A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their photographs and stories. I hope by sharing other peoples pictures and stories here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all have a rock star garden this summer. Keep them coming!
~Mavis
I love hearing from reader, Lisa from Tasmania, Australia {She also introduced us to her adorable Aunt Ruby!}. She has an incredible garden and takes even more impressive pictures {and you know how OCD I am about pictures!} I might just have to add Tasmania to my travel docket next year! Buckle up you guys, here’s what Lisa has been up to:
Hi Mavis…
We have had a really great spring and summer! There is still lots of food out there to pick and process but I am feeling a little sad that its all winding down. {That’s why your blog is so great as while I am warming up by the fire with my knitting in hand I can see the gorgeous gardens flourishing up your way!}
We did a lot of new things in the garden this year, and tried to emphasize using collected materials rather than dashing down to the hardware shop. We decided to pull out the lined paths in the main vegetable plot and pretty much go with one massive area and just plant areas as needed. Actually it worked pretty well, and also gained some space that was used up as pathways last season.
The garlic of course was the first thing harvested… it grew really well over the winter and I was so pleased with my haul! Garlic is a main ingredient in my BBQ sauce as well as my Sweet Chilli sauce.
My second veggie patch proved a hassle last year fighting the weeds as I had raided some of the lawn to dig into. We used the timber that we had removed from the main patch and created a couple of raised garden beds… something I hadn’t done before and was dying to try out.
We filled them with a mixture of 50% topsoil and 50% mushroom compost and let me tell you, the plants loved it! 
I got countless buckets of tomatoes, huge capsicum, mad basil and a whole bunch of chillies that are about to ripen {I hope}. Was well worth the effort!!
I’d also been keen to build a ‘bean arch’ We had lots of apple tree prunings that we pieced together to make a nice climbing frame for the beans. They grew up the structure well, but didn’t quite go all the way over! Still, I planted 7 year beans so maybe next season they will be keen to grow all the way over.
A part of the ‘using what you have’ philosophy entailed getting hooked up to solar power! Basically the last bill was half the cost of the same time last year, so got to be happy with that!
Part of the summer is also devoted to collecting a good stash of kindling and pine cones. This lot of pine cones was free, only cost was a bit of my dignity as I misjudged an electric fence, got a severe zap and was sat on my backside with a very girlie scream! I was all about commando crawling to get back to the other side afterwards!!
We also fill up on seaweed from the local beach as mulch {pictured here in the trailer and not yet on the garden}.
Finally, the tanks. We have limited storage {and no town water} but bought the white tanks to fill when the weather was a lot soggier and they have been used on the garden and have helped us survive through the long summer.
We were so lucky with our fruit this year too… countless kilos of raspberries, plums, strawberries…
And now apples. Its divine to just constantly graze on fresh fruit!
Another job that was finally done was the herb garden. The original barrel of herbs was in an area of the property that you needed a cut lunch to take with you on the hike over to get your oregano… Okay, not that bad, but not at all convenient.
This patch is right out the back door, so we made a stick wall to cover the unused hot water system, put Budda’s head back on (he somehow lost it) and built him a little fence, finally used all the driftwood that I had been driving my husband crazy collecting to outline the garden areas and mulched with seaweed. Its been going well and I have used it frequently!
Harvesting is always great fun! We dug up about three boxes of potatoes and estimate we will be eating those well into the year.
The purple ones do your head in – they just don’t look right but taste identical to the normal ones!
What corn we didn’t scoff is in the freezer and there are still carrots and beetroot in the garden to be pulled up as needed.
I love cooking as much of our own produce as possible… stuffed tomatoes are frequently on the menu, pavlova’s become less expensive to make when you collect heaps of eggs every day, and I have made, used and sold countless jars of jam, sauce and relish at the local market.
I even bake special cakes for the chickens that they go mad over!
It’s been busy with {as usual} a constant stream of visitors {long and short term} who enjoy a taste of the ‘simple’ life, good food and the gorgeous Tasmanian countryside. Now to start planting winter veggies and think of a plan of attack for next spring!
