🍂 Autumn Garden Tour (South Australia) + Lime Wash Painting & Homemade Sushi

So I am just going to do, I've got some jobs to do in the garden today. There's heaps of weeding through the paths and things, lots of like just bits of grass have come up and hundreds of tomato seedlings have started popping up and coriander and things. So I just want to clear that. But I also got a bunch of Dichondra. My dad is a gardener landscaper, so he got some Dichondra from a job and gave me some, which is cool. So I'm going to put some of these patches of Dichondra throughout the little orchard area at the back in between the paths in hopes that it will kind of spread out. We're going to try and remove a bit of that mulch that we had there, the just like pine mulch, which yeah, I've been wanting to get rid of that for a long time. And then I have to take out probably the tomatoes. So I think it's time to start clearing the summer veggies and putting in some of the winter stuff. I've got some brassicas to put in and things like that. So super sad to see all this beautiful colour and heightened dimension go. It'll be nice to get the new crops ready in, have a bit of a, I don't know, am I late? A bit of a head start on the autumn veggies. It's just so sad because the tomatoes really don't look that bad. They are going a bit brown and yellow, but seems like the leaves look so green and there's still loads of tomatoes on there. But I have to do it, I think. It's so sad because someone came and pretty much ran up and ruined it straight away. And I have left it like this probably for too long. But it's always sad to see, to see anything. Because I haven't been picking the eggplants, they've been getting way too big. So these are huge, I think. Probably not too edible because they've lost a bit of their shine. We'll see. They're meant to be fairies, aren't they? These ones aren't the fairies. These are liberties, but they are meant to be quite small. Nice red one. And we'll put that in the sushi. So I have just primed this random plywood board that I had lying around. And we're basically planning on painting the kitchen and laundry and bathrooms. So I've got three colours, two are a bit lighter and I'm starting with the darkest one. We're just mixing that now. This one's called Claire and I'm just going to paint it on and we'll be able to compare. So I think it needs two coats. So I might start this today and then we'll see how it goes tomorrow. And then I can kind of put it against the wall and see how it looks. There, we have coat one. All right. Now we've got cream. This one's cream. They do look very similar. This has such a gorgeous colour. Wow. It actually reminds me of there's a farmer's union from South Australia. You would know farmer's union, but back when I drank dairy milk, I used to love the French vanilla iced coffee drink. Oh my God. And this colour reminds me of that. It's that warm, creamy texture. I love it. Oh my God. I don't know which colour I'm going to want to go with. I really love this cream now. So now we've got the last one, which is Byron. And I think it's the lightest of them all. And so I was thinking this one would be great for the kitchen. Okay. So we've done all three coats now. So I'll do the second coat tomorrow and then I'll be able to hold it up into the bathroom and compare each of the colours and see which colour I want to put in which room. So yeah, they're looking really cool already. They're drying with the sun. Alrighty. So we've done both of the coats now and we've got Claire, Cream and Byron. And so now I'm just going to go inside and have a look against the wall in the bathroom and the kitchen and see what we want to wear. So let's head in and have a look. All right. So that one's Byron and then we've got Claire and that one is... Oh, sorry. Byron, Cream and Claire. Okay. So this one's Byron and then we've got Cream and then Claire. Inspired by the Claire Valiant essay. Nice. Yeah, I reckon Cream is a nice colour but I think it's too close. I think so. Yeah. I think it's too close. Should we... Nice. Yeah. I reckon that's good. You want to have a look? I'll hold it up. Yeah. This is amazing. Holy moly. Oh my God. I can't even count how many there are. There's so many. And at different stages as well. Oh my God. Wow. So cool. Okay. I am so excited. There is so many figures on the tree. I don't know if the camera's going to capture it. They're exactly the same colour as the leaves. But I'm telling you, there are just tons. It's like every little branch has like four or so. And at different stages as well. Like there's a little tiny one. And then we've got some bigger ones. So hopefully they'll be staggered. So it just means the figure season is prolonged. And we have a whole bunch of trees. These ones are doing the best. We've got a few more out the back as well. But oh my goodness, I can't believe it. Looks so good. So yeah, we've got five trees at the front here. And then maybe like four or so at the back. And what year is this? This is probably the fourth year. Yeah, I think this is fourth year growth. And I do want to make them more bushy. So I have to work out how to prune them this year, I think. Because they are getting a bit tall. And I just want them to come up to the fence height. So after fruiting's done, give that a prune. And start to kind of shape it and things like that, which is exciting. Anyway, I am so excited. Feijoas are like my favourite fruit. I have so many. I mean, I love cherries and mangos and watermelons and lychees. But feijoas, when you get a good one, it is heaven. Alrighty. And then, oh my god, they're already starting to ripen. We've got cherry guavas. So these are the strawberry cherry guavas. I've got a few different varieties. So this front