Level 2 Sydney Water Restrictions

Thoughts during this week:

We're going into Level 2 water restrictions on the 10th December. No watering with the hose ever, buckets only before 10am and after 4pm. No filling any ponds or pools at all. 15 minutes a day of watering with a dripper system. No washing of cars or hard surfaces.

I'm fine without the washing of cars or hard surfaces, etc. The pond will do okay; I could probably fill it from shower water, but buckets for the garden/trees? That's going to be a tough one.

I have two wicking beds set up. I was going to set up a third, but it hasn't yet happened and I'm not sure when it will. (Also where it will, because space is semi-limited right now...)

Have spoken to the plumber about:

• Running the gutters to the water tank.
• Running a pump connected to a tap east and west of B1's wall.
• Having a first-flush system to clear out the gutters and the downpipe.

The main issue is cost. Well, and getting a quote back. He came by last Tuesday and we haven't heard yet. Then there's persuading my sister that we can afford it (technically, we can't: I'm not earning anything and she's earning just enough to cover the mortgage and the bills and we have nothing in savings anymore), then there's actually getting the work done...

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greywater plan

At this point, I'm aiming to supply as much of the water for the garden from the house greywater: kitchen, laundry, and bathroom.

Kitchen will be water from washing hands and vegies, rinsing out non-greasy things (such as coffee filters), and foods that were boiled to cook them (eggs, vegetables). Water from the kitchen will go out to the front bed to feed the plants growing in between the fruit trees.

Laundry will be the final rinse cycle of the washing machine. Water from the laundry will go out to the herb bed, the asparagus bed, the close vegies bed, and the bramblebed.

Bathroom will be the bucket baths my sister takes every night (even in winter), and whatever fills the giant bucket I'm standing in for my shower. Water from the bathroom will be pumped out the back to the garden beds there.

The method of delivery for the laundry and bathroom is going to be a small pump, the method of delivery from the kitchen will be gravity after pouring rinse buckets out the window.

I'm going to need assistance for this, because it's pretty long and complicated. But it needs to be done in the next week because otherwise we're looking at a garden without water which...not good. Very very not good...

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Friday:

So I have all the little fixtures for getting the pump working out the front door to the lounge room garden bed...

However I've decided that I need to replant the lychee and the avocado - planting them on a mound instead of in the ground - they've probably hit clay and that's why they're dying.

eta: just read up on lychees and they recommend not planting on a mound. So I'll leave it where it is (although it's probably too close to the house, it's a dwarf and I can keep it pruned). Also this video may be relevant. Although it's just reminded me that I need to make a cover/canopy for it, and I need to redo the cover/canopy on the avocado, which half-blew away in the wind last week...

The avocado in the lounge-room bed definitely needs mounding, though. This video (by an Australian, no less) details why. Helpful and informative and I just wish I'd known this before I planted all my avos!

The major thing standing in my way right now, though, is that I've developed the old 'tennis elbow' in my left arm (with a milder ache in the right arm) precisely at the time when I need to do lots of dexterous and strength-involved movement with my arms.

*sigh*

on the dangers of half-assing prevention

I am swimming in nectarines right now

This is the first day of actual picking of nectarines: the first day...

It's so much that I've started out by bottling, to get the biggest and nicest fruit bottled for later:

People on the gardening groups I'm in keep asking me how I keep fruit fly from my fruit. But when I tell them I net the entire tree, they keep on going back to smaller options.

Can't they put out traps?

Can't they net the individual branches?

Why does it have to be the entire tree? Isn't that a lot of money and effort?

Yes, yes it is. But it's more money and effort to throw out an entire harvest that you've spent 8 months of the year preparing for because the fruit fly got to it. It's the effort and money that you spent for those 8 months of the year, because you couldn't be bothered spending 2 hours setting up a frame for netting to go over the tree.

The first year I didn't net a thing. Everything went to fruit fly. I didn't get a single fruit.

The next year, I set traps - dozens of traps. That didn't work either - again, all fruit was riddled with larvae and inedible.

The next year I netted individual branches. That partially worked - I got about 40% of the harvest.

And then last year, I netted the entire tree.

100% harvest. Every fruit on that tree was edible. They weren't always pretty and some of them developed mould before I could get around to picking them, but they weren't riddled with fruit fly the way the previous harvests were.

This year, again, I've netted the tree, and it's been ~99% effective. The 1% is because the tree is now too large for the net I had for it last year and there's a small crack in the net. But if I spot the holes, I feed them to the chooks, and the chooks are making short work of them (and they love the fruit flesh).

So when I say to fully net your tree, I'm saying I tried all the other steps and found that only fully netting the tree worked. I tried nickle-and-diming it back in the beginning, but I had to go all-out to successfully get a crop from non-sprayed trees.

Maybe you could get a good crop just by hanging up traps, but I can guarantee you a good crop by fully netting the tree with fruit fly exclusion netting.

