chookyard

Three little chooks on lay are we!
Pert as a chooky well can be!
Filled to the brim with egg-ish glee-ee!
Three little chooks are on lay!

The western chookyard is a relatively new addition to our yard, suitable for newcomers and anyone who needs corraling. We got a netting up over the top which does pretty well at keeping them in and keeping the wee-burdies-going-cheep (a.k.a. The Indian Myna) from dive-bombing the girls.

The chook house there is the one that they all started in when they first arrived at our place: brand new and a little apprehensive at this New Place and these New Peoples. Hainan and Honey (RIP) arrived in it as part of a package deal - Rent-A-Chook. It's lasted pretty well, although the netting base has rusted through (so I pulled it off) and one of the base frames has finally rotted. I'll have to replace that at some point over the summer. But it's a great pen for keeping chooks in when they're sick or being picked on, and also for integrating new girls.

I've started growing plants along the back fence: problem is that the space doesn't get a lot of sun, either in summer or in winter. It would be a really great place to grow things that like wet and shady... The ones doing well in the back are: INDIAN BORAGE, BORAGE, COMFREY, NZ LILIES. I may not want the lilies in with the chooks: aren't the liliums poisonous or something? I did see someone say something about planting daffodils to keep back the grass, but I think that might be more useful elsewhere in the garden...

Otherwise, on the north side of the chookyard, I have various upturned wire baskets to allow things to grow and not be pecked to death or scratched up by the roots by the chooky girls. To that, (or just outside the wire fence) I should like to add: AMARANTH, SNAKE BEANS, and PIGEON PEAS to give some shade come midsummer (which is now upon us).

tree management

There are several fruit trees I think I need to dig out:

1. elderflower by the fence: keep in a large pot for all eternity to stop it from shooting all over the place

2. lychee tree in the front yard: not doing well in the ground, think it might need a pot and a better position

3. kumquat tree in the front yard: not doing well in the groudn, think it might need a pot and a better position

4. citrus tree by the gate: not doing well in the ground, dig it out and give it away

I also have another citrus tree up by the garage, in a tiny pot, that I don't actually need or want. I don't want to grow most standard citrus: I don't think I need to. Other people are doing excellent lemons and limes, all I need is one every now and then, maybe a bunch to freeze for the out-of-season citrus flavour.

Big pruning energy needed in the coming weeks. BIG PRUNING ENERGY. A lot of them are going to get pruned down massively, because I can't cope with such large trees right now, particularly in the backyard.

Also, organise better guilds for under the trees, seeing as this is a La Nina year and it's going to be a lot wetter and rainier than usual.

busy fortnight: fruit tree assessment

All the harvest processing, all the canning, all the mess and exhaustion and time taken...

And there's still some yet to go - although the main processing is the early nectarine and early peaches.

Overall in the fruit harvest:

1. Dual Stone (white peach and white nectarine): very heavy crop, lost about a third of it to mould and possums. That's usual. The nectarines are sweet as ever. The peaches are *meh*. Nectarines harvested in the first couple of weeks of Nov. Peaches harvested in last couple of weeks of Nov.

Such a delicious nectarine!

2. Two Stone (golden peach and white nectarine): lost most of the nectarine to mould. Still harvesting the golden peaches. Nectarines harvested in second week of Nov. Golden peaches harvested last week in November through to early Dec.

3. Quad stone in backyard: nectarines were ready in 2nd week Nov, but mostly lost to possums and mould. Apricots in 3rd week Nov - only two harvested. Plums ripening early December and a solid crop, no fruit fly. Donut peaches won't be for a number of months yet.
4. Cherry: 4 cherries, ripened in last weeks of Nov. *sigh*

5. Apricot: 2 apricots, still ripening in late Nov.

6. Dual Plum: about 5-6 plums, mostly on the mariposa side (probably), no sign of fruit fly.

7. Donut peach: not expected to ripen until later in the season.

8. Back avo: a couple of avos, lots of leaves. Trimming it down now.

9. Four apple: a few apples on the left branch, ripening. One or two apples on the right branch, ripening. Tried a few that fell down early - floury. They'll go into an apple-rhubarb crumble.

