spring cleaning

/ my herb bouquet /

you would think that having 2 weeks of school holidays would allow me to get through my (very long) to do list - but no! i've been busy project managing 4 new property projects at ross, stufing hundreds of envelopes for the board of trustees elections and learning the ropes of the finance officer role that i've taken over. oh yeah, and i'm now officially the office manager :) 

/ plantable via the contemporist /

one of the few things i've completed over the holidays is a bit of tidying up in the garden. i sorted through a layer of my worm farm to get the rich vermicast from the bottom layer to add to my soil, which ended up being a bigger job than i had thought because of some of the things i put into the worm farm last year have hardly decomposed or been eaten. i know better now and don't include things like avocado shells and pits and i now grind up egg shells into a fine powder before i add them. luckily te manawa has a compost bin now, so i have a bucket where i put all of the organic material that my worms won't eat that i later empty at work.

/ ceramic seed markers by esthercoombs /

i also planted two containers of arugula, two containers of corriander, one container of chives, and half of my large planting box with baby beets. my oregano plant has come back looking fabulous this year and my sage has the prettiest purple flowers coming out. before renewing the soil in some of my pots, i collected the remnants of parsley, corriander, arugula and spinach, which were looking a bit poor but still edible and made a really delish blended herb oil (preparation method found here). i then used it as a base for a really yummy homemade veggie and salmon pizza last night. reuben gave it his tick of approval and since i still have plenty of parsley left to harvest this weekend, i will definitely be making another batch! and planting even more corriander after reading this article about all its health benefits :) i also plan to try out this carrot top pesto recipe as i believe my pot of baby carrots are just about ready to be eaten.