My little herb and veggie garden (1st September 2013)

It has been a month since we got the keys to our house - still can't believe I'm now a house owner! Since moving in, Jono and I have been busy cleaning up the place (the previous owners did not hand over the house in an acceptable clean state, especially the oven which we had to use not one but TWO cans of oven cleaner to rid the gunk!) and doing DIY jobs around the house when not at work. Weekends have been spent making multiple trips to the nearby Bunnings Warehouse conveniently located 10 minutes walk from home to pick up yet another tool or more DIY parts. We now own so many household/handyman equipment we've never previously needed when renting!

Recently we've started work in the garden. The grass and hedges were getting a bit overgrown and with his new toys - an electric lawnmower and battery-powered hedge trimmer - Jono has been doing a great job keeping the grass and hedges nicely trimmed :) We've trees in the backyard we don't even know what they are sprouting leaves as we move into the spring season. The lemon tree needs some serious pruning as it has grown past the fence over to the neighbour's side (and that's where the good lemons are!). Neither of us are much of a green thumb (well, there hasn't been a need to date) and honestly I can't really tell the difference between plant and weed. I've been doing some weeding, pulling out anything that looks out of place. Are those daffodils? Ops...oh well, too late now...

One of the things I really want in our backyard is a small vegetable patch enough for me to grow herbs and vegetables for our own consumption. I've been doing a bit of Googling and there is so much work involved in preparing the garden bed and soil! We haven't quite decided on the section best for the patch. I guess we will go for the small plot next to the tool shed which seems to get heaps of sun (apparently you need at least 6 hours of sunlight for the vegetables to thrive). Feeling overly excited and enthusiastic with the idea of growing my own vegetables, I got myself a few small herbs and some pak choi from Bunnings Warehouse and have been growing them in pots to start. Will have to plan out what other vegetables and herbs to plant once we work out the plot size.

My little herb and veggie plants - rosemary, coriander, pak choi and spring onion

My do we have lots of little skinks in the garden (reptiles - yuck!) and spiders that seem to love spinning their web around withered leaves. Hmm, need to do some reading up on pest control...