not a diary entry: 2023

Feels like it's been ages since I typed up one of these. Probably because it has. It's easier to go through a list of things and think about them that way than to really contemplate what's going to happen and how to go about it.

2023 is going to be a busy year, starting with the window replacements - which are great, but I also need to work out how to seal the space under/behind the skirting boards of the house. See, there's a slight gap in most of them, and that's probably contributing to the heat loss in winter as well.

First things first, though: getting everything away from the windows, indoors and outdoors, tossing what needs to be tossed, and getting rid of what needs to be gotten rid of.

I need to work out categories for sorting things into, to store useful things together. eg. all pruning equiment, all stuff for fruit trees (fruit fly netting, stocking ties, etc.), hardware, chooks, etc.

Obviously, there'll be some overlap, but hopefully by having them collected together it'll be so much easier to find things!

Before I leave:
1. Fill a barrel with water, soak all the seed pots while I'm away to loosen the dirt.
2. Cut the porch rope into reasonable lengths coil, and store in the shed. (Exactly where? I don't know. Exactly how? I haven't the faintest idea!)
3. Toss out the stuff in the triangle sink on the porch, and put the quick-fix cement into the red bin.
4. Measure the space needed by the IBC and make space for it as needful. (Maybe swap the wooden shelving for the wire shelving at the back of the carport? MEASURE FIRST.) If there's space for it, wrestle the IBC over there.
5. Trim down the BRASSICAS in the FRONT LOUNGE bed.

When I get back, I'm going to hire someone to help me sort through things, because it's easier with someone else there to ask things of ("should I throw out this thing that I like to think I'll use but likely won't?") and someone to share the load.
6. pull out things from 'under the house', would be nice if I could work out storage racks or something there - making more space for things to be stored? Perhaps move the two/three green metal shelves under there? (The problem is getting things off the shelves and stored away while the shelves are being cleaned and moved...
7. I can't think of anything more right now, I'm tired. I'll make a list while I'm visiting K and J at Homeground 2023

Here, have a pic of B1 with a chook under her arm - the incredibly fluffy, broody, and beautiful Goong-bao:

Dear Diary: 28th December

OBSERVATIONS

Still have rats - have worked out how the buggers get into the feed stations for the chooks, am blocking them off. They still try during the day, though. Might need to reposition the rat baits (none of which apparently were touched from last time, which is not actually very encouraging).

It's crazy hot around here which makes ti difficult to do anything in the garden (or anywhere else, in fact): the weather has been steadily 30C since before Christmas and we're so very not used to it after two La Nina summers. I keep on going out and doing tasks at 10:30am in the morning when the heat of the day is the worst.

CHOOKS

We have two new girls - Quambys, presently nicknamed B1 and B2. They're coop-ready, but not laying yet. "Pullets" is the term. They're very cute and I am accustoming them to me, although I don't know how successful I will be. It takes a lot of patience, and the twins don't have any when approaching chickens.

I hand-feed them, and they're getting used to me coming and going, although they're not entirely sanguine about me standing up and doing things.

Need to move the tractor on to the AVO-SHED, but want the girls to do a proper scratch-through at some point. Might need to fill it with the pre-pecked grass clippings from the chook yard, along with a zine page or two of poop from the night coop.

PRUNING & PREPARING

It's a job right now, cutting down all the things that are seeding. I should probably have saved the mustards, but I just pretty much tossed them back into the chook tractor. I feel like I need to throw a few more things in there that are compostable, but the problem is that the rats will eat anything that's still vaguely edible, and the chooks are not exactly reliable about eating everything (or even processing them).

PLANTING

I need to start planting for late autumn/early winter things. I'm going to try brassicas again, but I'm going to plant them out by the time they're 10cm tall. (Actually, if I can keep the last few alive over the remainder of the summer, then I might be able to just plant those ones out!)

Today, though, I discovered a collection of seeds that's been sitting around since February! Dang. I could have planted these out! I might still try a couple of seeds each, and see if I can't coax something out of them before the end of the season. We should have gotten past the worst of the heatwaves.

I also accidentally dug up what I think are the DAHLIA tubers, and had to replant them. Hopefully they've survived today's heatwave (of course I had to dig them up in the heatwave), and the next few days should be slightly cooler. "Should".

Planted in PICKET FENCE BED: LOOFAH, MARIGOLDS (African, French), HONEY BEE AND POLLINATOR mix, Ladybird POPPY.
Plant out: BEANS, CAPSICUM, (EGGPLANT?) Pretty much anywhere.

RIPENING

Corn silks are happening, I'm collecting the pollen for fertilising the next couple of days, but there'll be a break over New Year when I won't be home.

HARVEST

RASPBERRIES - a handful every couple of days. Some of the branches with fruit have dried out, though, I think because they weren't sufficiently watered. Also: some of the canes aren't fruiting and I'm not sure why.

Unless you count the POPPY seeds from the HEXABED which I started collecting.

NOTES

WATERING SYSTEMS: hook up to the tanks, work out seals and pressure.

ASPARAGUS: 1. plant out second step bed with asparagus ferns. 2. Dig out female plants, leave only male ones.

dear diary - 6th Dec

OBSERVATIONS: The rodents have basically destroyed all the fruit in the backyard, and are working on the fruit trees. They haven't hit the avocados yet (so far as I can tell) and they may not be able to get to them on account of the avos hanging. Depends on how smart they are - whether they realise they can gnaw the things off and then eat them.

Got pest managers in to set traps and baits, and the rats have reduced around our lawn, but are still in and out of the chicken yard, and along the neighbour's fence. I think they have them under their house, too. Wondering if I should move the rat bait boxes into the chook yard...

In the front picket fence bed, the elderbush is shooting everywhere. So is the mugwort. The mugwort I still have a half-hope of digging out, but the elders put out roots all over the place. And when you dig up one, then another just keeps going! Not sure if mowing them will do the job. Am hiring a local company to do the lawn as often as needed - next one in the week before Christmas.

CHOOKS: Shantung has gone back for another implant - she had a swollen belly. Si-si has also been sitting down a fair bit; I found her just parked on the grass this morning. Might be a leg injury. I'll bring her water and some food later. A day or two later, she's recovered and seems to be in good spirits. But while Shantung is pretty spirited, she's not all that spry anymore and her abdomen still feels swollen even after they took out the fluids from it. Basically, there's another pathology going on, and the vet may not be able to do anything short of surgery. And I'm not really willing to pay for another surgery.

The chooks are being allowed to run pretty much across the front yard. They make whining noises when they're confined to the yard; there's not much there to eat or play in there, and they like nesting in the triangle bed under the citrus. It's low enough to give them cover, and thick enough that they don't feel exposed.

PRUNING & PREPARING: I put the chook tractor back on the Crepe-Apricot bed, but nothing much is happening in there - the girls don't seem to much like going in there right now. Might be the open-airness of it? Need to cover it with one of my new sacks.

I'm going to severely prune down all the backyard trees next year. Especially the Flavor Supreme plum, which doesn't produce anything at all. Or maybe I should do that now? Let them spring back over the summer/autumn, then maybe fruit in winter/spring next year? Need to think about that.

I've decided to cut down/dig out the front nectarine in the triangle garden, because it never produces edible nectarines - they go mouldy far too easily and don't grow to a decent size. If I cut it down, I could use the stump for grafting. But if I dig it out, I could put an apricot in its place. But I wonder if it's never done well because it's sharing the space with the golden peach... Also, if I could dig up the golden peach and reorient it so it's more upright, that would be excellent.

PLANTING: I'm not really in a planting mood, tbh. Should toss some stuff down - lettuces, radishes, beets, etc. Green mulches, etc. anything that will grow in the coming weeks/months. (Coriander? Needs/wants cooler weather.)

Put tiny baby potatoes in the SMALL VEGEPOD 2 (King Edwards). Trying to decide where to plant out the peanuts.

Planted out the various pumpkins into spaces where they have a chance to grow and spread (I hope), we'll see how they do! I should put something under the apple trees, but I'm still trying to kill off the grass weeds underneath, I think...

RIPENING: Peaches now, very rapidly. Lots of the potatoes in the triangle garden potato bed.

HARVEST: NECTARINES. I'm pretty much asking everyone to come by and get nectarines. Done with preserving - did that last year, still had crazy numbers, now mostly looking to give away fresh. Including making local connections if I can.

NOTES: Sydney Edible Garden Trail is next November - 4th and 5th. Before then, I would like to:
- change the chicken tunnels from the plastic wire to metal tunnels. Also make them a little wider than they were.
- change the Apricot-Avo bed to a seating space (not enough sun in summer) Maybe also consider the Avo-Shed, although that could be perennially leafy greens and maybe some green shallots which don't need all that much sun.

diary: 1st December

OBSERVATIONS: The rodents have basically destroyed all the fruit in the backyard, and are working on the fruit trees. They haven't hit the avocados yet (so far as I can tell) and they may not be able to get to them on account of the avos hanging. Depends on how smart they are - whether they realise they can gnaw the things off and then eat them. I'm getting pest managers in to set traps and baits. 

The elder is shooting everywhere. So is the mugwort. But mugwort I still have a half-hope of digging out, but the elders put out roots all over the place. And when you dig up one, then another just keeps going!

CHOOKS: Shantung has gone back for another implant - she had a swollen belly. Si-si has also been sitting down a fair bit; I found her just parked on the grass this morning. Might be a leg injury. I'll bring her water and some food later. 

PRUNING & PREPARING: I put the chook tractor back on the Crepe-Apricot bed, but nothing much is happening in there - the girls don't seem to much like going in there right now. Might be the open-airness of it.

I'm going to severely prune down all the backyard trees next year. Especially the Flavor Supreme plum, which doesn't produce anything at all. Or maybe I should do that now? Let them spring back over the summer/autumn, then maybe fruit in winter/spring next year?

