… and what a beautiful day it was.
It’s now so rewarding to be working in the garden as the results pay off visibly and quickly.
Here’s a few glimpses of the garden responding to the new season of growth. Remember that all these plants are very new. Most plants are only a year or less old.
I’ve just ordered a ‘Chicken Tractor’. Most of the locals who seem to know about chooks encouraged me to buy a mobile chook coop – they said it would harbour less pests and diseases and let me ‘free range’ the chooks by regularly moving the coop around my property. The other benefit is that instead of killing an area, I get to fertilise a large part of the property regularly.
With the dogs, I can’t let chooks have the run of the property, but at least they will always have fresh grass and ground to peck at. This tractor holds 6 – 8 chooks however I’m only planning on having 3 or 4 bantams.
A few years ago, the thought of my own chickens and fresh eggs was just a dream. I now can’t wait to add a few more residents to the Convent.
Having a dose of the flu has meant inside down time. Could be worse – it’s been pretty cold, anyway. The upside for a knitter means more knitting.
I’ve been thinking through stock for my market stall now that warmer weather is approaching. I’ve committed to a few bigger one-off markets and am making a few adjustments. Up until now, I’ve kept away from baby stuff – mainly as so many others do this and it’s just not what I usually knit. However I had a decent collection of Sirdar Baby Bamboo in striking strong colours (and it takes up so much space with those ridiculous large cardboard inserts) so I thought I’d add a set of brightly coloured beanies. I’m happy with this lot so will knit up the rest of the stash.
I’ve also had so many queries about the lace shawls that I thought I’d see how a few fare. This also helps me indulge my first love of lace knitting and encourage others to have a try. I have one shawl blocking at present and another about to go under the wires.
The markets will be a good test ground and I’m expecting lots of out-of-towners for the Rylstone StreetFeast and the Heritage Train in Kandos. I’m also now working on an extended version of my knitting enterprise, which is very exciting.
I’ve had years at work when I didn’t have sick day and have rarely taken much time off work. Maybe it’s a timely sign that the years are starting to catch up, but last week I was sick – possibly the first time I’ve ever had the flu.
Anyway, I’m not used to having to slow down and whilst I felt guilty about not being able to do anything, I really didn’t have any choice. Knitting and TV were the mainstays, but I’m not sure watching Criminal Minds was such a good idea when you’re not feeling perky.
A week out of the garden when it’s due to be open early October has been scary, but I’m sure it will come together when it has to. Actually, it’s mainly up to nature now as the plants are in – I’m really just feeding and tidying. In the meantime, I’m making sure I eat well and get plenty of rest. My usual mode is slightly more obsessive which will just have to adjust to a more relaxed rhythm now in the country.
I’ve finally made it here – I need to learn how to just chill and let things move at their own pace.
We are now in the countdown to Spring, which means a focus on the garden – quite a contrast to my first sleepy mid Winter in residence here in Kandos.
The last few weeks has since me increasing my time outside – weeding, clearing, pruning, feeding and mulching and, of course, planting. The Convent will be on show for the Centenary Celebrations over the long weekend in October and again for Cementa_15 in April. To ensure the garden makes an impact, I’ve been planting out existing beds and creating a few new or extended areas.
For anyone who saw the place last year, the startling difference will be the privet demolition – not sure if it will have started to strike shoots by October. The roses were also so new before. Hopefully they will now get a kick-along and be a little showy for the garden opening.
I kept seeds from last years’ flowers and am sewing these in the hope of some success. The garden work is substantially different from this time last year when it was hard graft digging and laying new garden beds and so much planting. This time around, there’s still some planting but to a greatly reduced degree and really mainly focussing on now filling in the “in-between” areas. However I wouldn’t underestimate the work in pruning, clearing up, mulching and feeding. I always wondered what people would buy the ginormous 10k buckets of rose food and now admit I’ve turned into one of those people. I think I’ve already used 6 bales of straw mulch – and I only use that on some of my garden beds. I’m also up to around 5 large bags of Eucy mulch and reminder for next year – at least 6 large bags of pine bark mulch for the back bed. There’s also probably half a dozen bags of Dynamic Lifter in the garden, much to the dogs’ delight!
