It all started last night in bed, really. I decided that Sunday was going to be a big seed sowing day. I mean, all those men and women who fought in wars to keep Australia a free country deserve commemoration and I thought sowing seeds to give new life would be my contribution for ANZAC day. So I was up early and, a bit like with the sailing scenario, it was not ideal weather...... bloody cold with frequent showers, but hey, they don't postpone wars if it rains, so I soldiered on ( I guess that's where that phrase comes from, now I think about it).
I could not spend the day squatting over a bin full of compost, so first I had to find a way to elevate the bin and make some shelves to put the finished boxes of seeds on. And since I was going to be putting them in the rough old poly house, some decisions needed to be made about how it was all going to fit in. Then the search began to find something to use as a frame for a bench. Surely, I thought, I have found and used every single useful thing in this whole place by now!
It is funny how, when you look at things with a particular use in mind, everything looks different! The previous owners had left me literally hundreds of pots, of every size and they had thrown them into what I now saw were large bakers' crates and, what is more, the crates were resting on some kind of old frames. Oh no! This meant totally rearranging the whole garden shed..... did I want to do this now? No, but these frames were so ideal I just had to get on with it. Here are what turned out to be fruit pickers' bunks, removed and now ready to use! I cannot imagine sleeping on these very narrow hessian/canvas slings. I must be getting old.....
And so the day progressed in a similar fashion, walking around searching for just the thing for this or that job until finally, by lunch time, I had something more or less ready to use. It certainly doesn't look like much but to me it is a beautiful sight and cost me nothing at all. I especially like the use I found for the old fire hose reel, under the blue soil bin, which I would have thrown out by now if it had fitted in the rubbish bin! You can barely see the bed frame now but it is very sturdy..... I have another one in the big shed!!
Over lunch I had been listening to the radio and heard the forecast for frost in inland Tasmania tonight and this reminded me of the warning Peter Cundall gave on his radio show here, saying it was too late now to sow lettuce outside. There are dozens and dozens of lettuce seedlings self-sown in my veg garden and one night soon there may well be frost here in Cygnet so instead of sowing seeds I decided I should shift some of the lettuce seedlings to inside the poly house........ More thinking..... and watering the dry soil on the other side of the house..... and removing wooden edges that only serve as homes for slugs and snails....... then changing the shape of the bed...... and finally ever so carefully digging up and transplanting the seedlings most exposed. At the same time I thought I might as well shift some of my mizuna too as it probably doesn't like frost either. I have lots of dry leaves about the place so began to collect them and use them on the paths, as in the photo.
I have 2 clumps of alpine strawberry, evidently. They are little, white, delicious strawberries which never go red and my plants are covered in flowers and new fruit so I also moved the big tin box of them inside the poly house too, for the winter..... which was no mean feat and required more thinking.....
By this time it was 3.30pm and I was too tired to begin sieving and mixing volumes of stuff to sow seeds.Tomorrow is another day, thanks to the diggers, and then I really will sow some seeds.
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