New spring life

Ah how beautiful is spring! Especially when you're not having to go to work everyday! hehe

Now that I have allowed myself a few months off from work I have plenty of time to explore my hobbies. I am loving potttering in the garden tending to my fruit and vegies, learning to sew and baking up a storm! HELLO HOMESTEADING!

You certainly don't need to be in the country to be living the dream.

Here are some new photos of the new little lives springing up in my garden this spring.

Luffa's springing into flower. Check out that fruit forming behind the flower! I have a special connection with my 4 luffa plants because I raised them all from seeds. One of the only seeds to have sprouted from that first bunch, so they are dearly treasured. I'm not sure how long they take to form their pods, but I'm hoping in time to add to some Christmas presents for the family.

Lovely lavender! Mmm can't wait to harvest those flowers. Anyone got any tips on harvesting and drying the flowers to use in scent bags?

My peanut plant is flowering! I'm so intrigued by this little plant and how it grows those peanuts underground. Has anyone grown peanuts before? Any tips? Now I am growing fruit, veggies and nuts in my little suburban block!

Yummo strawberries. I think I need to plant a lot more of these becuase I pull off the fruit as soon as their ripe. How am I going to make jam at this rate!

Ah mint. Smells so lovely and is safely contained in a pot. Now I need to think of some recipes to use it in.....

Ah my one faithful lemon (top) finally has some friends, about 6 other lemons forming in fact!

Pumpkin vines, also raised from seed. I have quite a few of these vines int he ground so hoping for a big harvest in the coming months.

After getting excited and taking photos of all the plants happily growing away I headed off to buy some new additions.

I have since added:

• a grape vine (suited to QLD's humid weather luckily)
• a rosella bush seedling
• some garlic bulbs
• sweet potato seedling
• an heirloom mini capsicum bush seedling
• eggplant grown from seed
• chilli grown from seed

And after having minimal luck with raising from seed, I have tried again, this time with some different seeds.

I am disappointed with my seed raising results, as I know this is an area I'd really like to accomplish for both financial and satisfaction reasons. I started using the peat moss tabs but they seem to either dry out too quickly or get mossy! I'm now using seed raising mix, but I'm finding that with the amount of sand in it the water is not holding and they are drying out every few hours! Any tips are most welcome!

How is your garden growing this fine spring?

:)
Kim