dear diary: 24th November

Initial posts were about the 15th November, ETAs and thereafter are as ofthe 23rd.

WEATHER: Warm and fairly dry, although we areapparently set for a week of rain beginning Sunday.

ETA: the week of rain keeps getting pushed back,but as of the 23rd, it looks like it's going to be cloudy with spotty rain fora while, and then major rain next week when I'm leaving Sydney.

CHOOKS: Mites in the coop. Not blood ones (yet),so far as I can tell, but definitely there. I've been giving the chooksAlphaMites water to keep them mite-free, but that doesn't mean that the mitesaren't surviving in the coop off rodents, etc. Wondering if I should spray thecoop again - last time I had to do that I think was 2021 and I kind of had to wait for a space between the rain when it was hot enough that the coop woulddry in a day. Also, I'm not a fan of spraying the coop. That time it wasnecessary - blood mites everywhere - but it was a last-ditchresort. Since then, I've mostly relied on the AlphaMites solution to make the chooks unpalateable to the mites, but I don't think that actually kills themites, just means the chooks don't get sucked on by them.

ETA: Alphamited the chooks for the next fewdays. One of sister's vet friends suggested double-sided stickytape on the ends of the roosts to catch any mites.

COMPOST: The last one got burrowed by rats. Theplastic surrounding the compost bays aren't tacked down at the bottom, so thecompost keeps pushing through (probably aided by the rats). I'll need to dig it out and redo it. As in dig all of it out, probably let the area dry off, thenaffix the plastic down properly. Ugh.

ETA: Have dug the compost out, now need to findtime to tack down the plastic (might require the addition of a wooden slatalong the bottom back face), and remake the compost for decomposing while I'maway. Hopefully without rats.

PREPARING: Watering system for MANGO at the veryleast. Also, netting the MANGO. Dug a worm trench for Turfan Depression Melons(cf. One Good Square gardening)

ETA: MANGO is netted. Have raked the jacarandaand flametree flowers around its base for decomposing, to add soil fertility.Might need to get some chook poop in there. And I think I'm going to bewatering around the mango for the next couple of days from the tank. Both touse up the tank water and to keep the mango going.

PLANTING: None of the melons are geminating.Only a couple of the pumpkins are. I don't know why - I've got them in a nicewarm space, lots of water. Did they rot? Did the rats get them? I even have agood space for them, with a trench full of worm castings ready to feed them! 

ETA: some of the melons have germinated (oneALLSWEET, a couple of WARPAINT), and some of the pumpkins (EBISU, MUSQUEE DEPROVENCE). Have planted the pumpkins in The Trench, and put the ALLSWEET in thevegepod (I feel like I should dig out a space for an olla in there), and there's more space for the WARPAINTs in The Trench, or I could put them in lastyear's 'winter tomato' bed. (Would need some serious feeding, though.)

Reading back on the 'Turfan Depression' idea in Lolo Houbein's bookOne Magic Square, she does a lot more than just wormcastings, but manures and compost and seaweed solution and weed teas. It'sserious stuff. 

Ah well. I won't be around to do all that feeding, but I can dowhat I can before I go away.

I sowed some ZUCCHINI through the APPLE-2STONE bed while I was atit (tricolour, under the APPLE ESPALIER), along with a bunch of legumes.However I don't know if they will actually take. I think it's doubtful - directplanting often doesn't go anywhere much for my garden.

PLANTING OUT: Still have RADISHES, BEETROOT andother vegies to plant out: the big question is probablywhere. At this point, I think it's just 'anywhere thatthere's space' .

HARVEST: last of the stone fruit - peaches andnectarines. Also MUSHROOMS. Got a couple of mushroom 'logs' from a friend in aswap. They were secondhand - already spawned at least once, but she said theymight have a bit of life in them. And once they were spent, you could just tossthem into the compost. Anyway, I did the watering thing, and they're producingquite nicely! 

Now, I gotta work out what to do with them while I'm away.

FEEDING: Pumpkins and melons and corn to be fed

PRUNING: All the fruit trees could do with agood hard prune before I go away. Cut down the branches - especially all thenew ones. But I probably won't manage the time.

OBSERVATIONS: MANGOes are growing but a bitwrinkly. Possums have been deterred from remaining gold PEACHes with a cage.

THOUGHTS:

Going to have to dig up the front bed at some point, mostly to getthe mugwort out. Damn stuff is everywhere and probably all linked up together.

TO DO:

1. Feed all melons, pumpkins, tomatoes, eggplant,corn
2. Take off chook tractor and plant out bed.
3. Plant out RADISHES, BEETS, etc.
4. Make a leaf-mulch (again, properly, in theblack compost frame)
5. Cut off the netting over the chicken coop
6. Trim down the sunflower.7. Plant the space for small native birds

SEGT 2023

Just opened on the Saturday again - I knew I couldn't do both, it would just hve been too much. As it was, just opening Saturday was pretty huge.

It's a big day, lots of visitors. Again, there was some rain, but it was spattery and scattered and most people were quite happy about it all.

I was more prepared for this one, having contacted my peeps six weeks in advance to get some people to do garden admin - write names, check tickets. So I also had company for the entire day - at least one person around for every hour of the trail that my garden was open.

The season worked out really well - the garden beds weren't as heavily filled as they could have been, but the fruit trees were in full flow. I gave away nectarines and peaches quite freely - it saved me having to eat or process them myself! And it was lovely to see people appreciate the difference between 'sweet' fruit and 'tasty' fruit. The fruit was more 'tasty' than 'sweet' but it was still sweet enough!

I set up the chooken tractor to display the chook tunnels. People really liked the tunnels, particularly the part where they realised the benefits in having the perimeter tunnels - the combination of maintaining the edges of the garden, along with giving the chickens a nice space to move through, and saving me the energy of having to move them through the garden myself.

Oh, and I did get the benches done before the SEGT!

And the one under the avo.

All in all, I think it was a very successful day for me. And then I went out on the Trail with my friend, K, who helped me put the original wooden garden beds together back in 2021.

Anyway, now the whole garden has to survive the summer. Okay, so it's just December that it has to manage, but things are going to get pretty hot, and the root growth during December is what's going to make the big difference on whether it holds on in January.

That'll be an interesting month since I'm going away.

One thing I did just after the SEGT is create a 'Turfan Depression' trench - dug a trench in the bed between the ESPALIER APPLES and the DUAL STONE, and filled it with the worm castings and half-composted bits from one of the wormfarm boxes. The plan is to get some melon/pumpkin seeds in there and let 'em rip. That's supposed to be how it's done in the arid lands where melons were first grown; I just have to get some of the damn seeds to actually sprout! SO DAMN DIFFICULT.

Anyway, the next couple of weeks are getting the garden into 'survive the summer' mode. I'll be gone all of December and about a third of January, and B1 isn't going to have the energy or inclination to do more than feed and water the chooks, so the rest of the garden's survival will be up to a teensy bit of watering and a lot of prep.

We'll see how it goes!

various thoughts - fruit trees

Chill units (number of hours below 7C): Thornleigh's average winter temp is 11.9 (17.5 + 6.3, divided by 2) which puts it in the 600-800 chill units according to Heritage Fruit Trees, although apparently one can extend the chill units simply by keeping trees out of the sun for longer.

I'm sure I've already posted these thoughts somewhere...

APPLES:

Tropic Dorsett: v low chill, flowers in late August, fruit set by mid September, will need its own netting, harvest late December early Jan

Golden Delicious: harvest mid-January

Gala: late Sep-early Oct '22 flowering, harvest mid-January

Braeburn: (winter harvest, late), flowering late Sep-Oct '22 flowering, harvest mid-January

Anna: flowering Aug-Sep

Dorsett: flowering Aug-Sep

Granny Smith: never flowered, (winter harvest, late)

Akane: never flowered

APRICOTS: Reader's Digest and Forty South

Tilton : early Feb harvest, 600 chill hours (low), but it's sitting in sun from pretty early in the morning.

Paterson : Jan harvest, 600 chill hours (low),

Unknown (backyard): most likely a low-chill apricot, it gets marginal sun through winter.

I'm wondering if I should maybe get plumcots, which are supposed to be like apricots but hardier?

AVOCADOES:

Sheppard: type B, 2.5m with plenty of flowers but very little pollination: may require an A type to go with it I guess it required a really good season of rain so the flowers didn't all fall off. I can easily harvest an avo or two a week right now, with still at least a dozen on and more fruiting.

Note to self: don't ever look at how much you've spent on fruit trees over the years... An awful lot of them have died in their pots before they ever got into the ground...