10. Hedge apples: harvested a couple from the early graft, but rather floury right now. Might not be ready yet? Or fell off because not ready? Otherwise, they're all small and growing.

11. Gala-Braeburn: Braeburn graft still growing pretty well, no sign of fruit fly or codling moth (would have to cut open an apple to find out)

12. Blueberries: doing okay by the fence, but haven't harvested any yet (must go look at them)

13. Mango: has a few fruit, not sure if they'll survive any longer than this

And yesterday I harvested a bunch of carrots - thinned out one of the beds to make space for others. It's a pretty good rainbow from this mix.

Regarding the fruit trees, I'm going to massively trim them down this year. Front and back, both. They're just getting out of hand so far as overproducing fruit is going. Also, I really rather wish that they were spread out across the summer better. My bad for not getting early and late varieties, accidental or no.

nectarine nation

As problems go, over-abundance is a good one to have.
Doesn't mean I much like having this issue!

To the chooken go the spoils:

And the best become preserves thanks to Fowlers' Vacola:

While the rest are dried into fruit bits:

Then I get to do it all over again with the peaches!

*sigh*

I am going to trim all the trees in my yard down quite significantly in the coming year, I think. They've gotten a little bit out of hand in the last couple of seasons. Some of the boughs of the nectarine graft were breaking, and the rain meant a lot of the crop went mouldy, particularly because they weren't being picked every day.

stone harvest: worst time to be away

I didn't think when I booked a holiday away from home. I just thought 'ooh, it'll be nice to get away for a bit'.

As a result I am away during the when my early nectarine and peach trees are turning from ripe to overripe, and I am not there to harvest them.

I've done what I can, trimmed down branches and gifted them to neighbours, picked everything that's ripe and put it in the fridge, and frozen the ones that seem unlikely to last for later making jam...

Still, it's an abundance...and I am absent from it. I've invited friends to come around and do some picking, but I'm not sure they will. The sisters have promised to keep an eye on things, but they're limited by energy and location. And in four days, a lot of fruit fly can find their way into the fruit and wreck the latter half of the crop...not to mention any other crops that happen to be around at the time...

Next time, no holidays in November!

permabee: chook enclosure

Had a permabee on the weekend to enclose the 2nd chook yard, partly to give some protection against bush turkeys and swooping birds.

Not only got the enclosure (roof) completed, but also trimmed the overhanging branches, shredded the branches, raked up the leaves, dug out the mugwort tree, dragged over the fig tree for replanting, sieved the existing compost, and made a new compost!

I love permabees; opportunity to meet, chat, get to know people, work in concert with others, learn, and get shit done!

Now need to find some other members who'd like to get shit done at their place...

summer planting planning

To plant on Friday-Saturday: ONIONS

I want ONIONS come next winter. But planting them now means planting them somewhere that I can be reasonably sure they'll last through the summer. Which means a wicking bed. Which means either the front lounge bed, or the large vegepod or the small vegepod.

Next leafy/fruity planting cycle: SILVERBEET and SPINCH (again) Probably in either the vegepod or the front lounge wicking bed.

I have several ROCKMELONS and some WATERMELONS that need planting out. I was thinking that I could perhaps dig out the soil in the metal frame bed of the triangle orchard, put down fresh chook poop and more new compost, then put the soil back over. The bluebird ollas I have in there should provide just enough moisture through the middle-of-the-summer heat, and I can mulch that bed pretty heavily. Then, at the end of summer, put some leafy greens in, before pulling the entire bed out come spring (perhaps).

IDK. I feel like my garden is miserable compared to the gardens I see on instagram and FB: I know - it's the way of things. They show only the best parts of their gardens, the successes, carefully curated. I have to remind myself that.