Cheers,
Lisa
If you would like to have your garden, chicken coop or something you’ve made featured on One Hundred Dollars a Month, here’s what I’m looking for:
- Your Garden Pictures and Tips – I’d especially like to see your garden set ups, growing areas, and know if you are starting seeds indoors this year. If so, show me some picture of how you are going about it.
- Your Chicken and Chicken Related Stories – Coops, Chicks, Hen’s, Roosters, Eggs, you name it. If it clucks, send us some pictures to share with the world.
- Cool Arts & Crafts – Made from your very own hands with detailed {and well photographed} pictures and instructions.
- Your pictures and stories about your pets. The more pictures and details the better.
- Garage Sale, Thrift Store and Dumpster Diving pictures and the stories behind the treasures you found including how much you paid for them.
If I feature your pictures and the stories behind them on One Hundred Dollars a Month, I will send you a $20.00 gift card to the greatest store in the world: Amazon.com.
Go HERE for the official rules.
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coleen says
WOW! thats all I can say…..
Lisa Millar says
🙂 Thanx for the “WOW”
Heidi P says
I had the same immediate response as Coleen. WOW! I’d love to know how many hours per day they spend tending their garden. Absolutely incredible. Thanks for sharing. Makes me feel like a slacker. I need to up my motivation level and get outside asap.
Lisa Millar says
Thank-you! Actually its not as mad and labour intensive as you may think from the bunch of photos.
This story stretches from about September to now.
Sometimes we get in and work lots of hours for lots of days, and other times it’s just keeping up with the watering.
To be honest we live quite a relaxed lifestyle – it does get hectic processing the food and you feel guilty for looking at another bucket of tomatoes and thinking you are over it! lol (May we never never complain about too much food!)
Kay Bonikowsky says
I’d love that chicken cake recipe!
Lisa Millar says
No worries… I make it up as I go along really…
I get a cup of their pellets and wheat and add some rolled outs if I have any… but honestly… just chuck anything like that in (found some old cornflakes last time) Also chopped a little garlic as that is healthy for them. About a cup of flour that helps bulk it up… then I also crush in some of the smaller eggs that I can’t use as easily – shells and all – then mix in some water, put in a loaf tin and bake like a cake for around 25 minutes. I don’t think you can get it very far wrong. Chickens aren’t fussy! It’s good to add in whatever is at hand. Its pretty dense so they have fun pecking it to pieces. Try it out!
Lisa Millar says
um…. that would be “Rolled Oats”
Carla says
Lisa, you have a very impressive garden. Your 7-year beans look like what we call Scarlett Runner beans. Mine grow about 7 seasons before they die off and need replanting. We along the west coast of the USA will need to learn about your water storage systems in the near future if our drought continues.
Thanks for posting!
Lisa Millar says
Thank-you! And I think you are right about the beans… Ruby calls them runner beans. They are so pretty. I hadn’t realised they lasted for so long and I spent the last two seasons pulling them up!! eek! Now I know better! Do they grow better each year as they get more established?
I am all for people getting their own water… altho I did read something distressing about certain states in the US that made it illegal to collect your own water because it belonged to some government department…!! ?? I have yet to research more to see if that is (hopefully) an internet rumour!
Pam says
Unfortunately, it’s not an internet rumor. In 1972, the US passed the Clean Water Act which placed control of “navigable waters” under the control of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). The purpose was to protect the large bodies of water from pollution in the form of factory waste, trash dumping, etc. Following 9/11, there were proposals to change the term “navigable waters” to “waters of the United States”. Not a huge change in language but that means the EPA would have control of the well I paid to have installed.. They would even have control of the tanks of rainwater I collect because it’s water and it’s in the United States. I’ll admit to being lazy keeping up with what’s been happening with this recently though I do know many states have picked up this idea and are fighting to wrestle control of the water from the private land owners (I know there was a proposal in California not long ago). Now that you’ve reminded me of it, I’ll do a bit of reading and snooping and see if I can update you on what the status of this is.
BTW…………..LOVE the garden. What a wonderful, creative use of the materials you have available. My garden covers about 2 acres and is just now starting to spring to life. About 6 weeks from now, I’ll be sitting in the middle of bushels of tomatoes and peppers wondering what in the world I was thinking of when I planted 90 tomato plants. But I love every minutes of it……………:)
Lisa Millar says
This is mind boggling to me…. it’s very like the Aesop’s Fable of the dog in the manger!!
