Our 'garden'

Rentals and pot gardening is challenging so far, to say the least. Especially from the POV of wanting to produce as much of our food as we can-I think most people who pot garden are happy to grow a few things, but I want it all! But nowhere near as challenging as heavy frosts from March-November, Tassie was rather discouraging.

Not very inspiring so far-but we've only had a few weeks and very limited cash. The list of things we have is more impressive, here goes. Numbers refer to varieties, not number of plants.

2 potatoes (chitting on the side there)

3 raspberries

loganberries

blackcurrant

blueberry

strawberry and chilean guavas

pomegranate

medlar

macadamia

stevia

apple mint

3 strawberries

4 garlics

2 peas

2 tomatoes

cabbage

pumpkin

gourds

honeydew

watermelon

rockmelon

tatsoi

pak choi

2 spring onions

2 bulb onions

spuash

3 succhinis

broad beans

corn

basil

2 parsley

oregano

dill

mustard spinach

coriander

Plus the masses of bulbs we can't seem to identify yet, the happy plant cuttings and the kids' cacti and succulents.

Most are seedlings, obviously. I'm getting D to dig a trench for the ramblers as advised by Jackie French in her pumpkin book. We're trying to get polystyrene boxes, but so far can't find anyone who doesn't charge for them-ludicrous! I also have piles more seeds to plant, and a list longer than this one of things to get. Note also that i'm only the brains behind all this-I have a black thumb, i'm too forgetful to be trusted with food production. Luckily D could potter around all day outside so I do the research and he's the grunt, it works extremely well. We're also keeping a detailed garden journal now so we can work out the best times and varieties to plant. The theory is we can get as much garden as possible set up here and do as much learning as possible (neither of us have gardened in sub-tropics before) so then when we do buy land we'll only have to concentrate on the other incidentals-like building ourselves somewhere to live :P

Next on the list-a tip trip to try and find stuff to build another chook tractor and a worm farm. I'm trying to find Australorps now but can only seem to find bantams, I may have to change my mind on the breed I want. Then a hive of native bees-they're stingless so we can get them in suburbia. And hopefully along the way a decent acreage will come up that we can afford-there seems to be a lot available around here so i'm positive.

Woohoo! We've talked about this for over seven years now, and can finally do it!