section, we've got the red ones. And then at the back, I've got the yellow pineapple cherry guavas, which are my personal faves. These ones are a bit more tart and sour. And then the yellow ones, when they fully ripen, just really sweet and delicious. Don't have as much of that tartness that the cherry guavas do. Oh, this one's almost ready. How exciting. So, yeah, they're loaded with fruits, these ones. And then we've got this one. Holy moly. My shame over here. Oh, gosh, we do. We've got two more feijoa trees under this, which is very embarrassing. Look at that one trying to get through. Oh, no. Yeah, look how tall he's getting. It could be prime feijoas up there that we're missing out on. So, yeah, you can see what I'm poking at here. There's a couple of lilies. Even though the passion fruit is totally suffocating them, you can see they're still thriving. Oh, God. Okay, so I'll just move that away for a second so we can show you the guavas. I honestly can't believe how many cherry guavas are on this one. It's just loaded. Wow. Look at that abundance. Amazing. Oh, these poor branches are just hanging down. Maybe we should give them some support. And then, yeah, we have the two more feijoas under there. So, look, give me a month. I'm not going to say next video because I'm trying to be realistic. But the passion fruit vine is going to be gone real soon, okay, before the end of May. All right. What month are we in? All right. Let's move to the back and have a look at the garden beds. Okay, so we're back in this veggie patch. So yesterday I pulled out all of the corn. And it is a bit of a shame because I did leave a few, and overnight the rats have kind of got them. And so now I'm thinking I've got a few random ones left, but they're quite far apart. And I've got a few other seeds that are germinating. But I'm thinking I might have to sacrifice them and just put brassicas in this bed. I'm going to put them in the old patch as well, but you can never have too many in the winter. So we'll see how we go. I've got some more leeks and celery coming up at the front there. And then the paprika chili. This I need to either cut back or pull out the Thai basil. And then we've got the cucumbers, which are fading, but they're still pumping away heaps and heaps of cucumbers. So still holding on to them for a little bit longer because I love my cucumbers. So yeah, same with the eggplant as well. We've got a few small flowers, so I'm not sure if we're going to get a bunch more fruit. They did so well. But yeah, so we'll see how they go. I am thinking of trying to dig them up and put them in the shed in a pot because last year all of the eggplant that I left in the garden just died, unfortunately. So yeah, and same with the capsicums. We're getting a load of fresh capsicums and there's still flowers and things like that. So see how long they keep fruiting for as well. But I'm going to leave them in for now. And I might pull up these werewolves greens and that little dead silverbeet and stuff and clear this part of the bed. And then we'll start putting in some radishes, brassicas and lettuce and things like that. At the end of this bed, I've got some beetroot, which really need to be pulled out, which makes me think I... One of the only things I use beetroot for is to make Ethiopian food. I love to roast beetroot and make some sort of dish with that. So I need to use these and I'm going to have to... Yeah, we're going to have to make some Ethiopian. So that might be in one of my next videos. I've got this lettuce, which is about to go to seed, I think. But I haven't even been eating it. Can you tell? That just popped up from last year. And just some random coriander that's popping up around here, which is nice. Love coriander. Some beans. And then, yeah, in this row... Yes, I still got my tomatoes. Don't judge. So, yes. I just did a big pick and picked about six kilos yesterday morning to give to my mum and dad. And I still have quite a few on here. And they're just not looking that bad. Like, they are quite fading yellow, but there is a lot of green and stuff as well. So it's just so hard to pull them out. And... Oh, the birds are really making a fuss. All right, almost done. Yeah, really trying to pull them out. I have, because next up here, I am going to put in peas and snow peas. But... Oh, God. I don't like birds when they swoop. And these guys can swoop sometimes. Anyway, okay. Tomatoes. Oh, yes, I'm waiting. I have sown some peas in between these rows, but they haven't popped up yet. So... I don't know if that's a bad sign. Maybe I should just take the tomatoes out and revitalize the soil a little bit. This is quite a hectic bed. It's very full of things because it's got all the tomatoes. Like, we've got seven or eight tomatoes. Then we've got the basil at the front of this side. And I've got some beautiful pans and violas that I just popped in. But then on the other side, I have... I'll come and show you. So, on this side... One, two, three, four, five, six. I have six plants of this native thyme. And, oh, my God. I wish I could... I wish you could smell through the cameras because it is such a gorgeous smell. It's so eucalyptus-y and, like, minty. Mm, yum. Anyway, so we have just tons of this. And I interplanted it with the marigolds. And I swear it worked so well for repelling bugs. We had no bugs other than ladybirds on the tomatoes. There were quite a lot of ladybirds. No pests or anything. The only pests were the rats, which came later in the season for the tomatoes. But, yes, I really think the combo of the native thyme, because it is quite a strong smell, and then the rosemary and the marigolds, I think they did such an amazing job. So I'll definitely be using those again. But saying that, I have a