Also going to cut down/dig out the front nectarine, either grafting other stone fruit on it, or else planting the spare apricot.

PLANTING: I'm not really in a planting mood, tbh. Should toss some stuff down - lettuces, radishes, beets, etc. Green mulches, etc. anything that will grow in the coming weeks/months. (Coriander?)

RIPENING:

HARVEST: NECTARINES. I'm pretty much asking everyone to come by and get nectarines. Done with preserving - did that last year, still had crazy numbers, now 

NOTES: Sydney Edible Garden Trail is next November - 4th and 5th. Before then, I would like to:
- change the chicken tunnels from the plastic wire to metal tunnels
- change the Apricot-Avo bed to a seating space (not enough sun in summer)

Dear Diary - 21st November

OBSERVATIONS

The grass is long and the lawn mower from the last couple of goes hasn't been by, although he said he'd be here on Monday, and then this weekend. I don't think he's going to turn up - I don't like our chances. I just wish people would say they're not going to instead of setting expectations and then failing them.

Contacting a local gardening guy, but might just farm this out to AirTasker.

CHOOKS

We ended up giving away 'Baby' - a.k.a. our unexpected windfall of a chicken who turned up on the street at B1's friend's place, and who was given into our care. We didn't end up finding her owners, but we couldn't keep her - she was too much of a free spirit to fit in with our flock (who have a routine down) and so we gave her to someone in Turramurra. She's got three chickens already, they get to free range a lot, and she'll be pretty happy.

PRUNING & PREPARING

I'm down to hand-picking out the seedy weeds where I can, but I think a session or two out on the front verge may be necessary. Not that I want the grass, mind you, but that's what I have to work with...

PLANTING

Nothing. Haven't planted anything new in the last few weeks, which is stupid; should have at least planted some lettuces, or the coriander in something that's able to be kept cool.

RIPENING

Nectarines and Peaches

HARVEST

POTATOES: King Edwards, some Nicola (long oval), some Dutch Cream (round), maybe some Bintje? (long and a bit knobbly).

RASPBERRIES: getting a handful every couple of days

NOTES

None of the backyard trees are producing this year, except for the AVOCADO. I think the end of this season is going to have to be some major pruning and rethinking. Year 3-4 was the good year, when things bloomed, blossomed, and produced. This year - the last few - have been tricksy. CHERRY isn't producing, APRICOTs aren't, PLUM barely is (only the Mariposa, the Flavor Supreme doesn't).

I could dig the backyard trees out, clover up the ground, and rebuild the chicken tunnels. That's the two year plan, I think, after the windows.

Sydney Edible Garden Trail is set for November next year, so there's going to be a fair bit of interest in the fruit trees, I thihnk.

dear diary: 31st October

OBSERVATIONS

Well, everything's gone kinda beserk. Warming weather and sufficient rain to set things off. Downside: a lot of the weedy grasses have started taking over in the front yard. This is not ideal, and I don't know how to deal with them - other than dedicated pulling out, or else poisoning. Don't want to do too much poisoning - prefer not to do any at all.

CHOOKS

We've gained a friendly little refugee - a mysterious and missing miss who was found on a street in Warrawee and hasn't been claimed. Guess she's going to end up part of our flock... Not sure if we should check her for any diseases or such.

Unfortunately, we have a lot of rats and mice right now, too. I'm contemplating one of the treadle feeders, but debating between those and the Dine-A-Chook ones that seem otherwise pretty good for keeping rats off and away...

PRUNING & PREPARING

Everything in the backyard. Probably will have to go to the chickens for best scrappage.

PLANTING

All the stuff I didn't get around to before I left.

TOMATOES need planting out.

CUCUMBERS

RIPENING

peaches and nekos are growing, as are the apples - some donut peaches, some plums...

HARVEST

Potatoes, purple-podded peas, artichokes, leeks, all the leafy greens, cruciferous brassicas (mostly the leaves, but possibly not even those: I think they got hit by the bug)...

NOTES

I have to start facing that I'm not going to be able to deal with the entire property. Everything's growing right now and it's more than a little bit crazy. It's also spread all over the property, which is a reasonable size, and the grass weeds are a big problem right now - not to mention the issue with things being warm and wet and therefore growing. I need to find another lawn guy.

dear diary: 8th October

Last garden post for a while. I'm going for a round-the-world trip on Sunday, won't be back until November! There's someone to look after the cats and the chooks on a day-to-day basis, but hopefully the rain will keep everything humming while I'm away...

OBSERVATIONS

During the week's crazy rain, the gutters started leaking again - downspouts were blocked with jacaranda leaves. During October (Sept school hols) need to climb up on the roof and clear the gutters, preferably when the weather is clear and not in the middle of crazy rain while home alone!

Grass is super damp in the ridge running parallel to the triangle orchard on the south side. Superdamp and squishy.

Definitely some 'soft spots' under the backyard woodchip. Going to need a refill when I get back.

CHOOKS

B1 took Coldie to the vet because she was concerned that Coldie was gaining weight and her comb was starting to grow and go floppy again. Apparently she's fine, but the implant that keeps Coldie from laying might have expired. It's only been 3 months, and they usually last 6-12 months so...she got another implant. Dear heavens but that chook is expensive.

The chooks now have a roof over the west end of their yard thanks to Mike of Let's Grow Shopping, so they can still go outside in the rain a little, rather than being stuck in the triangle coop.

PRUNING & PREPARING

Covered several beds with sugarcane mulch.

Got the trellis up for the BACKYARD APRICOT espalier, but the arms aren't tied down (yet).

Dug up the driveway vegepod weeds and then covered with damp paper and cardboard, and sugarcane mulch. See if it manages to cut down the weeds by the time I come back. (Wish I'd put down a layer of comfrey.)

PUMPKIN-POTATO bed:

PLANTING

QLD Sunrise, Rosewood, and Argentina Phoenix PUMPKINS in a black recycling box full of compost down by the picketfence bed. Literally tossed in clumps of seed, covered with sugarcane mulch we'll see what's up by the time I get back.

FLOWERING & RIPENING

The Berry Wall behind the washing line is flowering. Avocado is in full flower but not many avos are being pollinated (damn) - may need to consider a second avo tree for better cross-pollination.

HARVEST

Asparagus, various leafies. Broccoli leaves? Fennel! CRAAAAAP. So many things to eat and not enough time to eat them! Or even prep them. (Frankly, I'd love some of Margaret's delicately flavoured sauerkraut.)

NOTES

We're going with the uPVC double-glazed windows, sometime over the course of the summer. Going to have to start moving things away from the windows so the installation can take place. That's going to be fun getting organised/tidied for that.

Dear Diary - 3rd October

Trying to plant out everything that will need to be in the ground for the next three weeks while I'm away. While it's another La Nina year, and there'll be plenty of rain, I don't want to leave it to that, so pretty much everything is either going into self-watering pots, in the shallow rain-tray, or it'll be planted out.
At least that's the plan.

OBSERVATIONS

found what looks like some baby wandering trad in front of the chook coop - have found Wandering Trad before in the coop, pulled it out, binned it. I think that the chooks might have eaten seed and pooped it out, resulting in patches of tiny leaves (that give me creepy feelings). I dug up the patches I could find and am going to drown them in water for a long time. Downside: mosquito breeding, UGH.

CHOOKS

before I leave, they're spending every day in lounge-dining-kitchen stretch of yard, to trim down the grass; not sure how successful this will be since they like the young tips, not the older weedy stuff. Still, good for digging things up, it just takes them a while. May end up having to mow the grass in any case, but wanted them to give it a go first.

PRUNING

Pruned the FOUR-APPLE in the backyard: the two strongest grafts have been severely trimmed down to give the two weaker grafts a chance to catch on.

PREPARING

Netted NECTARINE branch of backyard FOUR-STONE, am not going to net the PLUMS at all.

Got the espalier frame up around the APRICOT, will tie the branches in the coming days. Will aim for a fan espalier with this one.

PLANTING

POTATOES: one in a poly planterbox.

Have a POTATO and a SWEET POTATO with some potential for growing but nowhere to put it. Maybe in the DINING VEGEPOD once the chooks have cleared it...

Although I should probably plant some more lettuces and silverbeet...

PLANTING OUT

SNAPDRAGONS went under the FOUR-STONE, along with the TREE LETTUCE, and three AFRICAN MARIGOLDS.

CROPSWAPPED NASTURTIUM (probably Empress of India or something) went out in the FRONT PICKET FENCE.

RIPENING & FLOWERING

Stone fruit under netting, all ripening.

Still no apricots this year, not a one. *sigh*

HARVEST

the WASABI LETTUCE and the KALE are both going great guns, so are SILVERBEET all over the garden, and the CORIANDER has gone to seed. I cut one of the SHALLOTS for a stir-fry and it was great.

PURPLE ASPARAGUS in planter box.

NOTES

I feel like noxious weeds have gotten out of control in the garden - the mugwort, the salvias, the wandering trad, even some of the comfrey is worrying me - and it's a bit distressing, tbh. Also, the backyard garden is lovely through 8 months of the year, but cold and miserable and non-productive in winter. Which it would still be if it was grass, but I wouldn't care except to mow it. *sigh*

Need to arrange windows - looking at a company that does uPVC double-glazing windows, but I would really like to see the quality of work before purchasing. And it's really annoying that the guy who does the metal-framed double-glazing hasn't contacted us back at all with a formal quote.

dear diary: 24th September

OBSERVATIONS

NASTURTIUMS are everywhere in the backyard.

