Smiley Saturday - The Summer Garden Is Finally In!
We’ve had so much happening in our lives of late with a holiday and then a trip away for Lleyton’s surgery, that the poor garden has been on the backburner. Last weekend, Farmboy finally had a chance to build up one of my vegie garden beds. We’ve added a level to make it higher and filled it up with some compost we purchased by the cube.
I LOVE a fresh, new garden bed. Empty and so full of promise.
I usually like to plant a mixture of seeds and seedlings. Seeds for the easier to grow plants and seedlings for those that are a bit more of a challenge (like tomatoes and sweetcorn). With our later than hoped for start, I went for nearly all seedlings this time.
This is one of the tomato seedlings. I’ve planted 2 different varieties this year so we’ll see how they go.
One of the things I really love about our own garden is the chance to try some different types of vegetables or different varieties. What you can buy in the stores is usually limited to the most common things. And in our supermarket, variety is even more limited. I’ve eaten yellow button squash before but not green button squash so it’ll be interesting to see how well these grow and whether or not we enjoy the taste.
There was some leftover compost so Farmboy brought down some old truck tyres and filled them up. While I was seedling shopping, I bought some more strawberry plants. We had 5 (only 4 of which were productive last summer) which wasn’t enough plants to do anything with the yields they produced. We now have 10 (and last years plants are much bigger now) and I’m hoping we’ll do a little better with our harvest this year. There is nothing like the taste of home grown strawberries to bring a smile to our faces. 
The large plant is a Eureka Strawberry which I hadn’t heard of before and thought I’d give a try. In the centre is my dwarf lemon tree. I have a much larger pot in mind for it eventually but don’t want to pot it into that until our paving is done. Hopefully it won’t mind this temporary home while we get organised. It was getting a bit tired of being in the small pot it originally came in.
Spending time in the garden is such a therapeutic task and I love the sense of hope and promise that a newly planted garden brings. It really makes me smile. You can read more about my gardening efforts (or lack thereof) on Lightening’s Garden.
What’s making you smile this week? It could be something wonderful that has happened. Or finding joy in the small, day to day things. Perhaps you’d like to make everyone smile with a joke or funny you tube clip. Write your Smiley Saturday post with a link back to here and then enter your link in Mr Linky below.
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- Wo-oh!!! It’s getting bigger and BIGGER!!!
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Great reasons to smile Lightening … want to come fill the promise in my empty and sad garden beds.
I needed some inspiration as to what to plant.Thank you.
I love Strawberries and so do my toddlers ! great idea.
[...] is just starting her summer garden. You might pop over and share whats making you smile with her this [...]
Looking good Lightening!
Of course we’re in the wrong season now but that looks fabulous. I’ve not heard of Eureka either. I wonder if it’s ‘local’? I don’t have any raised beds myself but I hear that they’re jolly handy for keeping the slug population at bay.
BEst wishes
Your garden looks lovely. The tyres reminded me of the little seats my sister in law is making out in her garden. Two tyres screwed together with a round board on top. Makes a perfect toddler sized seat for outside. Think she got the idea from Notebook magazine.
When I started to read “seed and seedlings” I thought I was on an old post from 5 months ago, before I realized that you live in Australia and it’s summer or spring there right now, hahahaha !
You are lucky ! I wished I could at least sit in my garden, but with only 4° it’s a “little” too cold !
I LOVE your raised garden beds. They’re one of the thingds on my list of must haves if I ever get a house with more yard space. The strawberries in tyres is a fabulous idea.
My garden is doing pretty well too. This year I have an 8 inch wide strip along the length of the back lawn. It’s planted with lazy housewife beans and assorted heritage tomatoes. Behind them in tubs on the concrete path which runs between the lawn and the fence I have baby cos lettuce, midget rockmelon, heirloom carrots and mini capsicum. They were all doing reasonably well, then I gave them a dose of seasol. My goodness they took off! They had their second dose yesterday (it’s applied fortnightly) so I fully expect my beans to be up in the passionfruit vine soon…….
Hee Hee, wordpress didn’t like the word s-t-r-i-p.
Thanks for the lemon slice link. I love condensed milk recipes.
Good luck with your new garden. I love growing fresh tomatoes, but I don’t much like tomato worms ;–}
My 26th Smiley Saturday is up at Small Reflections …
Hugs and blessings,
how lovely to see some gardening! as we enter winter here its a sad time for the poor garden, which was deluged all summer anyway. love your raised beds, and the soil looks fabulous. its so nice to try different veggies and realise how boring the supermarkets are!!