whole bunch in here. And they are already huge. And they've only been in for, like, five, four, five months. And I just did a little Google. And I found out that they actually live for seven to eight years and can be longer. And they can grow up to two meters tall. So probably not the best thing to put in my veggie bed. So I might, I think they should grow from cuttings. So I'm going to take a few cuttings and keep them going. I might move these to another spot in the garden. There's a new spot in the front that I have some plans. I don't know if it really goes with the vision of what I was thinking, but I'm sure I can fit it in somewhere. But, yeah, anyway, so if anyone knows what to do with native thyme or how to, I don't know how to use it. It's just so beautiful. The only way I've used it is in a gin, which was lovely, but you only need a very small amount because it is so strong. Like one little sprig, definitely not more. Because the first time it was like I was drinking eucalyptus oil. It was a lot, but it's glorious. And then we've got a few of our cosmos that are starting to pop up in this bed, which I love just having flowers this end. And then a couple of corns, which I'm just kind of giving up on corn because every time they're almost ready, the rats have just been getting them. Also, I wasn't really a fan of the corn that I grew. It was a little bit too buttery. It has to be sweet, sweet corn. And I don't know what I got because I swear it was a sweet corn. But anyway, we've got more tomatoes here. So this is what I keep saying. I'm going to pull these out and then I'll have a few backups. But I feel these look worse than the old ones. And these are the newer crops. So I'm sure we're going to get a frost any day now. Or in the next week. So I'll probably have to pull out the tomatoes. So I should just do it so I can put some new things in. But my main priority is, yeah, at least freeing up this one and popping in the peas. So we've got dahlias here and they're all starting to bud up and hopefully flower soon. Heaps of them have buds on them. So excited for that to finally happen. I've got some space in between. I'm not sure what I'm going to plant there yet. Maybe lettuces or radish or cabbage of some kind. And then here in this first arch, we've got some beans that are climbing up here. And in that side, I think there's beans as well. There could even be potatoes under there. Because I always just randomly put things in there. And then a lot of the beds are ready to plant. So this one has got a few dahlias at the beginning. And then I have all this free space. I've actually got, I don't know, they were pumpkins or something. But I'm letting them stay in. I'm sure they won't come to anything. But yes, I might plant some cauliflower and broccoli in this bed. And then some peas at the end of this bed. And maybe some radishes and lettuce and things in here as well. And then, yeah, we've got the beautiful achillea here, which is doing well. I'm hoping it continues flowering for a little bit longer. I think this is like a luthor or something. It's still chugging away, so probably too late as well. But we'll see. This is a watermelon, Carlos watermelon dahlia. Got to flower. Got a few more dahlias over there. Another one here. This one is little peaches in this pot. And then we've got a few more at the back here as well with some brassicas that I've planted already. I can see a few holes, so I should be checking. Cabbage. White butterflies. I mean, the mozzies are out, so I'm going to have to try to do this tomorrow. But something is eating them. Okay. Yeah, so we've got a few more dahlias. Looks like we're about to get a Bianca eggplant. So it's like a normal-shaped eggplant, I'm pretty sure. And it's got the purple and white, which is really beautiful. So hopefully we get a few of those ones because they look lovely. And then we've got another capsicum. That one is a yellow. It's got lots of flowers on it, but no fruit. So I did pick one off early when it was green just because I think it had some sun damage. And then, yeah, there's some space in this bed as well. I actually just earlier today pulled out the tomatoes that were on this. And so you can see the little ties are still here. So I'm going to put either beans or maybe sweet peas in this end arch. I love, yeah, a nice big sweet pea arch in the springtime. So I might do that. Might even put a few peas and sweet peas in. Just like, I love a little bit of like the flowers and then a few pops of snacks as well. I do plan on putting the broccoli in, but I think I'm going to have to call it a quip tonight. Because the mozzies are eating me alive. See you tomorrow. Hopefully it turns out good. It kind of dries so quick. All right, so it's the next day and I've only come out a little bit earlier than I did yesterday. So hopefully the mozzies don't come and descend too quickly. I also just finished the first coat. Well, Mark and I both just finished the first coat of the lime wash paint in the bathroom. And it's looking pretty cool. So my seedlings are still coming along. They're a bit smaller than these ones. So I thought I'd just pick these up from the farmer's market this morning. And yeah, so yeah, we've got three collies, different varieties. I've got a small snowball, I can't remember the others. And then all the broccolis are sprouting. I love a sprouting. So you just get so much more and it feeds you endlessly, which is awesome. Yes, then we'll be making some sushi to have for dinner. With my homemade kakiage. All right, let's start planting. Here we go. I can see a little pea shoot because I think I've already sown some here. But that would have been a couple of weeks back. So hopefully we can get some consecutive peas. Awesome.