CITRUS

:
Tri-Citrus (Bi-Citrus?): Oranges, tangerines - might have had a lemon/lime at some point
Kumquat

Makrut Lime
NOTE: neighbours have a lime tree and are more than happy to gift limes

BANANAS

Banana circle - at least one Red Dacca, the others are unknown, none have ever fruited - probably not enough nutrients

PINEAPPLE

three (3) in pots; have never worked out a good place for these to go.

MULTISTONE

apricot: lots of leaves, no fruit
donut peach: died 2022
nectarine: cut it off 2023 - it never usefully fruited, always rotted before I could harvest anything
plum: full of blossoms and fruit - yellow flesh, starts off very green, ripens to a violet-purple blush

PEACHES/NECTARINES

white peach - on dual stone
yellow peach (clingstone) - single
white nectarine - single
white nectarine - on dual stone

hardware:

Veggie patch AU - clips and clamps

dear diary: 25th October

WEATHER:

Hot hot hot. 31C on Wednesday. I did water nearly everything, including the composts. I'll do another water early tomorrow morning.

Then it cools later in the week and even rains. It's supposed to be rainy on Thursday and Friday

CHOOKS:

Laying. About 4 eggs every 3 days. Goong finally got off the broody after being a PITA for three weeks. Looks like Chouquette has begun laying although we haven't actually caught her at it.

They're getting a bit restless at not being allowed out into the lawn. I keep on intending to let them at the HEXABED patch in the backyard, but it requires adequate fences or else they'll just run amok and I really don't want that - especially before the trail.

OSBERVATIONS

Rats. We gots 'em again. *sigh* Might need to get some of that natural poison.

FRONT LOUNGE WINDOW: the ground in front of there is not doing well. I planted meadowflowers and they're not really taking - most likely the lack of heat, food, and the chooks getting in there and digging them up in late winter. *grumble* I need to work out what to do here. Except that it's probably too late to do so, because we're heading for summer and there's no letting up.

PREPARATION:

For the SEGT? I feel vastly inadequate, frankly. The backyard is probably fine (mostly, although the CREPE-APRICOT really needs to be planted out with *something*) but the front yard is a confused mess of everything.

I did do some sorting out of the composting bay. Still need to get some fronts on the bays, also sort out the plastic roofing (will probably need to cut them down to size).

PLANTING

Planted all the MELONS and PUMPKINS, the Honey and Cream F1 CORN, a bunch of PEAS (blue butterfly, and, I think, pigeon, although they don't look very pigeon like). Also: RADISH, and I think a bunch of ONIONS and LEEKs but not entirely certain. I didn't label them. Again. UGH.

I have to work out where the melons and pumpkins are going.

FEEDING

Need to feed the TOMATOES in the AVO-SHED and the CORN in the CREPE-APRICOT.

HARVEST

Still harvesting AVOCADOES. In fact that's becoming something of a priority, because the damn thing is beginning to drop them - most likely to make way for the next generation of fruit...

PRUNING

Plum needs more pruning, I think the Dual Stone does, too - the branches on the nectarine side are getting out of hand, even inside the netting..

THOUGHTS

I'm thinking. What if the movable vegepods went down to the south-west corner of the garden? They wouldn't take up too much space, I could put things in them that take a long time to grow (onions, carrots, etc.) and they wouldn't need tending and wouldn't take up all the space in the carport.

Now the really tricksy question: how to actually get them down there.

I'm actually very bad at fertilising my garden - that is, adding worm wee, seasol, seaweed brew, weed tea, biosol, etc. I just forget, or occasionally toss a heap on. Probably not great for the soil or the plants. My plants grow pretty well, sure, but not fantastically.

What if I made it into a routine? Wormwee this phase of the moon, seasol/seaweed next phase, weed tea phase after, biosol after that...

TO DO:

1. make the seats
2. finish off the redo of the chicken tractor
3. net the HEXABED
4. Move VEGEPODS
5. fertilise EVERYTHING
6. Plant out CREPE-APRICOT
7. Plant out APRICOT with spinaches/lettuces

SEGT 2021

I found this post from the SEGT 2021, which was originally scheduled for March, but got put off until May thanks to weather issues!

--

Not recommended for introverts, but a really great day.

I had the place set up for 9am, starting to put it all together around 6:30am. Misty cool, even a little chilly, and overcast. Good weather for people visiting, so long as it didn't rain.

(It didn't; a spatter or two around 1:30-2pm, but otherwise cool pearly skies or else the blue of a Sydney autumn.)

My first quartet turned up at 9:30am and about five minutes later 2 more turned up. They stayed about 30-40 minutes, then I didn't get any until 10:40 and after that it was a steady stream of people all through the day until around 3:30pm.

Lots of conversations about the garden, about putting together a garden, about contexts and patterns vs. details, about community groups that people belonged to, and chickens.

There were at least two visitors who came specifically to see me and my garden - a cousin and her three kids, and a friend from my childhood church with her daughter.

The cousin is Cousin T's older sister, and I think she sees a bit of T's independence and verve in me. With two daughters (oldest and youngest), she's also intent on making sure her daughter have examples of women. Her son is trans, and she and her husband have been really great in supporting him, but I think there was initially some resistance in the extended family because of the conservative Christian upbringing. So far as I know, they're respecting Xave's pronouns and gender.

Friend from childhood church checked to see if it was okay she come and just visit with her daughter; she's part of a fruit/veg co-op program, and the daughter has interests in gardening and wants chickens. (Daughter's twin brother, however, apparently walks through the zoo holding his nose...)

Lots of people were interested in the chickens, in the keeping of them, in the way I set up the keeping of them for maximum gain with minimum fuss. I think most of them understood that the chooks were about more than just the eggs - after all, these are people who are taking time out of their busy autumnal Saturday to run around and look at edible gardens on international permaculture weekend. Still, it was good for people to realise that a chook yard can look very different to what they've been seeing all this time...

Anyway, because there weren't too many people, I could mostly give attention to the groups, although I didn't manage to speak more than a 'hello/goodbye' to some people. I feel bad about that. Still, I think that most people got some value from the day...

I had a solid breakfast by 8am, then 'refilled' at 10:30 during the quiet 30 minutes. I felt halfway bad about eating an eighth of a wheel of cheese and some of those fruit&nut cracker thingies that I really have to learn how to make, but as it turned out it was a really good decision because I was slammed from then on until about 2pm when my first 'admin help' of the day arrived. Just one or two groups, but always people around and having to ask them if they'd logged in and everything.

Next year, I will ask wildly around for help long before the final week, because having someone to help manage the 'front desk' would have been wonderful for that early stretch.

My throat is sore from all the talking, I can barely write straight, and while I would really like to put my feet in a hot mustard bath, I think I might have to settle for a hot shower and a good night's sleep.

Dear Diary: 8th October

I entered my garden into the Sydney Edible Garden Trail 2023. They won't be running it for 2024, unless someone else takes over. Sad, but they've done such good work and it's a lot of effort.

It'll be open on the Saturday from 9am to 4pm, so if you're inclined to come visit, buy a ticket!

On the pragmatic side, that's just under 4 weeks from today, and so everything is GO from here!

TO DO (from a couple of weeks ago)

• cut panels for last garden bed, or else buy more barrier edging from Hammerbarn.
• draw up measurements for BENCH SEATING
• white oil/pest spray KUMQUAT, MAKRUT LIME, PERSIMMON (after heatwave, when temps have dropped again)
• repot TINY BLUEBERRY
• pot TEA CAMELLIAS
• net front NECTARINE and GOLDEN PEACH
• shade back beds

WEATHER:

The lows are still in the teens, the highs can be anywhere from the late teens to the mid-30s. *sigh*

Sprinkly week coming.

RAIN

There's enough rain that the gardens get watered and the rain tanks stay full. Except for the carport tanks which have a leak which I still haven't fixed.

CHOOKS:

Goongbao (Goong) is broody again. Siyao (Sis) and Carambah are laying, Chouquette still hasn't. I'm starting to think that girl never will. All noise and stomach and no eggs!

OSBERVATIONS

The COMFREY has already started to flower, prepatory to setting seed. It's really aggressively trying to reproduce and I am rather nervous about it, all things considered.

PREPARATION:

Someone came by to do the mowing, and I think we got most of the dandelions on the north lawn. I'm still thinking about cardboarding it, then covering with mulch. But the lawn does look nice when it's all mowed!

Got the local teenage help to assist in the backyard: he was pretty good at pulling up the weeds and helping lay newspaper and cardboard down before covering with the mulch. It looks pretty, but there's not a lot of mulch: might need another application in a couple of weeks. We'll see how the grass grows.

