Escape to the Country - it was worth the wait!

So it has been a bit of a journey over the past year, with a lot of trips to the country for husband and I but it was worth the wait. We are finally the very proud and excited owners of our new country escape, beautiful barn and all!!!

I can only thank my very supportive and patient husband (and AURA team who have had put up with me and live the dream) for coming on this life journey with me.  Oh and thanks in advance for the huge amount of painting that he may have to do later in the year. I have been told very loudly that he doesn't like gardening!

My husbands pride and joy "the barn" every man needs a shed! Without the barn I don't think he would have let us buy it. But I have to agree it is rather gorgeous. Watch this space, I am looking forward to sharing our adventures when the work begins! Lots of painting, decorating and veggie planting ahead.....

Channeling Constance

Last weekend I was lucky enough to have a day out with Mum in the country. We set off to a fabulous flower workshop called "Channeling Constance" at Prunella, our lovely friends in Kyneton. As well as being expertly guided in our creative arranging we were given a background on Constance. 

Constance Spry is one of their ongoing inspirations, an amazing woman who started her first flower shop in 1929, back when only men arranged flowers. She caused a sensation in fashionable society with her natural flower arranging in unusual containers and objects, using not only flowers but plant materials unheard of at the time; including weeds, grasses and ornamental kale! Constance created the flowers for many a royal wedding as well as being commissioned in 1953 to set the scene with floral creations at Westminster Abbey for Queen Elizabeth II's coronation. 

On 3 Jan 1960, she slipped on the stairs at Winkfield Place and died an hour later. Her last words were "Someone else will have to arrange this" now thats one cool lady! 

A special mention of Mums gorgeous creation above! And mine below!

Annie Smithers Garden Tour

Recently we where lucky enough to meet the wonderful Annie Smithers and be taken on a personal tour of her very inspirational working Garden in Malmsbury, country Victoria. The garden grows up to 90% of the produce used in her 2 restaurants. Since the tour I have been propagating my own seeds and working on making our own home garden into a "tiny" version of a kitchen garden....

Above is Annie in action on her very much loved red tractor! And below fabulous images of her acre of kitchen garden. 

 

Beautiful Carrots above, I have high aspirations for my home garden now!

Could this be the most beautiful Radicchio I have ever seen??? I think so!

Total Fennel envy!

Wondrous meters of berries! Annie also produces stunning jams and preserves from her gardens produce. 

Annies very elegant French Toulouse Geese slightly camera shy but absolutely stunning with their "fluffy" feathers on show. So if you are a keen home garden like we are then I highly recommend giving Annie a visit and getting your hands on her fabulous new book, which is full of recipes using the gardens produce and also a very inspiring read.  

Our new Veggie Garden - part two

Now to fill our new garden. I read up on what to plant and all about companion plants, I have definitely learnt alot over the last few days. We had our work cut out for us locating organic seedlings, after just filling our garden with totally organic materials, I wanted to make sure we where only planting organic seedlings and seeds. We headed over to Ceres in Brunswick, what a fabulous place that is, a Community Environmental Park and Urban Farm. Amongst many other things they propagate their own seedlings and we where able to find organic Climbing Beans, Red Lettuce, Italian Parsley and Sweet Basil.

Across town and we found organic and Heirloom seeds for our Carrots, Lebanese Cucumber, Eggplant and Zucchini's (which I now realise won't all fit!). And below, our first planting of Climbing Beans with Bamboo poles in the anticipation that they will indeed climb!

Then the addition of gorgeous little Red Lettuce's, Sweet Basil and Italian Parsley.

And then off to buy more Mulch for around the bases of the seedlings. The empty looking Compost on the lower left hand side is full of lovely Carrot seeds and the lower right hand side is hopefully going to be a healthy Lebanese Cucumber!

Then for a layer of protective mesh, as we were planting the bird chirping seemed to be getting louder with excitement. So we thought we best add some mesh so the lovely little seedlings and seeds are still there in the morning.

Then the water. Hubby added a little drip irrigation system in and attached it to our existing water tank (I have to say he is abit of a legend!) So finally all done, now to cross our fingers for the exciting times ahead - that we may be eating our own Vegetables and Herbs in weeks & months to come!

Our new Veggie Garden part one

Well I've done it, actually we did it, thank you very helpful husband! Although on the 3rd trip to the Nursery in search of organic seedlings he was getting abit over it (they are not that easy to find!) so thanks for hanging in there. I thought I'd show you the making of our new Veggie and Herb garden - which we are both pretty proud of achieving and hope to enjoy home grown veggies in the months to come. Below is the arrival of our Steel raised Veggie patch which we found at Garden World. 

And then off we went with the aid of our newly purchased "The Little Veggie Patch Co" book on how to grow food in small spaces - for the amateur gardener I can highly recommend the book - as well as being very informative it is full of humour which kept me entertained. In search of Organic fertiliser, Compost, Pea Straw and other things - only thing I am still trying to locate is Worm Castings - yep Worm poo! Looks like I will have to wait till they come back from holidays to get it directly from them.

Back home and the soon to be garden is in location - with the use of a spirit level and shovel we were ready to start filling with layers to create our no dig garden. 

Our second layer of Pea Straw is in and we are realising it takes a lot to fill a 1200x700x800 sized space. There could be another trip to the Nursery involved as we don't have enough compost to fill it!

And another 8 bags of Compost should do it! Now off to do more research on what to plant! 

Little Veggie Gardens

I would love one of these! "Someone" in the office is keen for us to set up a work veggie & herb garden and came across these gorgeous Veggie Gardens made from recycled apple crates by The Little Veggie Patch Co - these are fantastic. You can order them either made up or DIY. It looks so easy and great if you don't have the space in your actual garden, as you can even order them with castors! A new project for the holidays maybe :)

My garden

Both my mother and grandmother will agree that I did not inherit their amazing gardening skills, but saying that I do have to say that I am quite proud of our garden at the moment. Here's a few shots I took this morning as I was admiring it, we planted 2 years ago and I'm astonished at how much it has all grown. Hopefully the beautiful weather keeps up over the weekend so we can all enjoy being outdoors!

Back to the 1950s - a before and after

I was hunting through our renovation reciepts this morning and found these amazing old photos from The State Library of our house the year it was built in 1954! So I thought I would do abit of a before and after post! Our beautiful kitchen designed by John & Phyllis Murphy in the 1950s above with the servery and now below as one big open space, how life changes. Recently the son of Phyllis sent me a letter after seeing our house in Inside Out Magazine and I was very excited at the thought that she had seen the renovation and hope that she thought that we have done the house proud. 

And below the old built in stereo, how fantastic that would have been, unfortunately it was long gone when we brought the house, and the underneath shot, after the renovation and the whole stereo wall was removed to create a more open space. 

Our beautiful Wisteria tree, above in 1954 and below about a year ago, it is still going strong and now covers the whole front deck, we were worried during the renovation and the deck building but she has  survived the builders well.

These stunning recent shots of our house where taken by Sharyn Cairns. And our renovation was designed by the very talented Emma Tulloch of Nixon Tulloch Fortey Architecture. I hope your having a great Thursday! x

Ok a good saying for the weekend! ?? That in mind I will be gardening this weekend - off shopping for beautiful Bay Trees tomorrow - how lovely.