maia's update - week 42

today i prepared a new veggie patch at the new house, with enormous help from my new housemates, R and P. i am so loving living here. in looking for a new place, i was after somewhere i could have good relationships with the people i live with. so far i've had excellent conversations with both housemates, had one of the neighbours over for tea, started getting to know the people who run the cafe across the road, and on moving day, R helped me bring over 7 loads worth of stuff in his van. my new life rocks.

this morning P drove his trailer out to the old place and we loaded up 5 wheelbarrow-loads of compost, the compost bin, bags of manure, fertiliser, leaf mulch, soaker houses, gardening tools... R volunteered to help me build the new beds. i almost passed out in happy.

(all photos are click-to-embiggen, as belinda sez)

a few weeks before i moved in, R pulled out all the weeds from the veggie patch. the only things left were some self-seeded beetroots, chillies, lettuces and a lonely broad bean. on the right you can see the chillis i transplanted from the old place.

the photos were taken after R had gone over the beds with a mattock and separated out four beds. R and i spent an hour burying some soaker hoses, which work a treat.

i'm almost done laying the half-a-trailer of compost onto the new beds, then it's the hay. i'm intending to start planting immediately - P was given some silverbeet seedlings. the far left bed will be planted with green compost as it's the least fertile right now.

this compost is mostly finished turning into soil, though i did find some larger chunks i've thrown into the compost bin to finish digesting.

along with the worms, slaters, slugs, ants and snails, i've managed to transfer some interesting spiders. i didn't get a picture, sadly. these had big bellies, and red colouring at the front half of the body. anybody know what these might be?

near the back door i planted some artichokes and herbs from the old place. the artichokes weren't happy where they were, so i've placed them in a nice sunny spot. just out of shot on the right are oregano, greek oregano and sage. apparently one of the previous tentants had grown sunflowers in that spot, the soil is lovely and dark. i've added some chicken poo and lucerne mulch.

for perspective, here are the herbs in relations to the house. all the pots in the background are mine. i am crazy plant lady, who knew.