Got the CREPE-APRICOT bed in tonight. That took quite a bit out of me. Cutting the bed sides, then just setting it up in the bed so as to be able to lay it all out. A little concerning: the cardboard I laid down in CREPE-APRICOT under the straw mulch hasn't really decomposed at all. I think it's going to need a bit more wetting and then also more mulch. I also need to plant out the corn - the F1 edible variety, I think.

Need to work out the space between the ESPALIER APPLES and the DUAL STONE: I have a couple of pumpkins planted there, but maybe also some tomatoes? It's this big empty bed space, just waiting for weeds to take over and I don't want that.

PLANTING

I planted a whole heap of stuff in the PLUM-STONE bed: radishes and beetroots and brassicas and everything. Even various onions - hopefully spring onions, although they might be leeks, who can tell? Some of it is growing pretty well, but the goal is to have a decent bed of greens by the time the SEGT comes around.

>

RIPENING

Peaches, Plums, and Nekos are growing growing. Early apples are growing growing. Avos are setting more fruit. Late apples are flowering.

HARVEST

Tangerines. Parsnips. Leafy greens. Avos.

>

PRUNING

I'm thinking that the FOUR-STONE APRICOT needs a haircut. Also, all the shoots coming off the cherry, crepe-myrtle, 4-apple, and even the two-stone.

THOUGHTS

I have to go through my previous lists for the SEGT and work out what I wanted to show.

Do I make some videos - short, minute-long TikTok types? On Espaliering apples, and more on keeping chooks, and fruit trees?

I also need a watering system in place for when I go away from the start of December through to January.

TO DO

• fix carport tank leak
• draw up measurements for BENCH SEATING
• white oil/pest spray KUMQUAT, MAKRUT LIME, PERSIMMON (after heatwave, when temps have dropped again)
• plant out CORN in CREPE-APRICOT
• pot TEA CAMELLIAS
• shade back beds
• plant out ARTICHOKES in APRICOT bed
• plant out AFRICAN DAISY along front fence
• dig up grass in BEE BED

I'm really sore and really tired and really itchy, and I think I'm probably sunburned...

Dear Diary: 28th September

WEATHER:

The high temps are rising, but the low temps aren't moving - currently around 13C minimum, but getting double that during the day. 30C predicted for tomorrow, a cooler day on Sunday, then HEATWAVE for early next week. ARGH.

RAIN

Rain last night - about 5mm, I think. Cool and occasional showers today. The tank is filling, there's more due later next week, but we have to get through the heatwave first.

CHOOKS:

Laying regularly: Siyao, Goong, and Carambah. Chouqette is still fluffing around, being noisy, but not apparently laying.

OSBERVATIONS

Dandelions everywhere in the front yard. Couch grass everywhere in the back. Keeping the grass in check is a trick and one that I've not gotten the hang of. The comfrey is growing back in places I don't really want it, and there's onion weed everywhere. I think the removal of that is going to be manual and slow, season by season. It's just a PITA to have to do so often and so much!

PREPARATION:

Trying to manage the dandelions, manually pulling them out (wonderful tool) and weed-tea-ing them for compost. However the north lawn (driveway side lawn) is a bit of a loss - it's almost entirely dandelions at this stage. I've actually acquired some weed 'n feed and am trying that on the lawn, but wow it smells of iron! I did find an article about organic weed control which recommends a product called corn gluten meal.

The truth is, I don't want the lawn so much as I want to be able to develop a nice meadowy space on that north side. Grass need not apply! Unfortunately what I have is creeping buffalo grass (and couch in the backyard; ugh). It's going to need more work and maintenance in the coming season to try to get it to a point of survival - especially as the summer gets hot. That said, a meadow might survive where a garden would not.

Backyard, the couch grass is starting to perk up; I'm pulling some of it up and have weed tea'd it in a bucket off to the side. The promised teenaged assistance has not materialised, so that's a PITA, and I'm mostly pulling it up by hand (and doing my back in the process).

Got the PLUM-STONE, APPLE-CREPE, and AVO-SHED beds in. Need to get the CREPE-APRICOT bed frames cut up and put together and set in place. It wasn't difficult to do - easier with 2 people, I suspect - but it wasn't difficult.

TO DO

• cut panels for last garden bed, or else buy more barrier edging from Hammerbarn.
• draw up measurements for BENCH SEATING
• white oil/pest spray KUMQUAT, MAKRUT LIME, PERSIMMON (after heatwave, when temps have dropped again)
• repot TINY BLUEBERRY
• pot TEA CAMELLIAS
• net front NECTARINE and GOLDEN PEACH
• shade back beds

PLANTING

I repotted both the KUMQUAT and the APRICOT

ICE-CREAM BEAN seeds planted

PLUM-STONE: SPINACH (perpetual), BEANS (blue ribbon - double check this) with a climbing pole in the middle, SILVERBEET?, RADISH (black spanish), BEETROOT (found in packet, unknown type), ONION (found in plastic packet, unknown type)

PLUM-STONE: TOMATOES (both indeterminate and determinate types: indeterminates up the back with suitable structures for hanging plants off (hopefully), EGGPLANTS (labelled, but also have a pic saved and set up), BEANS (pole, possibly snake) at the back.

1 Jaune Flamme, 2 Marmande (red), 2 Brad's Atomic Grape (yellow), 2 Waspinicon Peach (orange), 3 amethyst cream (magenta), 3 blue berries (blue), 2 pink bumblebee (green)

VEGEPOD: Planted Cecelia's GINGER - I don't think the other rhizomes are GINGER, they don't smell right.

RIPENING

Last of the CITRUSES. That's really about it, I think. Other than the fruit which are slowly growing.

HARVEST

Brassica leaves from APPLE-CREPE: should be suitable for a coleslaw-type thing. Last orange, maybe a couple of tangerines? Oh PARSNIPS from bathtub. There's also CORIANDER and ALPINE STRAWBERRIES coming good, and some RED CELERY is making itself known in various spots of the garden.

PRUNING

Pruned the AVOCADO tree - it's too broad and too wide, and I'm kind of worried about the weight of the avos going forward. Not very neat, though.

THOUGHTS

Thinking I'd like to plant some groundcover in front of the chook yard, but the problem is giving it enough time to get some roots in, particularly this summer.

Dear Diary - 19th September

WEATHER:

Hot and sunny. Still heatwave - 35C easy. Middle of the day was boiling hot, I went out to check the chickens, also move things around.

RAIN

Officially, we're in El Nino territory with the an Indian Ocean Dipole which moves cooler, wetter air on the western half of the continent even further west. It's gonna be a very dry summer.

CHOOKS:

They're hot and noisy. Two eggs today, three yesterday. Free run of the front lawn, pooping everywhere and digging up things I don't want them to dig up.

OBSERVATIONS

I actually think there's a BRUSSEL SPROUT growing in the APPLE-CREPE. Not sure it's going to set the little nubs because we're heading straight for summer this year, no spring.

PREPARATION:

On Monday or Tuesday, I dug out the HOPS pot, and got about a dozen roots suitable for replanting - green leaves or budding nodes. Planted them out into four containers for the front yard, looking to vine them up the front if possible.

Actually, thinking that a vine shade will probably need a lot more things growing.

Also repotted the GRAPE (Iona) and a large BLUEBERRY. Didn't get around to the smaller blueberry or the newbie that mum gave me. Didn't manage the KUMQUAT either. BLACK SAPOTE and LYCHEE are doing okay-ish but not great. I start to feel like I need much larger pots for the trees I have to grow successfully.

Made the APPLE-CREPE bed frame, set up the netting frame and have the netting over it. Also planted into it - WOOLLY POD VETCH and a whole heap of MUSTARD. Was going to do CABBAGES (mini) but then realised what I thought was a massive envelope of seeds of a single type was actually a massive envelope of several smaller envelopes of specific cabbage varieties. Need to go through those and work out what can be used.

Realised that the permabee helpers only left me with three garden bed frames when I actually need four. Also, council clean-up is coming, and I need to toss the old garden bed frames out.

PLANTING

WOOLLY POD VETCH and MUSTARD into the APPLE-CREPE bed. Not mulched.

POT O'POPPIES under the AVOCADO, along with MARIGOLDS. Mulched.

was going to do SUNFLOWERS in the APRICOT bed and would still like to do it, but not until after I've removed things from that bed.

RIPENING

Still ALPINE STRAWBERRIES.