Is it pretty? No, it's not.

But is it effective? Absolutely.

Then and Now, the Five Year version

We've been in the house for five years. In that time, we went from a grassy backyard with a hills hoist and a shed to...

First garden photo:

I regret not taking one when we moved into the house, but pretty much as soon as we had possession, I started working on the garden... Then:

And Then: And Then: And Then: And Then: And Then: And Then: And Then: And Then: And Then: And Then: And Then: And Then: And Now:

To be honest, I wish I'd planned it better. It's been very organic, growing slowly: a little bit here and a little bit there. The plans have changed a lot over the years, I've had to rethink, reconfigure, rearrange. A lot of work has gone into it, and I probably could have made it so much easier for myself if I'd really planned it properly...

But I guess this is the principle of taking feedback and readjusting to circumstances, right?

various videos

Many videos for watching later

Self-watering raised bed construction

Wicking beds - Sustainable Gardening Australia Footprint Flicks

How to make a wicking bed container food garden for Randwick

Self-Watering wicking bed
verdict: pretty useful.

Wicking Pots

Wicking bed how to.. A self watering garden bed: close

Self-watering planter: relevant because this is probably close to what I want to do.

Hugelkulture Pots
(too long-winded)

Hugelculture: In A Pot! (nursery trick)

How to build and install underground watering system

DIY Underground Watering System

Annual Backyard Hugelkultur Maintenance & Planting Out The Beds
Pretty good, lots of tips and ideas --

Why Crop Rotation is a waste of time
Interesting argument.

the Johnson-Su compost bioreactor

Iteration One - February 2019

The first iteration of the Johnson-Su compost bioreactor was made in December 2018, during a permabee at my house

There were a few variations in the way we built this:

1. The wire was thinner than it was in the video - maybe 4-gauge, while the video wire was about 6-gauge or something?

2. The plastic was green and translucent rather than black, which may have made a difference to the bio-organisms that are supposed to be occupying the compost: they may not like the light, so the outside may end up not quite as well-processed as the inside.

3. The woodchips were actual woodchips, minimum 2.5cm (1 inch) and many were rather larger.

Otherwise we built the compost bioreactor according to the specifications in this video and left it be.

I don't think there was quite enough nitrogen materials for the bioreactor, because it didn't heat up at all. I had to add coffee and horseshit to the top of it and it's not really soaked all the way through. Next time, I'll spend a couple of weeks building up the nitrogenous materials: coffee, lawn clippings, horseshit, vege refuse from the local greengrocer...

Anyway, the compost didn't hot-decompose at the start, but so far as I can tell from turning it over, it's still decomposing fairly well with a regular application of runoff wash water (sometimes mixed with human urine). It's only been 3 months, though, so it's difficult to be sure - I think you're supposed to leave it for 5-6 months at least.

 

Iteration Two - July 2019

I'm writing this in October 2019, 2 months ago after I had another permabee, during which we took apart the Johnson-Su bioreactor.

There was some decomposed material, but not the entirety of the bioreactor as expected from the video. The compost was filled with undecomposed woodchips. This was disappointing to say the least.

So we sifted some of the composted matter out and rebuilt the bioreactor, chipping up the larger pieces of wood and branch the better to decompose.

It seems to be decomposing a little faster than last time; it's been two months and it has a fairly significant slump to it, which suggests it's processing. The 'lid' has blown off - we've had some strong winds in late winter and early spring, and when it rains (as it occasionally does here) the lid fills with water that then needs to be redirected either back into the compost or into the garden.

The wooden pallet beneath the biocomposter has collapsed. It held up for the first biocompost, and then through the making of the second, but it's given up the ghost, and the biocompost is leaning rather heavily. The plastic underneath the biocomposter is very necessary to keep the pallet from rotting since the materials are being regularly dampened.

Speaking of which, a bucket a day into the water reservoir over the biocomposter, seeping down through the tubing that I put there, seems to be working pretty well. It's a manual labour that's a little frustrating, but not terrible now that spring is in and it's not freezing cold outside in the mornings.

I have recently added some 'duck straw' - straw that has been used for keeping ducks - whole and unchopped, and now I'm regretting that, just a little. I should have run it over with the mower a few times and worked from there.

 

several thoughts

The first video didn't really specify the size of the woodchips - it just said 'woodchips' which I've since discovered means something else in the USA to what it means here in Australia (Wood Chip Gardening: What I Wish I Knew When I First Started). The second video by Johnson on filling the bioreactor specified the size - 3/4 inch (1.75cm) size - and noted that he pretty much chopped up the leaves using either a leaf mulcher or a lawnmower.

The size of the pieces in the biocomposter is going to make a big difference, I feel. As with any compost, when you're making it, you want things to be damp and chopped up into small pieces.