Yesterday, I did have a chat with a couple... my brain is saying 'Alison and Scott' and I hope that's correct because I didn't write it down in my neighbourhood book, dammit. Which has become increasingly necessary in order to keep track of who is who (I'm awful with names, but pretty good with faces). But, yes, a couple who've just moved into the next road up and were admiring my nectarine trees. They've got a few trees in their yard and they're just learning what they are now that spring is in. I hope they'll be back; I do need to chat with a few more people in the neighbourhood about gardens and growing things and neighbourhood movements... Gotta work out how to make contact.

Lockdown, Vaccinations, and Permaculture Thoughts

It's time to talk about vaccines.

Many people in permaculture have issues with the government, with corporate medicine, with pharmaceuticals. They feel that any mandates towards masking or vaccinations are railroading them, and they resist any and all control that any large-scale organisation brings to bear.

There's an element of rebellion in permaculture that is intrinsic to the worldview, which is, after all, a rejection of the capitalist economic system and the way it's seeped into our social values.

That said, there can certainly be a point at which rebellion becomes rebelling purely for the sake of rebelling. Basically, rebellion because that's what you do against corruption, and all governments and their works are corrupt. (Think: "I renounce the devil and all his works!")

I actually think this misses the mixed blessings of our society. That we are a society that does need to rely on big government in some things, on large-scale equalisers, because on the individual level a great many people are instinctively selfish. Me, mine, myself. I hold a balanced belief in both the ability of people to do great good, and the evils that lurk in our hearts. Finding a balance on these views is difficult, a delicate navigation, and I work to hold space for people of differing views. (I don't always succeed.)

The truth is that permaculture people are, well, people, with all the kindness and thoughtfulness, and issues and selfishness of the breed. Yes, there is certainly an encouragement to care for people and share fairly in permaculture, but these ideals can also be selfish when wrapped around with 'me, and those who think/act like me'.

On a practical level, the government is best situated to enact large-scale control and maintenance of situations which cannot be managed at the individual level in our modern society. Yes, there are individuals, family units, communities that have opted out of the capitalist economic system and that society, but the hard truth is that not everyone can do that. We have too many people alive and living in the world, many of them too specialised to their time and place and mentality to change on a dime. And in our modern world, many of us are alive and living the lives that we are because of the system that we exist in. We cannot "renounce the devil and all his works", because "the devil and all his works" are in us as well.

This is a hard truth to accept. Our mentality is so accustomed to painting ourselves as the hero, we don't always notice when we might become the villain - even if only in a scene or two. Such is the nature of humanity. One demon is another's angel.

Too deep, perhaps?

Let's s talk about the ethic of Fair Share.

The original framing of the ethic was surrounding the idea that our consumption should have finite limits. That we should - as far as is possible - endeavour to limit our consumption, such that the sharing of the earth and its finite resources is fair - or at least fairer.

On the surface: fairly sharing involves providing vaccines to our neighbouring countries who don't have the same wealth and opportunity to develop and manufacture vaccines as we do. But deeper and more relevant for the permaculturist, it involves being resolved and willing to take measures to ensure that we don't deplete future resources by our decisions today.

It's one of the reasons we have the principles catch and store energy (at the highest possible level) and use and value renewable resources . The memory phrase for produce no waste - "a stitch in time saves nine" - also builds in the concept of enabling better use of resources. If we can save time and energy and resources in prevention, isn't that far better than a cure?

A vaccine is prevention - as much as eating healthily is prevention, as much as a seatbelt is prevention, as much as hardhats on building sites are prevention, as much as designing a house for sustainability is prevention.

Originally, I was going to describe vaccination as 'the stitch in time that saves nine'. But I think that's an incorrect use of the paradigm.

