Dear Diary: HEATWAVE - 20th December

OBSERVATIONS:

It's been a few weeks of crazy hot. Some things have survived (and thrived) others...have not.

Things that have thrived: the CORN in the vegepod, likewise the TOMATOES and ZUCCHINI. The MELON (moon and stars) is still growing (which is a miracle in and of itself) and while the SWEET PEAS aren't exactly flowering, they're still growing, too.

Interestingly, the CORN in the clover did okay, but not great. I wonder if it didn't get enough water, and that's why it didn't grow very much? The TOMATOES that I planted out under the DUAL STONE also didn't grow very much before fruiting – a decent crop but not the huge plants I was expecting.

The MANGO lost all its fruit – I don't know for sure, but I strongly suspect that the local birds picked it all off. Next year, as soon as it sets fruit, the netting goes on! But beneath it, the DAHLIAS are blooming quite nicely!

And I have BANANAS! This is new, never had a bunch before! Need to cover them over before too long or the bird might destroy them!

CHOOKS:

One of our chooks has left us – unexpectedly, it was not Haamyu the black one who was sick the last time I wrote in here, but Daofu, her white counterpart, who got a cancerous growth in her belly and had to be put down. She is now safely composting for the next year in a compost bin that's well away from any of the usual spaces where anything is likely to dig her up. (Except the rats. And they can take their chances!)

Otherwise, the two little girls are laying (Kerry and Gladys) like clockwork – we probably won't have them for more than another year or two before their bodies give up. Goong was broody through most of November, then came off it, laid for about two weeks and is about to go broody again. Instead, Siyao went broody through the early half of December – she's never gone broody before, so that was very unexpected!

I need to move the chooks to the TRIANGLE ORCHARD and the driveway space so they dig around there and peck everything down. Even scratch a few things up where possible. Also, get at the fruit flies that are more or less decimating my tomatoes and which will probably also get to the PERSIMMONS. So many things to do, so little time.

a slightly bedraggled Kerry - she's the bottom of the pecking order!

COMPOST:

The compost I had my garden helper assist me in building got to 50C and stuck there for at least a week. It was fully active until I went away at the start of December and when I came back it had cooled some.

I should probably rebuild it, turning it over and incorporating a whole heap of shredded comfrey leaves. Right now, I'm digging it out, but I can still make out some of the components which isn't the best. But the main issue with rebuilding it is that it takes time, energy, and a strong back, and mine is rapidly going.

PREPARING:

The chook tractor is still on the CREPE-LYCHEE (I don't know what to call this bed), and I need to take it off and move it elsewhere for the girls to use for a while.

I need to set up the APRICOT/LYCHEE bed for receipt of the next tree (attempt).

Trees I have to plant:
APRICOT
BLACK SAPOTE
WHITE SAPOTE
ICE CREAM BEAN
KUMQUAT
SOUR CHERRY
CAMELLIA SINENSIS (bush)
UNKNOWN (sincerely, I can't remember, I'm terrible with labelling)

SEEDING:

I need to sow more mixes – leafies and roots, mostly. I haven't been terribly assiduous about it, and with the uneven hot days, it's been difficult to get things growing before a heatwave comes along and burns it to the ground.

Maybe put down some soil, plant the seeds and water in, cover with about an inch of pea mulch. Would that be enough to give it the insulation it needs against the crazy heat? Maybe...

PLANTING OUT:

GINGER in the small VEGEPOD, behind the tomatoes. Maybe I should plant another of the MELONS? I don't know which go where and I've never been very lucky with melons, but if I went with one of the warpaints, maybe? Do I still have melon seeds?

HARVEST:

TOMATOES in great numbers. The first round of CORN was eaten. Some BEANS – I think they're a butter bean. I also have some dragon's tongue BEANS that are doing nicely. Hopefully at some point, we'll get EGGPLANTS, but the single one I've gotten to fruiting stage is not looking very good with the recent heatwaves.

RASPBERRIES and STRAWBERRIES and ALPINE STRAWBERRIES are all regularly fruiting. Not much, but it doesn't have to be much – just one or two a day and we're good.

At some point there'll be a PUMPKIN – the Galeaux D'Eysines it definitely is: that pink and warty look that's so typical of the type!

FEEDING:

CORN again, maybe TOMATOES. Do the POTATOES need any?