FRONT PICKET BED is going beserk and in a bad way; probably going to need to poison the mugwort and the red salvia is seriously worrying me with its tendency to sprout from just about anything... But the little bulb garden I put together is now flowering ANEMONES after the JONQUILS and PAPERWHITE (also jonquils) have finished. There appear to be some DAHLIA crowns coming through, but the only thing from the meadow mix that seems to be sticking is the ALYSSUM.

GALA apple is flowering, so is BRAEBURN.

CHOOKS

Hainan had to be put down back around the middle of the month. The peritonitis wasn't getting any better in spite of the draining and antibiotics, and in the end it was better to end her suffering. She's buried under the peach-nectarine tree in the triangle garden.

Goong is broody again, and somewhat grumpy at being left out right now.

PRUNING & PREPARING

Planning to take off a giant chunk of the four-apple two very productive branches. They're not going to fruit this year - I think the rats ate all the buds. Give the other two grafts a chance to shine, maybe...

Planning to put the chooks into the dining room VEGEPOD at some point to clear it out. Don't know how well it will go; they like a bit of shelter - not too exposed. Could maybe put a few sacks or green shadecloth over it to give them some protection.

Planning to plant the snapdragons out in the PICKET FENCE BED.

PLANTING

Planted out the CORN (country gentleman) in APPLE-CREPE

Planted out the BUSH BEANS (cherokee wax) in the APPLE-CREPE, and CREPE-APRICOT, and PLUM-STONE

White BEANS (might be blue mountain), ebisu PUMPKIN, popping CORN, and maybe one EGGPLANT and one CAPSICUM coming up?

Blue CHILLI from Margaret by way of Cecelia.

RIPENING

ASPARAGUS: purple in the polybox, green in the ASPIE BED

MUSTARDS in the CREPE-APRICOT

MUSTARD in the VEGEPOD

SILVERBEET in the garage MINIPOD

RADISHES/LETTUCES in the dining MINIPOD

HARVEST

RHUBARB stems: both the green in the APRICOT bed and the red in polybox.

BRASSICAS in lounge room window, CABBAGE in pot on VEGEPOD, FENNEL in bathtub bed, CORIANDER in bathtub bed

NOTES

FRUIT TREES in triangle garden got netted (TWO-STONE and DUAL-STONE)

GOLDEN DORSETT graft has flowered and is fruiting; have started covering it over but not very thoroughly. Going to need to evaluate how that branch is managed.

Things need to be in the ground before I go away on holiday - all of October, pretty much; that, or they need to be in something that has a water reservoir...

NATIVE BEEHIVE: Opened it up with Sue, found the structure there but just no bees. Looks like the colony simply didn't manage to re-queen, and just died. Now I have to trim out all the mouldy/pollen/honeysacs in the hive and prep it for probably an October/November split.

house windows

Spoke to some asbestos removalists this morning: they'd take both the cladding and the asbestos off.

Got the quote for double-glazed windows with thermally broken frames.

It's interesting. I know that my version of 'affordable' is vastly different to most other people's versions. But I was expecting the windows would be more expensive than they are quoted as being. I do wonder what the price of uPVC windows would be though. But getting anyone to quote them will be an effort; everyone is crazy busy with building right now.

Also wondering: how can I retain the glass in my current windows for re-use (as, say, a greenhouse) instead of just having them tossed into the bin and taken to landfill? Is there anyone who would be willing to take them for other use?

I guess there goes the dream of installing a stained glass window in my street-facing floor-to-nearly-ceiling lounge room...

dear diary - 4th September

OBSERVATIONS

Rain with occcasional sunny spaces. La Nina is predicted for the summer, third time unlucky. Not sure we're going to make a fourth one in some areas of Australia.

CHOOKS

Hainan likely on her last legs. Drained of fluids last visit, seemed okay afterwards, but has slowed down in the last weeks. At this point, if things are failing and the only option is surgery, I'm going to cut the cord. Then it'll be a case of getting another two chickens. I'd like another Sussex (mille flora!) for the pretty, and maybe a Quamby. IDK. Or we might go another of the nicer heritage breeds - Australorp, perhaps?

PRUNING & PREPARING

Roughly (and badly) pruned the frangipani. Put the cuttings aside to dry and maybe be chipped.

Dug out the last of the lower compost bay and sieved it. Covered everything up so it wouldn't get too wet, and luckily did so just before the rain turned up. Need to refill several beds:
- lounge room bed
- back wicking bed
- assorted pots and the plants in them

PLANTING

No planting today. But should really plant a few more things for the Crop Swap on the 25th September...

Beans, tomatoes,

GROWING

Tomatoes in the heat aquarium have sprouted but only the seed leaves, no real leaves yet. They're a bit leggy too. Should probably move them into more sunny spaces...

Peas in Apple Espalier are coming along well and fruiting some.

HARVEST

None today, although peas are looking pretty ready, there aren't a lot of them.

dear diary - it is SPRING!

OBSERVATIONS

Warmer, more growing things. Peas have settled in nicely under the apple espalier, scented early bulbs are still going strong. Apparently the tulips need to be fridged for a while, but how we're going to find space for that in the fridge in future IDEK.

Mugwort everywhere. Poison, or try to pull out? Some of the stuff is buried too deep to dig out, and some of it is caught up in the roots of other things.

CHOOKS

Goong is off the broody, not laying yet. Siyao is still laying strong, an egg every couple of days.

Need to move their tractor to AVO-SHED.

I found a pollinated avo! Now if only we can get dozens more!

PRUNING & PREPARING

I started tying down the apple boughs to the apple espalier fence.

PLANTING

A lot of Silver Gentleman CORN, in punnets for Crop Swap (eventually).

CORN (silver gentleman), CUCUMBER (lebanese), ZUCCHINI (golden), BEANS (bush, cherokee wax), EGGPLANT (black beuaty)

RIPENING

Nothing.

HARVEST

Four snowpeas, which I promptly ate. If I'd gotten the espalier fence up earlier, I'd have had more snowpeas. But they might grow a bit more in the coming months.

NOTES

I dug up quite a bit of sweet potato from the front garden bed, but most of it has rotted because I didn't do anything with it. *sigh* Simply didn't have the energy. Ditto with the sugarcane. It's probably dried out by now and not much good. Pity. Would have been interesting to try to make home sugar.

fruit trees in the springtime: espalier, netting frames, and other small details

Did the espalier course with Brett at Limestone Permaculture. Great guy with great ideas and a fresh way of thinking about it and communicating his ideas. If you have the chance to do any of his courses, I recommend it very highly!

I came home, and a week later started fixing up the not-so-well-done espalier for the apple trees in the triangle orchard:

This is a less acute angle, although the background is not as good.

I need to cut the ties for tying the limbs to the wires and then tie the limbs down. The wires will also provide some support for the fruit.

The apples are presently underplanted with peas of various types (should have been planted earlier, they may not survive if things get summer-hot fast, or if we get too much rain - peas tend to go mouldy pretty fast around here), and there's a comfrey plant at the end. Other than that, I'm not sure if I'm going to grow anything more here. At some stage, I need to redo the watering system in the front. (No more underground watering systems, they all get forgotten and dug into later and it's not pretty!)

The one branch that's in flower and leaf is a grafted branch of an early apple - Golden Dorsett variety, and produces huuuuge sweet-and-crunchy apples by, oh, January? February? Actually, I think it keeps producing it all the way through to March. Or maybe that's just how long I leave it on the bough?

I've roughly started a frame for the APRICOT tree in the backyard, but doing things with the DUAL PLUM, the FOUR STONE, and the FOUR APPLE in the back is going to be tricky. I don't think I could (or should) do it with the AVOCADO, but getting a net over that sucker is going to be an effort and a half in coming years. It's already 2.5m tall (and covered in flowers, which will hopefully pollinate well)!

Dear Diary - 23rd August

OBSERVATIONS

16th August: Garlic planted in the round black pot with the bluebird olla has developed lots of teeny-tiny garlic shoots. They're very garlickiy shoots! Good for salads, etc, I think.

Generally: something in the front yard got chipped and a billion little shoots are sprouting from the wood. Looks almost like a mugwort, but hard to tell. I'm trying to pick them out but it's a bit tricky.

PLANTING on the 17th

PLUM-STONE: Onions (from Misty Ridge), Leeks, Radishes

CREPE-APRICOT: Peas (yakomo giant)

Watermelons in aquarium greenhouse

Shade Flowers in HEXABED

on the 22nd

Struck all the cuttings I took from Limestone in a bucket of sand-coir/pottingmix-vermiculite.
PEAR sensation
FIG st dominique
MULBERRY white shahtoot
PLUM sugarplum
APPLE jonny

Planted two WHITE SAPOTE seedlings (couldn't find an ICE CREAM BEAN one, alas) into small pots

SPROUTING

on the 23rd

23rd August: Tomatoes are starting to sprout in greenhouse. Peas are 15cm tall already (but no leaves) looking a bit spindly. Have taken the peas out of the greenhouse to harden off. A brief stint of colder weather for the next half week, then back up to warmer (10C) again.

PRUNING

I cut off the 'minor' branch for the APRICOT section of the FOUR STONE: it was dead in any case. The 'trunk' of the 'major' branch has shoots coming from it, though, so we'll let that grow through this year and then trim it down next year with an eye to espalier. The problem is exactly where to espalier it, since that FOUR-STONE is pretty crowded (and the chook tractor space doesn't allow for spreading in).

THOUGHTS

Use the small metal frame in the raspberrry bed to make a small bed between the two-stone and the persimmon. Put melons in there to grow separate from the pumpkins. (Or make a frame from the shed pieces.)

NOTES from ESPALIER WORKSHOP at Limestone:

The two apples in the front are definitely being espaliered (And learning how to do it was heaps helpful. That can be a project for the coming Sunday, perhaps?)

