The weather in Brisbane is beautiful at the moment. I'm sitting on the verandah looking out at rooftops peeking between treetops, towards a slightly hazy skyline (has there been bushfire preventative burning off lately?) under a sky filled with fluffy cumulus clouds who are not going to bring any rain today. There is an autumn breeze tickling the soles of my feet and taking the edge off the heat from the sun being reflected off the verandah.
Doesn't it make you want to get out there and grow things? Does for me!
And even though that breeze tickling my feet is an autumn one, this is Brisbane, and things grow all year.
Challenge #7- plant something! pretty self explanatory, really!
I wasn't going to make this a weekly challenge, because starting a mini-garden involves more effort than I like in a challenge, but if you break it down into steps and individual plants it is much more manageable.
This also falls under my quest to find more things to love, and love my sproutlings I do! Especially when they are grown from seeds- the most exciting thing in the world is seeing new sprouts and watching them grow.
What we (Britt and I, in our apartment) have been doing to create our verandah garden is...
Composting- I have a Bokashi composting robot which sits right in the kitchen and ferments all our food waste, which is then mixed with soil to create compost in about a month (much quicker than normal garden systems). Bokashi is so amazing it deserves a post all by itself, but I will leave you with that link for now.
Hoarding- pots from Reverse Garbage and styrofoam boxes from the West End markets vege stalls,
and searching for little things to love!
We started out with the chilis I adopted from Fiona, look how happy he is in the bokashi!
and then we have expanded (with mostly herbs at the moment) to include basil, parsley, sage, coriander, mint, chives, a curry plant, as well as tomatoes (roma and grape) and spinach! I am looking forward to planting more veges once the next round of compost is ready.
and just for some extra eco-geekiness, we water them all with water collected in a bucket in the shower, or when rinsing dishes.
stay tuned for more sproutling photos! The spinach is about 1cm tall, so has some growing to do.
wow - is that really my babies all grown up? i'm so proud. i remember when they were just little spouts with their first leaves, and now they're fruiting (sniff).
Posted by: Fiona | May 03, 2008 at 05:55 PM
I know! I'm so proud. I knew you'd appreciate an update photo.
The chilis are really freaking hot. Once I chopped one and then accidentally touched my face (of course), and then I had to hold a piece of cucumber on my face for about half an hour because it hurt so much. The curry was delicious though.
Posted by: Anna | May 03, 2008 at 07:45 PM
Love the pics and wonderful idea! I can't wait to get planting myself (only got some herbs and radishes going at the moment). I think I need to get myself one of those robots...
Posted by: Steph | May 19, 2008 at 12:48 PM