Maybe if I fed the back beds, they might do better? But also, they need more regular watering, I think... I don't know how to do that more regularly, unless it's mulching them pretty heavily so they have a chance to properly set roots before a heatwave comes along...

PRUNING:

Both the DUAL PLUM and the FOUR-STONE and the CHERRY and the DONUT PEACH need some serious trimming down in January or February, and then shredding the rest.

Next year, I need to trim down the PERSIMMON significantly – it's shading out the rest of the bed. If I can do it after the harvest at the end of summer, that would probably be best.

THOUGHTS:

With everything looking the way it is in the world right now, I sincerely don't think we're going to conquer climate change. It takes too much will, too much effort, and too many people are caught in the money trap. Most of those with the capacity to believe that we're changing the way the planet works aren't willing to change anything so long as they don't.

Basically, I believe we're screwed.

So my job on this property is both to pay off the mortgage so it's ours in title and deed, free of the bank – which I can do in the next two years if my current job holds.

Extensions are never going to happen. I've settled with that. I wish we could afford some house improvements - get rid of the asbestos, insulate, and replace the fake weatherboard with real wood weatherboard. But that'll take way more money than we have, although if I could hold this job for another five years, then we might have the money – but who knows where the market will be by then?

Energy wise, we need to get on a solar battery ASAP. Preferably two. I should check in with a friend who I think does something related to solar community... I mailed him about it maybe five, six years ago when I first heard what he did. Need to go back and re-read those; I wasn't in the space to parse it all then, I kind of am now.

The other job I have is to maximise food production, which is going to be a lot more difficult. Limestone Permaculture manage it, and they have a knowledgeable and committed couple and their daughter on an acre of land, with a community both locally and more broadly. We have some starches – the taro is an excellent starch through the winter, and I can kind of do potatoes and pumpkins – more starches. The eggs provide protein, although we're dependent on getting more chickens as they die off, and we're not slaughtering them. (They probably wouldn't be very big anyway. Meat birds are a very different proposition to layers.)

I have the knowledge, actually using it and refining it to make a regular harvest is another matter. That said, I'm pretty sure that we could produce enough basic calories to survive on this site; whether they would be useful and suitable and of sufficient variety? That's another matter.

Deep and depressing thoughts, I guess. I'm not giving up, and neither should anyone reading this, but realistically, we don't have the social/political will nor the awareness to see what's coming, let alone meet it on a social scale. Individual and small community will have to be it.

dear diary: getting warmer and fruitier

OBSERVATIONS:

So much to do, the weather is doing the 'starting to get warmer' thing which it should have done in September, but unfortunately ended up being a few crazy hot days that just wrecked everything.

Driveway TOMATOES are doing okay, but not great. They're fruiting, but they're not very large, almost more like bush tomatoes than indeterminate ones. Aso, I seem to have mixed in a CHERRY tomato with the ROMA ones, so.

Lots of little ant-flies on the chook manure I got from the Dural fruit shop. Heaps of them. They don't seem to be any particular damage, but there's a lot of them and I don't know what they do.

PEACHES. The golden ones are ripening a lot earlier than in previous years.

CHOOKS:

Haamyu is still hanging on, but she gets medicated every night and every morning, and so far as we can tell, she's still not back to normal. Just hanging on. Her face is dry and flaking, and B1 worries about her. I don't feel I have time or energy to worry about her.

Otherwise, Goong went broody again, it didn't feel as long this time. There's a lot of laying, although a couple of Siyao's eggs have a hole in them, we're not sure if somone pecked holes in them or it just so happened that she didn't make the shell properly.

Started mite-watering them after discovering lice and so forth on Haamyu, although that might also be because she's not dustbathing herself properly.

COMPOST:

Got garden assistant (Noah) to help me move the compost in the bays into a single bay, and it's hit about 50C heat, so that's good. Some stuff going on in the middle.

PREPARING:

Set down woodchips around the MANGO, the PERSIMMON, and dumped a load of euchy mulch under the CITRUS and near the DUAL STONE.

Need to work out where the rest of the chook manure bags should go, along with the remainder of the chip mulch. (Unless I plan to make another compost with the chook manure, the horse manure, the chip mulch, and the spent coffee grounds. Maybe if I add the composting leafmulch to it? I mean, I could, maybe? But in what? Try the old black square composter by the fence?)

