dear diary: 30th September - last little bits and pieces

WORKING DAY:

With the assistance of Cat, got a post in, attached the unbroken half of the beam to it, then cut off the end, and replaced the broken part.

May need to do a bit of guerilla gardening on the other side of the fence; put down some meadow flowers or something. Perhaps some foxglove? Hm. What about perennials that can grow through the fence but which the chooks can't touch?

POPPIES in the TROPICAL BED.

Two composting thingies and half the soil dumped into the black plastic composter down the bottom of the garden, to process through the summer.

Planted out the remainder of the AVO-SHED: two Red Boar TOMATOES, some MARIGOLDS (or maybe CALENDULAS) on the path side, and a sprinkle of the 'bed filler' container: radishes, carrots, silverbeet, lettuce, beetroot, and maybe shallots? Anyway, we'll see how that goes.

Got the PLUM and the DONUT PEACH netted. CHERRIES are flowering and so are SOUR CHERRIES so I don't think I'll get them netted at all, because the fruit would be set by next week and I won't be here next week.

I hope the watering system runs okay while I'm gone...

dear diary - 29th September 2026: about to go away and trying to get everything to just run reliably

Whew. I'm just not keeping up with everything going on right now.

OBSERVATIONS:

It's been pretty hot and rainy for a few days – enough that a few things are starting to grow, including the green mulch mix that I planted in the CREPE-APRICOT...just as I was about to plant that out.

The GARLIC is acquiring black aphids right, left, and centre. I've had to spray them with Neem Oil to keep them under control, and it's probably going to need more of it in a week. Might have to leave instructions with B1.

Tiger's Eye BEANS in AVO-SHED:

CHOOKS:

A summary of eggs:
Brown and shiny is Jima-Wu (araucana cross), pale creamy brown is Goongbao (wyandotte), elongated and streaky is Siyao (barnevelder), blue is Jiandoy (cream legbar) , white is Hongyan (leghorn cross). We get at least four eggs a day, five when Goong isn't broody (which she's been for the last four weeks or so). We're giving eggs away at a rate of knots right now.

Gonna move the chooks to the PLUM-STONE bed before I leave, I think. Cover some of the spaces with low-baskets so the chooks can peck at the greens but can't dig them up.

Yard is not covered over (yet). We may not do the entirety of it all. Just limiting access to food and water so the native birds can't reach it may be sufficient.

Also, the south-west chook yard beam broke sometime last weekend, and so Wednesday 30th, I'll be (hopefully) rectifying it with a new upright, and at least half a new crossbeam.

COMPOST:

Right bin – bought garden soil, sulfured, some compost mixed in
Centre bin – compost that didn't sieve
white industrial bag – bought garden soil, sulfured
three grow bags – bought garden soil, sulfered
up under eaves: garden compost

PREPARING:

Got Cat to help me fill two more of the grow bags – one with GINGER, the other with DAHLIAS

Planning to turn the fake half-barrel into a bit of a wicking bed, and then plant the rest of the DAHLIAS in it. There's also a few dahlias under the MANGO TREE.

SEEDING:

No more seeds. Although I guess I could plant some more CORN so it's ready to be planted out when I get back?

PLANTING OUT:

TOMATOES:

In the upgraded LOUNGE ROOM WATER-UP:
Orange Flesh Purple Smudge - indeterminate, fresh
Black Icicle – indeterminate, cooking sauces stews, slicing, drying, eating fresh
Black Krim- indeterminate, SALAD, SLICING, BOTTLING, SAUCE, & PRESERVES
Tropic - indeterminate, might be good for processing: “thick walled”
Cherokee Purple – indeterminate, beefsteak type

In the DRIVEWAY VEGEPOD:
Amethyst Cream (cherry) – indeterminate, fresh
Barry's Crazy Cherry – indeterminate, yellow, fresh

In the TRIANGLE WATER-UP:
Red Boar – indeterminate, medium size (planning to use this for tomato canning)

CORN:
Silvermine: many seeds sprouting – CREPE-APRICOT
Glass Gem: 4 seeds sprouting – DRIVEWAY VEGEPOD

HARVEST:

Last of the CABBAGES (outer leaves were bitter, but inner leaves were lovely as a slaw), but we're not getting through the BROCCOLI fast enough (who'da thunk it).

I gave a bunch of SILVERBEET to Cat as a thank you for the work she helped me with last week. Gave Darren a SWEET POTATO, SILVERBEET, and a BROCCOLI for moving the boxes of soil over to the deep corner of the yard.

Former APRICOT/AVO bed has been a bit overgrown by the little GOOSEBERRY plant, I've chopped it all back (and the girls have been pecking away at it), and planted 4 COFFEE, a PINEAPPLE and two ALOE VERA. There should also be some GALANGAL in there (or maybe it's TURMERIC). But I'm thinking that space could be a more hot/tropical area during summer, and when things grow sufficiently, then they might get some sun in winter.

