Even more mushrooms...

I know I've already blogged about my mushroom succuess but I just had to share the latest and first harvest from the white mushroom box. The harvest ended up weighting a total of 750g.

The previous posts can be found: here, here and here.

Determined

I was re-potting my lettuce seedlings yesterday when I discovered this little fighter. A discarded trimming had sprouted roots and was growing into the cardboard underneath!

Pretty Purple Flowers

It's been really pretty in the garden at the moment as I have quite a few flowers in bloom. In the house I grew up in the garden floor was carpeted in violets and I've really missed that this year. I couldn't find and seedlings in the nursery so I went over to my friends house and took some out of her front yard and replanted them into some pots. I never thought they'd flower so soon but they're all in bloom!

 Here are some pictures I've taken recently: The violets from my friends, My newly planted hardenbergia, some cheap but effective potted colour and my hyacinth bulbs.

I swear I didn't give it Steroids!

I've already shared  the success I've had with my swiss brown mushroom box, but I never thought I would get anything as big as this coming from it! It took about a week for the mushroom to get to this size. It's cap is 17cm in diameter and the stalk is 5cm wide!

Sprouts

Mum recently bought me a sprouter from The Diggers Club so I thought I would document my progress with it. I decided to used a mixed seed mix consisting of Adzuki Beans, Mung Beans, Lentils and Fenugreek that I picked up from Bunnings. The whole process sounded a bit labor intensive, but it really wasn't that bad. You start off by soaking about a tablespoon of seeds in water over night to loosen the exterior shells. Over the next 5-7 days you rinse the sprouts 3 times a day and tilt the jar so the water drains away. After that you have about half a cup of sprouts to use. We decided to use them in a couscous and chicken salad, they added a nice texture and crunch.

Here are the daily photos of the sprouts:

 

The Finished Product:

Make me beautiful

A few years ago I bought an orange art easel from revolve in Canberra for $5; I knew I would eventually find a good use for it and I finally have! I decided to turn it into a trellis to grow a purple hardenbergia up. All I had to do was drill some holes in the top, bottom and sides and then thread some wire through to make the trellis. The garden gets quite windy so I fixed some brackets to the legs and then hammed them into the ground with tent pegs and its as sturdy as can be!

Next to the art-easel-come-trellis is an old wheel barrow I picked up for $10 at the tip, I plan to plant it out with herbs for teas and edible plants when spring comes around. In the front of the photo are my bulbs that are slowly coming through.