SEEDING:

A seed mix in the BATHTUB garden in the back: BEETROOT: golden detroit, LEEK: autumn giant, american flag, LETTUCE: cimmaron, BASIL: sweet italiano classico, CARROT: sprouting.

I think I should plant more:
CAPSICUM
EGGPLANT

PLANTING OUT:

In the APPLE-CREPE:
CORN (several died with the heatwave we had a day or two after)
CAPSICUM (seems to have died, likely due to heatwave)
TOMATOES (black cherry, perhaps? Or just randoms?)
CUCUMBER (or possibly a melon or zucchini, but I think it's a cuke)

Potato bed:

1. Pulled the garlic - black aphids mean they didn't get very far. Try again next year, but maybe look at better aphid control? (how to deal with other than by spray)
2. Pulled out the mint roots as best I could
3. Added chook manure
4. Dug a hole, put the long pot of potatoes in
5. Added more chook manure and the Marvel Black mix (from Bunnings)
6. rolled potatoes onto their side (away from driveway) and covered with soil dug up from the driveway side of the bed
7. Did Edge-in-situ composting (comfrey, nettles, chookpoop) along driveway side of bed
8. Watered in
9. Covered with pea straw

Planted some lettuces in PLUM-STONE, also some beets/carrots/others in BATHTUB and in APPLE-CREPE

HARVEST:

Last few avocadoes, but the peaches are in full form. That's going to be a little crazy in the coming days.

Pulled the GARLIC, it was vastly inadequate to the effort I put in, and the black aphids had eaten most of them. I've picked two lots, got the black box and the ones up the back of one of the vegepods to do. I think the ones in the vegepod might end up being the best of the lot.

BEANS from the BUSH BEANS (mistakenly thought to be POLE BEANS) in the back of the AVO-SHED

CORN has pollination stems, but not much by way of cobs and silks. I've saved some of the pollen, but I may need to save some more early morning.

Small Vegepod TOMATOES are growing and ripening well.

And, of course, the fruit trees:

FEEDING:

I've fed the CORN, the MANGO tree, the 2 small VEGEPODS, the back

STAKING & PROTECTING:

Staked the TOMATOES in the PLUM-STONE bed, and pruned them down. They're just going into flowers.

Should probably check the GOLDEN DORSET apples, also whether the other apples are setting fruit. Not sure about that right now, they don't look great.

PLANNING:

Need to better work out the CREPE-APRICOT and what's going to go into it. The APRICOT died, so did the LYCHEE.

• Was it the soil? Something else?
• I could try putting the other apricot in? Prep the ground properly this time: loosen the soil, build it up, etc.
• Or plant something else entirely?
• That's a space that gets a lot of sun in summer but not much in winter down at ground level (once it's 1.5m high, it will get sunlight)
• Will get shaded by the avo in the midsummer (until it gets too large)
• If it needs feeding, it could be tricky to feed.

Plan would be:

• Test the soil - pH, etc.
• Build up the soil profile there.
• Gotta think about this - maybe consult with people.

THOUGHTS:

The AVO-SHED bed doesn't seem to do very well. No, I lie, the BEANS are doing well. Although it turns out what I thought were POLE BEANS are actually BUSH BEANS, and what I thought were BUSH BEANS turned out to be POLE BEANS, so there's that.

In the AVO-SHED is also the EGGPLANT which is...holding on. But not growing. I don't know if it needs better soil, more watering, richer nutrients or what. But its not much bigger than it was when I planted it and I don't know what's going on. Maybe the bed itself isn't great with nutrients? I can't tell.

I want to pull out the GARLIC bed (which currently has POTATOES in it) and relocate it to that section right between the APPLE ESPALIER and the DUAL STONE. Better sun, less shade than beneath the persimmon, and maybe better chances of growing things.

Dear Diary: 24th October

OBSERVATIONS:

After a brief 'heat wave' (summer temps in spring), we've had fairly 'spring' temps, but I think August was dry and hot, and September was working it out, and October's been...pretty good? More damp than I remember it being before. I think we need a bit more dry through November to concentrate the flavour of the stone fruit into the flesh. Hopefully we get it.

The PERSIMMON has gone from bare branches to full metal leafage in a matter of weeks. Plus fruit everywhere. I have no idea how I'm going to net it; it's going to be a job and a half and I'm not sure they make nets big enough! Have to think about this.

