Autumn in South Australia 2025

Hello my little Magickal Unicorns, 

Well here it is the 15th of March and we are supposed to be in Autumn now. 

Mabon is upon us next Friday (21st - is usually when I celebrate), and nobody has told the weather that it is no longer summer. 

We have 39 degrees Celsius today, so I am sitting in my witchy room under the fan - trying desperately to keep cool. I'm not a fan of the heat. I used to be when I was younger - pre going through menopause. But now I love the cooler months (still not liking the heart of winter when it is too cold hahaha).

Spring is my ultimate favourite season - when everything starts to burst forward with life. Secondly is Autumn (if one should ever get an Autumn that is) then I guess I would have to then take Winter over Summer. 

I find the heat of Summer drains the energy out of me - most days all I can do outside is water my gardens.... and then.... collapse!!! For me, it is easier to keep warm than it is to keep cool - yes we can put the air-conditioner on, but that dries the air out and causes breathing difficulties (though it is nice at night when it is still in the high 20's and you need to sleep). 

Just a quick catch-up - So this year - 2025 - is there any signs of Autumn yet? 

Yes there are - even though most of my garden is still quite green (other than the plants that have died in the extreme heat we have had), some of the leaves are starting to turn yellow. The trees are a bit confused though as they are starting to bud!! 

We have not had any rain for 4 months now, so I lost a lot of plants even though I have watered sometimes twice a day to keep them alive. 

Some of my produce I grew this year was disappointing - small and bitter. And everything in my top garden beds just turned up toes and died there maybe something wrong with the soil up there, so I am going to do some testing and amending of soil, plus put in some green manure to grow over winter - just so those beds will be ready for Spring planting. 

My greenhouse is still WAY TOO HOT to start any seeds off yet - it's going to be late planting this year.  

On Sunday there will be another Gloomy's Garden Vlog coming out with a little tour of my garden and all its issues.... I hope you enjoy a sneak peak into my garden world. 

PLUS - hopefully, if all the stars align, I will have a witchcraft video out for you the very next weekend to do with Mabon...

My Autumn Altar 2025

Until then - I am just about to go and process my pomegranates (which we harvested a couple of weeks ago and had so many that we have fed 6 families with them), so I can make some apple & pomegranate jam.  Plus I am hoping to save some of the peels to dry them out for tea making purposes.

I hope all is well wherever you are.

Have a blessed week ahead, thanks for catching up with me today!! 

Annette )O( xxx

Gloomy's Garden - Vlog 11 - End of Summer Catch-up

Hi Everyone,

Just another Gloomy's Garden Vlog for end of summer...

I hope you enjoy it!!

New Year - New Moon - New Beginning - First blog of 2025!!!

 Greetings and Salutations All & A Happy New Year!!

I bet a few of you have hangovers today hahaha - a few parties and few too many drinks later!

Did you make any New Year's resolutions?

We spent our New Year's Eve at home, nothing special really - I managed to clean out my Greenhouse of all plants and give it a good sweep through.  We then sat under the gazebo and Paul wrote a couple of new guitar tracks, so we listened to him and sang along whilst I was repotting a fern and ripping up cardboard/paper for composting.  Caetlyn was doing her knitting (swearing a lot because she miss counted or dropped a stitch... hahaha) and Mavis the dog was just following anyone around to see if she could help or sleeping under the table!

Later in the day we just had a normal meal, watched a bit of telly and then played scrabble until it was time to wish each other a HAPPY NEW YEAR.  We did consume a lot of sweets and biscuits/cookies though - which we con't normally do as we have reduced our sugar and salt intake over 2024 quite substantially, so when we have a burst of sugar like this, it does disrupt our bodily patterns somewhat!

As it was also the New Moon, a time to start something new, a fresh beginning as it is the start of the new moon cycle.  I did light my huge candle and some incense to welcome in the new year - however, I don't really get excited about it because our (witchy) new year isn't until Samhain on 1st May.