I'd like to espalier more trees in the backyard - the quad-apple, in particular, the apricot, the dual plum. It would be nice to sort out the donut peach, but I'm not hopeful.

Wondering: could I espalier using the tree itself as the upright frame? Tie the crosspiece to two vertical branches (particularly relevant for DUAL PLUM) and then train along those lines? I'd try to use the fence for the QUAD-APPLE, but the FOUR STONE presents a problem since it's very parallel to the fence, and there's very little space on the Apricot side.

15th August - dear diary

OBSERVATIONS

Bulbs are blooming - I picked some for the kitchen and now it smells like flowers.

Flower seeds in FRONT PICKET are sprouting, incl some SUNFLOWER and some NASTURTIUMS.

CHOOKS

Goong is still broody broody.
Someone is pooping yellow, which is not a good sign. Infection, maybe?
Otherwise, everyone seems chirpy and in good spirits.

BED PLANNING

PLUM-STONE: go for root crops - onions, beetroots, radishes - add lime under those sections
plus more lettuces, spinaches, Asian greens, etc. Later, perhaps a couple of tomatoes staked up

APPLE-CREPE: Corn (plant seed Oct)/cucumbers(plant seed Sep) up the back, and a melon in the front? Run the risk of overgrowth? (It's a corner; should be okay.) prep with rock dust

CREPE-APRICOT: climbing peas, edible corn, climbing beans prep with chook poop & worm castings

APRICOT-AVO: tomatoes, zucchini, bush beans prep with rock dust and worm castings

AVO-SHED: root crops, plus lettuces, spinaches, Asian greens... What if I just mixed up brassicas and sowed them straight in?

TRIANGLE VEGEBED: Tomatoes, eggplant, various brassicas.

ORCHARD GENERALLY: spring green manures, running beans

PICKET FENCE BED: running beans, flowers, ornamental corn

ASPARAGUS: needs compost & chook poop & worm castings mix

RASPBERRIES: needs compost & chook poop & worm castings mix

HEXABED: mustard is starting to take off, but I'm about to plant shade-loving flowers

PLANTING

NOTES

Am contemplating just mixing up brassica seeds and tossing them into one of the beds and seeing what grows over the season. Do it somewhere that can be easily covered over with netting. (possibly sections of the PICKET FENCE bed?)

Toss down some fenugreek/summer mulches in the ORCHARD, exclude chickens. Grow pumpkins out of the OLLA BED (potato/pumpkin setup), but trim down the green mulches just before the pumpkins go in...

Dear Diary, 13th August

OBSERVATIONS

Weather is warming, but La Nina spring has been declared again which means cool and wet. I'm not sure we're going to survive this summer; in spite of the dangers of El Nino we need some dryer weather - ideally, we'd get a hot summer that isn't an El Nino but I kind of doubt that's even possible anymore. We're going to swing between hot-and-dry and cool-and-wet seasons pretty much from hereon in. And it won't be pretty.

Still cold in the house; I need to call window people - Thermawood and the double-glazing people. And I should at the least seal up the gaps along the tops of the windowsills of my bedroom and the study. Maybe check B1's bedroom; she's also got mould growing on her ceiling and doesn't have the energy to fix it up.

Mustard is sprouting in the HEXABED.

Mustard is heavy leafing in the APPLE-CREPE.

The four-pome is not setting many fruit, while the GOLDEN DORSETT branch off the golden delish is all aflower.

CHOOKS

Goong is back to being broody, although she is occasionally laying. Siyao still laying. Shantung seems back to herself at this point.

PRUNING & PREPARING

PLANTING

SWEET PEAS along the PICKET FENCE, also SUNFLOWERS. I tossed the last of the MEADOWFLOWERS (Hampton's Court / Monet Mini) among the bulbs which are sprouting and even blooming - jonquils in yellow/oranged and white right now. I'm pretty sure that the ANEMONES are having a pretty good go of it. I did think I had some nice large daffodils, but nothing that's coming up seems to be of that type. Oh well.

On heat-tray in aquarium (which is badly-placed for sunlight): TOMATOES, PUMPKINS, PEAS, CHILLI (blue), BASIL, and ECHINACEA.

RIPENING

nothing

HARVEST

nothing (Oranges?)

NOTES

I'm fretting about the stuff that was harvested from the HEXABED and put into the compost, alas. The HEXABED space was registered with a high lead content, which was fine so long as I wasn't using it to grow food. Except I only just realised that we harvested all the Indian borage and put it in the compost heap where it'll break down. DAMN. Might have to dig that compost out now.

Dear Diary: 7th August

OBSERVATIONS

Sunny weather, mostly dry - some sprinkles, a day or two of rain, warmer days (7-20C)

Stone fruit is in full bloom, Golden Dorsett branch is in full blossom, two apples still growing (two had holes in them, I pulled them)

Acerola Cherry looks dry and possibly drying out.
Trees in pots look to be drying out. Need to put
Avo tree is still in blossom, not sure enough bees to do the job, also not sure that the flowers on their own are sufficient. Plenty of flowers, guess we'll see.

CHOOKS

Shan has an implant now; only Goong and Siyao will be laying going forward. Hainan has been a little quiet this week - B2 says she's not as energetic as before, even if she's not feeling swollen. Need to consider more chickens, also disposition of the old ones.

Still on the APRICOT-AVO.

PRUNING & PREPARING

Chipper hired for last weekend, ended up chipping mostly on Saturday afternoon - woodchips have been distributed around the garden, including backyard paths, some pruning of ACEROLA CHERRY, LYCHEE, KUMQUAT, and BLACK SAPOTE might be indicated to reduce the amount of branches/leaves to be supported.

Compost is slowly being sieved, need to be sure the use the chooks to pick out the grass seeds.

PLANTING

FRONT PICKET BED: wildflower seeds sowed around and about, also DAHLIAS (from Filipa O) and LILIES (from Seed Collective)

POTATO-PUMPKIN BED: more mustard seeds in the section the chooks have whittled down; covered the quarter with a proper wire box.

HEXABED: mustard seeds - but the chooks got in and may have raked it all about. Also: HEXABED shouldn't be used for food growing - high lead levels. A shady meadowflower space?

CREPE-APRICOT: 3 'Newspaper peas' from PDC planted - another 4 planted under the two apples in the TRIANGLE ORCHARD

Plans: Tomatoes, sweet corn, zucchini, cucumber - some in the APPLE-DUAL STONE bed in the TRIANGLE ORCHARD, some up the back for after the equinox.

GARLIC: 4 cloves of Spanish Roja in amidst the LOUNGE ROOM WICKING bed.

RIPENING & HARVEST

Oranges, still. (Leaving them on the tree until they pretty much fall off.)

Sweet potato from the front bed. Need to gather up and dry off, then clean and probably freeze for soup-making.

Fennel from bathtub bed. Maybe to go with a cabbage slaw? Otherwise...will need to look for a recipe! May need to look at swapping with someone...

Coriander from bathtub bed.

NOTES

dear diary: Monday 25th July

OBSERVATIONS

Bulb section of yard is sprouting.

CHOOKS

Coldie and Shantung went to the vet. Coldie is fine, all healthy, seems okay after her surgery and implant.

Shantung...they extracted about 600mL of fluid from her abdomen. There was definitely something happening there; exactly what, the vet still isn't sure. Apparently Shan still feels a bit 'lumpy' inside and so she's going back after her course of anti-inflammatories and painkillers is done. (which I forgot to give her tonight. DAMN.)

She was slow out the gate this morning, retreated into the laying box and stood there for a while. But by late morning she was out with the others, happily pecking away at the prawn heads. And she was roosting tonight, so that's good. But I'll have to medicate her in the morning again. UGH. I hate medicating chooks.

The fluid they extracted from her!

PRUNING & PREPARING

trimming down a lot of the trees, ready for Friday afternoon and the chipper...

NOTES

I feel like I don't have enough things for the composting on Saturday. I was planning to chip all my branches, but not going to manage that before the weekend.

1 barrowload of mown grass (2 days old)
1 chookyard of half-mulched compost
3 boxes of half-decomposed chips
3 boxes of fresh-mulched chips
1 box of paper shreddings
3 tubs of chicken poop
1 garden bed of indian borage
1 bucket of wood ash
1 packet of rock dust

dear diary

WEATHER

Actually sunshine! After a week of rain and rain and more rain, and everything going squelchy and squishy and ugh... So damn tired of the rain at this point.

CHOOKS

Chooks seem healthy. Bub-bubs (Goong) isn't going through the tunnels to roost at night. She's been finding alternative places to roost, and I'm not sure why. Tonight I found her refusing to go along the south-side tunnel, and in the end I had to carry her out and put her to bed.

Both Goong and Siyao are laying, with Shan occasionally producing an egg. Coldie and Hainan are just swanning around eating food and being layabouts. *sigh* But I don't have the discipline to kill them just because they stop laying. It's a problem.

PRUNING & PREPARING

I trimmed down several of the trees in the backyard. Going to plant some FENUGREEK in the CREPE-APRICOT as a green mulch (maybe radish, maybe mustard, too).

PLANTING

FENUGREEK.

RIPENING

ORANGES (still!)

HARVEST

ORANGES?

NOTES

Have the composting workshop this weekend.
1. worm farming
2. Composting + collecting bits and pieces for composting
3. Sheet composting using chooks
4. Black bin composting + pest management
5. making a compost
6. Weed teas

Need to:
set down woodchips across the paths
chip all the tree branches that have gathered up over the last few months
collect more leaf litter
collect more kitchen wastes
tear up newspapers/cardboard for composting
clear out the chook coop underside for nitrogen mass
pull apart the HEXABED

dear diary - 16th July

WEATHER: FROST.

That is all.

