Dust and Creativity

Until today I had considered the Yates Garden Guide to be the New Zealand Amateur Home Gardener's Bible.
But I pondered the fact that a seed company is putting out a book that tells you how to use their hybridised seeds...and you have to go back year after year after year to buy *their* seeds. Of course there's nothing wrong per se with them informing us....but I'm keen to save my own seeds and try heirloom varieties....so the Yates guide just might get dusty on the shelf.

One book that I'll defintely be borrowing from the library again is Jenny Allen's "Smart Permaculture Design". I savoured it for a couple of hours today.......Allen wants you to cultivate not only plants, but also creativity - she discusses this overtly and also uses the layout of her book, the interesting typefaces, the poetry and quotes which are scattered throughout to reinforce this message. It is a creative delight to read and the accompanying photography is a feast for the eyes. She's an Australian with a descriptive memorable style, writing about her garden; what she designed into her garden is truly inspirational. If mine turns out half as good as hers, I'll be delighted! If I take note of all the usefeul information she manages to cram into the pages in lists and diagrams and stories and tables, I'll have every chance to get there.

New Beginnings

It's time to get serious about my garden (again).

I have gone from being a total novice to still-a-novice-but-with-wee-bit-of-experience-under-my-belt-and-dirt-under-my-fingernails.
I've gone from total disinterest in anything that gives me hayfever to growing things not only because they feed me, but because they smell nice!
I've grown capsicums on a balcony in Poland, I've raided the in-laws' garden to turn our first clay patch in Nappy Valley GREEN, I've dragged pots of herbs from house to house, I've read books and drawn plans, I've recorded the temperature (well that lasted about a week!), I've saved seeds and I've even snapped an extensor tendon when planting silverbeet (BTW, for your future reference, if you hear a POP and then see the end of your finger *hanging*, that just might be what you've done!)
But mostly I've plonked stuff in the ground and hoped for the best!
After reading Mal Bartholomew's "Square Foot Gardening" I started plonking even more in a smaller space....
I have just read "The Permaculture Home Garden" by Linda Woodrow and I am **INSPIRED**
She uses similar principles to Bartholomew (ie put lots of plants in a small area)....but she takes the concepts further (or did I just forget lots of what he wrote?) Either way, I ordered her book today so I can write in it and underline it and get it dirty and not have to take it back to the library (all the things I wouldn't do to any other book - but recipe books and gardening books must be different, surely)

I am taking to heart her suggestion to observe and record. In the past I haven't been interested enough to observe beyond deciding whether a plant looks tired enough to relegate to the compost pile, because I'm usually too busy hurrying, but this is AboutToChange.

Hence this blog.
I'm not too good at keeping my notes on scraps of paper in *one place*.
But i AM good at sitting at the pooter
So that makes me hopeful that success will ensue.