other or create a box of images?

Where has the day gone?

I got a bit distracted at the garden shop today, so by the time I'd got everything home and unpacked there wasn't a whole lot of light left. However I did manage a few jobs that have piling up over winter.

I've FINALLY repotted my lemon tree. I'm sure it will grow out of this pot eventually, but for now it has somewhere to live.

I also refilled the water tank. A garden without a tap can be rather annoying, and I mostly end up filling buckets from the house. The other option is a hose over the fence, but this means walking out the front door and around the building to turn the hose on, then running back around, through the house, out the back door - to try and catch the hose and release the pressure before it explodes! Followed by the same in reverse when I want to turn it off again. There have been a few annoying water explosions doing this! So - my solution so far has been to fill a plastic water tank from the hose, and use this to fill a watering can. I still need to do the sprint around the house when its been hot and I want to give the garden a really good watering, but for the occasional drink when its not raining the tank and watering can work just fine.

Finally, I've put some more lawn seed down to fill in all the holes that have appeared over winter. There is rain forecast all week so it seems like a good time to give it another go. This time I've gone with a self repairing variety, Kikuyu, to see if this works better. The ground is almost all clay, and the previous varieties I've tried have been so thin that it's time to try something different. More on the lawn another day.

I'll leave with a glimpse of some of the mess I'm going to need to deal with tomorrow. Hopefully now this photo is up here it will motivate me to actually get to it all!

Spring is in sight

The sun is out, the windows are wide open, and there is a feeling of warmth in the air. It is only early August, but it is starting to feel like the worst of winter is over and time to start getting back in the garden. As I wondered outside earlier this morning, it suddenly became clear how badly my garden has become neglected over the past few dark dreary months. The garden beds are full of weeds, there are strange plants taking over my pots, and the lettuce have gone crazy! Fortunately everything is still alive and looking green - it just needs a little bit of love.

So - this weekend I plan to have a garden clean out. That is, if this amazing weather holds out and its not back to the usual drizzle and icy winds that whip through Melbourne.

There are still plenty of signs of new spring growth in the garden. The sprouting garlic I picked up last week at the local farmers market is settling in well to its new pot.

The lemon tree I had almost given up on is now sprouting new growth. This tree received a rather agressive prune after coming home from the nursery, on the advice of the staff. I thought I might have gone a little too far when it then decided to spend the next 6 months hibernating and pretending to be dead. It is back though, and should start to have branches and leaves (and hopefully lemons) in no time.

Throughout the garden flowers are popping up. These interesting orange ones recently grew out a a succulent, and the pink snap dragons below are a surviving remnant from last summer.

 The peas are beginning to flower, some mint I pulled out from between the brick pavers is taking off in its new home, and the broccoli and kale (despite a slow start) are now beginning to take off.

Lemon Butter

It has been grey drizzly afternoon, great for the garden, especially on an afternoon when I don't need to go outside! Instead I've been enjoying the warmth of the kitchen whipping up a batch of lemon butter.

I adapted the recipe from one of my favourite cooking sites, the Gluten Free Scallywag. I was amazed how quick and easy it was. The last time I attempted a lemon butter, it seemed like hours of stirring, only to find the egg cooked when I added it to the mixture, causing great big lumps of solid egg-white throughout the mix. This version has the egg and sugar added from the start so there is no chance of that happening.

Here is my version of the recipe:

Lemon Butter (Lemon Curd)

3 eggs
2 egg yolks
100g castor sugar
50ml lemon juice (1-2 lemons)
3tsp lemon zest (about three lemons)
100g cold butter, cut into 1cm cubes


Beat together eggs, egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy.
Measure out lemon juice and zest and keep aside. 
Heat egg and sugar mixture on low to medium heat, stirring briskly until sugar has disolved. A heavy based saucepan works best. Add lemon juice and zest, and continue stirring. 

Gradually add the butter, one cube at a time, adding another when the last has disolved. While this is happening the mixture will begin thickening. 

Once all the butter has disolved reduce the temperature to a low heat and stir gently as it reaches a boil. This should take 3-4 minutes, and the mixture should now be nice and thick.

Remove from the heat and press through a sieve to remove the lemon zest. You can ignore this stage if you want a chunkier curd. Pour into a sterilised* jar and refrigerate for 3-4 hours until firm. 

* To sterilise a jar, slowly heat in a cool oven for 20 - 25 mins, or follow these instructions. 

Farmers market finds

This morning I stumbled across a farmers market not far from where I live. I had heard about it before, but had never managed to remember to go down on a Sunday morning (I am usually curled up on the couch with a cup of coffee).

As well as picking up my usual fruit and vegetables, I came home with some lovely flowers, a bunch of adorable heirloom carrots and four seedlings wrapped in newspaper. There was a huge selection on offer but I eventually went with red spring onions, purple silverbeet, red russian kale and some broccolini. I also picked up a bulb or planing garlic which will make an interesting experiment as growing garlic is completely new to me.

While not from my garden, a neighbour recently gave me a large bag of lemons and baby mandarins that were growing on their tree. The mandarins were polished off quickly, but the lemons have been waiting for the right dish. I've finally decided to go with a lemon butter so I use them before they go mouldy or dry out. I'll post the results of that later.

Welcome to my tiny garden

I decided to write this blog to record the changes in my garden through the seasons and to track the progress of little projects I'm working on. 


I live in a ground floor apartment in Melbourne, Victoria and am incredibly lucky to have access to a private courtyard garden. Growing up on a suburban quarter acre block, I was always surrounded by plant-life and spent my childhood climbing trees, playing in our 'jungle', or reading on the grass in the sunshine. As an adult, I've moved between share houses, usually without the luxury of a garden. Where I've been able to, I've grown vegetables or flowers in pots, but have found this quite limiting. 


My current home has a small 8m x 2m courtyard. It is half paved and half grass, with a raised bed running along the side. When I moved in the bed was already filled with flowers and herbs, so I have been gradually updating as I go along. I'm trying to grow mostly vegetables and herbs, but I still like to scatter flowers throughout the garden to keep it looking pretty. I've also got a sad lemon tree who I am hoping to bring back to life and finally bear fruit. 


I try to grow organically as much as possible, especially with edible plants. I'm also learning as I go, so if you have any tips or ideas please feel free to comment and let me know. 


Thanks for reading.