starting over

 One friend has left town and now the other is set to take flight for five long weeks..

I have felt a bit low. It seems that everybody is on the move, new adventures and experiences ahead of them. It's taken a while, but self pity over now, I have decided this is a good time to action myself and get into some tasks I set myself quite some time ago.  At the beginning of summer, to be precise.

The vegie garden was abandoned after a long hot dry spell, followed by weeks of intense raining and flooding. Surprisingly, quite a few of the hardier plants battled through.

Today, I was inspired to put together the small beds I had promised the girls. The weather is cooler and it just feels fantastic to be outdoors again.

They're keeping journals on the progress of their own little patches. We got off to a flying start today.

The plan is to build the beds using recycled materials. As documented in an earlier post, I've used some old hardwood from an outdoor table that a friend made quite a few years back. The corners are held together using some old pieces of lattice driven into the ground at the corners. It's rustic and kinda cute. We'll then use the no-dig method to build up a healthy organic soil. I have some seeds put away from the Diggers Club, and I will probably get some more from Green Harvest. The girls have painstakingly copied out lists of autumn and winter plantings that should grow in our subtropical climate. With the help of a great app from Gardening Australia called the Vegie Guide, we will track and record the progress of our seeds and seedlings, and hopefully have a harvest to photograph and enjoy at the end.

While the girls were busy wetting and layering newspaper, I turned over the soil in my beds. It was wonderful to find that even thought the soil was compacted and a bit root-bound, it looked great and was full of earthworms. It will be fine, I think, and I am looking forward to getting back in there.

Wish me luck.