This year in the Chinese Horoscope it is the year of the Wood Snake (which means it's Paul's year this year). That doesn't come into effect until 29th January 2025.

Thinking of 2025 - I do hope that this year will be a better year than the previous 3 years, which have been a bit rough - and even though I do not make resolutions (as I am always disappointed in myself when they all fall apart), there are a few things (goals perhaps?) I would like to do:

1. Keep trying to get fitter and healthier - as I am getting older I need to make sure that I maintain my flexibility and fitness levels so that I don't end up on the "Medication Merry-go-Round".  I believe that Mother Nature has provided us with all the help we need in the forms of herbs and food for medicine.  I have created a spreadsheet for the next 6 months with every detail I need to form an opinion on patterns (good or bad) so that I can tweak my fitness progress:

Front Page of my Fitness Plan

I have included things like exercise, rest, daily health assessments, supplements taken, fortnightly weight and monthly body measurements.  With this information I should be able to see what progress I am making, and if I am not making progress, I should be able to see where I am failing with all the collected information.  I also have a page for NOTES after each month and on there - well it's like a journal - I put my feelings on certain days so I can see if there are any cycles or patterns there.

It should be all very interesting!!

2.  I would like to progress my YouTube channel by varying the content on there, hoping I will get more followers (but if I don't, ah well C'est Lavie), I will still have fun documenting my journey in life...

My YouTube Banner
Annette McLean's YouTube

So if you want to see more videos on Gloomy's Garden, or on my witchcraft practice, herbal remedies, book reviews, Q&A's and Tea & Chat videos, hop along on the bad foot to my channel and press subscribe, and ring the bell so you are notified of when I upload.  It would be greatly appreciated!!

3.  I would like to learn how to make my own soap - from scratch - right now I have done the melt and pour soap, and I am about to embark on the reusing the old soap bits that usually get thrown away - to make soap bars... but I would really love to learn how to make pure soap from scratch, using the oils I have infused with herbs and flowers from my garden.  I am a bit wary about the Lye though - I have heard that can be quite a thing to get used to!!

Melt & Pour Lavender Soap

I thought that the soap and pour ones were very easy to do and with the soap colours, they looked quite pretty (plus I did put some Lavender blossoms and oil in the mix as well).  For my first try I was quite pleased with them - I  did some flowers and some stars - it was a gift for a friend (along with a load of other witchy items) that was moving interstate.

4.  I want to repaint and redecorate my witchy room come office.... I want to make it feel more mystical and magickal, full of beautiful things that make me feel peaceful and joyful.

My messy work desk and Altar

My witchy cupboards and a load of mess

My bookshelves filled with odds & sods (mess)

However, if I don't get to these things this year - there is always a next, I am not going to be putting undue pressure on myself just to prove a point. 

To do my room I will probably have a month off in either April or May so that I can take my time and get it how I want it.

Isn't it lovely to have a new year, a fresh start?  To get rid of ALL the negative aspects out of your life (as much as possible - unless you live in a cottage deep in the heart of a wild forest somewhere, where nobody visits and you have no media to drag you down, just nature) and just breathe a sigh of relief, knowing YOU are in FULL control of what happens in your life - sure, those around you or situations can influence that and how you react, but at the end of the day - YOU are the one who makes the decisions for YOU!!

Take control of that aspect this year - say NO more to things that you don't want to do - even at the risk of upsetting someone you love or the boss at work!

This year is a time of YOU

Now you might think that this is self-centred... and maybe it is to a point, but we have all been living under a man made stress for so long despite our mental and physical health.  Self Care is NOT self-centred, it is hard to be everything to everyone if your health is on the brink of crumbling around you.... To be strong, you NEED to concentrate on getting YOU right FIRST.  That is why NO is going to be the word of 2025....