HARVEST

Several leafy greens ready to harvest whenever ready.

BROCCOLI in APPLE-CREPE - more leaves than florets at this stage, but leaves can be steamed and stems could be pickled.

PRUNING

Cut down more of the FOUR-APPLE tree: the DORSET/ANNA grafts are too strong. But I want to lop a fairly major limb off both grafts, trimming the tree way back to give the other grafts a sporting chance.

I've been digging up the DANDELIONS on the front verge and the northside lawn. Also been reading up on meadows and how they go wrong, as my attempt at a meadow space did the other year - grew for one year, petered out thereafter, is now entirely DANDELIONS running wild. Need to fill the holes with something, though, otherwise we'll just end up with more dandelions and we don't actually want that.

Pulled up some of the runner grass out the back, put it in a bucket for weed tea. Need to get a lid for it.

TO DO
* mulch APPLE-CREPE bed more heavily
* cut panels for last garden bed, or else buy more barrier edging from Hammerbarn.
* white oil/pest spray KUMQUAT, MAKRUT LIME, PERSIMMON (after heatwave, when temps have dropped again)
* repot MEDIUM BLUEBERRY, TINY BLUEBERRY
* plant CALLA LILIES
* pot TEA CAMELLIAS
* pot WHITE SHAHTOOT MULBERRY
* find a lid for the backyard WEED TEA (one of the new pot dishes?)
* dig around and find out what can go on the council clean-up pile
* plant BASIL in bathtub around the parsnips
* move small VEGEPODs to front lawn? We'll want the garage space back.

THOUGHTS

Given we're heading into drought, priority with the water tank is to use it for establishing the garden, then heavily mulch and water maybe once a day in the evening for 15 minutes on timer.

Not sure what to do/how to fix the carport water barrels.

Dear Diary: 18th September

Am I going to join the Sydney Edible Garden Trail? It looks kinda like I am.

Someone is going to help me pull up the grass (I hope) and lay down chip mulch in the pathways. I think I might need to have an actual phone conversation with him to make sure he understands what I want, because in spite of being 15 (or possibly because of it), I think he suffers from manitis, which is the sad affliction of thinking he knows better than any woman, even one who has lived three times his life. I said I wanted help pulling up the grass, and he focused primarily on moving the mulch. Not sure if I want to hire him after that whole interaction.

WEATHER:

HEATWAVE. 35C days lately, everything needs watering in the morning and it's dried out by lunchtime, especially if it doesn't have pea straw mulch keeping the moisture in.

RAIN

Not for another week at least, and probably on cm.

CHOOKS:

Hot and grumpy because they're always complaining that their yard has no green things in it, but they're laying pretty well.

OBSERVATIONS

Citrus scale on the MAKRUT LIME

PREPARATION:

Got the PLUM-STONE bed set up and settled in. Need to do the others, but it's so hot right now. Also: the process of actually bedding it down would go easier with two people.

THOUGHTS

Bed prep for SEGT
GOALS:
-display chook tractor function
- display fruit trees in the garden
- display shade bed

APPLE-CREPE
- get bed in
- sow with more mustards
- for SEGT: chook tractor here

CREPE-APRICOT
- get bed in
- sow CORN, CUCUMBERS, BEETS (up the back), BUSH BEANS up the front

APRICOT
- SNAKE BEANS up the back
- ZUCCHINI at the front
- ONIONS around the edges (all the different types and kinds)
- mulch heavily

AVOCADO-SHED
- get bed in
- TOMATOES

BATHTUB
- BASIL

HEXABED
-need to think a bit about this - already has celery and flowers there, could probably do with the HELLEBORES actually planted there, possibly set the chooks in to weed it? Not sure how to contain the space - whether to do so.

I think this might be illustrating a shade bed - what to grow, how to set it up? IDEK. Think more on this, but not too long, or maybe leave it as unchanged ground simply for SEGT people to come by and make suggestions?

SEATING

1. need to make the garden seat sections of the chook tunnel

2. need to fix up the metal frame garden seat (possibly for next year)

Spring Veggie Garden - basic course

I ended up having less time than I thought I did: 90 minutes rather than 2 hours.

Then the level of skill/experience was greater than I anticipated, so it pretty much ended up just being me trying to answer questions in some kind of context.

INTRODUCTIONS

Name, gardening experience, why you're here

* why do you want to create a garden?
- go around and have people offer reasons
-> why you want to create a garden will vary the kind of garden you want to build and how you want to develop it/maintain it

* What I am going to teach in this course is *modular*. You are not required to use any and all of it. Think of it as *guidelines* rather than *rules*.

Answers I expect.
- a garden for exploration
- growing vegies to show what can be done
- food stability and staples
- pleasure and enjoyment
NB: more than one of these things can be true at the same time

Course was originally aimed at educators - is this still the case? I will be addressing some of the generalities in early education.

1. How much garden do you want?
- enough to grow your veggies?
- as much as you can comfortably manage: a couple of hours a week? a couple of hours a day?

2. What to grow in your garden?
- whatever you will eat
- whatever the wildlife won't eat!
- how much time do you have to maintain it? (note: weeds are plants that have found a niche they can exploit)

3. Where to put it?
- somewhere you'll see it every day and which is easy to maintain
- somewhere with good sun and good water: talk about 'good sun' in Australia, coupled with the conversation about water and water conservation
- soil quailty? Soil can be made, but the direction of the sun and where structures are can't usually be changed

4. food for your garden and your garden for food
- soil, composts, worm farms, worm towers
- "food" for the garden: also "inputs" into the garden's productivity - eg. companion planting/pollinators
- flowers and not just food

5. three legs of a garden
- plants for human food
- plants for soil food
- plants for pollinators

BREAK - things to eat

6. Practicalities of gardening
- weeds: the site and how to deal with weeds - "pull, outcompete, suppress" - make it so there's no space for the weeds to grow.
- water: ollas, mulch and ground covers, composting trenches
- pests: bugs that eat (predatory insects), birds (cockatoos, etc.), possums and rats, and human
- time and energy: do things in 'units of work' - mark off a space for working in, then lay out that space.

I thought I was a bit scatty, but everyone else seemed to think it was great and they came away with info they didn't have before.

Dear Diary - 13th September 2023

Well, that's been a while.

WEATHER:

The nights are still pretty cold - less than 10C - but the days are in the twenties, and we're due for some 30C+ day temps this weekend.

RAIN

Not much. A couple of storms, half a day of some downpour, and otherwise...very little regular. And we're heading into hot-and-dry season.

CHOOKS:

In August, Goong was in clucky mode for the usual two weeks, came out of it, laid an egg, hasn't done much since. Siyao and Carambah are laying every couple of days. Chouquette's comb is getting red, but she's still not laying!

They get really grumpy when they're not let out of the yard - Chouquette in particular gets exceedingly vocal. Admittedly right now they only have one part of the yard to run around in - I'm trying to grow things in the yard on the other side. Not so successfully, admittedly. Once the chooks get in there, it's really quite difficult to grow anything else.

OBSERVATIONS

APRICOTS are not flowering - again. Interestingly, CHERRY has a branch that looks like it's going to do some blossoms, but that's the only one. The PEACHES and NECTARINES are as usual. PERSIMMON appears to be the 'off' year (biennial, I believe). FOUR-APPLE early grafts aren't flowering at all and the late ones don't seem to be budding either. The TROPICAL DORSETT graft on the DELICIOUS is doing a second flowering.

AVOCADO is back in flower again - still harvesting avos off it, need to pick up the pace. MULTI-CITRUS still has some of the smaller orange fruit on it (and an orange or two). MAKRUT LIME had a huge harvest, but I think it's falling prey to some kind of scale infestation, which need to be treated ASAP. (White oil.)

Big BLUEBERRY is in full flower, medium is half-flower, baby is still stuck in a teeny tiny pot, and the newbie I got given by mum is still sitting in its pot.

Have some SPINACH ends from the shop, but they have this white dust all over them. I washed the dust off when I cooked the original spinach, but i set the spinache ends in water and picked one out today...and it's got all this white dust again! Anyway, after a quick Google, I discovered that the white dust things are trichomes, and they're part of the way spinach grows! How interesting! Okay, good to know - I was thinking it was a mite infestation or something like that!

PREPARATION:

PLUM-STONE: get bed frame wired and into place. Plant out spinach ends.

APPLE-CREPE: eat the brassicas and peas, take frame off, get bed frame wired and into place. Put chooks on for a few weeks.

CREPE-APRICOT: get bedframe wired and into place. Plant CORN, CUCUMBERS, BEANS

APRICOT-AVO: flower meadow (that was the plan, unfortunately the girls getting out and scratching around in it means it's not doing so well right now).