 

Going forward

At this point, I'm not sure that making it a third time would be terribly helpful: while the plastic is still okay to go, the wire is falling apart and probably best suited as a climbing frame for something light - beans or peas, perhaps. Also, the pallet underneath would need replacing. I guess it's a different kind of compost to the hot compost in the composting bays, or the stuff that I make in the black geobins.

Ultimately, the value of the biocompost is in the high volume of microbial-organisms that take up residence in the decomposing compost due to not being regularly turned the way a 'hot' compost would be turned. Also, not having to turn the compost - a big attractant given how many composts I have that require regular turning over!

 

I probably wouldn't want to make it more than once a year; let it sit for six months, gather up the materials for the other six months, breaking them down, then making the compost and letting it sit.

Hm. I'm also wondering if I could make the biocompost using a geobin structure for the framework.

Then And Now

8th June 2018L One year and one month later - 7th July 2019: It's fascinating how much more structure there is with the chook tunnels, the beds marked out, the bathtub gardens. And once I have the bed frames in, it'll be even more clearly marked out...

the summers die one by one - how soon they fly on and on!

Today, a friend and I made a garden bed frame using pallet wood.

It turned out to be a pretty intensive process, partly because we were working it out as we went along, but we started at 9am and finished around 5pm, with a morning tea break and lunch (about 90 minutes total). A lot of it was working out how to do what I wanted done with the tools that we had.

Firstly, there was cutting up the pallets. At one point early on, I nearly cut through the cord - ended up breaking through the plastic part but not actually exposing any of the electrical wire. lucky!

The pile of wood that we got from five pallets was pretty decent:

I got practise using the dropsaw:

Then there was measuring, nailing the 'palings' to the braces, and connecting the sides.

This is me using an angle-grinder to file off the tips of the nails. The nails I'd bought were a fraction too long, meaning they stuck out of the other side of the wood.

Squaring it up was an absolute nightmare, partly because of the corner posts I chose to use, partly because we were a bit lackadaisical with the measurements. But, after a lot of back and forth on how we were going to do this...success!

And the chook tractor fits nicely on top of it.

So, that's one - on the Crepe-Apricot bed.

I'd like at least two more - for the Apricot-Avo bed and the Avo-Shed beds. Ideally, I'd like four more - for the two beds previously mentioned, plus the Plum-Stone and Apple-Crepe beds, just so the backyard has a single aesthetic. Anyway, ith the Sydney Edible Garden Trail 2020 coming up, I need to start putting down my design on paper, so there's a better record of how the design has changed over the last five years.

But this is the last photo of the day:

On Monday I'll be planting out the bed, most likely with Jolly Roger corn and...pumpkin? Some kind of melon? More dried beans? I don't even know right now. Have to think about it some more.

things to do this spring

1. Fill the beds with so many green growing things that if necessary, I can chop-and-drop some of them when the heat hits.
2. Make frames for the chook stations. (YouTube vid: How to build a pallet bed)
3. Plant out the chook yard with a) one bed of Clucker Tucker, b) things along the fenceline, both inside and out
4. Paint the fence.

Spring Update 2019

It is the middle of spring, and everything is growing.

The asparagus are growing nearly as fast as I can eat them:

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The wicking bed out the side (North-facing) has started kicking in over the last month, with eggplants, onions, tomatoes, and peas. I've succession-planted some beans among the peas, and also a luffa plant - hopefully some of the other vine melon plants sprout and I'll put them in there to act as a shade screen over the heat of the summer.

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The Plum-Stone bed has been sitting pretty quiet through the winter - I planted a bunch of broad beans (which mostly have aphids), peas (didn't take very well), sprouting broccoli (mostly went to seed the instant it started warming up), and mustard (the only thing doing well and pest-less in the photo).

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The Apple-Crepe bed is a problem. I filled it with a soil that I got as part of a project, but it was extremly alkaline (ph of around 9, when what you want is about 6.5-7 for most vegies) and likely not all that great for growing things in.

That's radish in the shade, garlic in the middle of the bed, and carrots in the sun. What you can't see are the onions and leeks, or beetroots, and the parsnips never even materialised. (Parsnips are incredibly difficult to grow apparently: the seed needs to be fresh, and all the conditions need to be right.) This bed was planted back in May, maybe June. And it hasn't grown at all. That's how bad the soil is.

Also, I underfilled the bed with woodchips, thinking they would break down. I kind of doubt that they did, it's probably a mess under there. Anyway, I need to transplant the garlic (I might try to turn it into perennial garlic in the herb bed - just keep trimming the green tops and they grow more green tops - gives the taste of garlic even if it's not the bulb) and pull out all the failed vegies. Kind of heartbreaking though.

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This is the Crepe-Apricot bed which is going to hold sweet corn this season. It's mostly an 'in progress' pic to show what it looks like now. Hopefully in five months, it will look entirely entirely different!

Mind you, I planted about a dozen seeds here, straight into the ground, and exactly two of them have grown. I'm better off planting corn in seedling trays and then transplanting, I think. A much better strike rate.

