Winter garden blues ... again

As usual, this blog is getting neglected in the cooler months. It's not even THAT cold here; I mean, I'm freezing but people from more southern latitudes would laugh at me!
It's so wet and soggy outside. I've been thinking about re-designing the garden beds for better access but every time I go down there it's so muddy and depressing that I just trudge my way back up to the house and dream of summer. I can't even bring myself to put up a photo of it because it's so muddily-depressive!
On a brighter note ... we've decided to take another road trip up north in mid August, so I only have to complain for a little while longer.

Some Writing from Indi

I'd just like to document a bit of Indi's literacy journey, as crude as it may be. I'm terribly disorganised (which I'm pretty sure is an unschooling family's prerogative) so I think I should at least start photographing and trying to blog about our little adventure in learning-without-schooling. It's pretty likely that these documents will go missing in the massive pile of 'stuff to sort through' but at least I'll have a digital version now :)

This one is from a few months ago. Mostly copy work and asking 'how do I spell ...' 

She copied these from reading eggs about a month ago. We have a couple of phonic-based programs on the computer and the iphone that she is free to use as she pleases.

This was from last week. She was nagging me about making a cake and wanted to make sure we had all the ingredients. Flour, eggs, milk, custard, cake, cupcakes. 

This was thrown at me a few days ago. For those not fluent in inventive spelling, it reads: 

Mum. I love you so much but I wish we could go on holidays. 

(Me too baby girl ;) )

She has also started reading everything in sight; street signs, food labels, catalogues etc. 

We have been reading some books together, just the regular simple beginner books, Fat Cat and that sort of thing. 

We also found a couple of Dr. Suess books in a second hand shop today (who get's rid of Dr. Suess, honestly?! One of them was even in the freebie bin!) and tonight she read a few pages from 'Ten Apples Up On Top!' which we have never read before so I know she actually read it and didn't just repeat from memory. WOW! 

Hooked

I've started a Facebook page showing off some of my crocheted stuff. Here's the link if anyone wants to take a look :)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hooked/205466002798437

Today's Classroom

Indi practicing her writing in the sand

Breakfast?

Yep. It's popcorn.

But wait; before you all go and call welfare and dob me in for bad parenting, have a think about it ... it's probably a whole lot healthier than what a lot of kids have for breakfast. 

No sugar, no preservatives, no colourings, no added salt. Just air-popped corn kernels with less butter than you'd spread on your toast :) 

While we were feeding the guinea pigs last night, Indi noticed different types of seed in their food and decided she wanted to plant some. One type were sunflower seeds but we have no idea what the other type are. She is really keen on writing and sounding out words at the moment so I suggested she write down some info about it. She wrote the day and date, and the type of seeds she planted. Because we didn't know what the seeds were, she wrote down a description of them.

Indi raked away all the mulch she'd spread a few months ago and pulled up the remains of the corn stalks and most of the weeds. She was happy to find a Jade plant growing from a snapped branch that she'd chucked on the ground.

Planting the sunflower seeds along the wire fence

Planting the other seeds in a row behind

Watering

Once she'd planted and watered, Indi drew a map of her garden and marked in where she'd planted the seeds so she'd remember not to step on them (this was interspersed with yells of abuse at the dog who decided to tramp all over her freshly watered beds!)

The Perks of Being a Lazy Composter

Every green person knows that compost is awesome. It's beautiful and dark and crumbly and.....well..... earthy. It's pretty much the best stuff for the garden; it nourishes and conditions the soil, it feeds the plants and it puts to good use waste that would normally be taken to landfill.
Good compost has a nice carbon-nitrogen balance, keeping the bacteria and microorganisms that break it all down happy and working hard. Good compost gets nice and hot; hot enough to kill weed seeds and some plant pathogens. And when it's all finished, good compost smells sweet and moist.
It's not hard to make good compost. But it requires a bit effort. It requires having certain ingredients available to you. And, most frustrating of all, it requires time. Those of you who know me know that patience and I don't get together too often ;) I want results and I want them now! 

So I build a pile in the usual way; a bit of this a bit of that. We have guinea pigs and a rabbit and their manure keeps up the nitrogen content, along with horse manure (Indi goes horse riding once a week) and we've just acquired some pigeons, so that mess gets chucked in too. I usually give the guineas some pea straw or sugar cane mulch for bedding, so that gets chucked in when it's spent, adding a bit of carbon to the equation. Add the odd newspaper, clumps of seaweed, vacuum cleaner stuff, occasional grass clippings and weeds pulled up from the garden ... etc etc.

Then I leave it. It starts to warm up a bit, and I might even turn it once if I'm feeling energetic. After about 4 weeks it usually settles and shrinks to about two thirds of the size. This is the point where I should probably turn it and allow it to heat back up and finish the job. Alas, this is the point where I decide it's DONE and start shovelling it onto the garden as mulch. The way I see it, half-cooked compost has multiple benefits (besides me not having to wait another month or two):

More soil critters: spreading compost over the garden at this stage brings the worms up for the feast. Worms coming up from the deep ground aerate and loosen the soil, help to munch down the organic matter and then poop it all out, leaving wonderful rich castings. Especially useful when starting a new garden; the busy little soil critters do the hard work of breaking up the ground for me :)

Heat: Because it's still working, breaking down, heat is being generated. I find this especially beneficial when planting out before the ground has really warmed up, as it helps to spur my seedlings on.

Volunteers: By far my most favourite side effect! Plants popping up here there and everywhere from seeds that haven't broken down in the composting process ...

A cucumber wandering its way around the dwarf beans

A beautiful avocado seedling, one of 9 that have sprouted so far! 

A delight to my eyes ... a tangle of of volunteer pumpkins and tomatoes growing among the corn. 

I may not have neat piles of deep, dark, rich humus waiting to spread over my garden, but I do have lots of warm soil, lots of life within the ground and best of all, lots of healthy plants.