AVO-SHED: Get bedframe wired and into place. Plant...something that doesn't need too much sunlight...

PLANTING

TEA CAMELLIAS and WHITE SHAHTOOT MULBERRY need to be planted out into bigger pots. So do the PINEAPPLES (3).

I planted out a whole slew of seeds during August, with the intent of taking them along to the course I'm teaching this Saturday. Some of it will be planted in the community garden where I'm doing the course, but I'll probably hand out the excess to the participants.

CARE:

TOMATOES that over-wintered need some trimming back and feeding/mulching.

RIPENING

Brassicas all over the place.

HARVEST

Avocados and oranges, mostly. Could do makrut lime shampoo if I had the time/exec function to get on with it.

CARROTS and BEETROOT are harvested. The beets (golden detroit) are super tasty and I regret giving the ones I had away! Carrots are decent, but I already gave away three bunches. Unfortunately the PARSNIPS are disappointing: there wasn't any frost to make them sweet, so they're mostly just starches. I'll harvestthem from the bathtub in the next few weeks, then scatter BASIL seed there as I usually do.

PRUNING

Everything's pretty much pruned back, but the runner grass on the back path needs pulling up and disposing ASAP.

THOUGHTS

TO DO:
treat scale on MAKRUT LIME (possibly also on PERSIMMON?)
properly pot two BLUEBERRIES
properly pot WHITE SHAHTOOT MULBERRY
properly pot TEA CAMELLIA
trim back TOMATOES from overwintering and feed.

This Saturday I am teaching a course at a local community garden, run by the next council over. It's a little terrifying; I can rabbit on quite easily, but I don't know if I want to - it's about learning and drawing people out. There's a garden bed at the community garden that I can plant out and which I've kind of agreed to take over for the next few months - it'll be something of a community plot, possibly also an example of what can be done in a small space. I'm kind of excited but also mildly terrified!

I might make another post with my notes.

Diary - 15th July, 2023

WEATHER:

Sunny and dry. Warmer, no bite in the morning - my car said 25C at midday.

RAIN

None for weeks.

CHOOKS:

All seem pretty happy and healthy. Goong has a red comb, Siyao's is pretty red, too. Caramabah is still demanding food all the time, and Chouquette isn't showing signs of going into lay. Chouquette comes close and allows me to pet her, but it's more a "where's the food, no food? no pets" kind of attitude.

OBSERVATIONS

Some major cracks in the front yard. Going to contact a plumber about having a look into them with one of those long and flexible cameras. If I can find one to come do the work.

One of the brick pylons under the house is rather less-than-straight. The middle one on the eastern side of B1's bedroom is not perfectly plumb, like it's gently being pushed over. I don't know if it was always like that or has only been in the last couple of years. The problem is that I didn't notice these things before and I'm noticing them now. It's one of the reasons why observation is so important, I guess.

Native bees are back and active on the warmer days. Very still and quiet on the colder ones, and I try to remember to cover them up a little on the cold nights, then open them up so they won't grow mould. But they're active and involved and seem to be doing well.

The TWO-STONE and DUAL-STONE are in flower. The TROPIC DORSET on the Golden Delicious APPLE is setting buds ready to bloom.

The TOMATOES in the bed under the TWO-STONE tree are generally dying - we had some frost, and although I had the old window screens up to give them a bit of a buffer, the one on the south blew off and I think that the tomatoes that would have been otherwise protected by them are now dying.

PREPARATION:

Green mulch. Need to plant out some green mulch in the summer beds. And I just realised that I prepped some COWPEA mulch for the back beds...and forgot that the stuff is for summer mulch. I guess I can plant it and see what survives, but I don't really like the chances. I should have prepped the Woolly Pod Vetch but that stuff can get weedy really easily and I didn't want to risk it. *sigh* Well, we'll plant the COWPEA and see how it does.

PUMPKIN-POTATO bed should probably be green-mulched.

PLANTING

Today, I planted out four ASPARAGUS ferns into the LOWER STEP BED. I've been trying to grow things in that bed for years and the only thing that really grows there are weeds. But the asparagus grows fine in the upper beds with some fertilising and watering, so I'm doing it. Also put the THYME in there from Wormticklers, and tossed down a lot of MUSTARD. To finish it off, I need to put down the remaining pea-straw from the pack.

I was thinking about fertilising the UPPER STEP BED with matured chook manures collected from the coop back when there were blood mites - I think it was 2021? Going to have to look back at the diary for that. But because I associate this manure with the mites, I'm nervous about putting it on the garden, even though it's a long way from the chooks. Just gotta bite the bullet I guess and do it. Get past the fear, etc.

I also planted PARSNIPS under the apples, both the FOUR-APPLE and the GOLDEN DELICIOUS. Less for the roots themselves, more for the greens and the flowers and the promise of pollinators and pest-control. (If they flower.) Probably should have also done daikon and beetroot, just to break up the soil some.

RIPENING

Still the oranges and I think they're tangerines? The ALPINE STRAWBS have been doing their thing pretty well.

HARVEST

BROCCOLI leaves. I need to remember to cook the BROCCOLI leaves! Occasional TOMATOES from the westernmost bed in the TRIANGLE GARDEN.

PRUNING

Did the RASPBERRY PATCH a couple of weeks ago, trimming most of it down and clipping up most of the canes. I didn't really check for spring/autumn canes, and now I need to toss down a bunch of manure and maybe some hay/mulch to give it some feeding before the spring.

Backyard AVOCADO needs pruning down, snip off the tops of the tree. Needs it soon because it's starting to sprout again and I think the next round of flowers are likely to be coming...

The bush of THAI BASIL and the SALVIAS out the front need serious haircuts and soon. Now's a good time to do it, the flowers on the stone fruit trees and the Golden Dorset branch will keep the bees occupied.

THOUGHTS and PLANS

With the weather looking very fine, I could probably make the wooden seats in the next couple of weekends.

I want to set up potable water collection off the roof - I should probably look into that sustainable house in the inner west, find out what they did and how they did it and whether it's replicable here.

There's a part of me that wants to die very fast and very soon. I'm good for it, no real regrets, no need to live forever. But also, there's a part that would like to see what I've developed here go to someone who wants to use it, not just someone who'd bulldoze the lot and build a McMansion.

house woes

Climate change is affecting our house.

We're hardwood frame, fibro on brick columns, with clay a mere half-metre down. With the drought and rain and drought, the clay is shrinking and shifting, and we're seeing cracks starting in the internal plaster.

Cracks in internal plaster isn't awful, but it's not great, either. Some shifting is not unexpected given the new windows and given the drought-rain-drought pattern of the last decade. I'm almost certainly going to have to do some light internal repairs and deal with the shifting.

I have the awful feeling that I'm going to pay off the mortgage, only to find myself dealing with house issues for the rest of my existence...

I guess that's kind of how it goes, though.

2023 - permabee

WHEW.

Permabee done!

It was a long day - from 10am until about 5pm. A few people left at lunchtime or just after, but the stalwarts stayed on until sundown to finish up the projects to a point where I could manage them myself (sort of). So we didn't get everything done to completion, but we made headway, and I'll take that!

Lunch was a hit - two soups (a Spiced Carrot Soup from a recipe book and a Roasted Thai Carrot & Sweet Potato soup) plus homemade bread (dutch oven, yeast-risen), plus banana bread, and other things people brought/made.

The compost bays are done, reduced in size to be smaller and more manageable. I think the back is hardwood, so that should last a decent while.

To do on Thursday get some lids on the bays - I have some roofing metal, and some wood that can be used as framing - because we have a rainy week in the offing.

The chook tunnels are 80% done - the sides are anchored in the ground, a section of the top is done, but I need to finish off the rest, which I can do myself over the coming week.

to do Thursday: cut/trim all the top sections so they're the right fit.

The garden beds got only about 50% done. The sides are prepped and cut into lengths, I have to drill them into the stakes for the corners and set them into place (sometimes digging down to get them in and level-ish).

to do Friday: take out the old, rotting wooden pieces from the garden, get the screws out (where possible) and put them on the verge for special trash collection.

to do Saturday: set up at least one garden bed, to give an idea of what needs to be properly done, and so I can work out the fitting of the chook tractor over the garden beds.

Not done: chipping the remainder of the tree branches, spraying the trees, fixing up the chook tractor. Ah well, I hoped but didn't expect.

That said, I really need to spray the trees ASAP.

