One man's trash is another's treasure!

A few weeks ago I ran into the wife of the owner of a local sawmill (they "farm wood" to make palettes) and enquired whether they sell slats to the public. She wanted to know what I wanted to do with them and after explaining about the raised veggie beds she suggested I drive through and have a look on their "scrap pile" as she thought I might find some useable pieces there. I was welcome to take anything I wanted free of charge she said as they regularly burnt these piles when it rained. She also told me that I could have as much sawdust as well as composted sawdust as I wanted. My interest was peaked ;-) So last week The King of Avalon left me his little workhorse and The Princes and I drove through to the mill, this is what met our eyes...

The scrap pile

The sawdust

We were bowled over, what TREASURE!!! We did six trips in total and this is what we have constructed so far...

A fence, well okay fence posts, but it is a sign of something great to come...

The Veggie Patch Gate

And a quarter of the raised beds

The gate was proudly designed and made by The Princes (it was constructed in the garage one evening and presented to me the next morning as I was asleep by the time it had been completed). All it's cost us is fuel to haul the wood, nails, hinges and quite a bit of time and energy. The latter The Princes were quite motivated to contribute, I'm so proud and excited!

The sun is shining!

It's another glorious day! The sun is shining and it's warm (below 20 degrees but above 15!) We returned home from holiday to a cold front and forescast of snow (and I'm sorry I just can't stick my hands into cold soil) but yesterday and today are just wonderful. I've walked around inspecting the garden and I can tell Spring is in the air. Flower buds are forming everywhere and my yellow Clivia that my Dad gave me has just produced it's first flower (after two years I think).

Yesterday I pulled back the shade cloth over the Veggie Patch and weeded. The little seedlings have done really well and are looking so promising and beautiful! I also planted out some Impatients that I bought for a whole R5 per pot while away, hope they are happy  ;-) I can't wait to get veggie seeds planted but I know I must wait a little longer. I did however in my search for info on seed saving (I'm going to try not to buy every season) find a great website that has a novel approach to winter sowing, go have a look at www.wintersown.org (lots of great info!). Hardy seedlings are started outdoors during Winter using mini-greenhouses made from recyclables; there are no heating devices, no energy wasting light set-ups or expensive seed starting devices. Here they use ziplock baggies:

And talking about greenhouses isn't this just inspiring?

 

These greenhouses are made from plastic colddrink bottles. How green can you go :-) So if you're still drinking cooldrink, start saving those bottles (you need about one thousand!)!  Here is a link to step by step instructions. Hopefully we might have time next winter (and enough bottles!) to tackle a similar project ;-)

What we've achieved already...

Compost - beautiful "black gold" at last!!! We started compost heaps 4 years ago but it has felt like an incredibly slow process even though we seemed to be doing everything by the book. I've been most frustrated that I've had to continually buy bags whenever I've wanted to make a new bed but I believe we now have enough to get our new veggie garden off to a good start!

Making our grey-water work! The King of Avalon attached thick "black pipes" to all our bathroom outlets so that our shower water feeds our orchard of naartjies & oranges. He has bigger dreams for a dam of sorts but that still requires a bit of research (and capital outlay).

Harvesting rainwater! We have a system that collects a small portion of rainwater, enough I hope to keep our new veggie garden watered. It needs to be expanded and refined though but at least it's a start, once again thanks to The King's efforts!

Recycling bottles and plastic containers! I really battle to throw away plastic & glass. I save whatever is "the right size" (peppadew bottle size) for preserves & jams. Our lovely 500ml plastic cream containers, sold by the local dairy, have been hoarded to grow cuttings & transplant seedlings into much to some family member's frustration ;-)

Saving (a little bit) of electricity! We rarely use our tumble dryer (our washing is sun-dried) and we have a combination gas/electric stove that I adore!

Cooking from scratch! And I have finally perfected my bread recipes though we need to bake more regularly ;-)