If I leave the TWO-STONE nectarines out much longer, I think they're going to mould, the way they always do (that variety is very prone to mould). So I might pick them this weekend and dry them in the food dryer as quarters and halves. Has to be done during the day, so hopefully there's sun on the weekend!

CHOOKS:

Sister noticed one of the chooks – Haamyu - wasn't doing so well earlier this week, and so she got taken to the vet. They didn't do a scan of her, but thought she might have some kind of inflammation, and so she's got antibiotics to help things along. It's a bit of a mess, though.

Goong's gone broody again.

Kerry's eye stye appears to be coming back, dammit.

I note that Kerry is usually grazing right up until dusk. I wonder if she's getting enough; she's the smallest of the chickens and scrawny, but seems to be a regular egg-layer. I'm thinking of spoiling her with high-energy mash, specially. (She's just so small and dainty, but in a beaten-and-bullied kind of way.)

Need to take the tractor off the APPLE-CREPE tree

COMPOST:

I dug out most of the right-hand bay and dumped it on the centre bay, along with a layer of woodchips that I chipped on Sunday. Don't think it's heated up, though. *sigh* I'm terrible at making compost.

PREPARING:

Put some pea straw down in the APPLE-CREPE with the tractor, then move it onto the CREPE-RHUBARB, but don't open it up to the chooks just yet. Wait until the LEAFY GREENS there have finished setting their seeds, then pluck the stems and let the chooks in.

APPLE-CREPE will be planted out with the CORN and the CAPSICUMS. But I need to put a couple of capsicums somewhere warmer.

SEEDING:

Sowed a 'Chicken Feed' mix from Mr. Fothergill's (Bunnings) beneath the lounge room windows, covered with a wire basket. It is now the NakedGardener Patch after a woman I follow on TikTok who burned herself with boiling water about a year ago, and posted that she was planting garlic today (she's in the northern hemisphere) not to remember the day, which she describes as the worst of her life, but to change the meaning of the day.

I also sowed a handful of brassicas for summer, very few of which are actually sprouting, alas. I don't know if it's too hot for them, or if they'd just taking their time, but the other day there were only two which had sprouted.

The CLOVER in front of the chook yards are doing nicely.

PLANTING OUT:

Still need to plant out CAPSICUMS, CORN, MELONS (I need to get these out soon!Actually, this weekend might be a good idea, because next weekend is going to be rainy), a couple of TOMATOES and...other stuff.

I also planted a WHITE SAPOTE under the JACARANDA, in part because I need to have a succession plan for that tree, because I don't want it there forever.

Oh boy, I need to work out where I can fit the GINGER. They did really really well in the vegepod, and I'm inclined to put them there again.

HARVEST:

DAMMIT. MY ONE APRICOT FELL OFF. I'm really pissed off about that; I have three apricot trees, and half the reason I got into growing things in the first place is because I have the fondest memories of the apricot tree that we grew in the backyard back in the 80s, and it gave the most amazing apricots. I haven't tasted anything like it in all that time; mostly because anyone who has an apricot tree is not about to give away their apricots. They're just too good.

Maybe I should go visit a friend out in Orange and see if they've got apricots.

Speaking of travelling out of town, I need to look at what's available to see in Tamworth.

Picking AVOCADOS once a week still.

I think the GARLIC is about to need harvesting. I need to look up when they are to be picked, and how to preserve them. Also: WHERE AM I GOING TO KEEP THEM, DAMMIT?

FEEDING:

I gave some epsom salts to...the BLUEBERRIES and a bunch of the other plants under the front lounge window, maybe a little to the vegepod tomatoes. And some more to the staked tomatoes and the plants in the driveway vegepod.

I think I fed the MANGO. Not sure what I fed it with, though.

I also made a weed tea with dandelions and other weeds from the front yard, soaking them in water until it's smelly, and I've been adding it to my watering buckets, so everything is getting a nice nutrient bath.

PRUNING/STAKING:

Finaly staked the TOMATO PATCH in the triangle garden. Also staked the tomatoes in the small vegepods.

I think I need to prune the APRICOT down. Possibly also the DUAL PLUM and maybe even the CHERRY. They need a nice big shock, something that will change the fruiting game with them. It's very annoying, thoug.

THOUGHTS:

We finally got the window shades up again, to the west and the north. It meant dismantling the chicken run under the lounge room window, but that's okay. The girls won't die from being kept in the chook yards and the tunnels.