Next things to do:
Clean out the blue water barrels
finish chipping the wood
fix up the wheelbarrows

dear diary: 3rd June - spraying

Sprayed the fruit trees today - Lime Sulphur
Peaches & Stonefruit was 20% solution
Apples was 10% solution
And just for kicks I also did the frangipani (1%) which has rust on its leaves and is probably spreading it everywhere through the garden

Gotta do it again in a week.

Then the week after, the Copper Spray

I think at least one of the trees shouldn't be sprayed with one of the sprays. I think it's the apricots with Copper spray.

Permabee is going ahead - new chicken tunnels! Maybe new garden beds.

"Grocery? No, Sirree!" challenge

My sister is going away for two months as of next Monday, and in her absence I'm thinking about doing a no-grocery challenge.

It's simply this: I buy no groceries until she's back. I have to live off what's in the pantry, fridge, freezer, and garden until she returns. That includes staples.

Now, this isn't a hardship, just constraining. We have a pantry that is absolutely BURSTING with foodstuffs and all it would take to work through it is a little organisation. And maybe a slightly less elevated palate.

I have soups and stews, tinned food of all types and kinds, various containers of frozen fruits and vegies, a lot of frozen meat (if that freezer goes down we are SO SCREWED), the chooks lay eggs, and if I plant some leafy greens now, I could cook those (although I could also use the Okinawa spinach which is growing crazy next to the carport). There's almost certainly sweet potato in the ground, too, which I just have to dig out. And it would make me think beyond my usual diet, which is very 'typical Australian' (I do love my meat).

I have canned and pickled and dried fruit - peaches, apricots, nectarines, apples - and some bought jars (morello cherries), and it's citrus season (oranges on the tree, limes from the neighbours, I'm pretty sure I could find some locals who'd just give me a couple of lemons if I needed), so I'm not going to get scurvy...probably.

The pantry has cooking and baking staples; if I had to make bread, I have yeast. There's dried pasta (and I can make it fresh with eggs and flour if I really need it), and noodles and everything.

I'd have to eat more sparingly of meat, which I can't replace. Proteins would primarily come from the chickens, and maybe from legumes. I might miss tomatoes because it's the wrong season for growing those, or maybe I'd just have to be more considered with the tomatoes that I'm growing?

The main thing that I would miss and which I can't get from anywhere else or really freeze is dairy: cream, milk, and cheese. I have some cheeses in the fridge, and I suppose I could store some cream and milk in the freezer, or I could make the exception for a carton of cream once a fornight (to go in my coffee), or else switch to my sister's soy milk. IDK. See how it gets complicated really fast?

That said, I'm well aware that being able to do this is a privilege. We've had the money to buy all this, to stock up. The house has space to have a garden. I have space to store things, and we have a deep freezer that enables purchase of meat and freezing of things ahead of time.

It increases the requirement of thinking about meal prep; reduces the amount I buy.

I'd make an exception for takeaway (once a week, maybe) and for going out with friends (doesn't happen often) or being invited to someone's house (eg. parentals).

I feel like I could make a charity drive out of it: donate to this charity and I'll do the challenge - raise $5K to get me to do it, raise $10K to exclude everything but dairy and takeaway and dinner out, raise $15K to exclude everything but takeaway and dinner out, raise $20K to exclude everything.

$20K feels like a lot, sure; but I know a fair bit of family with fairly deep pockets who'd probably move to do this.

The downsides?
1. It's the depths of winter.
2. I'll be doing this solo in the house.
3. Excluding social eating confines me to pretty much solitary.
4. None of this would be great for my mental health.

I did the Ration Challenge five years ago, and it went pretty well - raised quite a bit of money because a) it was a cause that lots of my friends believed in, b) people know how much I love my food. But that was only for a week.

I have ten days to think about this anyway.

garlic growing in Sydney

There's a lot of truisms about growing garlic - plant by St Patrick's Day (15th March), harvest by Christmas, etc.

The problem is that a lot of this stuff is supposed to apply along the entire east coast of Australia which seems illogical when Hobart gets snow, Melbourne is wet and soggy, Canberra gets frost, Sydney is merely 'cold', and a Townsville winter looks like a Hobart summer!

Even going by a 'cool temperate/warm temperate/tropical' doesn't always help - regional variations can affect frost, how much frost you get, even the rainfall! My suburb gets a touch of frost, but not so much that under the ground freezes.

I found a video that detailed how this guy from the US (who gets snow/frost) in his area grows garlic - it was actually about how to get large garlic heads - and took down his notes. I'm going to try to adjust them for an Australian setting.

Growing Garlic (large heads)
- sprinkle of worm castings
- large cloves into hole
- cover in mulch over winter
- remove in spring
- feed superfood in spring
- compost mulch

My modifications are:
1. planted in May
2. sprinkle of worm castings under clove
3. leaf mulch over winter, pull back a bit once the green bits show
4. feed in spring? (NOTE: what's superfood - NPK? Have super-K in a bag somewhere, might as well use it)
5. compost mulch in spring

I've just realised I'll have a vegepod available during this time, and that might be a good place to do the growing experiment from.

This is going to be rather specific, and it could get kinda interesting to see if I can do this successfully, growing the garlic to a decent size over the winter.

throwing shade

Back garden is a lot of shady spots.

What do I need for filler? Where do I need it?
- shady spaces, like in the south-east corner (hellebores, coleus, bromeliads, aussie native violet, anemones)
- under the avocado tree where the tomatoes are failing miserably (daffodils for spring? aussie native violets, maybe the kidney-shaped leaves thing)

Planning for climate catastrophe:
- water (want to get a filter for the tank water - filter entry on the tank, filter outlet, too?)
- fire protection: if fire comes to the neighbourhood, how to stop it from spreading?
- petrol runout (bicycles - need to do some work on them)
- electric cooker (induction top?)

 

May: feed citrus
pruning branches and leaves
spray lime sulphur (1st time)

June: spray lime sulphur (2nd time)

July: spray copper, run chooks in triangle garden

August: grafting, run chooks in triangle garden

 

Bought 7 african daises, 5 single-petal hellebores, 5 dahlias.

African daisies to go on the far side of the fence; Hellebores to go in the shade space; Dahlias to go in the trimmed-back picket fence garden space.

dear diary: 7th May

WEATHER:

Cold but sunny the last few weeks, cold and clear in the next week, then cold and wet the week after. There's a fair bit of wind tonight (Sunday) - some pretty hard gusts that make the chook coop tarp creak - but that should ease tomorrow morning.

RAIN

Spatters, mostly. A little hail today. It was raining pretty hard in stints at our hockey game on Sunday 7th - freezing cold rain, then less cold stuff. There's more happening tonight and probably some tomorrow.

CHOOKS:

Caramba is laying, everyone else is off the lay. Sisi is still being a bully and refusing to let the other girls in the coop at night; she won't go up to the top rung so she can basically keep them from anything but roosting in the doorway.

Goong does her own thing, doesn't really bother the Qs, but the Qs are very aware of her. It's only Sisi who's vengeful and chases them away whenever possible.

OBSERVATIONS

The Dual Plum is growing really whippy on the Mariposa side. I'm still debating whacking the whole top off and just seeing what it does next.

The Apricot frame intended for espalier growing is tilting at a 15degree angle. I might have to pull that out and fix it when I replace the chook tunnels.

Flower bed by the driveway post is looking wonderful!

PREPARATION:

Really should dig out/rake out the chook poop pen. Put the stuff in bags and boxes, leave until spring.

Pulled out the ornamental grasses under the lounge window, added some mushroom compost, raked over the soil to even-ness.

PLANTING

A mix of Meadow Seeds in the bed in front of the lounge room. Not sure if it'll be warm enough to start growing - might need to put down a little more pea straw mulch to give it a decent chance of germinating; it's presently a touch too cold, I think...

I made the APPLE-CREPE into a proper brassica bed; planted out the various brassicas I had, then made a rough frame and covered it with netting. Not sure it'll get quite enough sun until summer, but I guess it'll do for the moment.

RIPENING

Still the avocados. One I picked the other week is still hard, so not sure when these are going to be ripe.

Oranges are colouring up; they'll need to stay on the tree a while to get fully ripe.

HARVEST

PUMPKINS - I've picked the large ones, I really should lay them out under the house (downside: rats). Also, it would help to get an idea of what, exactly, I've managed to grow.

MUSTARD. I never quite know what to do with these. But they do grow well!

CORIANDER is growing quite nicesly (and not bolting) in at least two places in the garden.

