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.

--

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.

--

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.

--

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.

CREPE-APRICOT

:

:

:3rd October 2022
MUSTARD greens growing, added two BUSH BEANS (cherokee wax),

5th October 2021:
ASIAN GREENS (BOK CHOI, CHINESE CABBAGE) - no crop from them, though, too many aphids

APRICOT-AVO

:

:

3rd October 2022:
CHOOKS moved off a few days ago, they weren't in there very often.
5 TOMATILLOS - just planted out.

5th October 2021:
CORN (glass gem), BEANS (blue lake), CUCUMBER (lebanese)
BEETROOT, BASIL
perennials: SORREL (red)

APPLE-CREPE

:

:

3rd October 2022:
CORN: country gentleman, CUCUMBER (from Jess), BUSH BEANS (wax cherokee)

5th October2021:
BROADBEANS, BEANS (bush, blue ribbon)
ZUCCHINI (golden), TOMATOES (black & red)
planned: ONION, ROCKET, EGGPLANT, CHIVES

PLUM-STONE bed

3rd Oct 2022:
6 SHALLOTS (planted roots) leading up to SORREL
red SORREL up back, green KALE on right, wasabi KALE on left
cherokee wax BUSH BEANS (2)
some SPINACH and LETTUCES coming up

15th August 2022:
bed is still mostly empty: red SORREL up back, green KALE on left, CAVOLO NERO on right.

10th July 2022:
KALE (green) (black), SILVERBEET - not sure that this actually sprouted

5th Oct 2021:
Perennials: CELERY (red), SORREL (red)
LETTUCE (oakleaf), LETTUCE (cos type), BROAD BEANS, SPINACH