Vaccines are not a cure-all or a fix, and nobody should be saying they are. However, in the overall scheme of our health, vaccination is one more brick in the wall of our defences against sickness, one more obstacle for the virus to get through, one more point on the scoresheet in favour of survival, of life, of opportunity and potential and second chances. They are one more layer in the 'swiss cheese layered defence' against the debilitating sickness that is COVID-19.

For an example of the Swiss Cheese Pandemic Defence, I recommend reading this article from the New York Times.

Vaccination is one more layer in the defence, alongside wearing masks in close quarters, avoiding close quarters where possible, not congregating in large groups, and keeping track of where you've been.

Acknowledging these as useful defences takes nothing away from permaculture ethics and principles, health and wellness, or our need to work at improving our resilience as individuals and as humanity. These things work together with vaccination to give us a better chance against the virus - individually, as people likely to get sick, and as a community, as a carrier and potential location for mutation of the virus into something more infectious and more deadly.

Using every defence we have against the virus is valuing diversity.

Taking the vaccine is also valuing the diversity of our population. Not just those who can grow their own food and afford to eat healthy, who have good immune systems, who can learn about lockdowns and testing and case numbers that are given in English (not even Auslan anymore), and have the transport to easily get to a vaccination hub, but those who can't.

The immunocompromised, the multi-generational ESL family, those with less money or living in a food, transport, or green spaces "desert", those from indigenous backgrounds who have far, far less historical reason and current experience to trust the government and medical experts - we don't see these people up here in the North side of Sydney that often, do we? They are people whose voices and experiences we often don't hear or see face to face, because they live and work and struggle a long way from the leafy suburbs and work-from-home and educated backgrounds that we experience up here.

But if they aren't our local community, they are still our community of Sydneysiders - of Australians.

And when one of them falls sick with COVID, it will put one more small weight onto the stretched health system.

What catching COVID-19 means is one more patient for the hospitals, one more pressure on our strained health system, one more person at risk of what is being called 'long COVID' - a long, debilitating recovery that has lasted for more than a year in some of the early afflicted. Once-healthy people now struggle to stay upright for a couple of hours a day; marathon runners now find themselves breathing heavily just to cross the street. They are likely to end up being unable to function at the capacity they once did, instead struggling along at life.

The vaccine is both one more layer of defence against catching the virus, and one more layer of defence against the debilitating results of getting the virus.

Now, catching COVID-19 is not a moral or ethical failing, and we should disdain to see it as such. But to be vaccinated in light of the consequences of catching COVID, is to act with the ethic of 'fair share' in mind. We are using an available resource in the now to take one step further away from something that will put undue burden on us, on our community, on our society in the future. We are "limiting" ourselves in the present so that we will not be burdening our society excessively in the future.

May I encourage us to make use of one more defence against COVID by getting vaccinated, and, in doing so, to value the diversity of our Australian community, the diversity of preventative measures against getting COVID, and to practice the ethic of Fair Share by reducing the likelihood of us having to take up valuable resources in the future?

have some flowers

I've always been about growing all the edible things! Succulents? Not really. Ornamentals? Pass. Flowers? Can I eat them? No? No.

It's only the last couple of years that I've started realising that I need to plant more bee-friendly plants, more meadow flower patches, more spaces for flowers of all types and kinds.

I mean, there's always been the roses in the lounge room bed (although they were much smaller when we moved in):

And nasturtiums in the orchard almost as long as there's been an orchard.

And in the last couple of years, I've planted an array of salvias, marigolds, lavender, and asian basil, as well as an elder bush. And the bees LOVE it.

There's always been freesias around in the lawn - they just spread and seed of their own accord. And I've planted tulips, daffodils, and jonquils, with varying success (but usually 'not much'):

I've repeatedly tried growing poppies - both the oriental and the california sort - anywhere and everywhere. Almost none of them took. In fact all the flowers that I planted intentionally never seemed to really take. (Salvias, Indian and Asian basil, and lavender don't count. They're the sort of plants that if you leave them alone they'll sit there forever, and then suddenly BOOM.) Even the sweet peas - which everyone said was super easy - didn't do very well for me.