Okay, not quite all: I got the bulbs in, covered them with pea straw, and then it frosted last night. Was away all day so didn't get a look at the garden during the day to see how it managed with the frost, will look tomorrow.

dear diary - 15th July

WEATHER AND GROWING PHASE Full moon phase

Sunshine, a day of rain on Wednesday, but cool and dry. Frost predicted, so I want to get some bulbs into the ground.

CHOOKS

Laying, occasionally allowed out to generally peck around, but I think they're getting a bit bored. Need to grow some better spaces for them to hang out.

PRUNING & PREPARING

Dug up the picket fence bed nearest the driveway for bulbs.

PLANTING

Bulbs: ALL THE BULBS today. Will probably have to be lunchtime. They need to be planted otherwise. Full moon phase best to do this. Maybe I should add a moon phase to this diary entry. Might help?

NOTES

Contemplating signing up for the Limestone Winter Homestead Espaliered Orchard workshop - it's been moved to the 3rd August, which is a Wednesday and which I can make b/c I have that week off. However, I will have a healing back tattoo... Hm.

post-permabee thoughts

Things that weren't done:

• the chook yard roofed
• apple tree growing frame shored
• back hexagon garden cleared
• the northern wall cleared

Things to do now:

• plan the stripping of the house, asbestos removal, window replacement, insulation, wrapping, cladding
• plan the strengthening of the chicken run to something solid enough to set up sections as seating around the edges. (Future plans.)

The former bee bed needs rethinkng. The norhtern side is far too damp for the avocado, which was why it was slowly sinking. An alterantive would be to put something in there that doesn't mind exposure (west winds) and likes it warm (northern slab heating) and which also can take watering.

The area surrounding it needs thought as well: in part because the grass creeps in either way - the long runners that end up taking over the bed or sneaking in under it. When I made the compost for the bed, I didn't really dig up the grass and now I kind of regret that.

I could put in bulbs, but the grass would overrun those. Also, they make mowing the lawn edges tricky, because one doesn't wnat to whipper snip the bulbs, but one wants to get the grass. Probably the best option then, is to grow something that doesn't mind being cut down and which will bounce back.

TBH, ideally this would be comfrey edges. But I'd want them according to the layout of the Linda Woodrow chook dome (in the future, which is probably quite a way away right now).

Maybe the temp option is the bulbs and a meadow mix. Plant the bulbs now, staying back from the edging. Then plant alyssum and yarrow and other easily-mown plants along the edge, pulling back the grass wherever possible. Do marigolds repel grass, by any chance? Oh, there's the thick 'looks like violet' stuff that was growing thickly around the black sapote. That looks like it might do a decent job once transplanted: dig out a big chunk and lay it down?

Need to take a photo of that and ask people what they think it is.

Right, first half of this week is planting time for the bulbs. Also need to contact Steve-the-neighbour and ask if he's willing to help chop out chunks of the frangipani. May need to get the termite guy to look at this, too.

Dear Diary 10th July

Permabee yesterday: got most of the pruning and the digging-up-and-repotting done. YAY!

WEATHER

Saturday was sunshine. Today is pretty much on and off rain. Temps have been down to 3-4C and up to 18C during the day. We've had a few days of heavy rain, and this morning our locality hit the annual rainfall record this morning at 8:30am. That's how wet a year it is. It's our wettest year on record.

CHOOKS

The chooks have been through the northern side of the garden: the triangle orchard and the frangipani flower meadow. They got a brief full yard free-range this morning before it began raining. After that, I nudged them back to the

PRUNING & PREPARING

A video on Fig Pruning suggested cutting back the already-fruited wood each year, since that wood won't fruit again, and if the goal is to get fruit, then cutting it back each year will keep the tree manageable in size. Something to remember.

I need to dig out some of the chook yard, and lay the mulch around the fruit trees that we just transplanted to pots: LYCHEE, KUMQUAT, ACEROLA CHERRY.

PLANTING

PERPETUAL SPINACH all around the PLUM-STONE bed, some SILVERBEET in the PLUM-STONE to join the kale and cavolo nero.

LETTUCE between the rows of garlic in the CARPORT VEGEPOD: two rows of 'mixed lettuce', one of 'aggro woman' (or some such lettuce), one of the forellenschluss. Also, four SILVERBEET.

SILVERBEET in the lower step bed, a sprinkling of ROCKET on the left side.

RIPENING & GROWING

The potatoes from the Pumpkin&Potato patch are sprouting, the oats have straight green stalks, everything else is a little bit random.

TWO-STONE is flowering, DUAL STONE has been pruned down to reachable levels and requires a little more trimming and neatening to prepare for netting this year.

HARVEST

Picked the KUMQUATS before we moved the tree, need to remember to eat them!

NOTES

Now that the picket fence bed is cleared, I need to think about what's going to happen in that space, taking a moment to consider that it does need some visibility for cars coming and going, and that that area is very wet in rainy weather, and probably quite dry in drought.

ROMANESCO BROCCOLI planted back in May didn't make it. Probably not enough sun. Or too much? Or the soil was the wrong type? IDK. He didn't make it any larger and ended up dead.

Also, the only thing that survived in the LOWER STEP BED was the Valiant GARLIC. None of the Monaro made it, IDK why.

raspberries for L

Some weeding as a surprise 50th Birthday present for a friend.

I was roped in for the 'initial consult' to determine what had to be done: pretty much my suggestion was get the obvious weeds out of the way, trim down whatever needed to be trimmed down, and clear the raspberry bed.

The initial idea by the organiser was to actually plant things and pretty it up. I put the kibosh on that: best not to add difficulty to their maintenance or put in things that they don't want to the garden. She may have an aesthetic that we can't envision, so don't do anything that might complicate that.

But clearing the weeds thanks to the help of friends? Is definitely a plus. Even I struggle to clear weeds, etc. on my own. Having someone else willing to chip in, if only for an hour? So good.

I couldn't make the Saturday the others had planned (I had my own permabee that date), so I went on Thursday lunchtime and did some weeding of the raspberry bed.

There are raspberries in there, we swear! Anyway, I ended up taking on the raspberry bed, because the others barely realised it was a raspberry bed and didn't know what raspberry canes looked like, let alone how to prune them. I'm pretty sure L would trust me with her raspberries, though.

There was quite a bit of dead wood; I cut as much dead wood as I could, but I'm not 100% what type of raspberries they are - the kind that fruit on last year's wood or the kind that fruit on new wood. So I chopped them all down to about knee-height, and will have to charge Louise to notice where the green shoots grow come spring.

Unfortch, her neighbour spotted me while I was weeding the garden on Thursday lunchtime, and although I swear I mentioned that it was a surprise present in our little chat, she emailed L telling her what lovely friends she had who would weed her garden as a gift!

*sigh*

There went the surprise. Although apparently L is delighted with the gift now that she's found out, it would have been nice for the actual surprise and maybe have her husband or kids video her expression as she realised?

I do feel a bit left out of the Saturday bee, though. By the time my own stuff was finished at my place, they said they were cleaning up. And then fifteen minutes they took a photo of all them...without me. *sigh* I have serious FOMO.

Anyway: mischief managed, and I'm happy to talk to L about further planting plans. I have a couple of ideas for a rocky section that's really hard to weed and probably a bit of a pain to deal with, but I would run them by her and her hubs first. (They're the ones who'll have to look after it, after all!)

Dear Diary - 3rd July

First day in a while I felt good enough to go out and work in the garden...

WEATHER

88mm in the 24 hours to 7:30 this morning; I think they'll be worse off down south than us up north, but it's still a lot of rain. More due in the next 48 hours, plus significant winds.

CHOOKS

Still on the CREPE-APRICOT, Goong is laying in the leafmulch, Shan and Sisi in the laying box (which I've stabilised with a brick.)

Something has dug into the chook pen, probably won't find out until the pen gets fully dug out...and even that's questionable.

PRUNING & PREPARING

Trimmed off the pumpkin vines that were on the netting up to the northside gutter. I think that entire side needs a stronger pergola and something more permanent to grow across. (Vergola plans.)

PLANTING

I added two King Edwards POTATOES to the POTATO/PUMPKIN bed.
PEAS in newspaper pots to be grown up the APPLE espalier frame.

RIPENING

ORANGES, KUMQUATS.

HARVEST

RADISH from Dining room Vegepod. KUMQUATS.

NOTES

1. planted LILIES in cement planter by gas meter. Covered with chook run diggings
2. Covered TURMERIC with chook run diggings.
3. Covered POTATO (random) in APRICOT bed with chook run diggings.

...and then a friend I saw on Thursday contacted me about coming down with COVID over the weekend. She was RAT positive and her husband was RAT negative, but he's tested RAT positive in the last few hours, I think. I'm so far RAT negative, but this evening have a slightly sore throat. And I saw a whole bunch of people this weekend, too! ARGH.

raspberry pruning

CHILCOTIN raspberries:
- fruit on second year wood. Prune after fruiting, but only remove the canes that have already produced fruit.
- smaller autumn harvest appears on the tips of primocanes

AUTUMN BLISS:
- primocane variety, these canes are easy to maintain. Simply cut down the old canes in winter after you’ve finished harvesting to make way for the next year’s crop of fragrant berries
- prune to the ground after fruiting in late winter, ready to harvest berries again in autumn.

CHILIWACK:
- fruit on second year wood. Prune after fruiting, but only remove the canes that have already produced fruit.

gardening for a friend's 50th

A friend, L, is turning 50, and she's always admired my garden - she got really excited when Costa did a livestream of my garden a couple of years back, and she watches 'better homes and gardens' with her teenaged son (who's always seemed like a sweetheart).

A mutual friend from church suggested that as L's 50th Birthday Present, we could do some work in her garden: clear some of the viney tangled spaces, trim down some of the hedges. etc. The kind of thing that you need multiple people to work on so it doesn't seem endless and impossible. I volunteered to do some reconnaisance and work out what could (and should) be done (as well as what probably should not).