The dogs love being out in the garden with me and all have their different interests. Tango oversees hole digging, to the point that I can only put the shovel into a hole once and then have to move onto a new area. She’s making sure she doesn’t miss out on any of those tasty grubs! Roxy just plonks herself down where I’m working – not near, actually on. If there’s freshly turned turf, newly planted areas or newly mulched areas, she’s lying there. Popcorn is an expert at the kissing attack. If he sees me kneeling in the garden, you can bet he thinks I’m fair game for a set of sneaky slobbers. He’s also King of the Diggers and, as a big dog, can dig some mighty holes. Of course they all love Dynamic Lifter and act as Hoovers when it’s spread in the garden.
It’s so rewarding to see the plants start to come back to life. Some of the plants I’m yet to see any growth on as they were almost dormant when I planted them, so to watch them through a leafing and flowering period will be exciting – a little like your children’s milestones.
In the meantime, some of the bulbs are doing their thing – mainly the snowdrops, delft blue hyacinths and Erlicheer daffodils, with a few yellow daffodils beginning to sneak their way in.
This Blog is now becoming useful to me as a diary to see what the garden was up to last year and when I might expect to see plants in action. I’m hopeful there will be surprises and delights in store that hold on through to April next year.
My first Winter in residence has seen pace slow down substantially. Whilst the cold weather was a little late in hitting, it ended up making its presence felt. I’ve noticed that in the country everything seems magnified. I’m not sure that’s because I now have time to notice small changes, that the changes are more extreme in the country or just that it’s all so new and fascinating to me.
Anyway, in Sydney I’d rarely notice changes overnight but here you can walk out one morning after a harsh frost and it looks like a blowtorch has scorched many of the plants. The garden has slowed down dramatically but there is also a beauty in the stark branches against a grey sky and a blazing wood fire on a cold night is hard to beat.
At the end of July, the days are not quite so long, we have had some lovely sunnier weather (along with much-needed rain) and already the garden is showing signs of new life, which is so exciting for me given most of the plants are new.
The frosts and open fires seemed like an ideal excuse to get old friends together at the Convent for a Winter Christmas in Kandos.
I enjoy the whole traditional spread at Christmas with the glazed ham, turkey, roast pork, pudding with custard and brandy butter – but somehow it always seems a little out of place in an Australian Summer. Not so in Kandos in Winter where the temperatures get low, the frosts are heavy on the ground and the air smells of warm fireplaces. I’ve also missed seeing some of my friends and our old get-togethers so it seemed like the ideal opportunity. Fortunately most agreed and we had a great weekend of food, drink and friendship.
The garden isn’t at its perkiest to show off and produce is limited, but I managed to salvage some root veg for roasting.
The food was most appropriate – the whole Christmas shebang. Roast pork (with crackling), maple glazed ham, turkey breast filled with cranberries, spinach and pistachios (I don’t think I’d now try a whole turkey again – the breast is fantastic- slices well, looks amazing, cooks faster and more reliably and is easier to control to make sure it remains moist. You can still fill it with any type of seasoning or stuffing), all the trimmings of homemade apple sauce and cranberry jelly, mountains of roast veg, including a potato bake. Rich gravy made ahead courtesy of Jamie Oliver. Dessert was a steamed pudding, accompanied by brandy custard and brandy butter, as well as a very Christmassy raspberry semifredo. A Sri Lankan Christmas cake using preserved chow chow (chokes) topped off the celebrations, all washed down with lots of lovely bottles of alcohol. I think we now have Convent Cordial as a staple – Mrs Wigley’s Rose!