I'm wondering if i'm going to need to hire someone to help with the harvest, and whether I could pay them in preserves... Or, I could just call on assistance from the PSN crowd....and pay them in lunch and preserves. :)

dear diary: 12th October

WEATHER & OBSERVATIONS:

After an exceedingly dry winter, we've had a few weeks of wet warmth and everything is growing, shooting, seeding, sprouting.

I planted a bunch of clover cover, and it seems to be actually sprouting where I planted it, once I covered it with a bit of pea straw and

I no longer have the time to dedicate to the garden in the volumes that I once did, now that I'm not working from home anymore. So A lot of stuff that needs to be done is going to be done on weekends only, although some watering will take place once I get home. Also have to learn to be careful about overdoing it. I accidentally did four hours in the garden today because I got involved in doing things and lost track of time!

Driveway corn is doing well, one died – got dug up by the chooks – but the others are growing well apace. I feel like they need more feeding, so I'll probably look at giving them a bit more chook poop direct.

Note: PATH VEGEPOD has the Musquee de Provence PUMPKIN.

CHOOKS:

Six chooks-a-laying means a lot of eggs. A lot of a lot of eggs. And even once we use them up, they're still laying! We've given eggs away to the neighbours all around, and I guess my church friends are up next.

Since the chooks have denuded all the spaces available to them, and only one set of neighbours brings their grass clippings over, I've been pulling the seedy grass weeds up and tossing them down for the chooks. They're also getting a fairly regular diet of mustard greens, along with any leafies that have holes in them. For the most part they seem pretty happy with this.

Kerry still seems to be the bottom ranking – at least, she's the one that everyone picks on when they're looking for someone to punish. She's the smallest and the most ragged, but when they hop up on the perches at night, she's usually tucked into the corner – “my corner – MINE!”

Gladys has a 'cough', which is as regular as a hiccup and sounds a bit like a honk. That said, she doesn't seem to be in pain, it's just a noise she makes – autonomic, rather than conscious.

Goong is back to laying, Hamyuu never stopped. Daofu hasn't shown any issues since we discovered the hernia and she's still laying. Carambah is fine but obviously doesn't lay since she got the implant. Siyao is fine, just has a lot of 'white' feathers, like she's gone prematurely grey.

They all seem happy.

COMPOST:

Got moved from centre bay to right bay, but didn't heat up, unfortunately. Very annoying. I made another pile in the centre bay and that one has almost gone to 'active' but not quite. I think it might need more chook poop to properly compost, so maybe next weekend, I might do a bit of adding and turning, and mix up the centre bay with more chook poop and then mix it into the right bay.

PREPARING:

Chook tractor is still on the APPLE-CREPE, chooks have quite thoroughly dug it up and cleaned it out. It might need some compost toppings before it's quite ready, though.

If I can get some woodchipping done sometime this week, then I can put that in the chook tractor. Otherwise it may end up being mostly pea straw to cover things over.

SEEDING/SPROUTING:

Trying to decide what next to plant. I feel like I should do at least a couple of brassicas and attempt a cabbage. Right now it's the peak time for planting.

DAHLIAS underneath the MANGO are sprouting.

Discovered a volunteer cucurbit near the driveway cornfield, which is pretty funny.

PLANTING OUT:

SIDE VEGEPOD
TOMATO – wasp peach, in a trio
CORN – silvermine, about a dozen of them
ZUCCHINI – black beauty
SWEET PEAS – (left to right) Matucana, Original, Beaujolais, Solstice Crimson

TRIANGLE
BEANS – snake beans to grow up wire grille sealing off the chicken frontage
SUNFLOWER – a solitary one that sprouted

LOUNGE BED/CHICKEN FRONTAGE
SWEET PEAS – remainders from planting out the side vegepod
SUNFLOWERS – (might be moonwalker and teddy bear, or else Van Gogh's Landscape and Giant Russian Organic)

PLUM-STONE
TOMATO - marmande
LETTUCE - Australian yellow leaf (one survived)
SPINACH - bloomsdale
BEANS (I think they're bush beans left over from elsewhere)

POTS
Two MELONs – one moon and stars, one unknown from someone in Thornleight – and the PUMPKIN – Galeaux d'Eysines – planted into pots and stuck back into the greenhouse, fed with chook manures
CAPSICUM – planted all into the black six-pod seedling, and feed with chook manure

DRIVEWAY CORN
Planted one more ZuCCHINI and a couple of CUCUMBERS in among them. We'll see how it goes.

