Saturday, December 20, 2014

My Garden At Home in Brisbane

Of course, since receiving my scholarship I have extra energy for gardening, and less energy for everything else, lol.

Yesterday we dug out a patch of bamboo and turned it into two beds, one for a single vine of passionfruit, and a second bigger plot for Madagascar beans (a climbing bean), capsicum, lettuce and lemongrass. Oh and a row of California Poppies :)  Gracie helped me build the brick wall and plant seedlings.
And here is our beautiful backyard garden. Pretty messy. Self-seeded pumpkins are overgrowing. Basil keeps bolting to seed. The beautiful rosemary is growing well. Orange marigolds to repel harmful insects. Three small pots of thyme to support my culinary habit. And mint which I need to make better use of.

Rosemary, mint and Vietnamese basil.

One of our three Silky Bantam chooks.

Pumpkins taking over!

Planted lettuce & silverbeet seeds yesterday.


Thursday, December 18, 2014

My Gardening Life

I want to say that it all started with this letter...

Yesterday I received this letter, congratulating me on my successful application for a scholarship to study Horticulture in a Bachelor of Applied Science at the University of Queensland.

I cannot possibly be more excited!

But to be honest, it all started long before that letter.
I have a very long history of gardening.
Back into my childhood, where my mother would grow beautiful lilacs, swiss chard (silverbeet) and compost our kitchen scraps.

I followed in her footsteps and always kept a garden.
At times it is small, and at other times I am blessed with a big garden.
But I always garden.


I have also volunteered to manage the school garden where Gracie and Lanaya attend primary school, where my now high-schooler Cadyn attended, and where Frankie will attend also.
It's lovely!
But I want to take it further.
I have big dreams to incorporate gardening into the learning curriculum at the school.
I have dreams of teaching gardening to children, and creating opportunities for more students to spend time in the garden.
I want to teach them to grow, to cook, and to reuse their scraps.
I want to show them the joy of raising chickens, and of having fresh scrambled eggs from a warm, freshly laid egg.
And to help everyone have a small garden so they can save money, have fresh herbs, flowers, vegetables, and fruit, enjoying the produce created with their own hands, becoming happier and healthier all over.

Gracie also has a common vision.
She can identify most herbs and most common plants.
She loves digging in.
She loves everything about gardening and is happy to help.

This blog will catalog our gardening adventures together at home and at school, as well as my education at Uni studying Horticulture.

Welcome to Gracie's Gardens.