Gardening!!

It is OFFICIALLY Spring!

J and I spent a bit of time in the garden this weekend. We were able to overhaul the veggie patch and a couple of beds where we sadly ripped out a heap of capsicum plants. We have so much wonderful compost that we were able to mix in tons with the existing dirt.

(me getting potentially eaten by the boys)

I am really looking forward to getting in the garden this year!! 

We have a lot of wild herbs going in the garden as well! Lots of nettle, mint, and of course, dandelion. I made a tea this weekend that was just great! Nettle, calendula with a slice of lemon and teaspoon of manuka honey... So good, so refreshing! 

 And even though, most of garden is getting slightly over-run by clovers, I love the yellow!

And yes, our Aqauponics system is going really well! J has been taking good care of our little goldfish, which are growing rapidly! We had one death in the family, Dead Goldfish Number One was sick for a couple days, but he is in a better place now... 

We have some cos lettuce, broccoli and spinach slowly growing at the moment. I hope these really taken off when the weather warms up a bit!

I hope everyone enjoys the beginning of Spring! 

Or the start of Autumn back home!! 

Happy Ostara!

xo

Recovery Day who knows...

Success!

Last week I went into my surgeon’s to have him take out all of the extra bits and pieces left in my nose.. Gross! And Ouch! But as soon as he was done, I could actually breath in and out of the left nostril! I know it sounds stupid, but holy cheese and crackers! What have I been missing all these years!

That’s what I get for playing sports… getting kicked in the face with soccer cleats when I was goalie, playing a forward for basketball and getting smacked in the face how many times, a bit of volleyball, lacrosse…

And let’s not forget the amount of mosh pits and stage diving… I can’t believe I waited so long!

Anyway, it all good in the hood…Bruising from the accident has mostly subsided, but still having problems with my foot, but I expected that. And the bruise from my IV has finally started to fade. Exciting times, I tell ya!

J is still working on the aquaponics system. He’s in the business of tweaking and fine tuning like a madman. And I know he is getting a little annoyed, but he’ll get there in the end.

The last couple weeks I’ve had off from work due to the accident and surgery, so I’ve been able to play house-wife. Its been a nice change from the chaos and stress at work. I’ve been drawing for the upcoming show and have made a lot of progress. I have about 10 drawings ready to be framed. I’m pretty happy with them. I would like to bust through another 5 in the next few weeks. We’ll see though. It’s tough to get something that I am truly happy with.

I think I’m enjoying drawing again, fully. Much more so than photography. Photography always seemed too easy. I look at the ratio of good photos to bad versus the good drawings to bad and I know I still can progress a lot more in my drawing and that is what seems to be driving me.

Anyway. Loving it!

So Happy Monday!

xo

Recovery Day 5

Today was my first day out in what feels like years.

I went (without my crutches) with J to Mitre 10, Kiwi Koncern, got a pie and then headed to the nursery to pick up a couple seedlings and to the market for groceries.. Came home and I basically passed out on the couch. Exhausted. I never knew such simple things could really take it out of me.

My nose is looking ok. I have noticed the swelling go down a lot, and Thursday I go in to have the surgeon look it all over. Hopefully after that, I’ll have a bit better time with it all. I hate not being able to smell or taste or anything. I love food. I miss it.

I had a lovely time it all up yesterday. Grossest thing ever… cotton swabs, saline and ewwwww. I won’t go into details…

Tomorrow morning, I head to my GP to have my knee looked at. So hopefully, nothing too awful there. I’ll probably be heading to physio again on a regular basis, but it should be covered, or at least reimbursed by TAC. Fingers crossed.

So anywho, at the nursery, we ended up leaving with seedlings, a fern tree, a new feijoa, and a bay tree. Yeah. Wasn’t expecting that! But all good. J planted everything when we got back. The seedlings are in the aquaponics system, which I think he’s got nailed down now! Well, except for the fish… no fishy-fish as of yet. He has the watering system on a timer, so this will be the first week it will be totally up and running. So happy! Can’t wait to see how it all works!

Anywho, I hope everyone had a good and safe weekend!!

xo

Aquaponics - Part 2

After seeing the Aquaponics system that was installed for a family on Costa's Garden Odyssey, Jacob has been enormously inspired to build his own.

He found some instructions online on how to build one using some new and recycled materials. Every weekend for about a month or so, he has been working like a mad scientist in our shed.

The start of the system

It's been, as he puts it, a lesson in trial and error. But it's in the testing phase finally! Testing in essence is the point where we've been dumping in water and just seeing if there are any leaks. And of course, there are some minor ones. But nothing massive which is a plus!

Getting there! About half way done at this point.

After a few trips to the random hydroponics places and the largest aquarium shop I've ever seen – the progress looks good!

So, Jacob's mad scientist skills are totally paying off! Soon we will have yummy plants and eventually yummy home grown fish!

*aquaponics

Has anyone else tried these out??

J and I were watching Costa's Garden last night,
and were completely amazed by these.

Aquaponics is based on productive systems as they are found in nature. It can be loosely described as the combination of aquaculture and hydroponics and this is where the name aqua-ponics originates.

Hydroponic systems rely heavily on the careful application of man-made nutrients for the optimum growth of plants. The nutrients are made from mixing together a concoction of chemicals, salts and trace elements to form the ‘perfect’ balance. Water in hydroponic systems needs to be discharged on periodically, as the salts and chemicals build up in the water which becomes toxic to the plants. Aquaculture systems focus on maximising growth of fish in tank or pond culture.

The fish are usually heavily stocked in the tanks often, 10kg in 100L of water. The high stocking rates often mean that the tank water becomes polluted with fish effluent which gives off high concentrations of Ammonia. Water has to be discharged at a rate of 10-20% of the total volume in the tank once a day, everyday. This water is often pumped into open streams where it pollutes and destroys waterways.
 
Aquaponics combines both systems, and in doing so cancels out the negative aspects of each. Instead of adding toxic chemical solutions to grow plants, aquaponics uses highly nutritious fish effluent that contains almost all the required nutrients for optimum growth. Instead of discharging water, aquaponics uses the plants and the media in which they grow to clean and purify the water, after which it is returned to the fish tank. This water can be reused indefinitely and will only need to be replaced when it is lost through transpiration and evaporation.

Check out the details via Backyard Aquaponics 

Loving it! We might try and set one up while we are still here in Australia, and then depending on how much room we actually have at the new house in NZ, we'd like to set one up there.

I love the thought of having fresh fish, fresh veggies - I could totally live off just that alone!! In addition to our normal veggies we grow, I think we'd be golden!

I'm really eager to hear if anyone else has this type of setup!!! Let me know!!!

By the way - Happy Friday! Have a good weekend!!

xo