If you don't want to go to a party and you would rather stay home in your PJ's with your cat/dog, watching something on TV or reading a book - then say NO.

If you don't want to take on more responsibility at work, tell them that you don't have the capacity to do that - say NO.

If you have a gut feeling that something isn't right and you don't want to proceed - then NO!!

It just amounts to prioritising YOU first.

Anyway, enough of me ranting - I'm off to spend some time in nature (my back garden), so have a lovely first day of January 2025 - get some rest, eat well, spend some time in nature and breathe in all that goodness, and I will catch you in the next blog or vlog on YouTube.

Blessings to you all )O( xxx

Looking back at 2024 and what is new for 2025, (Last BLOG of the year)

 Greetings all,

Merry Christmas Eve 🌲🔆🌟🔥

What a year 2024 has been!!

I was going to write about what a crap year it has been, but I didn't want to leave a whole bunch of negativity here, there is so much of it in the world these days that I don't want to encourage it here on this platform, so I have taken a "well needed" step back to reflect on the year that was, and found that there were a few things that threw the curve ball at us - like losing our beloved Rudy boy, ongoing health issues, work issues etc - but there were also good things as well, like enjoying nature, the garden and adopting our Mavis from the Animal Welfare League...

Mavis and I doing a selfie...

Whilst work has given me the absolute heebee-geebees (I cleaned that up pretty nicely!!!), I was blessed  to have a whole month off in September - part of my long service leave - and in that month we redecorated parts of the house, did some planting in the garden, relaxed and just enjoyed life.

My home life has been great, we have it good, and are very grateful for what we have as we know we are in a good position financially and do not want for anything in particular (we haven't always been there so we know it is a hell of a good place to be in) and what with my garden coming to life in spring and summer, good food and also benefitting from a daily witchcraft practice. 

We do all have our moments of depression or sadness, which has only been so predominantly around us since we have had the C Virus shots in 2022 (I know, I sound like a broken record - but honestly, if I knew then what I know now - I would NEVER have got them).  We all struggle on a daily basis - sometimes we feel good - other times we feel ill, and very, very exhausted (we can have a good night's sleep and wake up SO tired) but it's nothing you can put your finger on and honestly - the Doctors are no good in this situation because they do not know anything but taking a guess at what's wrong and loading you up with pharmaceutical drugs, which cause more harm than good - and we do not want to go down that Merry-Go-Round.  Most of the time we all suffer from varying issues - differing body aches and pains, headaches, earaches, itches, migraines, constipation, diarrhoea and just an overwhelming sadness that prevails even when things are going splendidly.  It feels as though your very soul is too heavy to carry around - Sometimes it is very hard just to get up of a morning...

We are trying to keep off of junk food, sugary items, salty items and cooking things with too many oils - eating healthier foods and getting adequate exercise and rest to see if we can combat these issues and bring in a change of good health.

To try to conquer these feelings -most mornings I light my candles on my altar, light some nice incense to cleanse my space and pull an oracle card for the day.  It has been very insightful, and has helped me gain a wee bit of confidence in my abilities as a witch.  It helps me focus for the day and gives me some sort of calmness before all the madness begins (especially my work day!)

I have also started to 'craft' things and was able to make a few witchy items for a friend that was moving interstate - I made her a goodie spell bag with lots of things in it, like a protection jar spell, a protection sigil, some herbal tea, some bath salts and soap (all crafted by me), some seeds for her garden when she gets established (Sunflower and Calendula from my garden) - she was so happy with it all....

I have been making more of a connection with my plants and insects in my garden too (yes I talk to them hahaha) - which shows as the garden is looking very lush and green

Looking through the portal....

I purchased a new greenhouse this year as my old one kind of got demolished in the very strong winds we have had this year (and continue to do so):

Gloomy's Greenhouse....

I will be doing a product review of the new greenhouse on my YouTube channel in 2025 - so stay tuned for that one if you are thinking of getting one of these types of greenhouses - (there have been many learning curves with this one) - so maybe you will learn some tips and tricks!!