That big green-and-purple thing on the right side of the photo is a...brassica that I planted in winter. I don't know what kind (I'm bad at labelling) but I thought it was a brussels sprout. I suspect it might be a purple sprouting broccoli but it's hard to tell. It's doing better than the other two which I planted under the Stone fruit tree which are...pretty much the same size that they were when I planted them. Maybe marginally bigger. :/

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The Apricot-Avocado bed had a compost heap on it for about six weeks over winter, before I transferred it to another compost heap and raked it out into the Apricot bed (which I'm trying to grow green manure/meadow flowers on).

Now it has...brassicas. Yes, 'brassicas'. World's Most Terrible Labeller, remember?

I guess we'll see if they head or not. Also: it being summer, it's probably going to get too hot for them really fast, so I'm trying to grow things in front of them to take up more sunlight for them as well as to grow things pretty closely so it's a melange of green and growing things that shade the ground and make the evaporation of any watering a little slower. The 'somethings' that I plant will probably be indeterminate tomatoes, because who doesn't love a billion tomatoes come autumn?

There are a couple of beans up the back of the bed; and I've tossed down a bunch of 'green manures' which are quick growing nitrogen fixers that will not only improve the nitrogen in the bed, but also provide some mulching bulk as the summer wears on.

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And the bed at the end of the line - the Avo-Shed bed - has more brassicas which are probably a mix of cabbages and sprouting broccoli, a tomatillo (or two, I hope, once the thing gets moving) in the front, and a row of beans along the back. Unfortunately, I managed to double-plant beans, because I planted a bunch and then forgot I'd planted them, and then planted another set, and both sets sprouted. *rolls eyes*

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Speaking of the chooks, they're spending most of their days out in the front run, are laying, and quite happy to get in yo' face.

Interestingly, there's a section of the chook run which abuts the neighbour's yard beyond the fenceline, and I've noticed the neighbours have started throwing some of their kitchen wastes into the chook pen. Which, they're from out rural way, used to be farm folk, so I understand, so I trust they're not trying to poison my chooks. I've had a bit of a chat to them about the chickens when they first moved in (because I was worried about the noise they might make) but they've been pretty good about the occasional noisy clucking that takes place when one of the chooks wants something and isn;t getting it. (Hainan chicken is particularly noisy when she's bored.)

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There's still the front yard to go. Maybe talk abotu that some other time...

Sydney Edible Garden Trail: my garden

I’ve signed up my garden to go in the Sydney Edible Garden Tour in March, and am starting to think about how I’m going to do this.

Anyway, I’m thinking about the more unique points of my garden and I think the key aspects are:

• a very small space to grow things in
• chooks in the garden
• fruit trees in the garden
• in-ground wicking beds (note: if they work over summer; these are not yet in place)

Focus Ideas for the Edible Garden Tour in March

• One Magic Square plots
• Chooks in the garden
• Gardening rotations
• Fruit trees in the garden
• Signs and videos for more information

Unique Points

• chooks in the garden
• fruit trees in the garden
• composting, worm farms
• neighbourhood
• in-ground wicking beds (milk-carton wicking)

Just thoughts at this point, although I've asked the group for the Sydney Edible Garden Trail group on FB for their thoughts.

in-ground wicking beds?

The in-ground wicking beds are an idea I’ve had for a while – a way to make wicking beds (with a water reservoir) that don’t require an above-ground bed. This is mostly because I’d already set up my garden beds with the chook run and to change them to significantly above ground isn’t practical at this point in time.

To be effective, wicking beds require:

• a container under the soil, easily refillable with water, not so easy for the soil to get into (the reservoir)
• a medium for transferring water to the soil (the wick)

A milk carton beneath the ground, stuffed with geotex then using strips of geotex/cotton fabric to wick water out, would be easily refillable, while still wicking water out to the soil instead of evaporating from the surface. Best of all, you don’t need to completely take apart and reinstall your garden bed, and you could install these in the ground.

It would probably need watering more frequently than your standard wicking bed, but should also be providing water to plants through the harsh heat of summer, only requiring filling every couple of days, and without losing water through evaporation.

Will need:

• 8x 2L plastic milk bottles
• the plastic rings from your milk
• geotextile, cut into 2” strips
• cotton fabric cut into 2” strips
• plastic straws(*)

(*) collect used straws for this, they’ll only get thrown out otherwise, and they make excellent visual markers for the location of your water wells

Process
(highly experimental, have not actually tried this yet)

1. Unscrew the lids off the milk bottles and put the lids (and the plastic rings that fix the lids) aside.
2. Cut the plastic milk bottles in half.
3. Dig a hole in the ground half again as deep as the bottom half of the milk bottle, and settle the milk bottle bottom firmly into the hole.
4. Backfill the hole around the milk bottle until the soil is about 1cm below the lip of the milk bottle.
5. Cut a rectangle of geotextile 50cm x 30cm. Fringe the geotextile along one side and roll it up.
6. Stuff the fringed geotextile into the bottom half of the plastic milk bottle with the fringe hanging out the top.
7. Cut a square of geotextile 15cm x 15cm, lay it over the milk bottle and then fit the top half of the milk bottle over the geotextile and the 'lip' of the bottom half of the milk bottle, so that the bottom half is sitting just inside the top half.
8. Backfill the hole around the top half of the milk bottle.
9. Put the milk bottle lid back on the top half of the milk bottle.