HARVEST:

Still AVOCADOs, but the ALPINE STRAWBS are having a good go of it, and the

FEEDING:

Watered some beds with biologics,

NETTING:

I really need to net the donut peach and the cherry, even though the cherry doesn't have much on it this year.

THOUGHTS:

Steph came to visit the other week to get some avocado scions for grafting to one of her own rootstocks, and of course she got a tour. She commented that I had a lot growing, and that it was all doing well. At least, right now it is. Whether it continues to do well? That's another matter.

I do have a lot of things going on this year, and that's pretty deliberate; I'd like to settle into a rhythm of doing better at actually using what's in the garden, and gardening for what I'll use.

eg. Making a quiche out of eggs and the leafy greens from the garden last week. Eating avos. Working out how to turn spaces more productive.

I'd like to get some cabbages/broccoli in for winter. Somewhere with a bit of sun, but otherwise cool. Not sure where this mythical place might be...

dear diary: 20th September - planting out all over the place

With my surgery on the 6th, I was not supposed to be doing any big gardening for a couple of weeks after.

Me, being me, has sneaked in a little bit here and there, as the healing has progressed. So far, no (re)lapses, and some good planting done. Although I should maybe not have done the shovelling to day

Forthwith, the notes I made for my friend who came to help me out on Tuesday!

MANGO: Plant DAHLIAS

• dig trench around the edge
• plant DAHLIAs in trench with handful of worm farm/green wheelbarrow soil
• ETA: Order of Dahlias, clockwise: black heart, Devon Seattle winky Cavalier, Formby Empress, Violet, freckles, Cottage Delight, Betty, Atlantic jewels, briannon, Chloe, Noreen, vintage wine, Dusty Rose.

AVO-SHED: one EGGPLANT, various BUSH BEANS, assorted LETTUCES, KALE, SILVERBEET, ROCKET, BASIL

• stake out squares
• put in structure for beans
• plant Eggplant and Beans with a handful of extra soil (from black box compost or composed chook poo
• ETA:
Rocket, Mixed Lettuce, Basil, mixed Lettuce, and English Spinach (Mediema)

TOMATO GARDEN : TOMATOES (Roma)

• plant out tomatoes in tomato bed, also garlic bed.
• Plant with handful of worm castings/composted chook poo
• set up frame for protection
• watering system

GARLIC BED: eggplant & Capsicum

• one eggplant, one capsicum in each with handful of worm castings + composted chook poo
• bluebird olla?

CORN LAWN:

• move chicken run
• dig holes in soil (post digger?)
• plant corn with a handful of worm castings/composted chook poo

Planning:

• BANANA CIRCLE: one pumpkin - not yet
• VEGEPOD: one watermelon
• Small VEGEPOD: PEANUT, POTATO and PUMPKIN - Galeaux D'Eysines

Still to do:

• consider what to do with the large vegepod. (Ideally, I'd like to make a verge garden out of it, for use by the general public. But I'm a bit iffy about it, given some of the thieves around the here!)
• work out where the watermelon, and Musquee d'Provence PUMPKIN should go. Also, the MELON seedling that someone gave me along with a couple of cherry tomato seedlings.

So far, everything appears to be transplanting well, a little bit of wilting on the tomatoes' part this afternoon because it was quite warm and a bit windy, but I hadn't watered the tomatoes in. Going to need to give them a good soaking for the next couple of days. Supposed to be a couple of very wet days next week, and then some light showers the week after. We could do with a good soaking. Just not 40 days of it.

dear diary: 13th September, post-surgery

Got out of hospital on Sunday, have been taking it easy (where 'easy' is relative to what I usually do; it's hard to stop entirely) but the problem is that this is spring and there's so much to do!

I'm presently negotiating with friends to do a few things around the place while I'm still unable to actually do stuff.

OBSERVATIONS:

AVO-STONE: has been left for a couple of weeks. A TOMATO (unknown) has sprouted, and a couple of BRASSICAS (unknown).

Apricot graft on STONE has produced two apricots, they'll shortly need to be netted.