Speaking of YouTube and my channel, I started uploading Gloomy's Garden Vlogs in 2024 - something I spent many years wanting to do but didn't have the courage, I thought I was too ugly, fat, old etc and could think up any excuse not to do videos.  Then one day I thought "why not", other people do it and they are just themselves, I could do that too... I have started out doing a VLOG every so often and am up to #9 at the moment.

I wish to keep doing more videos in 2025, but expanding the repertoire to not only do garden vlogs, but to do other things such as monthly herbalism posts, Q&A's, Product reviews, Herbal Remedies, Health Tips and Tea & Chat type scenarios.  So if you are interested in any of this - please hop over to my YouTube channel and Hit that SUBSCRIBE button and the bell notification so you are advised when I put a new video up - Hopefully I will get a few more followers, I think I have around 20 at the moment.  I have to wonder how people get hundreds of thousands of followers!!!???!!!

Gloomy's YouTube Channel

I will also be doing a book give away in late January 2025 - as I received a book from a relative for my birthday, but I already have it, so I thought a nice give away would be great.  I will advertise it on Instagram and YouTube - the proviso is that you have to like and subscribe to my YouTube channel to go into the draw.  After a month, I will do a video of the drawing of the name - hopefully with my trusty Super-Hubby sidekick, and then make someone feel good about themselves for getting a free book!  I will advise when I have that all organised so you can follow the links and put your name in if you want 😁

So there are a lot of plans for the future of my YouTube channel in  2025!!

In the meantime, I have two weeks annual leave and we still have around 7 days left in 2024 - Christmas Day is tomorrow - we will have our own little celebration as we are not Christians, so we will do something Witchy and make good food and just be together with our pupster Mavis.

What ever you are doing or celebrating, I hope you have a wonderful time and feel very blessed that you made it through another year, looking forward to the new year ahead.

Until next year my friends,

Blessings and Good Health to you all,

An Irish Blessing

Cheers,

Gloomy )O( xxx

There is a new video on my Youtube Channel

 Hello my little flower fairies,

I have put another "rather late" video up on my YouTube channel - this is Vlog # 4 - Autumn 2024. As well as this blog which I found in my DRAFTS - which I was supposed to put up in May hahaha - yeah I know, I get sidetracked a lot!!

In this video I take you through my gardens in Autumn and show all that I have been doing - cleaning up, fixing things, planting seeds, and just general gardening in Gloomy's Garden.

Sitting under the Gazebo in my back garden.

The video can be viewed here:  https://youtu.be/GSKr9oNnEEo

I will eventually be doing a lot more on this channel besides gardening, but I am just a newbie in the video / YouTube world and just getting up the nerve to do different videos, like herbal remedies, pill making, witchy ways etc., so just bare with me whilst I get over my shyness to do so.

If there is anything you would like to see on my channel - please leave me a comment below and I will take it into consideration.

Plus, if you could - out of the kindness of your hearts, like and subscribe to my videos if you find them interesting (and don't find me too dull to listen too hahahaha).

I promise I will get better at these things...... eventually!!

Thanking you in advance,

Your gardening green witchy friend,

Annette )O( xxx

It's been a hot minute (or two - hahaha)

 Greetings Beautiful people of the interwebs,

I hope you are all keeping well and life is going great guns for you!!

As the heading say's - It's been a hot minute or two since I last did a blog (Spring was the last time - it is now Autumn!!), but life has a very interesting way of prioritising your time and what you can do.

In other words - life got in the way!!!

So just a quick catch up from me 😁

I am happy to report that Paul is doing well, he is off all the drugs that he was on for 5 months and he is walking everyday and trying to get fit.  He has even roped me into doing more fitness and going for walks with him - which has really helped my stress a lot.