My original idea involved poking a straw through the geotex so there was some idea of where the reservoirs are when it comes time to water them. Just water over and around the straw and it would be fine! However, I am presently debating the practicality of this, the risk of soil getting into the reservoir, the difficulty in the water wells displacing the amount of soil needed for growing whatever it is that is being grown in the bed...

I may have to think about it more.

last winter tasks

I've sowed seeds and put them in mini greenhouses to grow; the tomatoes (planted in July) are going great guns, haven't seen much of the others yet but they were only planted a week ago so...not surprising.

I really need to set up the proper greenhouse along the back of the carport, but that probably won't happen until at least the end of the month.

Kumquat, Avo, and Lychee are planted. The rose has been trimmed back with the assistance of a neighbour (thanks Bev), and the chooks have been moved to the back yard again.

I grafted a couple of the apple scions on to the multi-apple up the back. We'll see how they do going forward.

There was an exceedingly brief spell of rain yesterday evening (as in, ten minutes, max) and then it was gone.

This week, after work, I'll remove the fencing around the fruit trees in the front, smooth out the ground, fertilise at the dripline, then water the trees and shift around the woodchips for best effect.

I wonder if I could collect water in wall-to-wall buckets in the shower. Could get interesting.

Water management is going to be a big thing going forward. So much of what goes down the drain is lightly soiled at worst - has just run over human skin or washed vegetables clean, and could easily be reused on the garden. Need to call a plumber and talk about how difficult it would be to switch things around. Even using bathroom sink water to fill the toilet cistern.

That's not even counting the water tank that we have. Need a pump. Need to connect it up. Need to work out where the water is going to go on the garden...

I wonder if I could recruit the neighbours for scraps and lawn clippings and chook scraps this summer?

ETA: It’s now a couple of weeks later, and things have shifted – sometimes incrementally, sometimes rather more than that.

All the stonefruit is flowering: peaches, nectarines, plums, apricots. The exception is the cherry, which hasn’t even broken leaves yet. I’m not sure what it’s waiting for.

The multi-stone plum is flowering quite nicely as usual

One of the peaches already has significant-sized fruit on it. I’m going to have to net it this weekend or it’ll end up fruit fly fodder. That’s pretty much the call for this weekend’s work – netting the fruit trees and finishing off the composts. As projects go, they’re pretty big ones.

This is the multi-stone apricot, with teeny tiny fruit:

I have two more bare-root apricot trees. They arrived on Tuesday. *hangdog look* I couldn’t help it! They were on sale! My finger slipped! (They’ll be going into large pots with water wells for moving around the garden.)

The apricot tree in flower. It has gummosis, which is why I’m not sure it’s going to last very long. But even if it didn’t, I don’t think there can be too many apricots ever.

The broad beans are flowering (going to have to work out how to deal with the inevitable aphids), and the mustard is going pretty well in that bed. Need to start using those leaves instead of letting the bugs eat them.

Nasturtiums everywhere, which I don’t actually mind, they make good groundcover. I need more groundcover and more border plants.

I wonder if I could co-opt church kids to help me build garden beds. (I made a joke of it last night at bible study and some of the parents were ‘you might actually get some interest there’.) Except, you know, safety and stuff. And circular saws and toes. *shudder*

So this weekend the list of potential things to do are:
net fruit trees
building compost
potting bare-root apricot trees
re-potting mango or chocolate pudding tree

Next week (after work), the list of things to do is:
plant out the cabbage-eggplant box
seedbox all the seedlings that are starting to go beserk
set up potato bags (dirt and potatoes in the bottom, add sifted compost on top)

how do you like them apples?

Quite a lot, actually!

On Saturday I went to the garden of one of the women at my Permaculture Gardening Group who was going to take us through Pruning, Air-Layering, and Grafting.

The part I was really interested in was the part where she offered scions of her apple trees. She has FOURTEEN kinds of apples in a suburban garden, most of them grafted on individuals trees. It was AMAZING and I came away quite inspired in several dimensions.

I did have about six apple types before I got a bunch of her scions. Four arrived already grafted on a single rootstock: Anna, Granny Smith, Golden Dorset, and a mystery apple (I lost the tag that indicated what type it was, but it might have been a Jonathan?). And two were individual trees from my mother: a Golden Delicious and a Gala.

