new thoughts after the weekend

Going around and seeing other people's gardens = a little depressing with how beautiful they are as well as functional, while mine is pretty much a mess... How to make it less of a mess? Well, that's pretty much the big question, isn't it?

chook stations

Disadvantage: raking out the chook mulch will become that much more difficult.

If I build rock walls for the chook station frame to rest upon, then that gives a kind of 'garden bed' space that can be filled with soil (or chook mulch), and maybe makes the garden look a bit nicer. It also will delineate the spaces for 'intensive garden beds' and 'mulch pile/perennial plants'.

Actually, now I think about it, Linda Woodrow had a space in each chook dome for perennials, right up the back and the middle, so the chooks could destroy them, and then they could grow up during the rest of the season. I don't think this will work in my garden, because the chooks are on the station for a lot longer than just two weeks, and they can do a HELLUVALOT of damage to a plant in a couple of months if the giant craters in the chook pen spaces are any indication...

Chook Tunnels

Need to fit up against the fence, between the fence and the trees. I want them bare ground so the chooks scratch away at the weeds that pop up, but they'll also need to be removeable, accessible from the top and/or the side (some kind of trapdoor, hinge/frame?), and there'll need to be points where I can put something down to keep the chooks from running away from me.

I know where I want the tunnels: running around the outside fence, but the truth is that design will be key to make this workable.

Food forest/edible hedge

Along the front boundary line (where the picket fence presently is).

Trees for food forest along front:
- Macadamias (2)
- Acerola cherry (2)
- Loquat (from seed) (2)
- Avocado (from seed)
- Avocado (graft)
- Quince (from seed)
- Chocolate Pudding tree
- Pomegranate
-

Also dig up and plant along the boundary line
- multi-citrus (2, presently in front bed)
- kaffir lime (presently in back corner)

Perhaps dig these up sooner rather than later and get into pots. I think they need richer, more fertile soil than they've been getting.

would like:
- olive
- pecan/pistachios/walnut (limited by garden space)
- kumquats

Underplanting/interplanting
- salvias
- fruit salad herb
- nettle
- raspberries
- blueberries
- holy basil
- all those other trees/plants that I've been quietly minding off to the side

Other Things - to be done at permabee
- compost bays
- bathtub garden/bathtub pond (2 bathtub ponds)
- digging out the back paths
- enclosing the front orchard with frame/netting

early sowing

I am planning to plant seeds of:
- tomatoes
- tomatillos
- eggplant
- corn
- loofah/pumpkin
- cucumber
- zucchini

These will be planted out in the front bed (north west facing) in mid-august when the ground has heated up sufficiently.
(loofah/pumpkin/cucumber to go along the south orchard edge for growing up a fence).

Some things for the permabee would be:
- An edible hedge along the front picket fence, install watering system:
o south of path: loquat, macadamias, lilly pilly
o south groundcover: cliveas, holy basil, nasturtiums, comfrey
o north of path pomegranate, kumquat, avo, acerola cherry
o north groundcover: holy basil, fruit salad plant, salvias
- A three-unit composting setup behind the shed.
- Create chicken run along outside fence
- Dig paths and fill with woodchip mulch.
- Two bathtub setups – one aquaculture, one bathtub garden (possibly on the verge?)

Plumber?
- Modify the washing machine outlet to disperse in the garden.

Builder?
- Move the lattice gate further west (line up with the house edge) (maybe ask Simon B)
- Enclose orchard garden (maybe ask Simon B)

starting on the front lawn...

I've put the mulch up against the picket fence, and under the flame tree. It's not really good enough to do a proper job of composting, but we'll see what horse manure I can bring back from the rural areas I'm going to tomorrow when B, her hubs C, and their kids come to visit. We'll go up that way to check out a park and have a picnic.

For nitrogenous matter, I've realised that the local fruit shop tosses a lot of their fruit matter away into an open and openable bin, and it's not locked. If I go with enough of a trailer, then I might be able to salvage enough green wastes to make compost with. There's actually a fruit shop that's even closer, but I don't know how much green wastes they have, and I'm not sure if they'd be willing to let me take them.

I'm looking at a local nursery for fruit trees, and they have mostly dwarves, but some full-sized trees (apricot, almond, walnut, mulberries, olives, kumquats). I've been thinking about dwarves vs full-size, and thinking:

What if for every graft I planted, I made sure to plant a straight seed? (Perhaps plant in a large pot until the first flower/fruiting)
- lychees
- avocadoes (have one growing from seed even now
- apricots
- apples
- olives (should be able to buy these ungrafted)

Some thoughts on corn in the coming season.
1. Grow the coloured "glass gem" corn in front yard for grinding and gifts. Which means prepping the ground now - with chickens, but also compost heaps – hence the need for the fruit shop bin wastes.

2. Grow the regular yellow stuff in the back yard for eating. Which bed? Well, I'm inclined to think the plum-stone bed, although maybe those should be tomatoes and zucchini?  

Compost:
- woodchips (easy to get by the 8 cubic metres)
- horse manure (harder to come by - need to go up rural way)
- vegie waste (very close: local shopping centre, nightly throwout. With suitable bins/storage, could easily collect enough through the week to make a compost by Saturday.

Chickens I'm really going to struggle to keep them in greens this summer, I think. I need to find somewhere to put them that means they won't fry, and I suspect it's going to be the lower cherry-peach bed. Also, I need to plan better for when plants come out of a bed and they go onto one...