Then this year, I decided I would try planting things in late autumn, let them sit through the winter, so that by the time spring and the rapidly warming seasons came around, they'd have their roots in.

Sweetpeas:

Asection of lawn under the frangipani tree where I spread a 'meadowflower mix' really thickly...

And right now, when the poppies are flowering...

So, yes, I can grow flowers. Sort of. In big tranches of planting. Sometimes. (I've planted a whole bunch of other flowers in clumps and often they haven't made it up. These ones were thickly planted on prepared soil and covered lightly with straw to keep the moisture in.) Other attempts at developing swathes of flowers will probably have to wait for next autumn, because I think it needs the winter to get their roots in without being burned to a crisp.

Welcome to Australia.

But just look at that last poppy. The colours! The powder blue pollen! The hot pink centre with green gills! The dark inner petallage that highlights the colours? So pretty! SO. PRETTY.

I haven't grown many flowers over the years, but I am loving this season.

slow sorting out spring

Trying to work out what to plant right now.

I've already done most of my planting, but there's some seeds that failed and others that could do with succession sowing. But this always brings up the question of how many and what.

Tomatoes? More tomatoes? How many more tomatoes? Corn? Glass Gem for the pretty (and popcorn and grinding), or sweet corn for the eating? Pumpkins? I really do need to work out my pumpkins: I want some for eating and some for storing, and zucchinis if I can actually grow them. It's touch and go some years. I'd love capsicums and cucumbers because we would eat them, and eggplant because I love cooking with eggplant. Melons? That would be the ideal, but I never do well with melons. It might just be that I've never grown them in rich enough soil and well-watered conditions. IDK.

Those are the annuals, the ones that get sown and planted out every year. I should probably plant more lettuce for when the current crop of lettuces & silverbeets & spinaches die off - I could stick them in the somewhat shady HEXABED, maybe? Except one of the reasons I was growing flowers and whatnot in the HEXABED is because of the high lead levels...

I also have to think of what to say about Use And Value Diversity, which is October's Permie Principle. Apart from sowing heirloom seeds, or having early-, mid-, and late- varieties where possible, or buying heritage breeds to mix with layer breeds so they'll hopefully last longer than a few years' cycle of chooks. IDK.

I stuck the chooks back on the CREPE-APRICOT bed after protecting the bush beans that were growing there, because I needed them to dig up and deal with the remainder of the brassicas. But after this, they're going to be stuck with the front yards, and that's about it. I'm still trying to grow some perennials along the edges of CHOOKYARD 2, because everything else gets scratched up something awful.

In the NORTH PICKET FENCE, a couple of 'Very Large' pumpkins have started growing from the seeds I dumped there. The sunflowers I planted out seem to be doing well, and the Elder tree is in bloom. Not sure if any of the Avos have pollinated, nor the mangoes. But the Asian basils and the salvias are coming back with a vengeance, and the lavenders are starting to reshoot after I hacked them apart in midwinter.

And the roses and the wildflower lawn are going off!

APRICOT

3rd October 2022:
APRICOT has espalier frame, will tie down the branches before going on holiday
RHUBARB is growing well
POTATOES are growing well (should be some good spuds in November and maybe for Christmas!)

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AVO-SHED

18th October:

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weekend gardening things

Plants seem to do heaps better with seaweed solution, chook manure, and banana peel water. Also dilute urine. Not terribly surprising, but definitely good news!

Need to make a weed tea sometime in the next few days. Now that we have the water tank connected up, there's rainwater and to spare.

I had a rhubarb that was doing okay-ish in the top of a 'strawberry pot' it was in. Pulled it out because I figured it wanted more space, put it under the apricot tree. It's going great guns! producing giant leaves with short, tangy stems. I made apple and rhubarb crumble last week and although the rhubarb stems were green, it was tasty tasty.