I got about nine apple scions from her: Akane, Adre Sauvage, Blenheim Oragne, Tropic Sweet, Tropic Dorsett, Tropic Anna, Egremont Russelt, Kid's Orange Red, and Yates.

I have two more apples coming: a Pink Lady with a Braeburn grafted to it. The Braeburn is because my sister loves them, but they don't grow them commercially this far north because the climate doesn't support it - Braeburns are cold-weather trees.

So, yes, we should be covered for apples through the season. Assuming I can get a harvest from them.

And, more importantly, that I can successfully get the grafts to take...

Right now, I'm thinking of which ones I should graft together - cross-pollination requires multiple cultivars flowering around the same time.

Having looked up various apple types, I'm reasonably sure there are maybe 4 pollination groups:
P1: Anna & Golden Dorset
P2: Tropic Sweet, Tropic Dorsett, Tropic Anna, Egremenot Russet.
P3: Akane, Andre Sauvage, Blenheim Orange, Kidd's Orange Red, Yates, Granny Smith, and Golden Delicious, Pink Lady
P4: Gala & Braeburn.

The strikeouts are already on the one tree, along with the mystery apple, which is most likely in a similar pollination group. I could add to the existing multi-apple, I suppose but more than four is probably pushing it, and there are other rootstocks available.

So, probably a mix of P2, P3, and P4 on the Golden Delicious and the Gala and the Pink Lady:
Golden Delicious: Tropic Sweet, Tropic Anna, Blenheim Orange
Gala: Akane, Andre Sauvage, Tropic Dorsett, Yates,
Pink Lady: Braeburn, Gala, Egremont Russet, Kidd's Orange Red

I think some of it will very much depend on what takes. It could be a bit of a hit and miss.

The pruning unit was educational too. I've been pruning my apples like my stone fruit and...that's not the way to do it apparently... But the multi-apple has a few blossoms - at least one of the branches appears to be a tip-bearer rather than a spur-bearer, which might explain why I haven't really had any fruit from it at all! I've been pruning it back and probably pruned off all the fruit-bearing shoots! and then there's nothing left to enable cross-pollination...

Ah well, we garden and learn. I just wish I'd learned a bit earlier.

a bunch of apple-growing links

University of Mass: Spindle Pruning Apple Trees (video)

Fruit Grower’s News: Tall Spindle Design for apples - I’m still trying to find a proper/definitive description of spindle systems and how to prune trees into that shape.

Kimmel Orchard: Tuesdays With Tyler high density orchard plantings - there’s a whole series about orchard care in here.

How to prune apple trees in winter: summer for fruiting and growth, winter for vigour.

I’m also going to need to read up on apricots soon. I’d like one really good harvest out of the backyard apricot before it gives way to probable gummosis. *sadface*

climate change and them apples

An interesting read about backyard fruit by Australian gardener Jackie French: how not to grow backyard fruit. Basically, climate change is wrecking the way that gardens seasonally work – as proven by her garden in 2019. Still productive, just not as much as usual.

Mind you, she lives south of me, in the Araluen Valley which is southern NSW and inland a little, where the soil is LEGENDARY fertile and the winters are much sharper than up here in Sydney. The summers are also less humid, and possibly not as hot. So she does a lot more pears and apples than we can do up here, where a more mediterranean climate calls for citrus, and sub-tropicals.

Weirdly, the last season worked beautifully for all my early-flowering stone fruit in Sydney. If we get the same rains in late September and early October, then my nectarines and peaches crop should be pretty spectacular, even though I trimmed all those trees down quite significantly this autumn.

I definitely need to manure the three apples and the dual plum – this weekend, I think. Maybe the cherries, too? I think last season’s dearth of crop was due to wrong weather conditions rather than a lack of nutrients but I’m not entirely sure about that. Hm. Definitely potassium for the cherries and plum, then manure on top – although debating whether to run it through the chook pen first.

1. scrape back woodchips (maybe chip them more finely into a bucket)
2. apply potassium
3. apply manures
4. reapply woodchips

I wonder if the south-west corner of the property would do okay for the apple tree I’ll get in September. Ground is probably rock hard there, but maybe if I wet it down, then manured it, then mulched it, then woodchipped it... It probably still wouldn’t be ready by the time the apple turned up (mid september) but... The main problem would be whether the apple would then be too sheltered by the giant Illawarra Flame. It’ll be a Pink Lady with a Braeburn graft – the Braeburn is the one that we really want, and the issue of the Braeburn’s fruitfulness is primarily to do with chill hours...

I’m wondering if the ridge of green lawn that marched along the run of the sewerage pipe is because the old (probably clay) pipe held some residual moisture in the midst of a drought season that kept that line of grass verdant when the grasses around it faded. Also wondering just how difficult it would be to rig a greywater pipe from the kitchen sink out to the fruit tree garden. Because there’s so much rinsing-off water that just goes down the drain to the sewers and it could be used just as well to water the fruit trees through the dry spells...

