Recycling Less...I have noticed today just how empty my recycling bin is. I started to make my no-dig gardens and became excited about composting after (drumroll please) I discovered just how amazingly black and yummy the giant compost pile down the back of my garden is! We had been chucking stuff on it ever since we moved here two years ago and ignoring it.I used to have to empty the recycling bin in my kitchen into the wheely council recycling bin each day. Now I'm using lots of my recyclables in the garden like this:- paper, newspaper and cardboard makes my no-dig gardens and adds to the compost piles.- tin cans, milk cartons, and almost all plastic containers are used as pots for my obsession for cuttings. (I wonder is there a name for that obsession? Snipper?)With all of our scraps going into the compost bucket, all the paper type rubbish going to the garden and the tins and plastics going to cuttings... I have so little actual garbage going into the bin! I feel like I want to rent out the bin space! :)(can you HEAR the 'smug'?)So, I'm recycling a lot less, or maybe I'm the recycler now?Eggs...This month I discovered a farm stall in my area that sells fresh eggs. I mean real, unpolished eggs that have been laid this week... unlike the puddles of sprog I've been buying at the supermarket. The farm stall eggs are just so delicious! I'm buying 30 eggs for $5. Bargain.
Okay, here are some 'before' photo's. I am hoping that this time next year, I'll be looking back on these shots and saying 'oooh, ahhhh, look how much my garden has changed!Below - This mess of weeds is a shallow garden which will be perfect for some herbs and flowers with small roots which don't mind lack of drainage and full sun most of the day.
Above - the huge old pipe with the agave growing in it, and a circle of concrete edging. When it rains, the garden inside the circle becomes a pond, so there's not much drainage there.Okay, enough of the old...Below - I watered all of my babies today. The tomatoes are looking happy, with new green shoots on all of the cuttings. 
I picked and ate my first mandarine of the season today, and it was sweet, juicy and delicious. I am taking a couple more to work tomorrow to share. Last year we had more than 200 from the tree, and gave a lot away to friends.The oranges are ripe as well, and we'll pick them soon to juice. They are very yasty, but always too sour to eat. You know the saying... when the world gives you lemons (or sour oranges?)... you add a lot of sweetener and enjoy the juice.I loved hiding in my garden today.
Hi there, welcome to my blog.I've been working on my composting this week. I have this huge compost pile down in the back corner of the yard where we've just tossed the grass clippings and kitchen scraps. It has a weed growing all over it, which I will chip and add to the pile next weekend.We bought a black plastic composting bin from Bunnings this week, and we've set it up in a sunny spot on top of some newspaper. Of course, the dog was intrigued by this addition to 'her' yard and felt the need to dig around the base! I have so much trimming to do around the garden, we'll have plenty of chip to add to the new bin.I have been reading a lot of gardening blogs and I'm becoming addicted to them. I learned that I can put guinea pig manure on the compost because they are herbivores. I'm learning a lot about keeping chooks (chickens) but I'm still not ready to commit to that.I love hiding in my garden :)
