Spring Gardening Checklist

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Moss Terrarium

I've seen a few photos of these terrariums around for a while now and thought since I have some time, and I've had the required materials lying around for a while.. that I would give one a go.

Supplies: 

• Glass jar or bowl - lid or no lid is fine
• Soil - We used a mixture of regular potting mix and vermiculite
• Moss - Im sure you can find yourself some moss.. we gathered ours from the local pine forrest
• Decorations

Step 1:

Clean out the jar/bowl and put at least an inch layer of soil in the bottom. The moss doesn't need much soil but you can use more to make it more visually appealing, try making your hills or mounds now.

Step 2:

Add moss and push down firmly, we used a spoon to 'tuck' the moss in around the edges. Lightly water until the soil is moist.

Step 3:

Add decorations.

Step 4:

The moss will begin adjusting to its new location and begin to liven up in about 3-4 weeks, water as the soil dries (with a lid this might only be once a month)

selling some:

dill, thyme, oregano, coriander, joy tomato, eggplant, capsicum mix

 More up for sale, hopefully will make a few more bucks. Planted a whole heap of heirloom tomatoes and more herbs today aswel. $2.50 each, pickup in Ellenbrook 6069

hot and mild chili, italian and moss parsley, sage (lookin pretty rough),  mint cuttings and rosemary

Aquaponics..

sump tank on the left and our soon to be fish tank on the right

 We have massive plans for the greenhouse, just got a few more shelves to install and then the irrigation. Still deciding on the type of system I will use to water the plants but will mostly be using 'flood and drain' systems with a bell syphon. When we are installing all of this and making our syphons i will put up some photos and instructions. We have tried making a small scale system before and made a few mistakes, but now we have the hang of it we are ready to make something awesome.

Hurry up and grow!

the greenhouse is filling up..

 Today we planted a mixture of heirloom tomatoes, corn and baby corn, an australian heirloom pumpkin mix and Im trying my luck again this year growing the worlds biggest pumpkin seed.. its supposed to be able to grow as big as a car but last year mine died in that 3 days of 40 degree heat, heartbroken.

still not finished the shelving but enough space for now

Was 41 degrees in the greenhouse this morning, took out the rosemary cuttings we are hoping will root.. Shops are charging like $10 bucks each for these suckers at the moment and its so easy to grow your own from transplants, sure you might get a few misses but you wont be short of big rosemary bushes in Ellenbrook to have another crack. Ill post a how-to soon.

ranbo has a mate finally =]

Preserving herbs..

 We have plenty of leftover herbs this season and one way we preserve them is making our own herb oils. They dont last as long as store bought ones (about 2 months), and if you incorporate garlic into your oil you will need to refrigerate it to stop it spoiling (google botulism).

The bottles were put through the dishwasher on the sterilise setting, then I rinsed them with a bit of vinegar to make sure they were clean. 

For our oils we used a mixture of dill, thyme, bay, basil, garlic, ginger, green peppercorn, chilli, parsley, mint, coriander, sage and a good quality olive oil. You can decide which flavours you want.. mix and match, its your oil. Bruise the herbs and push into the bottle, slightly warm the oil on the stove (verrry slightly, i could still stick my finger in it) and pour into your bottles over the herbs. Store in a dark cool place or in the fridge if it contains garlic.

We will never use all this.. they make good gifts, and the parents put up with us making a mess of their backyard, so its only fair to give them some of the produce.