Garden show 2011

I went to the Qld Garden Expo today at Nambour. I went last year and loved it, so definitely wanted to go again this year. It was really cold when Kasey and I got there, but it soon warmed up to a beautiful day. I didn't go to any of the "talks" or demonstrations this year, I was there to mainly stock up on some more fruit trees and I wanted to get some bamboo plants, even so, we were there for 6 hours. But I came home with lots of treasures..

Fruit trees galore, including a fruit salad tree which has peachcott, plum, nectarine and peach all on the same plant. I also bought avocado, wampi, lychee, curry plant, japoticaba, black sapoate and some lovely anthuriums for the greenhouse in red, chocolate and black.

 I also bought an outdoor mushroom kit which will grow for a few years in the garden, the lovely big field mushrooms, as well as 2 shitake mushroom kits, 1 of which can be stored in the fridge until after the first one is finished, and it can then be put out.

I bought these lovely 2 purebred australorps at the show, they are enjoying a lovely dust bath in their new home, while the other bigger chickens are out of the pen...I think they may be in for a bit of a hard time once the other chickens go back in to their pen later this afternoon.

 I also bought this home canning kit, it has tongs, a jar lifter, lid tongs etc and a jar funnel. I also got  a couple of dummy eggs, as the girls like to lay in the wrong spot, so I hope this will encourage them to lay in the right spot. They wer also giving away these shower timers so I grabbed a couple to "encourage" shorter showers.

I picked up this sweet little sign, down from $25 to $10...

And of course, the obligatory face painting while at the show....

I bought this book the other day, I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but will get to it soon. I haved also booked in to a 2 day cheesemaking course at the end of October, we make 10 different cheeses over the weekend, so I am really looking forward to that. I have also found a local who sells native bee hives, so will purchase one of those over the next few weeks, so slowly starting to implement the ideas from my permaculture course.

Our day at the Garden expo

What a gorgeous day outside today! The weather is beautiful this morning, lovely sunshine and warmth without that horrible summer swelter..I have opened up the house to let in some lovely fresh air. I hate having the house all closed up over winter.  Kasey and I got up early yesterday and headed up to the Nambour garden expo. It was a lovely day. Kasey was pretty good considering that I was trapesing around from one end of the place to the other, in between lectures and workshops. She was getting decidely bored until I finally found the playground, then I had some bribing power! I attended probably 5 or 6 workshops, which I really enjoyed and learnt quite a bit. I spent most of my time at the Giant Kitchen Garden, as this is my area of real interest. I can get plants and buy garden bits and pieces any time of the year. I picked up a perpetual moon calendar for $12 which I can use year after year, and I also picked up a HUGE organic garlic from the same man. My other garlic that I planted the cloves of about 3 weeks ago is finally starting to sprout (yay) I had started to give up on it. Apparently I am best to put the garlic I purchased yesterday in the fridge for a couple of weeks, and according to the moon calender I am to plant it out on the 29th and 30th July.  This along with the sprouts I ordered from Vic should hopefully see a nice big crop in summer, and then I can plant my own cloves...here's hoping anyway.  There was a whole new concept in the Kitchen Garden with how to manage your vege and food crops, and your animals etc. I picked up lots of new info, and lots of info of day workshops etc coming up, which I have yet to read through. Here is a bit of a picture account of what we saw and did at the expo.

Protective planting for establishing fruit trees.

Frog  habitat using a black tub

Spiral herb garden

Ad Lib photo at the solar cooking demonstration

 Teacup ride 

 More teacup ride

Fun on the slide

Companion gardening

 

Protective growing frame for summer vege gardening

Teepee frame for peas and beans and other climing plants

 

Mixed planting vege garden

 

More mixed planting vege garden

 

More mixed garden planting.

  All in all a lovely, productive and enjoyable day. Will definitely go again next year. Seeing as it's such a lovely day outside, I will probably do a little mowing just around the house where it is a bit longer than I would like, the front paddock doesn't need any mowing, and I will probably pull out the pumpkin vine as it is now past it's prime, and will replant some new seeds later in the week, I will plant by the moon calendar which says I can plant from Wednesday, I think I am going to get a LOT of use from this little calendar.

  The vine has it's last 2 huge pumpkins ready to pick, but it is looking very scraggly and the new fruit is not growing, just rotting on the vine, even when hand pollinated, so time for a replacement.  I would like to put some climbing teepee style frames in this time for them to grow on, as they definitely seem to grow better when the fruit is elevated. The other option is some reo mesh, and either of these two options will hopefully contain the vine a bit as well, so it doesn't take over the garden so much.

Garlic, embroidery and the garden expo...

I ordered some garlic yesterday.  I have ordered sprouting seeds, so they already have the shoots started, which should guarantee 100% success, and because they are already sprouting, it shouldn't matter that I am planting a little later than usual. I have read that I can plant out garlic until the end of July, so hopefully all should be good. I also had a look a chest freezers yesterday, and now just have to decide between a 500 litre and a 360 litre..I want to get rid of the 2 door fridge freezer in the shed, as it is probably 20 years or so old, and probably uses a heap of power...the 500 litre will cost about $60 a year to run, and the 360 litre will be about $40 a year to run, so very cheap compared to what the other older 1 is probably costing me. I am going to pick up a power monitor today, and work out exactly how much the old fridge is costing me ro run so I will have a more accurate idea. I also got some small knitting needles for Kasey yesterday and started teaching her to knit, I think it will take a long time, and because she is left handed it is really difficult, so I can only show her the right handed way, and she finds that really hard...so I think I need to find a left handed knitter to show her. I also went to sewing class last night, and started embroidering out the flowers for the front of the bag. They are constructed using a wash away stabiliser, so will end up as lovely little individual flowers. I will finish sewing these today hopefully, and then post a couple of photos of the finished flowers, they are really pretty. I am currently making some passionfruit jam, I am just waiting for the skins to cool and I can scoop out the white pulp and add to the mix and start to cook it off. I want to make some lemon curd as well, not sure if I will quite get to that today. I am hoping to go to the Nambour garden show this weekend, they have a giant kitchen garden setup that works on the organic and permaculture principles, so I am really interested in having a look and sitting through a couple of the demonstrations.  I will have to make sure Kasey brings her Nintendo, I may have half a chance of her sitting through a couple of demonstrations that way, as she doesn't have the patience to sit through those. Ok, off to make jam and get through my list of projects for today...