Still need to speak with a plumber about the runoff from the roof. And possibly a roofer about the gutters and eaves.

Permabee: what happened next

It was a much smaller permabee than the one in December – only 7 people including me. Thankfully, Margaret of Moss House brought her partner Kris along to help and he provided plenty of muscle and practicality.

We moved the water tank, remade the compost bioreactor (chopping up the smaller pieces in the process), and planted out the front treefence.

I dithered a lot. Particularly in the planting of the treefence, but it’s done now. From the north, going south:

• seed avocado (already planted)
• kaffir lime
• elder tree
• macadamia
• lemon tree

Having discussed the removal of the jacaranda with my sister, we discovered that Margaret’s husband loves both climbing (with ropes and harnesses) and tree lopping. He’s willing to do it ‘just for fun’. That’s $1K saved! Now just have to deal with the council on the issue of the jacaranda.

I’m thinking we might do the food forest around the Flame Tree. The chiefest problem is that all the trees that we have left are evergreens: black sapote (chocolate pudding), kumquat, mango, lychee, etc. And they’ll block out the light under the tree in the middle of summer which is not the best outcome.

Perhaps the kumquat could go at the lounge corner of the house, while the lychee is at the lounge-porch corner, add the acerola cherry in as a low hedge/bush to shade the brick wall… That leaves the mango, banana circle, paw paws, pineapples, 1x avocado, and chocolate pudding tree for where the jacaranda presently is, once it’s been cut down. That should get sun all year around. Water may be a problem but isn’t it always? I can probably run a bucket greywater line out that way eventually.

The mulberry and 1x avocado at the gate corner would also work nicely: they won’t be blocking anything but each other, and the mulberry should provide the avo with some shade/protection, so long as I keep it trimmed down. Maybe?

Temporary plantings along front bed (one season)

• sunflowers
• marigolds
• poppies/poppy mixes (rake away mulch, bare a line of soil, moisten soil, sow seeds, moisten with soil)
• eggplant
• tomatoes
• broccoli

Plant (perennials, longer term)

• comfrey & borage
• lawn thyme (dig out around the water tap and plant the thyme)
• oregano
• rosemary bush
• lavendar
• parsley
• allium flower bulbs (not sure if annual or perennial)
• lemongrass
• rhubarb crowns (need to acquire first)
• vietnamese mint

Good planting days for August are listed here and I still have to think about what to companion plant with the apricot. I have asparagus which aren’t performing fantastically where they are – decent, but not amazing – but sometimes I feel like that’s the story of my garden…

Permabee plans (iteration 1)

Move water tank
a. prereq: chop down bush
b. prereq: set down frame to hold gravel (sleepers)
c. prereq: gravel into frame
d. buy: short metal stakes for framework, ~1m cube gravel

undo biocompost & remake
a. empty biocompost
b. reset frame
c. chip the chips to make them smaller
d. remake biocompost
e. get: coffee grounds, horse manures, grass clippings from neighbours, café wastes; mix it all in. (ask for: comfrey and other micronutrient plants)

plan(t) out front food forest/fence
a. macadamias and acerola cherry
b. elder | loquat | mulberry | black sapote | avocado
c. citruses (? bad time in winter – leave until Oct-Nov and plant down at the edges of flame tree once jacaranda is gone?)
d. underplanting with borage, vietnamese basil, comfrey, sprinkle with floral seeds in between

plan(t) out banana circle
a. not actually a circle, but certainly a grouping:
b. bananas, mango, pawpaw, black sapote, lychee, avocade
c. ginger, galangal, turmeric,

maps and plans

A layout for the garden before I had chickens:

And the garden on the weekend. Easier to see because it's winter and there are no leaves.

Useful to see, isn't it?

food forest links

Gallifey Permaculture: what works for them - AU

Permaculture Apprentice: Creating A Food Forest Step By Step Guide

My Smart Garden: Creating A Food Forest - AU

Shrub layer:
Tree Lucerne (Tagasaste)
Acacia Cognata (cousin It)
wormwood,
southernwood,
rosemary,
lavender,
hyssop,
lemon verbena,
citronella,
scented geraniums,
tansy and
other shrub sized daisies and
mountain marigold

ABC Fact Sheet: planning your foodforest

Food Forest

Right, so it might very well be time to panic now.

I have a LOT of trees. And not much space. And I feel like any design that I undertake will be half-assed at best.

I went through the trees and am wondering if I should plant the citrus (lemon, kaffir lime, kumquat) right up against the fence. Put the pomegranate in with the fig on the triangle garden.

Part of the problem is that I have so many trees that are listed as 'delicate' and 'don't like cold winds" which I'm thinking, right in the middle of winter, is a pretty tricky thing.

