I know it's not Sunday but I thought I would still call my post Simple Living Sunday so that I can find it later. I enjoy looking at the photos of how my garden has progressed in just a few months. The amount of produce I am harvesting is reducing now, due to the heat, so when I get a cool spell (yeah right) I will start preparing gardens for planting in late February. Some long term forecasters are predicting a wet Jan-March with talk of floods in late March. Here's hoping they are wrong.
This patty pan squash has been my favourite so far. It has a lovely flavour, is juicy and the skin is not too tough to eat. There are heaps of little ones left on the plant so I will keep pollinating and see what happens.
Our cousin Colleen volunteered at the Victory Church Christmas food giveaway. Truckloads of donated produce was distributed to the people of Gympie. She was given some of the leftovers and passed them onto us. Wow, so much food for free. With six teenagers staying here over Christmas, the donation was gratefully accepted.
In one of the bags were these melon. I have never seen them before and the closest I could find on Google was the Santa Claus Melon grown in Spain. Seems fitting. These are beautiful! A little like honeydew but much sweeter and with more of a pear sort of texture. If you spot any around I would strongly recommend buying them.
I need to find a place to plant my Herb Robert. He is really starting to spread out now.
The Brahmi is also going well. Think I might put this in a hanging pot on the verandah for easy access. I have been putting this in smoothies and it really does help with keeping my brain alert.
I found another watermelon hiding in the grass. That's two now.
Another golden squash that is in the basket. You can see the heat affected leaves. I have bought some shadecloth to construct a shelter for them.
As expected the Broccoli got sunburnt. I will look forward to growing some in the cooler months.
It's true what they say about beans - neglect them and they will thrive.
The peanut plant is just hanging in there. My neighbour has been growing peanuts successfully by just planting raw peanuts. She said that because they are a legume they don't like too much organic matter so I will remember that when I plant more.
I haven't had much success with carrots and they are so cheap to buy so if we get a few it would be a bonus but not high on my list of production.
The simple beauty of a single rose bud.
Finally getting a few ripe lemons.
And the limes are not far away. They take a while to get going after a flood.
The pumpkin vine is half way across the lawn...and not a single pumpkin.
Extra layers of mulch to keep the moisture in the soil.
A start to the Xmas present wrapping. Not environmentally friendly but I did use some paper I had left over from last Xmas.
I made the spiced nuts for my Christmas hamper...
...and they taste amazing.
The link to the recipe is in my Simple Living Christmas post. Well, I hope all your Christmas plans are coming together. I will be back later with an update on my hampers. Lots of baking today now that the presents are well and truly sorted.
