weekend roundup

Another busy yet productive weekend at the Monkey hacienda - planting out some baby tomatoes, cauliflowers and starting to germinate some beetroot and Brussels sprouts seeds (best comment from Mrs Possum - why are we only doing 4?  what's the point of 4 sprouts?  cue some explanatory drawings from Monkey about how sprouts grow).  Oh, and painting the back wall. 

Perhaps it's best to do a pictorial tour:

Painted the back wall a garish purple-red colour I mixed together from leftover paints.  Mrs Possum's verdict - "it's not as bad as I thought it would be."

In my mind, it's an awful lot better than the half painted white monstrosity that was there before.  In this picture you can also see the bath planter that I've bricked in.  Parsnips are going in there, definitely.  I just need some potting mix and to create a cover-type thing to protect the seedlings and then we're all go.  Interesting fact I learnt this weekend - parsnips can't be transplanted well, you have to grow them from seed.  That's why you never see parsnip punnets at the garden centre.  I know, fascinating, right?

To the left I've planted in the tomato plants I swapped for one of my old used bikes:

Yes, there are many stakes. The back ones are actually to stake the tomatoes.  The front ones are an attempt to stop Meg from sleeping on them.  When I went out to check this morning I found her asleep in one of the plants.  Sigh.  I'll see how this goes!  Please also admire the retaining wall, I'm proud of it indeed.

Next to the tomatoes is my old lemon tree:

Old faithful.  At least a dozen lemons a year.  Not many, but enough for gin and tonic season.

Baby cauliflowers!  I love cauliflower, gotta be my favourite vegetable:

6 cauliflowers, could I BE anymore excited?   The black wire around them is from the free gutter guard I scored the other week.  It's attempting to serve two purposes - stop the snails and stop little Meg from sleeping on them.  Two are pretty broken already, I'm placing my faith in the gutter guard.

The mint continues with great gusto:

And the basil is off and away!

The zucchini made it through the weekend.  Fingers crossed, still:

Brick planters haven't fallen over either.  Yay!

Spinach is also excellent - well sheltered under their individual plastic bottle greenhouses.  Here's one, 11 more are happy as well:

The mini greenhouse might just work... about half of the greens have perked up, it hasn't fallen down.  Here's a sexy artsy shot I took looking inside:

The potatoes at the front are looking good - did my first lot of "earthing up" over the weekend.  I'm not sure how well they'll turn out, given I used regular old potatoes that were sprouting in my cupboard, rather than proper seed potatoes.  Anyway, they look pretty out on the front deck:

Today is Valentines Day.  Monkeys aren't very good at Valentine's Day, but it's a big deal to Mrs Possum.  Soooooo... I got her a feijoa tree that can live at my house.  This is a true gift of love as even though I can't stand feijoas or the way the fruit smells on the tree (like old socks, i tell you), they are Mrs Possum's favourite fruits ever, and they're kinda hard to come by in stores.  So, now I have a feijoa tree... outside my bedroom window as it's the best position for sun and access.  Sigh.  The devil's own fruit in my line of sight.

Here she is.  Mrs Possum has named her Felicity.  Sigh.  The bugger has even started to grow fruit buds:

And so... tonight for Valentines I'm making self crusting quiche and individual apple crumbles.  I hope this is a Good Thing for a Possum.