I haven’t done too much in the garden over the past few days after getting home, mainly because it has been a little wet. After working in the rain, I don’t want to really do it at home! But, because of the rain, I had to pop out into the garden to do a job or too just to ensure my plants can try and behave. I have also had a seed and book purchase and done a little resultant admin.

Due to the rain, my peas had decided to fall over and fall over. I should have staked them before now really, as a result they are a little tangled together. They are standing a little straighter now and I’ll have to keep staking them as they grow taller.

I have bought myself some new seeds:

• Onion ‘Red Marksman’
• Spring Onion ‘Evergreen Trident’
• Pea ‘Purple Podded Dutch’
• Pea ‘Franks Pea’

I bought the peas because I love peas and you can’t really buy fresh peas here in Sydney-frozen and tinned yes, fresh no. One of the best flavours from the garden is freshly picked peas and I want plenty of them this year. The admin part was to record these new purchases on my spreadsheet, which I am hoping to keep updated from now on.

I bought the onion seeds because I haven’t had any success with the onion seeds I have sown so far. I am going to sow some of my new and old seeds and keep some indoors and have some have outside to see which do better. I’ll set that up over the next few days and keep you posted about how I go.

I also purchased a few new books to read, all plant related. The first is a book called ‘From The Country: An Anthology’ by T. R. Garnett. It is a book of the articles he wrote for The Age newspaper on gardening and environmental and cultural topics. I thought it could be an interesting read.

The second is called ‘Australian Rainforest Seeds’, by Mark Dunphy, Steve McAlpine, Paul Nelson and Michelle Chapman. It is a book that talks about growing Australian rainforest species from seeds. I am developing more of an interest in seeds from how to grow them, to why they are important, how they work and anything interesting I can find out. I also love Australian native plants, so hopefully I’ll get chance to try growing one or two species at some point.

The third book is ‘Natural Antibiotics and Antivirals’ by Christopher Vasey. I want to start reading into the whole herbal medicine thing as I don’t know much about it, and this book seemed as good a place to start as any.

I have a busy few days and weeks ahead of me I think! I don’t like having nothing to do, which is one of the things I like about reading-you can sit resting, while still keeping your mind active. I will let you know how my plants and reading go over the next few weeks.