Sometimes when your muscles are aching it's better to keep moving. I did better surfing twice and working hard in the garden last week than I am doing sitting at a desk at work - my hips are killing me. I got so much done over these four days I feel really happy.

It's always busy, the winter tidy up, but even busier now that I'm preparing for prospective tenants next year. Everything I do I'm thinking about making life easier for them and not having a messy rat and rabbit infested hell hole to return to. You might have seen the compost bay area I had tidied up last week - it's now got the bins in place which I picked up for free off marketplace. In the background you can see the beds on the right have been weeded, manured and mulched.

I was so busy taking photos that Jamie had to call out that there was a rainbow. Still have to fill the hugelkulture beds with soil but our trailer is broken and we can't fix that with cable ties.

I have been continuing to mulch very thickly if I can, putting some chicken wire and paper in some sections where the rabbits always seem to dig. They don't like digging through the thick bark. In other areas I've laid rows of branches neatly, such as around the sides of the fence that go into the veggie patch, which stops them digging through. I've also put log rounds between the grasses as they tend to take shelter and hide under there or run through them. In some parts I have rolled up chicken wire which does the same job. In another section I built a log wall - it's just to season the wood for when we come back but also to stop that mad run the rabbits do through there. Anything to interrupt them is good!

You might remember me pulling apart the worm farm as it attracts rats, putting the stacked worm farms together instead. I've ordered some grapes to go around that part so the vines will shade them in the summer. I like the idea of the whole vegetable garden being shaded by vines. We do have one vine but a few more will be awesome and look great.

The base of the worm farm, however, has been upcycled - I found the hardwood from the Defender ute tray in the scrap pile and we put that together to make a potting up table.

I love it and think it looks great. I got Jamie to swap a gate out as well so the chickens couldn't jump over the higher one. In half their enclosure I've planted some green manure for them to forage through when it grows, cleaning up a lot of sticks from pruning the elderberry.

In fact a lot of what I've been doing is cleaning up all the little things that you don't notice, like a bit of blue hay band or a half finished bag of blood and bone which really should be in the shed. I just kept going and going until these jobs were done, feeling pretty good at how fit I was feeling. I swear this week I can hardly bend over though - I need a massage!

There's definitely signs of spring - the raspberry leaves are looking bright and cheery and one of the quinces is starting to flower. We did have a late frost this morning but I don't think it'll interrupt things too much.

I must admit things look SO great with the mulch in place. It gives it a good freshen up. It's going to be a dry summer so it's well needed. @jonyoudyer, can you see the clumps of garlic leaves here? That's what I was talking about. Too late to plant garlic for the season, but I'll still get garlicky leaves to eat.

Even though it's still winter, you may notice that an Australian garden always has something flowering, like this lovely grevillea. There's always a pop of colour to take away the grey.

Well, that's not even the half of all the things I've been doing. I don't even know what I'm going to plant this year - maybe some early season tomatoes so I can have them for Christmas, and a few greens, but I'm not making more work for myself when I leave at the end of January. I don't know whether to leave things for the tenants to enjoy - I don't know if they'll clean up the dead plants at the end of season. Maybe I'll just plant one zucchini, one cucumber and so on as it's not heaps, but at least something for them to enjoy.

With Love,

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