Many thanks to my friend G for all her help and contributions and, of course, to my friends for their own contributions, company and good cheer. I hope to see them much more often – either individually or as a group. It’s so important to keep old friends after moving out of Sydney and hopefully I can offer a happy change of pace here at the Convent.
I’ve been away the last week and during that time the privet has come down- at least to the base stumps that will strike and turn back into the neat, disciplined privet hedge it once was rather than the tangled rangy mess it had become.
It looks bare at the moment but now gives me the space to fill in behind with the rose climbers and ramblers and soften the front. A bit of a shock, but just what the garden needed. I also have access to a new corner to plant in – just the spot for some of the many plants I’ve come back with.
Now it’s Winter, I’ve been tidying up around the garden and planning next steps. Somehow these seem so much harder than my previous plans. I guess I’ve done the obvious. The garden was a blank canvas, so I’ve made beds around the property and filled in some obvious spaces, but now I need much more discipline and planning to go to the next level, with form and structure, rather than just ad hoc plantings.
This has set me back a little as the stakes are now getting higher. I’d like at some point for the gardens to participate in the Open Garden scheme and know that I’ll be metaphorically standing alongside magnificent and inspiring gardens. I don’t want major structural overhauls of the garden but want to plan out a garden that has structure, form and interest whilst looking like it belongs to the Convent.
I’m happy with the beds I’ve put in place, and I think the smaller backyard is in good shape. But it’s a big block with a sparse front yard and a large, imposing and somewhat stark building at present.
I know how I work and am unlikely to have a grand concept for the entire property (remembering I still have an untouched paddock next door), so am working in sections. I’d like a few areas that are clearly structured and identifiable. The privet is due to come down this week and that will make a world of difference to the property – tidying it up, opening up areas for planning, but also making it even more bare and stark. The privet experiment has proven that it will adapt back to being a neat trimmed hedge along the old galvanised fence, providing a level of formality that was once evident but has been sadly lacking for decades. It will also provide the framework for planting big old ramblers and climbers over the character timber and galvanised fence. And I’ll soften the front of the hedge with low plantings.
The other area to be adapted is the front left corner, which I intend to turn into a small grove, giving me a shaded corner in an otherwise expansive and exposed front garden. My current thought is to put in a small grove of maybe five silver birches, mulched underneath and planted out with white hellebores. I’m gradually expanding the right side fence bed, so with all those plans, I think this will keep me occupied for a while – and give visitors something new to see when the garden is again open to the public.
It will still leave me with the challenge that the garden is still calling for more internal garden beds, rather than fringing the property, but I’ll get the other sections established first …
At present I’m devouring gardening books and looking at as many gardens as possible – determining what I like and why and what I don’t think will work so well, being particularly mindful of my climate. It’s rewarding and fun but also a not insignificant challenge.
After my recent successes at the Rylstone Artisan Markets, I have stocked up heavily (which has also meant lots of knitting). My big sellers to date have been the lacy mohair and silk scarves as well as the fingerless mitts, with beanie sales increasing now the weather is chilly.
This is the first “Winter” market and I’m hoping to continue my fortunate streak. This time I’ve added a stack of Noro beanies – spiral and plain, as well as a bumper load of mitts in gorgeous yarns. The markets let me indulge, with my main yarns so far being Rowan Silk Haze, Noro – Kureyon and Silk Garden, and for the linen stitch scarves a bit of a mix with alpaca, merino and mohair blends. Peartree is wonderful to work with and provides a great finished item. This month I’ve experimented with Madelinetosh Sock yarn and I’m also using some of the wonderful vintage Lush hand dyed yarns I bought a few years ago. It’s rewarding to be playing with a stash that I’ve been building up.
Nippy weather usually means cold fingers and ears – making the mitts in particular popular items, with mitts and beanies usually donned on the spot.
I now have a much better sense of how to set up for the markets and what people like and I’m also very pleased with how my stall looks. I’ll let you know how I go this round.
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Cementa15 will be from April 9 to 12, 2015 in Kandos, NSW.
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