The current count:
3 citrus (lemon, k lime, kumquat)
1 acerola cherry
2 macadamia
1 pomegranate (to go with the fig, I think)
2 avocados (grafted)
1 avocado (from seed)
1 chocolate pudding tree (sapote?)
1 almond/peach (from seed)
1 elder tree

I have a loquat, but I'm thinking of not planting it anymore. There used to be a loquat at the corner of the next street, but they chopped it down and have planted a nice, sedate hedge, probably of lilly pillies. At least that's one thing that I won't have to plant around here. Besides, loquat are kind of monstrous, and I'd rather a lychee tree.

There's root systems to consider. How tall they're going to grow. Shade considerations. And nutrient requirements.

The almond/peach has a deep root system. The citrus, avos, and elder have shallow systems.

There's also the issue of there being a stormwater pipe that runs parallel to the street across our property. You can tell where it is because it leaks a little - the grass over that pipe grows more thickly - it was much more noticeable during the dry summer. I can't plant anything with deep roots close to that or they'll just take it over and then the council will have to come in and dig up the space. So, nope.

Citrus like a lot of feeding. So do Avos. Pomegranates and figs survive just about anywhere, but would probably produce best in hotter drier conditions. Acerola cherry likes acidic soil (like blueberries), and macadamias have developed in poor soil and dry conditions. (I'm thinking about on the council verge.)

3 citrus up against the fence
1 acerola cherry with bluebs underneath
2 macadamia on the council verge
1 pomegranate in the triangle orchard with the fic
2 avocados (grafted)
1 avocado (from seed)
1 chocolate pudding tree (sapote?)
1 almond/peach planted at the end of the row
1 elder tree

Also, I tink I need more shrubs and bushes. Chickpeas? I have pigeon pea seeds. Also some herbs that smell nice and attract bees. I have flower seeds - sweet peas and suchlike, but those are annuals. I want some perennials.

Summer to Autumn to Winter

In February the chooks were moved to the Crepe-Apricot bed. They've been there for four months, and I've been adding not only kitchen wastes, but also garden wastes, woodchips, fallen autumn leaves, and some bits and pieces of other things to the tractor, so they've had a good chance to break it all down. The plan is to move the chooks on in the next week or so - probably onto the Avo-Shed again - put a border on the Crepe-Apricot bed (bricks again) and then leave it to mulch for a couple of weeks before planting out.

Current chook tractor location is the Crepe-Apricot bed:

All that leaf litter I'll leave to sit for a few weeks more and then plant it out. Planting out" for this bed requires planting more seeds of broccoli, mini cabbages, caulis, silverbeet, and anything else I can persuade to grow in there.

Onions, carrots, and parsnips are being grown in very fine soil. Radishes and beetroot and garlic have also been sown in a raised garden bed I put over the chook tractor bed base. I forgot to take a picture of it, though, but the radishes and garlic have both sprouted, although the carrots and parsnips aren't showing yet. Hopefully hopefully...

The azolla is growing great guns, and has been excellent for feeding to the chooks, making compost, and keeping mosquitoes from breeding in the water.

At the height of summer:

And now (after several 'harvests' for composts and chook food) it's dying down in autumn (as azolla does):

The stuff grows back so fast I can't stop it. And I haven't had trouble with mosquitoes since the end of February.

ASPARAGUS!

I can't tell you how excited I am about the asparagus this year! I mean, it's long since been exhausted, and definitely needs further mulching, and pretty soon, too, I think - before we start getting frosts. Which we're hovering on the edge of right now.

Avo-Shed bed - has been growing tomatoes all summer, eggplants and sunflowers a little, and pumpkins/curcubits NOT AT ALL.

The chickens are going on that bed next, and will probably be there until August.

I managed to grow a whole slew of papaya seedlings:

Gave a bunch away, then a whole heap of them got waterlogged and about half died. I have maybe four or five left and I don't know how well they'll do. They'll be going into the banana circle...if I can get them to keep growing!

Speaking of the banana circle, there's a lot to go into and around it: bananas, turmeric, ginger, galangal, taro, mango, paw paw, pineapple, comfrey, lemongrass...

Don't even talk to me about the 'food forest'.

I also considered the best location for sweet peas and have decided that it would be best utilised beneath the front window, where we have been trying to grow raspberries (they burn in summer) and where the rosebush has been doing utterly splendidly. They should be fine there up until spring, at which point, they might burn some...

I really need to take to that rosebush with a chainsaw, because I don't see how else I'm going to get it properly cut back. Plus, I think the trunk has some kind of scale on it.

I do need somewhere in the back to put clumps of flowers - at this stage, the best option would appear to be in front of the apricot, or else running alongside the bathtub gardens. I wonder if I could get poppies to grow?

Flowers for Spring
Poppies, wildflowers, etc. in one of the square cement pots.
Tulips in the green pot on the front porch.
More bulbs the square cement pot by the back door.

So many thing to do; so little time...