My work has been very stressful this last couple of months due to 2 new system integrations, which generally speaking, are not going well - even with 4 years of testing and things not going as planned, the powers that be decided to go live with it, and we have all sorts of issues arising (as we knew we would) - so the systems saga continues.

I have to keep telling myself - 3 more years to retirement, just 3 more years........

This last summer we have been doing our house up a bit too - we have new carpets in the lounge and Caetlyn's office plus new flooring in the kitchen.  We are waiting for our new lounge suite to be made and delivered - which is supposed to be late April, then we are getting the roller shutters replaced on the front of the house (as the old one ones on the front window are broken).  Then we are thinking of putting tint on the front room window, to stop the heat from coming in too much in the summer.... but that might be another year away.

I also want to take a month off of work to repaint and re-floor my office and turn it into a space that I want to work in - at the moment there is just everything everywhere, as it is our library, my office, my witchy room, my sewing room, my art room, my harvesting room and as you can imagine - it is chockers full in every part - so I want to sort it out, eliminate stuff I don't use or need anymore, paint the walls and put new carpet on the floor.  Maybe move a couple of cabinets out and make more room.

The weather is starting to get cooler now, with daylight savings ending in a few hours - we revert to winter time.  That means that I have to move my chilli plants to the patio area at the front of the house so they don't get too cold, and so I can overwinter them - they are still producing heaps of chillies, so hopefully they will still ripen once I put them out the front.

I have trimmed all my roses, fertilised and put compost on all the plants out in the front garden and got them ready for their winter hibernation.

I still have to do the back garden - and I am running out of time (always the way for me!!).

I have two tomato plants that are still producing cherry tomatoes - so I don't really want to pull them out just yet - but I might have to to make way for the brassicas - and I planted a whole bunch of seeds in the vegepods a couple of weeks ago - some of them are starting to pop through now!!

I have 4 beds to prepare (I am so behind schedule!!!) for winter crops, and the back garden to tidy up - once all the trees have lost their leaves (Granny Smith Apple, Pink Lady Apple, O'Henry Peach, Stella Cherry & Apricot) - I am going to collect the leaves for leaf mulch.  I then have to harshly prune the apple trees back, compost around their roots for winter too.

I also have to compost and mulch around the banana plantation too, as they will need a bit of warmth for the oncoming winter months.

I also have a few things in pots that I need to plant out before it gets too cold!!

See - busy, busy, busy and no time to do it in - but we will see how far we can get this year LOL.

Harvesting and preserving all the fruits and veggies has taken some time as well - I still have a tonne of pomegranates and apples to preserve - plus some beets to bottle as well. (I think I need more like a year off of work hahahaha).

Anyhow - enough of me grumbling about lack of time ⏰ - it's 11.45pm on Saturday 6th April and I really should go to bed if I am going to have a full day of "doing much needed jobs around the garden" tomorrow.

So thanks for catching up with me again, hopefully I will be able to chat more to you all soon.

Blessings to you all )O( stay safe and healthy!

Cheers,

Gloomy xxx

An Autumnal update..

 Greeting Earthly Folks,

I hope I find you all well on this lovely Autumnal day.

Yes - it's Autumn here in the suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia - Winter is looming and I have SO many things I need to do in the garden before the cooler weather hits.  So much so that I have made a list of things to do, which stems over 3 pages long - just so I can keep track and get things moving.

It's a busy time of the year sowing seeds for Winter veggies, making sure all the fruit trees are pruned and composted around the trunks, overwintering chillies and other cold affected plants.  Making sure everything has good drainage etc.

BUSY - BUSY - BUSY!!!

Our achievements so far in this Summer/Autumn transition have been wonderful - Super-Hubby bought me a portable greenhouse (in other words not a glass house, but one that can be moved).. Mind you - Super-Hubby made sure that it was secured to the concrete by drilling little brackets to hold it down - this baby ain't going anywhere until we want it to!!