I should plant the BETEL there, too.

FEEDING:

I planted the CORN, COFFEE, ALOE VERA, and PINEAPPLE with WORM CASTINGS and a dusting of B&B, then watered in with a little of Lee's Biocast solution.

PRUNING:

Everything's pruned back, but need to net the backyard PLUM and maybe the DONUT PEACH. Also, weirdly, the backyard CHERRY has a few flowers! Very unexpected. Whether we get cherries? Another matter entirely.

THOUGHTS:

When Cat comes:
- fix the chook yard post and framing
- fill the black composting ring? First with woodchips, then with the contents of the black composting ring up by the driveway, then add the bought garden soil over that, and finish with the leafmulch from autumn. (Last autumn? This autumn? Doesn't really matter I think.)
- make one wicking bed? (pref: backyard)

The PATHWAY VEGEPODS need a dig out and a refresh. I think the soil in them has become hydrophobic, because all I seem to get is runoff when I try to water them. Actually, the DRIVEWAY VEGEPOD also needs a dig out and a refresh – same problem. And also: the horseradish has grown entirely through the damn thing. Maybe a permabee to clean them out and also get the FRONT PORCH WICKING BED going?

Need to order more BIOCAST solution from Lee, although I have no idea how I'm going to get it down to Sydney.

dear diary: 17th September 2026 - hot weekend is a'comin'

OBSERVATIONS:

It's early September and the weather is already hot. I complained about the cold through June and July and early August, but even now the weather is easing up. It'll be late-twenties by the end of September.

It's going to be a burning summer.

Plans:
1. make a space for the chooks under the house, limit them there on the hot summer days.
2. cover over the chicken run, and tarp the chicken yards (extra netting down the sides of the yards)

I'm thinking of taking off the roofing on one part of the chook run and angling it in the direction of the slope. It would have to be done before tarping the chicken yards, though.

CHOOKS:

All the girls are laying, Hangyan did a double-yolker the other day. Hangyan also tends to try to limit the other two's eating. If she's eating at the trough, the other little girls are chased away. If they're eating at the hanging feeders, she'll hop up to take over. It's why we have multiple feeders – to make sure that everyone gets a feed.

COMPOST:

Need to dig out the compost in the 3rd bay – find somewhere to put it at least...

I bought a load of soil from Flower Power. pH is somewhere in the 12 range, I think... Unsuitable for planting straight off, and likely to poison anything I put it on. *sigh*

The goal right now is to move it into containers and spaces where it can rest and the pH can restore. I'm adding sulphur to it by the spoonful, but it's going to be pretty bad. My regular compost is easily pH 7 – almost neutral.

PREPARING:

What to do about the Flower Power soil – ph of at least 10.
1. Add Sulphur to remediate the soil.
2. Get it into holding containers to sit for the next few months
- sand bag
- black adjustable composter
- compost bays

SEEDING:

Planted some more Golden Acre CABBAGES – last week in August

Planted BEANS in the various beds where I'd already put the FlPw soil – partly to check for those pesticides that linger in the soil, partly to act as a soil regulator, partly to check if beans will grow in that degree of basic soil.
Wax (butterbean? black seed) in the Triangle Bed wicking bed.
Tigers Eye in the AVO-SHED
[the other bean] in the LOUNGE ROOM WATER-UPs

PLANTING OUT:

- Elephant GARLIC (about 3 cloves)
COFFEE plants in the bed in the backyard. It should do okay through most of the year, but might struggle a little in winter with less sun. We'll see, I guess.

HARVEST:

CABBAGE – don't know what kind this was, but it had long leaves like a wombok, but also slightly spicy, like a Chinese mustard variety

BROCCOLI – still going with a head here and a head there.

FEEDING:

Fed the GARLIC in the pathway VEGEPOD

PRUNING and NETTING:

1. Neko-Peach is netted (but some fruit is already stung, will need to dispose of these).
- I need to toss the net next year.

2. netting for FOUR-STONE PLUM
- needs to be all the way around the branch to try to keep the possums out.

THOUGHTS: Thoughts on seasons:

TO DO:

soil

1. Clear out compost bay

2. reform compost bays

3. Line compost bay with panels

4. move soil (remediating along the way)
- compost bays
- black compost

dear diary - 18th August: it's been far too long

One of the problems with this blog is sometimes I start an entry and then I don’t finish it, and it sits around in my drafts for forever,

And sometimes I write up an entry…and then somehow the damn thing gets lost. Entirely. Which puts me off rewriting it.

This diary entry has been written across about 2 months, and so may not make a lot of sense, jumbling a bunch of things all together.

OBSERVATIONS:

Wintergrass along that stretch on the lawn.