TOMATOES - in the triangle bed, apple end, have fruit but may not manage to ripen them given the cold snap we're seeing. TOMATOES in the triangle bed, pointy end, have set fruit, but also may not ripen: the Amethyst Cream has a couple that are ripening, but it's hard to tell what else is ripe - if anything.

RASPBERRIES: autumn ones aren't as nice as the spring ones. Might need some pruning.

PRUNING

All the fruit trees/shrubs need pruning right now. And then chipping, now that I have the new blades.

THOUGHTS

I have barely enough energy to keep up with the house right now - last fixing up of the windows, and then moving everything back in and sorting it out; I'm not sure I'd manage with the garden as well. So, holding patterns are the thing at present.
1. Backyard paths and grass.
2. pruning all the fruit trees significantly, then chipping the prunings
3. replacing the chicken tunnels with more solid make.
4. replacing the garden bed frames (and seeding/planting out the ones that I don't intend to keep using).

House: closing the gaps

The windows are in but the job isn't yet done!

There are a lot of gaps:
Gaps between the architraves and the walls:

Gaps between the glass settings and the window framings:

And then the standard gaps in the floor:

All of which pull drafts up through the walls under the house.

I was linked to this really great site called GIY - Green It Yourself: Australian, full of practical advice, perfect for those of us who live in gappy old houses that weren't built for anything below 10C or above 28C (ie. most of Sydney). We may not want to run the a/c all summer, and the reverse-cycle a/c (heat pump) all winter - we might just want our houses to be liveable without needing to burn more energy...

I wish I'd found this site sooner, it has some really good advice!

First things first: How to Caulk. Get thee a caulking gun and learn how to use it! Anyone can use it, you just need to get familiar with it. Learn not only how to use it, but also how to clean up after! Also, trim your nails right down and have the hand-cream ready! You can wear gloves, sure, but there's nothing to beat your fingers doing the walking.

Second things second: the actual type of caulk to use. If you only have options from Bunnings, use options from Bunnings. Better to be draft-proofed than not! However, the stuff at Bunnings is for your average DIY - their bread-and-butter is the weekend DIY warrior. Tradies tend to use tradie-specific hardware places and the stuff there tends to be better quality. My local tradie hardware is Hardware and General, but I got the white gap filler from my local Reece hardware and plumbing down the road.

My new double-glazed windows are white, so I'm using the white caulking (Soudal Gap Filler) around the edges, and to seal any gaps between the window frame and the wooden architraves themselves.

However, my skirting boards are white, and my floors are natural wood - polished floorboards done (rather badly by sub-contracted "professionals") after we pulled up the carpet. I used the white caulking for three floor gaps and...well, it doesn't look great. But that's done now and can't be undone, and they're in 'bedrooms' rather than the main room. Which was pretty intentional. It's gonna be clear caulking (HB Fuller - Ultra Clear Caulk) for the rest of the floorboard gaps!

Also, might try to fill in a few of the spaces between the floorboards - wood putty might do the job if it can be neatly cleaned up.

Third things third: I'm doing this now is because we have all the furniture and stuff out, and it's easiest to do when it's all out of the way. Moving furniture is a PITA and no fun, especially when you're doing it all by yourself.

Plus if I get it done this autumn, then when full winter turns up, at least it won't be quite as bad as it used to be...

The downside is that I've been basically exhausted the last two weeks. Painting the window architraves, sealing them up. Sealing up the floors, putting up curtains (where the windows are ready)...

On a personal, I think I might also have come down with something. It might even be COVID, although very mild and largely asymptomatic thanks to full vaccinations and all the boosters. But I've been absolutely shattered for the last week and probably should have gone for a PCR or a doc visit. I might do that this week, if I can scramble the time.

Dear Diary: April 2023 - the one with two fewer chooks

WEATHER:

Cold change in early April, after a warm and lovely March.

RAIN

Spatters here and there, at one stage there was enough to fill the tanks, but then I opened the stopcock on the carport tanks and they've been pretty much empty since. Stagnant, too. Once the windows are done, I should disconnect them and clean them out.

CHOOKS:

Coldie died on Easter Monday, followed a week later by Shan. They were both sick, both had gone to the vet in the previous month but died overnight.

RIP 'The Banquet': our 'lockdown chooks'.

Q1, now known as Carambah (Caramel), is laying decent sized eggs. Q2, now known as Choquette (Choux Pastry) hasn't even got her comb in! it's really weird. She looks like a large-sized pullet, while Carambah looks like a full layer bird!

It's a bit weird without any of our 'older' chooks. I can't explain why, it just is.

OBSERVATIONS

Everything is dropping leaves and dying. The backyard is full of things mulching and it's not idea. I really need to hire those JW kids to come round, pull up the grass, put the cardboard down, and cover the paths with mulch.

PREPARATION:

Winter is coming: need to think about what I'm going to plant where and for what purpose...

I might just pull up the tomatoes in the APRICOT-AVO bed, because they're not actually producing anything, and maybe pull up the bed itself so it can go back to the grassy/herbal area that I'm planning for it...

PLANTING

Planted out a bunch of brassicas in the APPLE-CREPE bed, watered them in with brassica water (rotted purchased brassicas) so they get the nutrients to grow and flower.

RIPENING

Pomegranates: not sure when to harvest them.

Tomatoes - some of the late varieties I planted - might be the Blue Smurf, or the other ones I got from Elisha (I think; look it up)

HARVEST

Pomegranates. Persimons. Pumpkins. Lots of Ps in there.

Also: Avocadoes!

PRUNING

EVERYTHING needs pruning and chipping and digging up. All the grass in the backyard.

THOUGHTS

We have the windows in as of ANZAC day and that's a relief. There's still some sealing up to do: both along the skirting boards and along the undersides/tops of the windows. I need to find somewhere that sells the kind of filler that they were using (turns out it's Anywhere That Isn't Hammerbarn). Also need to pry open a skirting board somewhere where it won't be too spotted and see what it looks like there... Could be a bit hairy!

Maybe leave that for Saturday.

next thoughts on the house

Next thoughts on the house

1. sealing up between the skirtingboards and the floorboards - particularly in the study and the lounge and my bedroom (all major draught areas)
- probably should use something between a silicone and latex sealant: very narrow tip (pinprick, really) and with a shaped nozzle to keep it lined up. White? To match the skirting

2. painting the inside frames: they're primed, but they'll need a coat of paint.

3. external awnings (b1 wants external awnings - at least to the west, so she can let down the awnings at will; I'm more for a vergola, myself...)

4. creating some kind of a seal/stopper for the wall vents, at least for the winter season, to determine if it helps the thermal profile of the room (may want to keep them for in-wall ventilation)

5. cleaning up all the paint specks and wood fragments from around the garden and the grass; might have to ask if there's a kind of 'external vacuum' and whether I could use it to get the worst of the paint chips, etc. up.

Inside the house: more cube storage things and the boxes that fit in them so we can put things away

outside the house: more storage spaces and boxes-that-don't-break-down (or maybe just go with plain cardboard ones)
- chooks
- pruning and tying up
- netting and fruiting
- sprays and pesticides

Need to do a "cleaning tools" day with PSN

windows windows everywhere

Windows are here and they look pretty good!

Goodbye old wooden-framed single-glaze windows, draughty in the winter, letting in the heat in the summer!

It's a little sad to see them go: they served so very well. Also, I hate seeing waste, and watching them be pulled apart/destroyed (because there's nowhere that will take them) is awful. I probably should have researched into places to get them deconstructed and the glass (at least) reused...

We had to take the external awnings off, and looking at the construction, I don't know that we're going to be able to put them back on again...

It's amazing how large the window holes actually look!

And then the window frames and the glass installed:

That window has three openable sections: one awning in the middle, two tilt-and-turns on the edges. For better north-south breezes.

Now let's see how the installers do on the 'sealing it up and not negating the point of having double-glazing in the first place' part of the deal! They've assured me that they'll be sealing up around the windows with a polyurethane sealant and it will be airtight.

We shall see...

oof it's a window replacement

Double glazed windows are about to be installed!

It's not a cheap project, but it will hopefully make a fairly big difference in both soundproofing and draft-proofing. I did what I could to seal up the gaps, but the breeze still came through. Once these windows are in, though, the seals will be pretty tight!

Next gap to seal is the one between the floorboards and the baseboard. I think I might just use some kind of caulking to seal that gap. Need to go watch a bunch of YT vids for options.

After that, I'd have to think about the tiny cracks happening in the architraves.

About half the household is in storage, and will probably be there for a couple of months. I know the risk of putting things in storage is that you never get them out of storage, but it is nice to have things out of the way and be able to rethink the space around here...