GLOOMY'S GREENHOUSE

In this greenhouse I have all my seeds that I have sown - Celery, Cabbage, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Snow Peas, Carrots & Onions (so far) - I have a few more items to get started in the next couple of weeks - I would love to grow some Cavolo nero kale (it's the straight kind not the curly one - which I find easier to clean), I would also like to grow brussel sprouts, and I have to plant more perpetual spinach (we go through a lot of that).

BABY CABBAGES

    Things are starting to pop up quite nicely now I have a greenhouse and I am                           looking forward to seeing how much food I can grow this year in my tiny back garden.

    I am hoping to get a couple more raised beds as well, so that I can use them specifically for food growth.

    We have also purchased a gazebo to go in the corner of our yard where we have our table and chair setting - so that we can utilise that area in winter too.

    This will arrive later next week (as it was a special order), then Super-Hubby and the team (Caetlyn & myself) will be building it - so that should be interesting!!

    Luckily, the pieces are all cut and prepared - we just have to put the jig-saw puzzle together (we are not builders, but we figured - we managed a greenhouse with dodgy instructions, we can handle this!!). 

In the garden - we have harvested all the Peaches off of our O'Henry Peach tree - what an abundance we got this year, which was really a blessing as we didn't think that the fruit would survive after the wild and woolly weather we have had the last few months of Spring/Summer.  But none the less, we managed to harvest around 60 beautiful peaches.  I froze a lot of them, made peach jam and we ate a lot of them too - I still have some left in the little fridge outside, which I have to either freeze or make something with (probably more jam!!).

Our apple trees were a bit of a disaster this year - they got coddling moth again and even though I took precautions, most of the apples had to be thrown away or left to the birds.  I did manage to get one basket full of really small apples off the red delicious tree - none of them were red - or delicious.  I still have to do something with those too - though I am not sure what at this stage - probably either dehydrate apple slices or blanch and freeze them.

We have pumpkins growing still - it was a bit weird this year as everyone was thinking they wouldn't get any due to the weird weather we have had - then all of a sudden they had flowers everywhere - and now pumpkins are growing when they should be dying back.  Same with the Zucchinis.

Tomatoes this year were a bit of a flop too - the only ones that really took off were the small bite-sized volunteer ones - I only got a few of the bigger ones (Red & Black variety) which were delicious, but not enough of them.  I didn't get enough to make any sauce this year.  

Capsicums have been the same - only have around 6 fruit this year - last year they kept going all through winter - but I don't like my chances this year.

Chillies are the same - even though I still have to harvest some of the yellow habanero.  There are about 20 of them still on the plant - but not enough to make any chilli sauce with.  So I am going to dehydrate them and make some killer chilli powder and flakes to use in the next 9 months.

I have yellow dwarf beans flowering at the moment - so hoping for some beans there...plus beetroot, turnips and lots of flowers - dahlias, petunias, zinnias, poppies, kalanchoe, portulaca, calendula, marigolds, osteospermums, hibiscus, dietes grandiflora (African Lily) - they are all looking most spectacular and attracting the bees and other pollinating insects.

The only herbs I have left are Peppermint, Mint, Sage, Rosemary, Yarrow and Basil - the Basil is flowering and attracting a load of bees - so I am leaving that for them... my herb garden was hit hard by the weather - so hopefully in Spring I will have a nice place to grow some more medicinal herbs.

The Pomegranates are nearly ready to be harvested - in my garden they are usually ready between late March and mid April - last year I harvested them on 25th April - so we will see this year.

I still have bulbs to plant in the front garden for a little bit of a colour POP in Spring plus lots of tidying up, pruning, weeding, mowing, and just general maintenance on garden beds to be done.

But all in good time (and hopefully by the time winter hits!!)

In the meantime - please enjoy these photos from my garden....

                                                                    PUMPKINS

      DAHLIA (POM-POM)

                                             

                                                  TOMATO HARVEST

APPLES

INSIDE MY GREENHOUSE

THE AREA BEING RENOVATED NEXT!!!