I was surprised enough about the line drying & solar panel restrictions in so many areas, but not to be able to use the rainwater that falls on your own land seems ludicrous! Definitely a step backwards in progress.
Thanx for writing that down for me… I found it really interesting
We have recently had 4 or 5 days of solid rain which really topped up our very low tanks. Our capacity is only about 20,000 litres, but we are now 3/4 full… yay!!
Even our towns and cities are often on water restrictions because of frequent drought conditions and general low rainfall in Australia… so the use of grey water and water catchment systems are keenly encouraged!
I’ll certainly read up more about it too!
Thank-you for the kind words about our garden… and my husband and laughed a lot when we read “90 tomato plants!!” Did you really????? You are going to be swimming in tomatoes!! What will you do with them all?? Hope to see it all featured here sometime!
Pam says
90 tomato plants breaks down to 75 sauce tomato plants (San Marzano and Roma) and 15 salad/slicing tomato plants. This summer they’ll become salsa (32 jalapeno plants and 35 bell pepper plants), pasta sauce, plain tomato sauce, tomato paste and canned whole tomatoes. It’s just hubby and I at home now but I’m still feeding my kids on a fairly regular basis. Plus I try and make extra and donate it to the local food bank. One of these days I’ll actually download the pictures I have of the place to the computer and send them in. I take a million of them – just never seem to remember to load them to the computer.
Lisa Millar says
Wow re the tomatoes!! It would be so busy in you kitchen at peak season!
So lovely that extra’s go to the food bank. I was cranky when our local equivalent food bank lost funding and ceased!
Hope you get the photos up one day!! I’ll keep my eye out!! 🙂
PattyB says
Hi Lisa. I live in Colorado and we cannot collect rainwater here. I did recently read an article that those with wells can collect now but I didn’t research the validity of that. Also, when buying property here that is other than the suburbs, like ranch/farm property, a buyer needs to hire a “water lawyer.” If the water rights include a well, then the legal papers must include permits, certificates and what kind of use the water is for. It can be a real headache.
Lisa Millar says
Wow… they don’t want you to be able to look after yourselves do they? It sounds like a major pain.
I think here they are talking about restricting bores (wells) but perhaps its keeping an eye on the use of groundwater so it is not overdone…altho I am not convinced since our population here in Tas is really quite low, but I haven’t really done the research… will have to soon as we would love more access to water so we can do more in the garden and be kinder to our fruit trees!
Personally I think if it falls from the sky onto your land, you should be able to utilise it any way you see fit!
Thanks for writing that out… its amazing the differences between our countries!! This wonderful blog of Mavis’ along with the input from her followers is quite an education!! 🙂
Joan Blurton says
I was wondering what the seven-year beans were. Do you think she would post her chili or barbecue recipe?
Lisa Millar says
Hi Joan – read Carla’s post above about the beans!
I will get back and give you the sweet chilli sauce recipe later, but I can’t give out the BBQ one because my very talented chef sister developed that one, so only family at this point has been lucky enough to have it!! 🙂
Mind you one day when I chat to her about it and if it is ok to pass it on I will share it as it is divine!! 🙂
Lisa Millar says
SWEET CHILLI SAUCE
300gm chillies (Deseeded)
100gm garlic
70gm fresh ginger
1.2 litres cider vinegar
2kg sugar
1tsp salt
puree the chilli, garlic and ginger until all quite fine. I use some of the cider vinegar to do this… seems to work better
Put all into large pot and add the vinegar, sugar and salt.
Bring to boil and then fast simmer for about half an hour. Actually I found I needed to do it longer as you need to get it to the right pouring consistency! (I waver between way too runny and wont pour out of the bottle!! 🙂 )
Its a great recipe… I think tastes awesome
You’ll have to convert to imperial measurements (I just remembered the US is still stuck with imperial… lol… but thats what google is for!!)
(Actually a lot of the sauce and relish recipes I use are in imperial measurements as they belong to my Nanna! I use her old scales which look the part in this old house!!)