I did the recon with the assistance of her son, talking about the garden and what their family did so far as maintenance (mowed the lawn, really, that was it). I put together some notes and a plan, we arranged for the first weekend in July to do the majority of the work, while they're away, and to finish up in the second weekend in July. Unfortunately, we got a bucketload of rain this weekend. So that turned out to be a no-go. But we did have a group of us turn up so they could walk around, look at things, and get an idea of the plans for what could happen.

Nobody except me really gardens. They just maintain their suburban spaces as most people do. Lawns, hedging, some shrubs, etc. So we turn up and I'm talking about a patch that has a raspberry bush in it and how we have to weed the grass but leave the raspberry canes. And then we had the problem of them not recognising raspberry canes. I told them to let me trim the raspberry canes down and then anyone can pull up the grass/weeds. Sometimes, after decades of reading, observing, learning, it's hard to remember that most people don't have the body of knowledge that I do. (And some people learn it, but don't manage to keep the knowledge.)

So, there we all were in rain gear, while I explained what probably needed doing. In the end, we agreed that we'd get rid of the viney things, leave the shrubby/tree things, and probably bring along our own green waste bins to fill, because theirs is going to end up filled in a matter of hours. I mean, if I had everyone there at the same time in the same place, then I could have marshalled people to do things - but that unfortunately wasn't an option due to the rain. So people are going to come by and do what they can during the week, with a more concerted effort next weekend.

Except next weekend I have my own minibee happening at my place. ARGH.

We do think we discovered a tree - possibly the lemon tree that L's son vaguely recalls from childhood, although he thought it was more in the middle of the garden. There is no tree in the middle of the garden and there never has been...

I also have ideas about shrubbery along a southern fence - salvias, thai basil, mexican marigolds, maybe some lemongrass - but it will take a couple of seasons to actually grow everything into place (at least 2 years, probably - as long as it took my picket fence garden to really take off). Still, it'll look pretty, attract bees, etc.

(Speaking of bees: varroa mite is in the country. This is DIRE and terrible for our crops and for pollination of our crops. I had a native beehive the summer before last, but it died and the friend who split her bees for me initially had a partner who was in the last stages of cancer for the last 18 months and so she's been in no state to deal with the beehive and to check out if it was something like hive beetle, or what. I haven't dared to open it up myself. Maybe I should ask someone else with native bees about it? IDK. At this point, I imagine getting hold of native bees is going to be like winning the lottery; everyone with native bees will be holding tight to them.)

Anyway, I'll have to go around early this week to trim down the things that need trimming which my non-gardening friends are unlikely to recognise.

Also: do some reading up about whether the canes need to be cut back or just trimmed to a reasonable length to fruit. I don't know what kind of raspberry it is (I need to work out with my own raspberries what kinds they are as it is, and I already trimmed them yesterday - oops), but the raspberry will need a trimming if only so we can get down to the ground and pull the weeds.

EOFY + Minibee

Raspberries are fruiting - think it's an autumn one:

Sprayed front stone fruit with Lime Sulfate (last time was done was on the 2nd, also Lime Sulfate), budswell is about to happen. I'll try to spray with Copper Spray after 9th June which is when I've rescheduled the minibee, but will likely lose a few of the early flowers.

MINIBEE PLANS

• trim rosebush down to 50cm
• trim frangipani down
• trim bee bushes down to 50cm (salvias, thai basil, mexican marigold)
• trim fruit trees down to 2m
• dig out kumquat
• dig out lychee
• dig out acerola cherry
• dig out citrus
• move chip mulch to back paths

future thoughts

I'm thinking about selling the apartment I own in my SMSF in Melbourne and buying...a piece of land somewhere up in the north coast hinterlands.

Rent it out at a marginal fee to some people who want to practice permaculture. The object wouldn't be to make money so much as to have purchased something practical and pragmatic going forward, and to invest in community.

I'm not sure how viable this is. I'm fairly sure my financial advisor would advocate against it, but their concern is mostly the portability of capital, particularly looking towards a retirement age. I'm not convinced that we're going to actually hit a retirement state - not enough younger generation, for starters, and climate change for finishers. Maybe we'll still end up with a workable state, but I'm not counting on it. Better to have that money in some land and some people than sitting in a high-rise in Melbourne.

Question is: how much will it provide? Would selling it pay off the mortgage that I owe? Is there anyone capable of buying it still? And if I wait too long will there still be anyone around to buy it?

Not something that can go anywhere that people usually read; it's not very standard or expected. Not quite weird psycho crazycakes thinking, but pretty damn close.

dear diary - 27th June

WEATHER

Dry and sunny. Some small squalls of rain, but nothing significant. Occasional rain due in the next week, weather is chilly - temps from 4C-15C.

CHOOKS

Seeyao has been laying for a couple of weeks - every couple of days. Goongbao laid today in the leafmulch compost. Shantung laid one the other week, but a fragile shell and it broke.

Chooks are mostly in the eastern side of the north patch, being used as lawnmowers and bug pickers.

PRUNING & PREPARING

Still not pruned the stonefruit trees. Still haven't done the second spraying. Lime sulfate? Copper sulfate? Not quite budswell, need to get a move on - maybe later this afternoon to give it a day or two to dry?

PLANTING

Planted out Limestone GARLIC bulbs in CARPORT VEGIEPOD. They were sprouting quite well. I think I still have some GARLIC in the fridge though - needs to be planted out.

RIPENING

Oranges and Kumquats still.

HARVEST

Lettuces and radishes in DINING VEGEPOD ready.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

NOTES

dear diary - mid june

WEATHER

Worst of the cold snap seems to be past. Has been some frost on the ground, but otherwise sunny and dry. No rain for about 2-3 weeks. Some of the potted plants have been looking a bit dried out, so having to water them.

CHOOKS

Moved them to the northern stretch between house and driveway, they're making decent inroads on the grass and greens in a couple of days.

Backyard, they're on the CREPE-APRICOT bed, haven't been spending much time there because they've been in the triangle bed. They're stuck in there today (19th June), so hopefully they'll do some decent digging up and sratching away.

Cleared their coop, put the new poop in a bucket and covered it over. Transferred the older poop into another bucket, can't remember what I did with it...

PRUNING & PREPARING

Bee bed needs heavy pruning ready for spring. Fruit trees need a good prune back too. Was going to happen at the permabee but didn't happen because of cancellation. Finding out when next opportunity is and integrating it will be the tricky part.

Started making a leaf-mulch, need to collect more leaves. Perhaps from the house right down the end.

PLANTING

Did the potato-pumpkin bed a la limestone permaculture in the cheap metal bed in the middle of the triangle garden. Purple Congos, and some cream coloured potatoes that sprouted. The chook manure might not have been the most broken down, though.

Planted some of the indeterminate BRASSICAS in the LOUNGE ROOM WICKING bed (kept the EGGPLANT, too), haven't sown any mulch there. Probably should.

RIPENING

ORANGES, KUMQUATS

HARVEST

Oranges? Lettuces need to be eaten, they're crowding out the garlic on that side.

NOTES

Feeling despair about the state of the building economy, the increase in price of housing materials, and the difficulty of getting good workers. Had a chat with a building/housing project manager about our plans, looks like the whole deal will cost double what I thought/hoped if we do it all at once. Issue is that I don't know that we'll be able to do anymore if we don't do it all at once. I'm no longer convinced that we're headed for a crisis, I think we're headed for a collapse. And that's an entirely different set of concerns: some form of self-sufficiency is going to be necessary. I need to talk to Jess and Phil about their renos and what they could and couldn't do. Also need to look at the Undercover Architect 'get started guide' to have a general idea of the what can and can't be done, the things to be concerned about, and how to keep things from getting out of control.

Dear Diary - early June

WEATHER

Cold cold cold fricking freezing cold.

CHOOKS

Have been in triangle orchard, clearing the weeds and trimming the greens.

PRUNING & PREPARING

I sprayed my trees with Lime sulphur last week sometime. Can't remember which day it was - Thursday, maybe? So the 2nd. Which means it needs a re-do on the 9th.

DUAL STONE, PEACH & NECTARINE, APRICOT & APRICOT (in front picket fence and container), some CHERRY, OLD APRICOT,

PLANTING

SPINACH, LETTUCE, one KALE, one ???

RIPENING

ORANGES, KUMQUATS

HARVEST

ORANGES? LETTUCE from dining vegepod.

NOTES

Was going to have a permabee on the 11th, came down with a chest infection, had to cancel. Don't know when I'll be able to do it again. Have asked about times and dates, but we'll see.

Dear Diary - 3rd June

WEATHER

FRICKING FREEZING MR BIGGLESWORTH (5C-8C)

CHOOKS

Noticed some reluctance to roost: have Alphamite watered last night

In triangle orchard, have done a decent job of scratching things up, particularly on south side

No laying

Scraped off some of the chook poop to the floor, need to scrape the floor off and bin/box for fertilising

PRUNING & PREPARING

Cream-coloured potatoes to be planted in triangle bed with mustards/radish/turnips as green mulch - a la Limestone Pumpkins-to-Potatoes

Limestone Pumpkins-to-Potatoes
1. pull up pumpkin vines and leaves, put down over beds - chop and drop (early june)
2. cover vines with decomposed chook manures and leafmulch (early june)
3. seed potatoes laid in two rows, one either side of mound, on top of manure and leafmulch, then covered by hay mulch (early june)
4. loose hay mulch applied as cover (early june)
5. compost strips applied along centre of mound at depth of mulch, planted out with cover crops and green maure (early june)
6. Once cover crops/green manure mature, pull-and-drop while still young (late august?)
7. Mulch around young potato plants (late august), laying potato plants in towards middle (where pull-and-drop happened), can also scavenger.
8 Prepare for pumpkins/squash - fill dug out 'pods' with compost for seedlings (early sept)
9. Plant out pumpkin seedings in pods. (sept)
10. Pumpkins will start taking over (~Oct)

Video link here.

