Alien Invasion. Is your bunker ready? To blog, or not to blog...that is the question.

What’s the deal with blogging? It suddenly seems like everyone has a blog (I realise how hypocritical and ironic it is that I’m actually blogging right now, but just go with it). I don’t know how many times in conversation people will casually add the words ‘in my blog’. What are they trying to say by letting you know? I have something to say, I have strong opinions, don’t mess with me or you will end up in my blog, I’m such a deep thinker?? A blog can be informative, entertaining, boring or preachy. There was one I read that made me laugh so hard I had tears running down my face and made my husband look at me like I was a lunatic. Some read like a private journal entry that has been made public, but perhaps should have been left private.

In Hyde park in Sydney, there is a place where people bring their ‘soap boxes’ or milk crates and stand up on them and preach (for lack of a better word) their chosen topic in loud voices to passers-by. Popular themes amongst the milk-crate-preachers include; aliens and UFO’s (they are coming to get you), antigovernment types (these people probably also believe in UFO’s), preppers (people preparing for the end of the world and once again, usually related to aliens and the government…and atomic bombs), religion and politics. Most people walk past. Some stop and listen, enjoying the spectacle. Others will debate with the speaker about why they are wrong. This seems like an acceptable thing to happen and if anything the speakers appear delighted that they have managed to lure someone into a conversation about a topic they are clearly passionate and obsessive about. It then seems to end up as a battle of wits…whose oratory persuasion and knowledge can out do the other persons (also known as a debate), onlooker’s head nodding or shaking to indicate level of agreement.

I find the soap box situation awkward. When I see them one word usually comes to mind. Weirdo. They are generally extreme and more or less wanting to tell you that you have it wrong.  I get the feeling that most of them would struggle socially. I don’t think ‘coolness’ has ever crossed their mind (totally overrated anyway). It’s awkward because they are really putting themselves out there, wearing their heart on their sleeve for all to see and to tear off.

The other word that comes to mind is brave. It takes a lot of guts and conviction and planning. They haven’t just been strolling through the city and thought ‘I have a thought…I might say it aloud for all to hear’, no, they had all their props ready the night before. Milk crate, check. UFO warning signs, check. Information booklets, check. Brown trousers, check. Original aviator reading glasses, check. Sweaty armpits, check. Then they got up early the next morning, gathered their gear, and made their way to the park, hopefully beating all the other like-minded individuals to the best spot.

Blogging is just a passive form of this. Your blog is really a soap box. You may be in your pyjamas, but really its brown trousers, aviators and sweaty armpits. Your audience is potentially a million, but at the same time, a million people may decide your first sentence was too boring to continue reading.

Aaah, blogging. Is it just another way to get rejected by a larger audience? I have noticed that people can be vicious in their comments. Trolls. It’s easy to be mean from the safety and anonymity of your lounge room.

Similar to when you are driving and a car speeds up behind you, swerving from side to side about an inch from your rear bumper trying to get past (even though you are going ten over the speed limit). Eventually they make it in to the lane next to you (probably stuck behind the same traffic you are) and the light turns red. You both pull up next to each other. You look. The soccer mum in the car next to you, with her freshly manicured claws gripping the steering wheel, pretends to not notice that the driver she has been trying to intimidate for the last 5 minutes with close range swerving motions is right next to her. She won’t look. Not so brave anymore. Trolls really get my blood boiling. So weak. So pathetic, yet their comments can be so damaging and hurtful.

So what am I trying to say? I don’t know where I was going with all this. I actually started writing thinking my angle was only blog if you have something interesting to blog about, or lead a life worth blogging, but I think the moral of the story is, be nice to bloggers. They are modern day soap box preachers with something on their heart or in their head that they want to put out there. At the end of the day they might be a bit weird, but if you don’t like it you don’t have to read it. It’s something that they clearly feel passionate about and there will be like minded individuals out there who will love what they have to say. Birds of a feather will flock together after all.

Getting started - How to sow seeds

Congratulations to those who put their hands up for the seed giveaway. You should have all received them by now. Here is a little ‘how to’, to get you started.

Sowing seeds is easy and much more economical than buying seedlings. I think gardening gives us so much more than just food, but it does not make any sense to me to spend $4.00 on a punnet of carrot seedlings which after watering and nurturing for months, will result in 8 carrots, when you can go to your local supermarket and buy a whole bag of organic ones for $4.50. As much as I enjoy gardening for gardening sake, it has to be logical.

I remember seeing potted garlic for sale at my local hardware store for $9.00, and it only had two plants in it. I guess for people who don’t know how garlic grows and imagining that these will grow into ‘garlic bushes’ that end up being festooned in garlic bulbs, this may seem like a good deal. In reality it was probably the most expensive garlic in the world at $4.50 a bulb as each plant only grows one bulb.

There are a few seeds that require a bit more time and patience to grow, but for the most part my journey so far has taught me that when you plant a seed in the right season and water it, (and don’t let it dry out), it will grow!!! Sounds simple and self-explanatory, but it amazes me, and you don’t need to be an expert you just need to try.

So what do you need to start.

·         soil

·         compost or manure

·         seed raising tray

·         seeds

·         sea weed solution (Seasol)

Seed raising mix. You buy the stuff because you think you are doing the right thing, right? I mean, if only it would do what it was supposed to do.

I don’t use commercial potting mixes/seed raising mixes because I never had great success with them. My seeds would sprout and then would really struggle and look weedy. If you have tried and failed with growing seeds, this may be the reason. The thing I noticed with commercial seed raising mixes is they would often seem to repel water and become really dry despite watering and they seem to lack the nutritional requirements for growing a plant beyond the two leaf stage.

Search around your garden for some decent soil. If its clay it’s not decent, you may have to buy some. It should be easy to dig, be relatively fine (not have too many rocks/sticks) and, you know…look like nice dark dirt. If you really don’t have any soil, then just buy a bag. Put a spade full into a bucket. I mix mine with mushroom compost, or the compost from my chicken pens (which is well rotted straw and manure). If you don’t have either of these in your yard you need to buy a bag of compost/composted manure from a nursery or visit a friend who has some. I mix two parts soil to one part compost/manure.

Compost or composted manure contains organic matter which will hold water and supply nutrients to your seedlings so they can grow.

1.       So, mix the soil with the compost in the bucket. Make sure to break up any lumps. Add a little water and mix through, enough to make it damp, not mud.

 

 

2.       Spread the mix into your seed tray and lightly press into each cell.

 

 

3.       Give it another water to soak it through and settle the soil in.

4.       Find a small stick, and use it to push a hole about 1 cm deep in the middle of each cell. The required depth may vary depending on what you are planting, but for pak choy, 1cm is fine.

 

5.       Drop a seed in each hole and cover over with dirt.

Place your seed trays in a sunny position. In summer I put mine in a place that will get full sun for a small part of the day but not the full day as there is always the risk that you come home from work on a hot day and find your seedlings fried. During winter it's ok to leave them in full sun. Make sure any excess water can drain out, in other words, make sure the tray isn’t sitting in a pool of water as this will rot the seeds/plants. At the same time, if you let them dry out while the seed is germinating or sprouting, they will die, so they do need to be watered every day at the beginning.

I give them a water with the sea weed solution once or twice a week, and that’s all. I know there is more than one way to skin a cat, but I'm just sharing my method.

Come on, commit to starting a garden by sowing some seeds, then you will be forced to find somewhere to plant them out.

I’m going to do a tutorial soon on how to make a simple garden, so simple anyone can do it, and I will transplant my own seedlings into it! I hope you will join me.

Good luck and happy gardening.

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