Have a lovely day!
Claudia says
Lisa,your gardens are absolutely beautiful and so inspiring! Thank you for sharing !
Lisa Millar says
Thank-you.. we love our area
Sherry says
I will say it too, WOW! Beautiful photos and that garden is just so impressive! And that cat in the first photo is just gorgeous!
Lisa Millar says
Awwww… reply of the day for finding our cat “Pip” gorgeous!!
Thank-you!! 🙂
suzanne says
So impressive! Do you just throw the pine cones down as mulch or compost them?
Lisa Millar says
🙂 Thanks!
In reply to the pine cone question, neither. We use them in our fire. They are great starters as they don’t burn to quickly or slowly, and give the heavier wood time to catch. I never thought of using them as a mulch or compost! Will have to read about that.
Susan says
Lisa,
Your photos are always so beautiful ! You certainly have an eye for taking the best ones. They always make me happy. I LOVE looking at them . You definitely are an inspiration.
.
Lisa Millar says
Thank-you! I love photography and I am glad you enjoy the photos 🙂
brenda says
I got a kick out of the photo with the dirt toes next to all of those potatoes. How do you store your spuds? I tried one year and they all started to sprout.
Lisa Millar says
It’s weird but I have quite a collection of ‘dirty feet’ photos!! They are black when I work in Ruby’s garden and red when in ours!! I feel like I have really worked when my feet are filthy! lol
Re: storage…. we just box them up – sometimes with newspaper between layers and store them in the dark (& cool) in the pantry. They usually last for about 6 months. They will start to sprout eventually… but just knock off the sprouts… they are fine to eat… unless you let the tentacles reach epic proportions and the spud itself has shrivelled! (always fun to find those at the end of the season!!) I’ll ask Ruby if she has any other hints! 🙂
bonnie says
I don’t garden, but am very intrigued by the cat in the photo. It is huge! Also, very beautiful. What kind is it and is it a pet?
Lisa Millar says
I told Pip you thought he was beautiful! He didn’t say much… busy being buried under the covers in bed!! So yes… he is a pet and reasonably spoiled 🙂
He is a Lilac Point Siamese. He has got amazing blue eyes – same shade as my husbands!
Very friendly and funny (got a million funny Pip photos!)
I had to go look at the photo again and he does look really big there… maybe it was the lens I used… he is not a small cat, maybe about 6kgs?? I’ll put him in a grocery bag sometime and use the luggage scale to weigh him! 🙂
janet says
Wow is right!! Thanks for sharing!
Lisa Millar says
🙂 Thank-you !!
Dianne says
Talk about “garden envy” my garden is only 50 feet x 4 feet, in our urban town of Tampa, Florida. What a great space you have and your vegetables are great!!!!
Lisa Millar says
Thank-you!
Do you cover your yard in vegies anyway? I don’t know much about gardening in Florida, but I was imagining the warm weather to be really helpful!
Marcia says
Wow I LOVED these photos. So inspiring! And yes, I’m in California, so it’s interesting to read about the water.
My tangerine tree is so happy these days! We do not specifically water our garden or yard anymore. I started taking “Navy” showers and now start with a bucket in the shower to catch the cold and extra water. Then we water the trees with hit. It’s getting more water now!
Lisa Millar says
Thank-you!
And yes… we catch shower water in the dry summer for the fruit trees and pot plants! 🙂
If you can catch and store the water its so useful!
Lauren says
lisa! Inspiring and beautiful garden. We are waiting impatiently for spring here in New England … Anyways!
My question is – what kind of chicken is that cutie on the top left corner of the quartet of chicken pictures? She’s cute with a little bouffant and all black, gorgeous!
Lisa Millar says
Hi Lauren and thanx for the kind words!
I am looking forward to re-living spring though all my friends in other parts of the word.
The chicken : That’s “Squirt” She is so quirky and funny. She is a cross between an Australorp and a Silky!! I love her mad hair-do and big black eyes! She also wails like a mini air-raid siren!! So funny to watch her snatch a bit of bread and go running about with it wailing away!!
She lays a smaller egg than our other girls, but slightly bigger than a normal Silky hen.
Cheers,
Lisa