PLANTING

Those damn brassicas!

RIPENING

A handful of kumquats, a handful of oranges

HARVEST

Oranges, maybe?

NOTES

Permabee next weekend (11th June) will involve:
- trimming down fruit trees (dual stone, peach-neko, plum, donut peach)
- digging up some badly-placed trees (lemon, lychee, kumquat - multi-citrus? kaffir lime?) and putting into pots
- trimming down and pulling out perennial shrubs (salvias, thai basil, mexican tarragon, lavender) and putting into pots
- digging out compost bays and sieving the contents for use
- digging up and dividing rhizomes (arrowroot)
- chipping the trimmings and building into a compost pile.

suburban permaculture house

One thing has become painfully clear in the last couple of years: we need to sort out the house.

I've done temporary work on it, but it's not enough - the environment inside mimics the environment outside to within a couple of degrees, no matter the weather, and that's just not viable long-term. So, this means renovations. And soon.

I used to think we'd make it to at least 2050. Now, I'm not so sure we'll all make it to 2030. Climate extremes - floods and fire, drought and gale-force winds, power going out and down, gas becoming so expensive. War in Ukraine. Entrenchment of conservatism and a refusal to do anything to improve the general quality of life for the many rather than the moneyed few. Coronaviruses and other diseases. And, of course, the eternal racial bigotry that might someday see me lose my citizenship and personhood in Australia.

Things are getting expensive - have already gotten expensive. And they'll only get more so. So, now is the time.

How long it will take and how much it will cost are the big questions in my head. Also a consideration: the logistics of getting it done in as permaculturally as possible. Reusing old hardwoods, considering the lifespan of the things we're using in the build, and how much work we can do ourselves.

List to be done:

1. strip fibro, seal gaps, insulate walls, cover with weatherboard/colourbond
2. replace tile roof with colourbond
3. expand house and redo insides
4. replace wooden fold-out windows with sealable ones

There's a part of me that heavily regrets not thinking of all this when we first moved in; even having to borrow money, we'd have been a lot better off over the last eight years. But that's in the past, can't change the decisions made then. And now we know a whole lot more about passive houses, energy ratings, and good building, as well as having people who've already done it.

We're a little hampered by the fact that we'll probably have to move out for at least some of it. And stripping the asbestos is going to be a fair piece of work. I just have to confirm that my work is going to rehire me for the year, and we can maybe look at making a start.

Some links:
Greenyflat: a fibro rebuild down in Mittagong (2014)
Fibro Cottage Deep Energy Reno - the cottage behind the fibro rebuild

buckle in: this is a big one

Nick Ritar of Milkwood once mentioned something in a conversation. He and his partner had been living on David Holmgren's property Melliodora down in Victoria, and David confessed that, at the time that Nick and Kirsten moved in, he didn't have a 'succession plan' for the property.

We are, as individuals and as a society, very reluctant to talk about endings where there is no beginning elsewhere. And death is an ending with no assured beginning. Our personal beliefs may consign us to an afterlife or to rebirth or to oblivion, but nobody is sure. And so, we don't talk about Bruno...uh, about death at all in our society.

But all things die. We know that, as permaculturists. Sometimes they just grow old and find the end of their time. Sometimes they're cut down in the prime of life. Sometimes it's an illness that takes health away and life thereafter. Sometimes there's no reason that we can tell. (And sometimes we deliberately cull things, ending their life sooner, for the good of the whole garden; but that's not ideal when it comes to human beings.)

I've been thinking about death and succession myself lately.

Maybe it's the "doom and gloom" of the science: extreme weather conditions, climate warming, COVID recurrences and mutations, the polarisation of society through social media discourse, the growing gap between the 'haves' and 'have nots', and all the pushback by the people who just want things to go back to "normal".

"Normal" was a crust of thin ice over the cold and treacherous waters of existence, and climate warming means it's growing thinner. Those of us reading this started life off on a glacier we thought would be here forever.

Well, we were wrong.

Change is here.

Personal family changes are making me contemplate the future. My parents (all three of them) are old, stable and able to look after themselves still, preparing for the future, yes, but still, old. My sisters both have COVID this last week and the sister I live with isn't doing so well. It's not hospitalisation level yet, but her health has never been great. Thus far I've avoided it, and I hope to continue to do so.

Two brothers (one half-, one step-) have had children, and both seem intent on cultivating us as family. My dad's stepfam wants to immigrate from Vietnam to Australia as soon as his MIL dies; and my half-brother (via Dad) in HK is looking to come to Australia b/c things in HK are looking iffy.

I don't know how to tell them that things in Australia are looking iffy, too. That they're better off in the long-term buying a house with land in a community than going for an apartment like they have in HCMC and HK city. That our democracy might only last a decade more before it takes on the tinge of an authoritarian democracy (it'll take less time if the conservatives get in this weekend).

Right now, my sister and I are the only ones who own land in our family. And it's not much: One-sixth of an acre, but fertile and in a community of fractional acreage with houses that are decent if not well-built. There's space for gardens and for rethinking the way we live. But with everything going on right now, I'm not thinking about an exit plan so much as a succession plan: that is, what happens if things go downhill as badly as they're predicted to over the next thirty years of my life?

I've been wondering if we could persuade my father and/or my half-brother to move in here: a house rebuild and restructure would give us a little more space, and better use of the space (less waste with storage) would allow us to fit a couple of families in, particularly if they're accustomed to living in close quarters. It's unlikely - both dad's family and the half-bro's family are SE Asian city-dwellers; so that means apartments rather than land. Stepbro and his wife are likely more open to land ownership - she's from a semi-rural background with a medical degree, he's from suburbia like us. But the image they'd have in their head is of one house, one family, not the multigenerational thing they'd imagine. Also, if they had to, they'd probably prefer to move in with her family: they have the farm down south, after all.

Right now, if anything happens to me, then my significant assets are divided between my sisters. The stepbro and halfbro can take a memento or something, with the willingness of the sistren, but they don't get a share in 'the inheritance'.

Thinking about the end times requires thinking about 'after'. There's a story told in the bible about a rich man who put all his riches away and then thought he'd celebrate with what he had. And God tells him, "you're an idiot; tonight, you're going to die, and who will inherit all this?"

Life is always temporary - a little match flame that reaches the end of its fuel and burns out. So today I'm thinking about what happens to my land and my house after I die?

Dear Diary: 12th May

PLANTING

Finally planted out a Romanesco BROCCOLI in the LOWER STEP BED with arcs of GARLIC (Valiant and Monaro) and SILVERBEET surrounding it.

NOTES:

I'm having a real problem with grasses in the soil this season. Don't know if it's just that the rain brought them all out, but seriously, such an issue. Might have to put the chooks back on the PLUM-STONE.

FUTURE THOUGHTS:

A thought for the future: what if I let the backyard go back to lawn again. Keep the chook tunnels and the fruit trees with a circle of space around each fruit tree for the chooks to 'fertilise'. Solidify the tunnels with fence metal (also straighten them), and put a wooden seat on sections so one can sit and bask in the sunshine (also shade for the chooks, potential growing spaces for seedlings). The front yard would be the all-year-around growing area, with the backyard the contemplation space. The fruit trees have been good there, but not great, and probably won't ever be great. Trim them down? It's a thought...

dear diary: that went well, didn't it? - early May

I've been struggling to keep this up, to work in the garden, to not feel like I'm completely failing at permaculture and permaculture design.

The house is cold and draughty and I don't know how to fix it: that takes money and while I have some, I have to clear it with my sister. Also, light mould around the windows, need to wipe those down at some point. *sigh*

WEATHER

Sunny days this week, projected rainy ones next.

CHOOKS

Moved to the triangle orchard, happily digging away right now. Not sure if they're still experiencing mites; a bit worried about how they're all clustering together.

PRUNING & PREPARING

To be pruned: the salvia hedges along the front, even if it disturbs the bees. Start with one of the red ones.

I guess the chooks are preparing the soil around the orchard trees - I'll dump some straw and other things in there after they've had a couple of days of being moved around there...

CAPSICUMS: backyard set will need pruning down for winter

VEGEPOD: will need chickens on it to give it a good scratch-and-dig. Then some edge composting for the winter cropping.

PLANTING

GARLIC: Valiant and Monaro (in light seaweed solution)

GARLIC: Spanish Roja (in light seaweed solution)

PEAS: dwarf snow peas - sprouting

PEAS: bush sugar snap - sprouting

ONIONS: creamgold and north holland red -

CABBAGE: Red Queen (hybrid)

RIPENING

Pumpkins still ripening on the vine. Also LUFFAS of eating size. Possibly CAPSICUMS.

HARVEST

Pumpkins? Silverbeet in CARPORT VEGEPOD. Tomatoes in front orchard.

NOTES

Doing my sit plan and 'bubble design' for my PDC, I'm struggling with What I Should Have Done vs What I've Actually Done and how different they are. But it's too late to go back 8 years, do the renos that would insulate the house and make it better so...now we're just stuck with a lot of work and an impossible task? UGH.

dear diary - april with it's showers sweet

CHOOKS

dug out bits of their yard, they're not fully using the back.

PRUNING & PREPARING

DINING WINDOW VEGEPOD
Edge composted: comfrey, worm castings, pea straw, watered in with worm wee and seaweed brew

PLANTING

in DINING WINDOW VEGEPOD:

RIGHT SIDE
main crop: GARLIC Valiant
side crop: RADISHES confetti and watermelon, SPRING ONIONS

LEFT SIDE
main crop: GARLIC Monaro
side crops: LETTUCES italian mixed, mixed heirloom, CHIVES and SPRING ONION mix

NOTES

dear diary: 12th April

CHOOKS

Currently on the APPLE-CREPE bed, having been on the PLUM-STONE bed.