The strawberries with which I filled the strawberry pot are also going great guns. Possibly because I've been watering them with seaweed solution.

Asparagus is shooting okay. About a half-dozen spears a week. I have to cut them before they get too large; a bad habit of forgetting that we have them at all.

seedlings

COTTON: needs sunny with steady water options

EGGPLANT: a couple in the APPLE-CREPE bed, then some in the triangle temp bed

TOMATOES: in the Triangle Temp Bed

PUMPKIN (gramma): No idea where this one can go.

PUMPKIN (golden nugget): maybe grow it in CREPE-APRICOT, up the reo trellis and across to the crepe tree again?

composting

The state of the empty composting bay last week:

That's the contents of one neighbour's green bin.

I've been trying to get my neighbours to give me their grass clippings as soon as they're clipped. I can toss them in the chook pen, or make them into compost: the sooner the better, because it'll still be 'green'. It's been difficult training them to do so: they're so used to putting it in the bin and forgetting about it that they don't remember that there's any other way to do it.

Anyway, I've been collecting mulch all week from a local mulch pile, (like, 5 minutes drive) and made two trips on Tuesday morning, another on Wednesday morning, another on Friday morning, and one this morning. Between those trips, and assorted lawn clippings from the neighbours, I collected enough mulch to fill up a compost bay and cover most of my paths.

And with the addition of some seaweed brew and banana skin brew, some potash (wood ash), and fresh urine, the compost was off to a hot start!

Could probably do with another trip or two to get another compost happening, woodchips composts start fast but then slow down a lot, particularly if you don't add sufficient nitrogen sources to it. If I could get another batch or three of lawn clippings over the next fortnight, I'd wet the chips on top, hoik the lawn clippings over, and let it all compost down. The chips are slowest to decompose, so they're better under the lawn clippings, which decompose in a matter of weeks rather than years.

planting and preparing

The last week of gardening in pictures:

Sowing seedlings (in aquarium greenhouse and vegepod):

Peaches on the tree, growing and ripening, and giant-leafed rhubarb (although the stalks are very short)

Avocado flowers up high, and taro plant down low:

And Goongbao chicken is broody - she's the one with the black edges to her feathers. Shantung chicken is just doing her laying business.

vegepods, front yard spaces

CARPORT MINI-POD

Currently is empty. But I think that some leafy greens - SILVERBEET, SPINACH, LETTUCES would be a good option for here, with CORIANDER and BASIL in patches.
ETA: Planted out today, watered in, needs straw covering.

DRIVEWAY MINI-POD

Currently: LEEKS, ONIONS (red), a couple of SILVERBEETS, but a large space against the window that doesn't have anything.

Perhaps more SILVERBEET, and more ONIONS - go the SPRING ONION and the brown onions here.

DRIVEWAY VEGEPOD

Currently has SWEET PEAS, assorted BRASSICAS (aphid infested), some BEETROOT, SILVERBEET that's still producing, ROCKET (gone heavily to seed)

In the last twelve hours, I pulled BRASSICAS and harvested the ROCKET. I've now planted out CORN ('country gentlemen', is billed as sweet heirloom) for eating. Will have to water well, and keep well-fed, too.
ETA 3rd Oct: planted ZUCCHINI (golden), COTTON, PUMPKIN (gramma).

TRIANGLE BED

Currently: aphids. Lots of aphids. Or, at least, things in which aphids are happily growing (brassicas and radishes) they went outta control with spring.

Next: Things that don't attract aphids? Exactly what these might be, I don't know. Reading up, CHIVES, DILL, FENNEL, MARIGOLDS, CARAWAY, COSMOS, and SWEET ALYSSUM are good for ladybird and lacewing populations which feed on aphids.
ETA 3rd Oct: planted unknown CURCUBIT, COTTON (2)

POLYBOXES

Currently: GINGER, TURMERIC (blue/, yellow)

There are a couple of empty boxes to be filled with compost for growing. Something that doesn't mind it warm and dry...

