I have this spot in the backyard. It's next to the Calamansi tree, in front of the veggie garden over looking the mountains. It's one of my favourite spots on the property actually and I find myself out there when I feel the need to recharge or when I'm stuck with a blog.

From that spot I can see and hear the action in the garden. The bees are busy buzzing around, jump from plant to plant. The birds are in the trees foraging and you can see the cosmos pointing towards the sun.

There's an abundance of pure chi around here despite the distant sound of civilization all around me. In a world like ours today, the air saturated with harmful frequencies I feel it's quite rare to be in "civilization" and maintain a connection with nature.

It's such a blessing to be here. Blessed to have found and bought the house, and blessed because the land has welcomed us.

When I began my gardening journey 2 months ago, I was a known plant killer. In fact I have not touched a plant in years. I truly considered this veggie garden a complete long shot, thus the bag garden. I figured if I killed the plants thats ok. No time was spent digging and we bought the basics and didn't go crazy.

Now I have all this AND I also have the Calamansi and Lemon tree guilds in the works.

I should be taking notes more often and I did try to do a video but that didn't work out too well and after 5 takes, I ditched it. I will have to try again as this is just crazy. There's so much going on pictures don't cut it anymore.

I did try to curb my photos fetish and limited myself to 3-4 pictures per group mainly so it's not graphics intense and I don't spend all day editing photos.

You'll also see my group shot angles are all over the place. I can no longer take the old angle shots. If I did you wouldn't be able to see plants properly.

April 26 2018

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The Salad Greens

I'm pretty sure I've over planted in this section.

Every time I look at this group I feel overwhelmed. I've lost control of the situation that much is obvious.

It's also under constant threat from the black russian tomato plant.

The broccoli looks delicious! It's out of control and I feel like they need more room to grow but I don't know if I'm past that point now so I've left it.

I didn't harvest the lettuce in time so now it's forming the seed heads. On the plus side I should have lettuce seeds soon and we did already eat some of it so it wasn't a total waste of time.

We have also had the rocket a few times and yeh nah. We don't like it. It's way too peppery and because the leaves are humongous it's a total pepper hit.

I am going to have to rip those out and put them somewhere else, where I don't know. I also don't want to waste it and wanted to use it as a sacrificial plant.

A plant that will attract harmful insects, saving another plant.

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Tomatoes

Look at all that! It's grown so thick the basil is dying because it's not getting enough sunlight.

Well that's what I reckon anyway.

There's also heaps of tomatoes growing on all of them and they are all huge! HUGE!!

I assume I pick them when they're red. But how long is this meant to take? I've had tomatoes I've been waiting on for weeks to turn colour and they're still green.

I'm worried something will eat it before I do cos something got to the capsicum.....

At least the garlic is doing well. This is one of 6 I planted all over the veggie garden. Apparently they are meant to help suppress weeds and grass and I think it's working!

For a while there I was pulling out grass growing through the sugar cane mulch, then all of a sudden (after I planted the garlic) they just stopped coming up.

The big test is under the lemon and orange tree. I'll have to add that to me weekend gardening list.

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Eggplantia

The eggplants are taking forever and I think I have another over planting situation here. The asparagus is also getting really tall and bushier, and again I don't know if I should move them or if it's too late.

The thyme, parsley, asparagus and garlic are all looking good. A little slow, but at least they're not dead.

In all fairness, if I didn't use so much parsley in my cooking I would probably have more. I'm excited for the thyme to take off. I've had it before and used it to suffocate weeds on clay soil. It worked a treat and it's my current number 1 choice for the fence line where it's all grass and weeds.

My capsicum!! 😭😭

We have been waiting for this to change colour for ages. In fact we've had this capsicum for months, finally it's starting to change colour and look! Something got to it before we did.

Considering the amount of time it's taking to bear fruit and the real estate it's occupying, I'm wondering if it's worth the dramas?

Of course I say that now that I have a half barrel full of capsicum seedlings.

I think I'll pull this off tomorrow and throw it in the garden as compost.

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Flower Power

No kidding on the "power" part. It's an explosion of flowers largely thanks to the cosmos.

Those cosmos are so tall I had to walk out to get the height in the photo and grey out the other sections.

I am in love with the flowers. The veggies may feed my body, but the flowers definitely feed my soul. And if you pay attention, they all have different personalities.

The french marigolds are so majestic and adds a gorgeous pop of red in a sea of yellows especially in contrast to the mystery marigold that came from the bees and butterfly mix.

The cosmos are amazing. They are self seeding annuals, which (I think) means if you have them at a good spot and they seed, they may come back on their own, making them a kind-of perennial. They can also grow up to 6 feet!

STFU 6 feet! I'm only 5"!

Another cool thing about them is they follow the sun! In this photo they are facing the view, but as the day progressed and the sun made it's way around, the flowers followed it's journey across the skies.

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Bob's Batch

Bob continues to be a champion. He has not budged from that hold position in weeks and it certainly looks like he's got his hands full with the basil.

Either that or he's trying to camouflage in with it.

The alyssums behind him are looking healthy and seems to be taking off. I wish the same could be said about the rosemary and the brahmi.

The strawberries are doing great! I have 3 strawberries now and I gotta say I love this pink flower variety and the beauty it brings to the garden while we're waiting for fruit.

Between using the sage for my smudging sticks and dinner, It's been reduced to this. Had I known it would take so long to grow back I may have taken a more frugal approach to harvesting.

47 days of gardening

In my 47 days, I had moments when I thought I was the shit and I was all over it. But as the days roll by I realise every day there's something new to learn and do in the garden.

My big lesson this week is SPACING.

Plants need air and water to survive. Even though I water every day, the fact that everything is so close together puts my plants at risk of diseases because theres not enough airflow between the plants and leaves, for them to dry.

A temporary fix is to prune the tomato plants and pull the rocket out. But what I really need to do is extend the garden.

Hopefully this weekend! Since Autumn doesn't want to show up, might as well take advantage of it.

Are you getting your green thumb on?

🌻 Arly

🍀 All pictures taken on my Samsung Note 8 🍀