Grand Final Weekend.

The kids are going to bed, and nothing much happened in the garden today. Sunflowers got plenty of sun, that's about it. The Cats won the AFL grand final yesterday and the Storm and the Sea Eagles are fighting out the NRL grand final right now.

It's Official! - Fifi joins the Orchid Society

Yes, yes, I know...30ish going on 65. It's always been a secret desire to join the Orchid Society and now, it's a reality. I am the proud owner of five orchids. I have seen the movie 'Adaptations' which cleverly combines the burning passion of orchid collecting with timeless plot themes of sex & death and it's all true. Needless to say I'm an asset to any organisation, give me 12 months and I'll be the secretary. One good thing about leaving a small country town and then returning, you feel like the guy who directed the 'Titanic', definitely not like someone who was on it.

Silk worms have come to stay

The Mulberry fairy is visiting with her friends the Silk Worms. Sascha is sure they are really the book worms in disguise, as every second Tuesday they go missing between 10-30 and half past twelve. Hmmm curious. Mulberry fairys' friends the 'silk worms' eat fresh mulberry leaves twice a day, and they total 42. Grace & I put them in the incy-winciest shoe box we could find - bright pink, child size 5. Which Doug and I are staring at in sort of bewilderment. Note to self - must buy more shoes.

Huge Grey Bird sighted in Backyard!

Grace saw an enormous bird in the yard this morning, it was grey. It was as big as a giant - so big. It had a really long tail, and the dogs chased it away, then they jumped into their little beds for morning nap.Doug & I thought it might be a Heron. Grace is absolutely sure it was much larger than a heron. We have a lot of wildlife in the backyard as the mulberries out. Wicked Currawongs, destroying nests all about (just ask the sad top-knots) and Red-eyed cuckoo shrieks and king parrots. Last year the King parrots got all Doug's corn as he didn't have the heart to pick it from them. We sort of felt proud that they were making our backyard their home. There have been sightings of echidnas (technically the frontyard) and a large fat, fluffy possum eating the last of our naval oranges, peering down with bright red eyes.

Beans all in

Lost patience today with growing fennel in the vegie patch. It got shunted to a lonely bed behind the orange tree. Bush beans have taken their place. I planted climbing beans on a couple of tripods also. So we should have a nice crop of beans this summer. We are eating really tasty peas at the moment and the broccoli is holding on nicely. I was up at 5 this morning and in the vegie garden before any kids woke up and needed waiting on. Great strategy as it turned out. It's official - the calf is a girl.

5am Starts on only One cup of Coffee

Doug was in the garden today at 5am, like Farmer Macgregor planting out his beans. We're on water restrictions at the mo' so we can only water the garden every second day, with hand held hoses. Doug has been experimenting with recycled water from the washing machine. It takes about 80 litres to wash a load, and if we could turn it around and put that on the garden, it would make a tremendous saving over time.

20 vegetables, but who's counting?

You name it, Doug can grow it. We have capsicums, broccoli, rhubarb, chives, strawberries, aubergines, lettuces, (oh no Peter Rabbit!) beans, peas, corn, radishes, fennel, oregano, sage, thyme, rosemary, lemongrass, sunflowers, more beans, silverbeet, carrots (Peter Rabbit!), oranges, lemons, paw paw, bush nuts, mangoes.

Bob's baby calf

Four days ago Bob brought home a 'baby cow' as Sascha would say. It lives with Sam in the back yard and drinks milk from a bucket four times a day. Doug thinks its a boy (Bob told him so) and I think it's a girl (Bob told me so). What is Bob playing at? Does he like it when we argue? Maybe our backyard has been too quiet for too long.

And the Lucky Winner is !

Doug, Grace, Sascha & Fifi went to the Golf Club for dinner (Doug's night off) And we had only just begun to tuck into the fried fake seafood puffs when " Number 33069" won us a vegetable tray in the raffle.

Doug's Back Yard

Hello and welcome to the first posting for Dougie's Garden. Here you will find all the latest news that you never knew you needed to know. But! Ohhh yes you'll be riveted. Thank you for visiting and if you have any need of gardening advice, we have a fabulous brains trust. You may also wish to read about Grace and Sascha, Rupert, Robbie and Jackie and Fifi, the other residents of Doug's Backyard. There are several parts to Doug's Back Yard. Firstly I must mention the Vegetables. Grace has a fairy garden, and the fairy garden doubles Fifi's Orchid Garden. Sascha helps with the watering. The dogs think the whole thing is their garden, but they're wrong.