PICKET FENCE (NORTH)

Currently: AVOCADO, KAFFIR LIME, ELDER, APRICOT, SALVIAS, LAVENDER, LEMONGRASS, ARROWROOT, SUGARCANE.

The trees aren't doing very well in this bed, but the perennials are going great guns. I think the ELDER needs to go - it's spreading everywhere.

I'd like to plant SUNFLOWERS along the picket fence, but also more SUGARCANE

FRONT WICKING

Currently: BRASSICAS, RADISHES, CARROTS, ONION, LEEKS, also aphids.

Plan: pull out the BRASSICAS, cut off the infested RADISH leaves, spray with cayenne dishdrops

PICKET FENCE (SOUTH)

Currently: ARTICHOKES, KIWIBERRY, BLUEBERRY (boxed), and PASSIONFRUIT, along with SWEET POTATO (white) ground cover.

Plan: make a little more space for growing. Maybe toss down some radishes in the coming months for quick growing. Want to clear the grass, too.

BANANA CIRCLE

Currently: BANANAS, maybe a PAW PAW, or PASSIONFRUIT if I can grow one.

BLACK SAPOTE might be best to go here, too.

CHOOK YARD

Currently: dirt wasteland, with some seedlings growing under upturned basket shelves

Planned: a deep-rooted perennials chook forest, with plants that will do okay with shaded summer sun and very little sun in winter
Fruit Salad Sage?
Indian Borage?
Yacon?
Mexican Marigold?
Daikon radishes?
Hawk Hill's advice on Chicken Coop Landscaping

This afternoon, planted: AVOCADO (unknown provenance), PERENNIAL BASIL, 3 BEETROOTS (mostly leaves), and SALVIA (red) as perennials.
Also planted SUNFLOWERS and CUCUMBERS ('Japanese' they were billed as last year, but they were quite prickly). Tomorrow I will enlist one of the twins to help me put a fence along that side so that the chooks can't scratch them up, and leave it all for about a month before letting the chooken through. By that time, I might have fixed a roof on it, and also repaired the triangle coop. (ahahahaha)

apricot-avo, avo-shed, bathtub, wicking

APRICOT-AVO

Currently CORN (glass gem), some BEETROOT, BASIL. Planted some BEANS (blue lake) with many of the corn.

AVO-SHED

Currently has CHOOKS on it, have to work out what's going here. Another Pasta/Pizza plot from OMS?

I am presently growing from seed: TOMATOES, EGGPLANTS, COTTON, ZUCCHINI, CUCUMBER, CAPSICUMS, CHILLIES.

I think I need to double-check the sunlight on that bed, particularly with the donut peach tree in the middle of the yard. I'm pretty sure the midsummer sun is sufficiently high, but just in case.

None of the melons or pumpkins will be growing in the backyard. Cucumber vines only. Big vines take up too much space and we've got plenty of space in the frontyard.

BATHTUB

Currently has CARROTS in baby size (none of the ONIONS planted at the same time took), and a couple of LETTUCES (forellenschluss). I have a couple of CABBAGES in there, but I'm thinking I might pull them out. All I get with brassicas is aphids, unless I thoroughly net them. May have to set up a brassicas frame and netting

WICKING

Currently has ALPINE STRAWBERRIES (perennial) along the 'back', a RADICCHIO, some PARSNIPS (baby, will take all summer to grow), GARLIC CHIVES. I planted...maybe some more spring ONIONS? Or sprouting GARLIC for cut-and-come-again.

apple-crepe, crepe-apricot, seed planting

Dumping thoughts:

APPLE-CREPE

Currently BROADBEANS and BEANS (bush, blue ribbon) along the back, mustard everywhere else

check pH of bed!

make a Pasta/Pizza plot from One Magic Square:
TOMATOES (marchand?) & BASIL (Fothergills)
RED ONIONS (lime bed, plant direct)
ROCKET (far side of bed)
EGGPLANT
CHILLI & CHIVES (white packet)
CAPSICUMS - one overwintered growing under the APPLE already, feed v lightly w/ manure tea & seaweed solution

CREPE-APRICOT

Currently ASIAN GREENS (BOK CHOI, CHINESE CABBAGE) - lowest leaves are sketchy, possibly slugs?