I wonder if I could put a couple of rolling bookshelves in the study? Or how much it would cost to get shelving that would go all the way up to the ceiling? Also, whether it would cost much to make some cupboards above the wardrobes in our rooms.

VEGEPOD - March 2023

March 2023

After a fallow summer, the VEGEPOD has been edge-composted, and is being planted out with GINGER, TUMERIC (gold and black), and some unknown rhizomes - hopefully GALANGAL.

Also: CARROTS (purple dragon), SPRING ONIONS, and 6-7 BEETROOT (golden detroit).

Dear Diary: 20th March

WEATHER:

Rain, but had a heatwave on the weekend - 37C and sunny!

RAIN

Light sprinkles, not seeping into the soil

CHOOKS:

Shan and Coldie have been to the vet. Shan has swelling and got a new implant. Coldie has lumps inside her. Vet will drain both on Wednesday, and advise further from there.

OSBERVATIONS

Spiders.

PREPARATION:

VEGEPOD - did some 'edge composting' with comfrey

PLANTING

VEGEPOD - planted GINGER (probably), BLACK TURMERIC, YELLOW TURMERIC, and something else that might be GALANGAL (can hope)
VEGEPOD - CARROTS (purple dragon), SPRING ONIONS, and 6 BEETROOT (golden detroit)

RIPENING

CUCUMBERS, AVOCADOS, TOMATOES (the ones around the front, anyway)

HARVEST

earlier on in March, picked the APPLES and stored them.

CUCUMBERS - 3 hanging from the vine that's growing up the peach tree
AVOCADOS - might pick one and see how it ripens - except we have so many avos in the fridge right now!

PRUNING

everything needs pruning; need to talk to the Mormon youths volunteering about a date and time for them to come by and help

THOUGHTS

I planted some tomatoes late - about three or four varieties, including BLUE SMURF, AMETHYST CREAM, and a couple of others that I don't remember right now. Hopefully they produce at least two tomatoes - one that I can eat for flavour and one that I can save for seeds.

Windows are supposed to be done today, which means clearing around the house. Cement bricks to go down to the south-west corner, I think. I may need some time and assistance to sort out/throw out stuff in the shed so that there's space for more things. (Also, putting things that we don't use on freecycle.)

Lawn was done today - they came at 10:30 and were done by 11:30. Whirlwind. We have a bin full of lawn clippings - have to tip that in with the chooks in the next day.

Some local JW youths are offering gardening services free of charge. I'm tempted to ask them to come by and pull up the long runner grass in the backyard, then lay down woodchips and start planting the groundcover for the 'back lawn'. Could possibly ask for their help in cutting the steel down to bed-size.

Need to ask W's help to not only move things, but maybe also sort through the 'resource centre' - all those metal sheets and PVC pipes. Gotta work out where to store them. Under the house? It's a bit of mess down there, and crowded to boot.

If I was going to work out an under-house storage, the primary need would be to make it vermin-proof.

The rats are back. DAMMIT.

Thoughts in late Feb

not valid anymore, just notes

Winter this year, need to think about how to enrich the soil for the next season, even as planting/growing for this one.

GARLIC and slow ONIONs - small vegepod 1

GINGER - polystyrene box (maybe one of the black council boxes?)

POTATOES - box (black council box?)

CARROTS, LEEKS, SPRING ONIONS - small vegepod 2?

CABBAGES & CAULIS (maybe in TRIANGLE BED): buy a fine netting (Diggers)

APPLE-CREPE:

currently: CORN & BEANS

follow up: BROAD BEANS

CREPE-APRICOT

currently: TOMATOES & PEANUTS

follow up: green vegies (SILVERBEET)

then BRASSICAS

APRICOT-AVO

currently: TOMATOES

follow up: return to grass/path/lawn - use the 'lilypad' netting stuff? It grows like crazy but also seems to be pulled up pretty easily - look it up for advantages/disadvantages...

Dear Diary: mid-Feb

WEATHER:Hot. Upper 20s, heading for the 30s over the weekend. It's going to be very hot.

The patterns are shifting out of La Nina. Whether they'll head for El Nino is another matter, but the chances are about 60% right now? No more normal seasons; too hot, or too cold.

RAIN & WATER

Had some very decent rains the last few months - usually very clear skies and then abruptly, DOWNPOUR. Last Thursday night had a pretty major storm to the point where the large water tank was significantly overflowing. I pretty much removed the cap on the 'first flush' and then it stopped overflowing but it was basically all going out to stormwater.

I've been using the watertank to water the trees and the beds in the triangle garden, the potted trees and so forth.

CHOOKS:

B1 and B2 have been formally named - in French, because our knowledge of Chinese dishes ran out pretty fast: Caramba (Caramel) and Chouquette (Cream puff) for their colours. They're growing very fast and today are much more chicken-shaped than pullet-shaped.

Goong is back to being broody again. Sissy (Siyao) is laying. We're afraid that Coldie or Shantung's chip has worn out and they're laying again, though - we got an egg that didn't look like a Sissy egg today, so the sister is worried. I have the money to put another chip in, but I kind of don't want to.

OSBERVATIONS

Comfrey is growing really thickly just about everywhere. I'm picking off the flower buds as fast as they grow, but they're still growing quite fervently. Not sure if they'll dry up and die with winter (I think they do, which: whew) but I hope so.

PREPARATION:

The APPLE-CREPE bed has chicken poop and straw all over it. I should put another layer of straw on there, Maybe mix it all in together, rake it flat, and cover with more straw?

PLANTING

I tossed some old PARSNIP seed down in the BACKYARD BATHTUB earlier this week.

Need to interplant some carrots, I think.

Might have to use the front vegepods for ONIONS, LEEKS, CARROTS, BEETROOTS, RADISHES...

RIPENING

The Rosewood PUMPKIN is long and green, the Queensland Sunrise is round and fat and orange, and there's at least one large longneck from the ginormous vine that started in the pumpkin-potato bed. Not as many fruiting flowers as I'd have liked, only one per major vine so far... The smaller curcubit vines aren't producing anything.

TOMATOES:

HARVEST

APPLES - the Gala are very ready, and the Delicious are ripening steadily.

CORIANDER - the short sprouts are starting to go seedy, but even just having it there makes it good and ready

BASIL - the bought basil is doing great, the seedling basil keeps getting dug up by the chooks when they get out. ARGH!

PRUNING

Fruit trees will need major pruning, quite possibly involving a chainsaw. I need to get one of the neighbours in on this sometime.

THOUGHTS

Still haven't heard back from the window guys; need a date - trying to arrange to move things away from the windows.

I want to make a vegie frittata entirely from Things Grown In My Garden: potatoes, basil, sage, parsley, green leafies, eggs. Okay, maybe I'll add cheese to that. It's kind of the wrong weather for baking though. I always want to bake when it's hot. I don't know why.

2023 is here

There are AVOS in the tree, APPLES on the branches, PUMPKINS growing in the front, and TOMATOES in the triangle garden. The CORN is doing very well up in the back corner by the APPLE tree.

But oh, I'm starting to fret about the backyard and the way it's falling apart. It need a serious makeover with a solid chicken tunnel and better garden beds. Plus, I need to let some of the grasses grow back - but not the awful runner-grass that just ends up growing everywhere and is impossible to get rid of. That's starting to take over the paths because I haven't chip-mulched them in a year...

Then there's the comfrey that is refusing to stay down and dead, and which I planted all over the place and which is going to be a pest going forward...

I mean that, there, in the pic above? That's rhubarb. Something else entirely. but, yes, comfrey can be a pest, too...

Something that I'm thinking of doing this year is redesigning the 'Victory Garden' for:
a) Sydney, Australia and our temperate climates (far more variety available, and a recognition that summer temps are not going to grow cabbages and leeks very well)
b) permaculture gardens (instead of rows along a backyard which would be awful to weed)
c) my permaculture garden

It will require rethinking things in time and space. And possibly remodelling the backyard. Even remodelling the front yard.

If I think about it, I have a whole lot of garden beds available for use: not just the ones in the back which I plan to keep (PLUM-STONE, APPLE-CREPE, CREPE-APRICOT, and possibly AVO-SHED), but also the IBC (now on the porch), two small VEGEPODs the large VEGEPOD, two metal beds in the TRIANGLE GARDEN and a growing space between the espaliered apples.

Positioning them for best sunlight/productivity, while allowing the lawn to be mowed? That's another matter entirely...

I also need to find a swift-growing, easy-care lawn material that isn't runner grass... haha. Simple!