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