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Life on two acres of arid dirt, on the edge of the Australian outback.

Thursday, May 3, 2018

in the patch

Hello dear readers,

Sorry for my absence.  I will be back to normal posting soon. We have finally connected to the "NBN" (National Broadband Network) via wireless, so at last the internet will run at a decent speed to enable me to do more posting without taking hours to download photos. No excuses now!

A quick post this time around to let you know that I am still in the land of the living. 

I have been pottering about in the garden, doing bits and pieces in the cooler weather, although we have had the hottest April in a very long time...the plants and animals have been very confused!

Today it rained! Can you believe it after all this time, we received some beautiful moisture from up above and the plants have given a big sigh of relief.

These photos were taken a few days ago out in the veggie patch.


Fresh plants of Calendula are blooming, the bees have been loving all the sunshine and have been very busy out here.


Rocket gone wild.

  
Potatoes being munched on by something.

An abundance of tomatoes.






Last seasons eggplant bush has fourteen fruit upon it.


Rainbow chard or silver beet with spring onions in the background.


Lemon grass.

Jerusalem Artichokes...the first time growing these.

Late pumpkin.

Pickings.

Amaranth.

  
The cucumbers are producing well.


Late capsicum.

Drying parsley.

Dried sage.

After the rain this morning.

You cant see it very well, but the sun was shining through a shower of rain this evening. It looked really pretty.

I took this quick video this morning during a heavy downpour.

See you soon,

xTania



30 comments:

  1. Tania, it's good to hear from you again. It has been a warm April here in Queensland too. It is interesting seeing what is growing down there in SA. It is dry here once again but hopefully we will get a few showers soon. Glad you had some rain. It makes such a difference to the plants.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Nanna Chel,

      This year is flying by and I cant keep up lol! The rain was beautiful and today the sun is shining ever so brightly, so I am eager to get outside and get my hands dirty :)

      The veggies always do better after the heat of January and February, only trouble is I need to plant them earlier and try to get them through the heat first :-o

      xTania

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  2. Great to have you blogging again Tanya, the garden looks great. Could you please send the rain over our way.
    Cheers

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    Replies
    1. Home you got some of the rain I sent you Chookasmum!

      It was lovely to get some rain after an extremely dry start to the year, just hope we get follow up rain now for the farmers.

      xTania

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    2. Hi Tania, we had 3mm. not much but it settled the dust, and washed the dust of my plants.
      The farmers here are desperate for rain, the window for crop sowing is diminishing quickly.
      cheers x

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  3. Glad your internet is improved and your garden is doing well.

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    Replies
    1. Our internet was terrible before, and we put up with it for years. Hubby was always calling up to complain...we paid for a service we weren't getting. So we swapped providers and now we are enjoying faster speeds.

      xTania

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  4. I'm so impressed with your tomatoes. What a green thumb you have. You are so productive!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Stephenie. Those tomatoes didn't always look that good, the heat of summer really plays with their production. I have plans to move the garden beds to a shaded area for next season, hopefully they will do better with natural shade protecting them.

      xTania

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  5. I heard on the news yesterday that you are in for a cold, windy snap down your way, better batton down the hatches!

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    Replies
    1. Hi Cheryl,

      It is cold here at the moment and for the next few days. The sun is shining brightly today, so it will be good to get outside and do some things while there is no dust!

      xTania

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  6. Your veggies are going great....so thankful I have great internet...I don't know how we lived without it you become so reliable on it these days.

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    1. Hi Kathy,

      Our internet was so slow (dial up speed). We were paying for faster speed but not getting it. This went on for the last seven years, with hubby ringing them constantly in that time. So we switched providers when the NBN became available and are now enjoying a faster internet...not as fast as you but way better than we had :)

      xTania

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  7. Wonderful to see you and your productive garden again. Our plants are a bit confused too. So dry. Hasn't rained for a while, and the temps are warm during the day time. But there comes relief eventually. I suspect we'll see the rain soon, as you now have. Enjoy your pickings.

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    Replies
    1. Hello Chris,

      It hadn't hardly rained this year until yesterday, things were looking so dry and the farmers were getting worried. So this rain is welcome relief indeed!

      Hope you get your share soon too.

      xTania

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  8. Hi Tania, the garden is looking great! You've prompted me to post again as I've been slack.

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    Replies
    1. That's good Robyn, please keep posting.

      It is hard to keep up with blogging when there is so much to do outside. I am going to try and blog more about what I am doing around here on a daily/weekly basis.

      xTania

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  9. Your veggie garden is great! Love the tomatoes.

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  10. Glad to see you back, I've missed your posts. xxx Cath

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    Replies
    1. Hello there Cath,

      I have missed blogging (somehow) too. As usual this year is flying by at a rate of knots, and I need to keep up lol!

      xTania

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  11. We finally got some rain here too
    The weather just turned ad it’s cold as well
    Might be time to light the fire and keep it going me thinks
    Your garden is looking fantastic

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    Replies
    1. Hi Angela,

      Yay for rain! It is cold here too at the moment, but I have resisted putting the fire on yet. I am snuggled up in a nice cosy fleecy blanket while internetting :)

      xTania

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  12. Wonderful to hear from you again. The NBN hey - is there a story there? It took me 3 months of 'fighting' at our last place to get connected.

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    1. Oh yes Phil, there is a story and it has gone on for seven years. Seven years of whinging and complaining about our connection and being charged for a service we weren't even receiving! Anyhow once NBN came into view we changed from Telstra to Optus and have had no real trouble since. Our problem was with the infrastructure. We have very old copper wire going past our place but it is not in conduit,just dug in the ground, so we were unable to get NBN connected to the node like most other people here. We had to wait another eighteen months to get the wireless connection. Long, long story, but finally we have a result lollol!

      Nice to hear from you,

      xTania

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  13. Always lovely to see how things are going out at your place, Tania. Your garden looks really productive, great produce! I'm picking lettuce and silverbeet from my garden now. Isn't it wonderful how plants respond to rain? We are forecast to get rain from next Monday here. Meg:)

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Meg, its great to hear from you.

      The plants seem to grow a foot higher after rain. They were covered in dirt after a recent dust storm, so very beneficial for them. I planted garlic the day before this rain, so fingers crossed I will see them poking up through the soil very soon.

      Hope you get your share of rain,

      xTania

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  14. Good to know all is well in your world. The NBN? We may have it finally pass us later this year. So far it is still the old system. On some days we have really good signal and other days you have to just about sit on top of the router to get anything.

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    1. Hello Jane,

      The NBN has been such a disappointment to a lot of people in our town, they now have a slower unreliable internet than they had before. I hope it improves before you get it, sounds like you had similar issues with the internet to us.

      xTania

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  15. Hi Tania, I love your garden! It is looking fabulous. It is always a joy to visit your blog. Thanks for sharing the photos, they were a treat. Warmest regards, Wendy (across the ditch in NZ)

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Your comments really make my day. Thank you for taking the time and for being so kind.