PEACHES

Until next time - have a wonderful week ahead!!

      Cheers,

      AJ xxx

 

WOW - and just like that, it's December!!

Greetings people of the Interwebs,

How are you all doing?

I tell you that life is moving so fast lately - last time I left you it was October, I blinked and suddenly it is December!!!

They say time flies when you're having fun...LOL..  But I find that as I am getting older, time is just speeding by and I don't have enough of the stuff to get all my jobs done that I need to get done.  I always say I can't wait to retire so that I can get on track with the things that need doing around here... Hahaha! (That won't be for a long time yet - so I had better sort myself out to start getting things in order now!)

Luckily this month, starting on my birthday (9th December), I have a full month off of work, to get those niggly, pesky jobs done - like planting my Banana Trees and their pups because they have been cooped up in their pots for too long, also planting my Dietes grandiflora in the ground, repotting all my Aloe vera and Dragon Fruit Cactus into good soil, covering the fruit trees in netting so that the birds don't get all of my fruit like last year.  Plus we will be building an extension to our back fence using wood so that I can grow things like passionfruit, kiwi fruit, jasmine, and other "climbers" against the fence to make it a more greener area.

The garden is looking spectacular at the moment with a lot of things growing - like lots and lots of flowers of differing sorts, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, tomatoes, cucumbers, capsicums, chillies, onions, perpetual spinach, peaches, apples, pomegranates, corn, herbs and mints - it's all very exciting as I have NEVER had this much growing in my garden - and we have been here since 2001.

There are also other jobs that I need to do on the holidays:

We are also looking at an area for me to put a 10' x 8' greenhouse as well, plus possibly ripping up some of the concrete so I can put a few raised beds in to grow more food.

And looking at beautifying our entertainment area in the back garden - making it look more appealing to the eye instead of all the tin from the shed and back fence. Maybe I will paint it, or hang trellis from it to make it look more natural, add some nice plants around the area and maybe a water feature!

I also want to get everything out of my office come sewing room come working altar for my Green Witch side of things - and do a spring clean, a bit of a fix up and possibly paint the whole dang room in a nice calming colour - I want to make it more peace inducing for when I am having a bad day at work - not that I should have many of them at the moment as I have changed jobs within the Department I am working for.  I started that on the 1st December, and even though we are having a few teething issues with systems, it is very much less stressful than my normal substantive job.

Another thing I want to achieve is giving the bathroom a makeover too (& possibly the toilet area as well) - I need to get in there and scrub like a scrubby thing, all the nooks and crannies that you normally gloss over on the weekly clean.  I wouldn't mind painting this too - but we will have to see how the finances hold out and time itself...

However, I will be making time for rest and recuperation too - I need it after the year I have had!!  I need to focus on becoming a bit more healthier and fitter so that I can take care of my garden (especially when the heat really hits - it's 35 degrees Celsius today, but it's destined to get hotter).  I don't cope well in the heat, especially outside - it makes me tired, weary and grumpy..LOL

I do have indoor projects to do on those days where it is unbearable outside - I have gnomes to repaint, sewing to do, mending to mend, crocheting to finish and even seeds to harvest and sow - so there is no excuse for being bored.

Even though we are not Christmassy people -we have put our light up Christmas Decorations up in the Garden and it looks really cheery at night - we didn't do it for the longest time - especially during the "C-Virus" years as we didn't think anybody would be able to see it - this year we felt like it's still been a tough year for everyone, so we would try and bring some cheer and put them up...I hope the neighbourhood likes it!! (I will put some pictures up in the next blog!!)

Anyhoo - I had better sign off for now, hopefully I will catch you just before Christmas starts!!

Until next time, many blessings to you all..

Cheers,                    

Gloomy xxx

Spring time in the 'burbs

Greetings everyone,

I hope you are having a lovely weekend this 23rd of October...