I really want to put the netting around the triangle bed and to leave them in there during the day, but it requires guarding from the local dogs.

The coop needs a second, follow-up spray. And now that we have a product called Alphamites, that might give the chooks individual protection against the mites. Which would be really really good...

PRUNING & PREPARING

Wondering if I should sever the peach and nectarine branches from the STONE tree (and maybe the smaller grafts from the APPLE). They're not really thriving or producing, and things have gotten out of hand. That's my fault for not bringing things along more evenly, but now that it is where it is, maybe it would be best to just end that part of it? And what I want from that tree are the apricots and the plums, not the donut peaches (I get those from the DONUT PEACH or NECTARINES (two trees already that produce those in significant numbers).

The downside of cutting down the two apples is that I don't have either of those types

If I do that, midwinter would be the best time, I think.

PLANNING and PLANTING

Still need to get the GARLIC and the BRASSICAS into the ground. This week would be best so it doesn't rot.

NB guild: Garlic, coriander, onion, leek, lettuce - although with Garlic as the main product, apparently it would be best to do

Guilds from Wollondilly shire: a little further south than here with cooler weather, but some good guild ideas:
Broccoli, chamomile, Dill, lEttuce, Lovage, mustard, Oregano, Parsley, Parsnip, Rhubarb, Rosemary, Sage, Silverbeet, Snow pea, Thyme
Carrot, chilves, katle, leek, lettuce, Marigold, Onion, pak choi, parsley, radishes, sage, silverbeet
Beetrooot, cabbage, cauli, chamomile,Dill, hyssop, lettuce, marigold, onion, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, spinach, snow peas, thyme
Beetroot, Broccoli, brussel sprouts,carrot, chamomile, dill, garlic, hyssop, kale, lettuce, onion, parsley, sage,
borage broad beans, carrots, calendula, dill, garlic, lettuce, marigolds, parsley, parsnip, rocket
amaranth, comfrey, mizuna, mustard greens

There's a mix of perennial and annual in there, which might work because I'd grow the perennial with an eye for the chooks to take it down the next time they're in the space.

Also need to look up planting guilds under fruit trees - specifically the AVOCADO and APRICOT and PLUM for the backyard. I know I had some flagged a while back, but finding them is the trick. maybe this post...

RIPENING

pumpkins, which might be golden nuggets if they go properly orange. Or might just be those round orange ones that look a bit like halloween pumpkins. Whatever they are, I hope they're tasty. Also, I've spotted a streaky butternut or two that have just been pollinated and are now growing. Whether they make it before the vine dies? Another matter entirely.

HARVEST

At least one ear of corn. Not sure what's going to happen to the rest of the corn stalks. I think most of the ears came out during the rain, which means they're not really going to produce anything, I think... And are a bit too hard to be baby corn.

NOTES

Sunny week, ending in a Friday holiday.

garlic: explicit planting plan 2022

1. PLant 1/2 Valiant, 1/2 Monaro Purple before 13th April
2. Plant 1/2 Valiant, 1/2 Monaro Purple during 18th-19th April
3. Plant 1/2 Spanish Roja on 25th-26th April
4. Plant 1/2 Spanish Roja in late May root planting time

Will want really well-draining beds b/c of the expected rain this season and risk of rotting. Except I already used the bathtub garden...

Using any of the wicking beds feels like a supremely bad idea, too.

I feel like the cheap metal frame I set up in the front garden bed might be a pretty good option. But I'd have to dig out all the soil, pull out the weeds, put some cardboard/black plastic down to reduce the weeds growing through, and fill it all back up again before I could do that.

Hm. I wonder if I could put soil in the medium-large black pots and stick a olla in it, fill up the olla if we ever reach a point where things start getting dry...

diary: I know we'll grow again some sunny day!

WEATHER

SUNNY! There is sun, there is breeze, things are drying out pretty well. It provided me with enough warmth and a break in the weather to do a number of garden tasks, and get involved enough that I lost track of time... Lunch will be a little later than I planned.

CHOOKS

Hainan, Shantung, and Goongbao keep getting into the neighbour's yard. I have no idea how, but I am trying to plug holes in the fencing.

PRUNING & PREPARING

I did edge composting on the BATHTUB and the BACKYARD WICKING beds. I videoed it, in landscape so it can be used to make a video on Edge Composting.
BATHTUB: Comfrey, gutter tailings, sifted compost, pea straw
BACK WICKING: comfrey, worm castings, pea straw, indian borage water

Pruned back a large proportion of the COSMOS in the front triangle bed; need to run the chooks through there this year.

PLANTING

Sowed BATHTUB out with CORIANDER, ONIONS (red spanish, white spanish), and SPINACH (viroflay).

Planted out BACK WICKING with a LANDCRESS (tiny). Future thought: probably more silverbeet/spinach.

RIPENING

Still the PUMPKINS (whatever type they are) all across the front yard. Tomatoes in the APPLES-DUALSTONE.

HARVEST

Several potatoes from the front bed (APPLES-DUALSTONE), rather knobbly, a couple were green but I cut the green parts off. A couple of new potatoes from the

NOTES

I dug up a couple of COMFREY plants, but have a feeling I didn't go deep enough to get the small roots, so I'm probably going to have to dig a bit deeper maybe. Or just live with comfrey popping up everywhere. As though it wasn't already.

There's a guy advertising for work hours on the local group, I'm thinking I might be able to use him to help with a) moving wood mulches, b) turning composts, c) sieving composts, d) chipping prunings... IDK.

diary: rain rain rain yet more rain

CHOOKS

I think there's a few mites who've come back. Once the weather clears sufficiently, I'll give the coop another spray, along with the triangle coop and the small shelter. I might leave the bottom tray off the chook roost since, according to Hannah from Goodlife Permaculture, the chooks don't need it - and her chooks are down in Tassie where they do get occasional snows.

But putting together a new coop is a priority, just as soon as I manage to gather the pieces, and the weather is decent enough to build the damn thing. Hopefully before next spring.

PRUNING & PREPARING

Trimmed down the picket fence bushes; they're going to need a whole lot more trimming. And maybe I'd be better off going at them with an articulated saw instead over the winter.

Going to need to make a decision about the passionfruit and where I should be encouraging it to grow. I have fencing, I just haven't set it up and I'm debating if I want to. If that's the place to be doing it.

Raspberries need tying up and fencing in. I should put a hook into that fence, suitable for binding up the canes, because they just end up crawling everywhere. Also, probably no autumn berries this year, dash it.

Was planning to do edge composting re: Limestone Permaculture around the bathtub garden. It just feels so bloody COLD right now!

SEED SAVING & PLANTING

I found a leek that has seeds, so that's seed saving. I used the leeks in a kedgeree - still have the green leaves, need to make a potato and leek soup. It'll use up some of the chicken stock in the freezer anyway.

I might end up planting my garlic in mid-April; now I have to work out where...

Otherwise, I haven't planted out my brassicas at all. I don't know where to put them since the beds I was planning for are all overgrown with pumpkin and melon and sweet potato vines. Need to plan that one better next time!

Garlic: planting guide at FB: I have Spanish Roja (Creole, possibly Rocambole), Rojo de Castro (Creole) Valiant (Turban), and Monaro Purple(Turban)

Glass Gem Corn seed saving: I saved a lot of seed and was originally planning to share it at the crop swap at Eden Gardens on the 3rd, but that's been cancelled. ARGH.

RIPENING

I have five pumpkins that have finally pollinated and are steadily growing. at least one appears to be a butternut, but the other three are likely sugar pumpkins. The pumpkins are always late in my garden, I don't know why. I'd really like an early pumpkin for storing.

I don't know about 'ripening' but the hops have flowered, but not very well.

The ginger is waterlogged and on the verge of rotting. I pulled out a piece yesterday, and it was sodden, but seems to be drying off quite nicely.

HARVEST

The taro plants have gone beserk. Seriously beserk. I'm probably going to have to cook some of it at some point. Trying to work out what I can make with it. Taro chips looks like a possibility.

NOTES

The Crop Swap that was planned for this weekend at Eden Gardens has been cancelled. ARGH. All the things I was hoping to swap are now defunct.

I had plans to pick up a wooden wardrobe for pumpkin and melon and potato storage but that's kind of fallen by the wayside due to no energy and no room.

late March

Life is kicking my ass again. As usual. I'm in the middle of the PDC with Limestone and it's really good. I'm not sure it's teaching me anything I didn't know, but it's reinforcing what I already did, and giving me the opportunity to see, think, reorient, and reassess my own permaculture methods and

CHOOKS

Seem a lot happier since the red mites problem was dealt with. Now I just have to clean out the underpart of their coop. And build them a new coop.

PRUNING & PREPARING

Pruned down the Dual Plum and 4-Apple, the Dual Plum needs a bit more work. And I need something to chip the damn branches with. Haven't quite gotten my chipper blades sorted out yet.

PLANTING

Haven't planted anything, although the PLUM-STONE is ready for it.

POLLINATION & RIPENING

Driveway pumpkins and melons are actually growing and flowering now, might get a couple of late ones. Need to remember to mark the pumpkin seeds as 'LATE' because it never takes off until late summer.

HARVEST

CORN - Country Gentleman type, I think.

NOTES

A Crop Swap on the first weekend in April, I believe. Eden Gardens. Could be good...
Lemongrass
comfrey
glass gem corn seeds
banana pups
turmeric (orange)
pineapple sage/mexican tarragon
mulberry