31 More Day's To Spring!

Not that I'm counting, but we have 1 more month of winter, then it's official we are in spring!  

I wonder why NZ doesn't celebrate spring, as other parts of the world have great big celebrations, but not so much here, I wonder why? An excellent reason for a public holiday if you ask me, and a great way to see out winter. 

Knowing that spring is just around the corner I am busy getting myself organised, I want to double my efforts this year with the goal of creating the most bountiful garden to date. Last year was a bit disappointing as I was so busy with other projects and the vegetable garden was neglected, however 2016/17 will be the year of great growth!  

So I've scheduled in a week off work this month, so I can get my preparations underway.  Living in Kaipara we have a very mild winter, so spring really is already upon us I feel.

Last weekend I spent a day building my little seed raising glass house.  Small but it should do the job. I purchased some old windows off trademe for $10, and then with left over timber from other various projects I built the below, although I just need to do some painting to seal the windows better, but overall, not too bad if I do say so myself...

Now that I have my little seed raising house, I just need to decide on what to grow.  Every year I purchase a few more packets of seeds, and well after a couple of years, you end up with a mass of seed packets, although there are a couple new plants I want to try growing this year, so I see a few more packets being added to the collection before the month is out. Long term, I really need to get into the art of collecting my own seeds... maybe at the end of this growing season I'll give it a go.

Tip: Get yourself an Egmont Seeds or King Seeds catalogue, or if a little greedy like myself, both! Awesome selection of seeds to choose from, a great deal more than what you will find in store. You can order online, or they tend to send out a new seed catalogue each season after a few purchases. Very handy, with some useful information, new ideas and inspiration each year. 

Over the next couple of weeks, I need to:

1. Start sowing seeds,
2. Create another new garden bed, which involves boxing and moving soil.
3. Prepare the existing garden beds, which mainly involves weeding and turning the soil a few times.  
4. Make the garden fence a little more pest proof, mainly from the chickens and turkeys.
5. Also I have another new 20m fence and gate to instal next to the garden.

Part of the new fence is to allow for an extension of the garden, but also part of the fence is a new sheep pen/yard, which is on the other side of the same fence, so when we do get a few of our own sheep, we will have a little yard for shearing etc.  

But do you hear that sound... whenever I mention fence, you can hear the sound of sobbing in the background... do you hear that?  Well that's my credit card sobbing, whenever it hears the word fence or timber, my poor old credit card knows its about to get a hammering, poor old credit card, I do hope to put you into retirement soon.  Timber isn't the cheapest of materials, but the only way for us to keep the costs down is if we do all the labour ourselves.

If I can get all the jobs done before end of August, I will be a happy little camper.  Doesn't look too difficult, but working the above in between your normal daily chores, weeding, & mowing lawns your time slips away pretty quickly. So chop chop!