Crop Rotation Planning suggests CARROTS, BEETS, RADISHES, then adding fertility with manures. If I skipped the root round, I could maybe manure it up and do CORN? Hm. I don't have peas in any of the beds yet. Might go with SNOWPEAS.

Okay, we'll do SNOWPEAS. I'm pretty sure I have them. Will need to make trellises for them to climb up. Although I guess I already have the frame on the western side of the bed...

check pH of bed!

PLUM-STONE

Currently SPINACH, LETTUCES, SILVERBEET and some BROADBEANS.

Again, Crop Rotation Planning suggests CARROTS, BEETS, RADISHES. I have these mostly growing elsewhere. But the leafy greens will last quite a while here. Could put some more SILVERBEET down, though for through the summer and into autumn? Maybe lime it and plant ONIONS here mid-summer?

tidying up the garden: weekend report

Spring is in, which means everything is growing (or going to) and the crops need to be gotten into the soil.

I planted glass gem corn a couple of weeks back, during the fruits/leaf planting period. I planted them out on Saturday in a bighuge block (an entire garden bed). I also shook out a bunch of basil seeds, and planted some beetroot in the 'shallow' part of the bed (where I need access to step over to the brick).

Hopefully they'll be growing pretty decently by Christmas, at which point I can replace it with late summer tomatoes. Or more leafy greens for winter.

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On Friday evening, I got a call from Gardening Australia - one of the people who runs the 'storyboarding' process, looking at the kinds of stories they can run. She'd been given my name and number by someone who'd been featured on the show (and is something of a friend of the show) and wanted me to send pics/video of my garden and particularly the setup with the chooks. They were looking at a 'suburban chicken owner' segment, and wanted to see what kinds of options there were. So I ran the video around the (admittedly less than impressive) garden. It is spring, and the garden doesn't do much over winter (except house the chooks) so things are still in the slow-growing stage.

In the end, she opted to go with another idea for a segment - the secretary of our permaculture group, who's been doing amazing things with his house and yard in the last five years.

But it lit a fire in me to get the backyard looking a bit more decent than it does. More perennials, more chop-and-drop plantings (comfrey; more comfrey!), and garden beds that are made to last longer than a season so they don't look quite so miserable!

That's another project: make more garden bed/chook tractor frames. Use screws to put the panels in, rather than nails (screws will hold better), and paint/limewash the frames so they last longer than a single season! Also, the panels towards the 'back' of the bed frames down the side (apple-crepe, crepe-apricot, apricot-avo, avo-shed) need to be longer, to prop it up higher, because the ground slopes significantly down to the fence.

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On Sunday, my sisters helped me get the tarp to a higher elevation - a less saggy position - and as a result it looks way nicer!

Still need to paint the chook house properly, and add a roof of plastic/corrugated iron that actually does the job of keeping the rain out, rather than the weird green roof thing that is pretty much just slowly growing mould. I don't think I have anything to hand that will do the job, but there's a council clean-up coming and I can probably scavenge a couple of sheets of something. Polycarbonate would be best (nice and light) but we can do corrugated iron.

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I'm going to need to put netting over the trees: this is the last you'll see of the backyard without netting for some months. Unfortunately, the fruit flies are here and they're here to stay, and if I want any kind of a crop, netting is the only way to go.

I'll take a photo at lunch today.

Overall, I feel like I've gotten a handle on the backyard and how to grow things. It certainly helps to have five chooks adding fertility: it seems that almost all the trees are blooming really well this year - so that's hopeful.