Flowering SALVIA between DONUT PEACH and CHERRY isn't doing great (not well-watered, didn't dig a hole for it, just set it down.

Don't think any of the grafts are going to make it. The hot-and-dry wind of late August/early September stalled them all, and they're not going to make it.

APRICOT at FRONT FENCE seems to have a couple of tiny apricots.

MANGO at FRONT FENCE is shooting what looks like fruit florets. It looks like the fruit florets come off new wood which grows off old wood.

LYCHEE seems to have died during the dry winds of last week. Roots weren't covered enough, weren't watered enough. Dammit. I think I have / had a LONGAN, but that doesn't seem to be doing so well either.

The PERSIMMON fruits (like the MANGO) on new wood, which sprouts off old wood, as seen in the pic:

CHOOKS:

Goong is STILL BROODY. Argh. Just going on four weeks.

Everyone else is fine, dustbathing in the triangle garden is the pastime of the day. Tunnels set up to channel them carefully across the grass. Trying to grow clover around the tunnel.

Hoping that the next week or two will be damp enough to give them something to grow and dig into the ground...

COMPOST:

Not getting above 30C. I think that's just going to be a slow compost.

Should move the black compost bin from by the fence to...somewhere else. Don't know where. Have to think about that. I want to open it up to the public, but it'll just end up with a shitload of dogshit in plastic bags. Because people are literally crappy.

PREPARING:

PLUM-STONE: Start tossing handfuls of rockdust and other fertilisers in.

AVO-STONE: has been left for a couple of weeks. A TOMATO (unknown) has sprouted, and a couple of BRASSICAS (unknown). Planting out to commence next week.

PLANTING:

Planted a new set of Royal Burgundy BUSH BEANS – direct into AVO-SHED, with plans for planting out.

Have SILVERBEET, ROCKET, LETTUCE, SPINACH, KALE to grow in and around things. Also BASIL and CORIANDER.

SEEDING:

Germination pattern of the beans I planted; some died during the hot-dry wind that we had last week.

PLANTING OUT:

Snake BEANS – next to driveway, near flowers. I keep trying here but it never seems to go well with peas and sweet peas, maybe snake BEANS will?

Snake BEANS – between APPLE ESPALIER to grow upwards

Tiger's Eye BEANS – in old APRICOT (now LYCHEE?) - up the back fence.

AVO-SHED: one EGGPLANT, various BUSH BEANS, assorted LETTUCES, KALE, SILVERBEET, maybe some RADISHES

TOMATOES (Roma) – in 'TOMATO GARDEN' – will ask Kris to do it next week.

HARVEST:

Asparagus! The fourth spear (previous 3 picked and eaten) here:

Still AVOCADOES. One ORANGE left. I harvested some GARLIC stalks for cooking with BROCCOLI, and they were excellently tasty.

FEEDING:

Need to work out a feeding schedule for TOMATOES, EGGPLANTS, CAPSICUMS (including the two still in the CREPE-APRICOT.

THOUGHTS:

I wish I could better tighten the connections from the water tank pump; so when they turned on, they wouldn't leak so much. Connect the watering system to the water tank for the summer, run it once a day before dawn?
Move tractor to APPLE-CREPE? nothing grew well there in the previous cycle, none of the brassicas, barely any of the beetroots, everything's going to seed right now. Maybe the second crop of CORN goes there? CORN generally does pretty well in the backyard, and it's a limited-season crop, so by the time the light fades from there, we're already well into autumn.
Work out where CUCUMBERS, ZUCCHINI, SOYBEAN, TOMATOES, two PUMPKINS and a WATERMELON are going to go this summer...

PUMPKINS and WATERMELON: maybe one PUMPKIN in the BANANA CIRCLE, and the other PUMPKIN in front of the LOUNGE ROOM? Except the GRAPE and the PASSIONFRUIT are already in front of the LOUNGE ROOM.
Turn the IBC into a WICKING BED (I wish I could have done this sooner, alas), then plant maybe the GRAPE and the PASSIONFRUIT in it, or one of the PUMPKINS, or the WATERMELON.
What if I ran the WATERMELON out of one of the VEGEPODS, along with the TOMATOES and GARLIC? It would need heavy feeding, like heavy heavy feeding. Otherwise, wherever the WATERMELON goes, it's going to want an olla, at least, maybe something a bit more? Dig a compost circle around it?

dear diary: 31st August - trying to keep on top of it all

OBSERVATIONS:

We've had some crazy hot-and-windy days and those dry the garden out something terrible, especially when we haven't had much by way of rain lately.

