Sunday, November 7, 2010

Scavanger

I am so pleased with my sustainable efforts this week I just have to list them for prosterity. Spring has sprung and I am trying to do a better job on the garden. M is really into it (well, into watering plants, finding worms, playing make believe ticket seller with weedy leaves, getting rides in the wheelbarrow and digging with the BIG fork), so it is a much more workable prospect than last season. I have found myself down there digging in every spare moment and really enjoying it. The first seeds have been sown and a few of them are miraculously germinating - perhaps the slater bugs have been drowned by all the rain? It is higgledy piggledy at the moment as I just put them in randomly when I de-weed a new section.

I have tried planting the "Three Sisters" (corn-beans-squash companion planting) again and although the corn has germinated this year, the beans are growing much faster so I decided a trellis was needed. I didn't want to fork out $ (I do love a Bunnings trip, but feel so unwholesome afterwards!), so I decided to check on freecycle - http://www.freecycle.org.au/  -  and see if anyone's trash could become my treasure. No-one had a trellis to offer but many had old screen doors!

I have ended up with 4 great tall trellises (two bed bases and two screen doors) costing nothing. Plus the thrill of the scavanger hunt as I road tripped around town and hauled them to the garden in our little Lancer's boot. I have to admit the plot does perhaps look a little like an emerging slum now - but I think a true slum resident would be impressed with my recycling and inginutity on this one! They will look great with lots of beans climbing them and I might look for some bright bird scaring device to pretty things up a bit.