Today I had a couple of plans - recording vocals for Hubby in the studio and planting out my cucumbers and tomatoes - all of which have been dashed due to heavy rain.

So I have been walking around aimlessly in the house doing little jobs (changing sheets, washing, prepping dinner) and now I am at a loss of what to do.

What better time to do another post here in Gloomy's Garden and possibly show you what is going on in our little patch of paradise.

We live in a suburban home which is on approx 900m2 of land - we have a normal 3 bedroom home, which we have made into our sanctuary of peace away from the maddening world.

The gardens have only really come into fruition during the Covid times and now is a flourishing area of flowers, veggies, herbs and fruit trees - I love going into the garden when I am having a hard time at work (systems slow, things not going right) - it's lovely just to grab a coffee/tea and just go out into the garden to listen to the birds, bees, hover flies and other insects doing their thing.  It is very calming.

So it's still spring - October is usually the time that I plant out my summer veggies as that is when the frosty overnight temperatures are passed (we have our own eco-system in our garden - which is like no one elses), I have noticed over the years when our garden is the most productive and when is the wrong time to plant things in the ground, so I stick to that and not when all the gardening pages tell you to plant.

It's part of being in touch with nature, reading the seasons, listening to the plants themselves and noting the weather patterns.  There is a lot to learn in gardening and I don't think one will ever stop learning.

I do have a few things that we are currently harvesting in the garden:

Broad Beans

    Broad beans have been very prolific for the 4 plants that I put in.  I am generally using them to of course get the beans so I can make falafel for Super-Hubby, but also as a green manure crop.

Once they have finished I will just chop and drop them onto other beds so that they will leach their goodness into the soil...    

Turnips and Beetroot

Next up were some really small turnips, which didn't really grow very well indeed - but the greens were yummy!  And even the beets didn't come to a big size either - but what I did have I pickled for my own use as I am the only one that will eat these... I planted both of these in the wicking vegepods - and they just didn't do well - so next time I plant them, I am going to try them inground to see if they fare better.

Carrots

    And here is a pic of my carrots - I haven't got the knack of growing them straight yet - I adjusted the soil to include sand so they didn't find it so hard to grow through the soil, but I still got some with legs and curly bits - still, they tasted fabulous!!

 Snow peas have been wonderful this year too - we have had many handfuls of these beauties!!

                

Snow peas    

I need to plant some more of them so we have a continual supply (that was one of my other jobs to do today - but ah well, another day will do!!)

This is the first time that snow peas have grown in my garden - I tried in other years and they just turned up toes and died...

Maybe I have the timing right now - plus the soil composition as well..

Cabbages and Cos Lettuce

I also harvested all the cabbages and cos lettuce because something was getting into the bed and munching of them - even though I had a cover over them - I might have to come up with a better system next time I plant them (same with my brassicas which were eaten by rats last year).

    

Potatoes

I even managed to grow some potatoes - they are very little, but this was just one plant that voluntarily popped up in the garden (in a place where I didn't even put any potatoes - which is odd), but still - food is food and I am grateful for it.

Capsicum & Long Red Pepper

    Capsicums and long red peppers miraculously grew all winter long and I have been harvesting quite a bit from them.  Now they are dying off (when they should be coming to life), so I will have to plant some more.

Also in the garden we have loads and loads of flowers, which has encouraged loads and loads of insects!!

But that is a post for another day, as this post is probably getting a wee bit too long!!

Have a wonderful week ahead - it's getting close to Samhain for the Northern Hemisphere folks and Beltane for us Southern Hemisphere folks - also Halloween is in just over a week too!!

Time for a witchy soup...

    Season's blessings to you all....

    Cheers for now,

    Gloomy xxx

    

Gloomy :)

Please note: all photos in this blog are subject to copyright © by Gloomy's Garden 2022, and may not be used without prior permission.