Turns out the Apricot by the front fence (the Tilton) blooms later than the Paterson (in pot). Paterson had about three flowers, all died without pollinating. Tilton has a bunch of buds starting up! That's definitely going to need some kind of an espalier frame to hang the net off if they pollinate into teeny tiny apricots!

Downside: someone yanked out some of my flowering plants by the roots – at least two days ago – and now I'm anxious about theives. I need to stick some nettle stalks in among the last plant.

CHOOKS:

Goong still broody. Carambah still being medicated. Tofu still has the hernia, but otherwise seems okay. B1 (sister) thinks that the hernia might be growing, but it looks...ordinary. The problem is usually when trying to herd Tofu somewhere: she runs and is absolutely desperate not to get caught. She's a slippery one, and prone to getting out of the coop and the run, and I'm worried about her catching on something and then tearing herself.

Alphamites seem to be working. Have ordered some 'pen pals' mites to sprinkle in the compost and in the coop, hopefully that will hold them.

COMPOST:

Pen Pals mites ordered for the compost – 2L.

GRAFTING:

Addendum to the grafts: with the hot days, I'm hoping the grafts where I removed the plastic around them haven't dried out. One was looking a little dry, but then the soil around the tree was also dry, so I watered it.

Did another two Royal Lee Cherry grafts on the cherry since it's not yet budding. We'll see if they take.

SOWING:

Tomatoes – Waspinicon Peach

Capsicum – Seven Wonders

Watermeon – red Moon and Stars

Pumpkin – Galeaux d'Elysine

Pumpkin -

Zucchini – black beauty

Cucumber – burpless

SEEDLINGS:

Tomatoes are large enough to plant out

Eggplants could probably do with another week

Beans:
Cherokee Wax (bush) – 2/8 germination
Snake beans – have almost all sprouted (7/8 germination rate)
Royal Burgundy (bush) – 0/7 germination
Tiger's Eye – 1/5 germination

Corn – about 50% strike rate, which isn't very good

PLANTING OUT:

Tomatoes (roma) into the newly created Tomato bed (thursday evening)

Eggplant, bush beans, summer lettuces, radishes into AVO-SHED

Need to think about where to put the snake beans; they'll want to grow up a structure, but we don't really have a structure that's big or reliable enough right now. Although I'm tempted to put them at the eastern edge of the lawn, out in front of the street facing windows and see how they grow. Apparently they like lightly depleted soil, and that should be pretty much the deal there. The problem is structure.

Picked up and dumped the big flowering salvia between Donut Peach and Cherry. Trimmed it back. We'll see how it does.

HARVEST:

Avocados mostly Still oranges.

Did the last of the sweet potato, but haven't really done anything with it. It's a “just in case' kind of food, right now, not a staple. Eventually, though, I think it'll be a staple. We'll want it to be a staple.

An asparagus spear popped up! Just one!

FEEDING:

Did the mango tree (bagged chook manure, plus sawdust to cover). Should add some pea straw around the base for a bit more eventual nitrogen.

Potassium water on just about everything. Hopefully sufficiently diluted that they won't kil everything they come in contact with!

start using the seaweed brew

PREP:

Avo-shed is sitting ready. Tomatoes didn't do so well there last year, so I'm hesitant to try again. Maybe some eggplant if suitably fed. Eggplant, bush beans, summer lettuces, basil, radishes. That's the plan.

'Tomato bed' – a space in the triangle garden:
- dandelion 'weed tea' & worm castings raked in together
- add garden lime and superphosphate – rake in together
- cover with hay
- protect with black siding
- flyscreen 'A-frame' to cover

'half-garlic bed' – other side of the garlic bed, had sweet potato vines all through it
- pulled out all the vines and all the potatoes I could find
- worm castings raked into the soil
- cover with hay
- protect with wire baskets

DONE:
- tractor moved to Plum-Stone
- netting over two-stone
- netting over dual stone (needs pegging)
- galangal and blue turmeric planted at the edge of the chook yard – inside edge; may not last, might need some rocks/bricks or something to keep them safe

TO DO:
1. Plant out tomatoes in new tomato bed (Thursday night)
2. Snake beans into front lawn.