No grass on the south side of the triangle garden and the wood is mossing over and beginning to degrade. I’ve thought about setting this section up so it just ‘slides down’ to the lawn, rather than attempting to keep the raised bed and the lawn separate. I don’t know if this will solve the ‘no grass’ and ‘mossing wood’ problem. The lawn is always going to be its own degree of difficult to deal with.  

Chickens really like the green things – the younger ones especially. Weirdly when Hangyan was escaping (the Leghorns are absolute Houdinis) she didn’t usually end up eating the greens available. She spent more time scratching up the woodchip mulch on the paths.

My first planting of garlic died. The life got sucked out of them by those little black aphids that usually end up invading my alliums.

 

CHOOKS: When I started this entry originally, we had six chickens, and now we have five.

As at the start of August, Hangyan was laying. Sissy has begun laying again. Gladys is not laying, and we are feeding her calcium every night. (I'm not sure it's a good idea to be feeding her so much calcium if she's not laying.)

In the end, Gladys was dispatched on Monday 3rd Aug. I learned how to do so a month earlier at a course up in Limestone Permaculture, which was focused more on bird processing for the table. It was very helpful, and I was exceedingly glad to know how to do it as swiftly and neatly as possible.

 We don’t really talk about death enough in our culture – the end of life process that is going to happen to every one of us. I’m not sure if most older people – my parents’ generation - have really made their peace with it. I’m pretty sure most chicken owners haven’t.

Yesterday (17 th august) we had five eggs from five chickens, and one of them is an Easter Egger! So, yes, one layer of blue eggs. We aren’t sure who just yet. We thought it would be Jima-Wu, because Jiandoy is a Cream Legbar and their eggs are supposed to be creamy white, but everyone else was laying creamy white eggs (except for Sissy, who lays brown ones with patchy sections) so…

We known Hangyan lays white eggs – she’s a Leghorn, that’s what they do. We thought that Jima- Wu was laying creamy-coloured eggs, too, because she looked like she was laying. But there in the laying box yesterday was a dainty blue egg! So obviously someone lays blue eggs, and it should be Jima-Wu, but we thought she’d already laid and was laying white ones. Very odd.

COMPOST:

Several leaf mulches are going, hopefully breaking down in batches.

 I chipmulched a lot of branches, but only small ones. The larger ones have been a persisting problem - the chipper doesn't take them, and I don't know how to get them to a manageable decomposition size.

 I have a bunch of weeds that need mowing over, but haven’t been able to get the mower working – those bloody pull-cords. I really need to work out a solution to it.

 

PREPARING:

I dug up the section right behind the seat by the driveway and planted the Yakuma peas, and  added the sweet peas that are up against the picket fence.

later note: I should add the rest of the sweet peas, which are presently sitting in their cell pots still, on the WaterUps bed in the Triange Garden.

New Water-Ups base in Triangle Garden - outlet runs into the bed rather than visibly out (that was a mistake) Very heavy feeders in this bed, suitable for summer. Probably the CORN once I get it grown. If I get it grown…

I really need to work out what to do with the backyard beds. They’re pretty good for growing lettuce and salad greens, but I’m not sure they get quite enough sun until summer – also the beds themselves are largely invaded by the tree roots of the tree above.

 The backyard is a big question mark in any case. It’s intensive gardening and takes a lot more effort and work and watering than I like.

SEEDS:

CHILLIS - Angela's, one jalapeno, one long yellow chilli (can't remember which is which)
EGGPLANT - Angela's
TOMATO - Red Boar (Seed collection) – some of them are sprouting as at 18 th August
CORN - F1 Sweet (Fothergills)
EGGPLANT - heirloom mix (Diggers)

PLANTING OUT:

GARLIC in garage step beds - DONE
I figure interplanting with the STRAWBERRIES and ASPARAGUS will give it somewhere to grow – this is more for the GARLIC STALKS rather than the bulbs, as I’m hoping to get from the Water Ups bed.

PEAS  - golden podded - planted in the LOUNGE ROOM WATER-UPS

HARVEST:

The one cauliflower that headed was brown and promptly went to seed.

Mini CABBAGES have headed quite nicely. One picked, the other still growing in.

 There’s some kind of brassica that looks a bit cabbage-ish that is doing pretty well. I have no idea what kind of brassica it is, although I probably would if I went and looked up my old diary entries: THAT’S WHAT THEY’RE THERE FOR, SILLY...

Just went to look up the diary entries and no help there. They’re long, like wombok, but they look standard cabbagey

Anyway, otherwise the BROCCOLI are doing nicely. There are still a few ORANGES. No shortage of SHALLOTS, and I’m even getting some nice SPINACH, SILVERBEET, and other various LEAFY GREENS

FEEDING:

TBH, I’ve just been feeding everything with SEASOL, WORM WEE, adding fertilisers and composts, etc, wherever possible. I’ve even been feeding the brassicas with the ‘boron water’ made from the leaves of commercial cauliflowers, which contains boron – a necessary element for cabbages which the Australian soil does not typically contain.

PRUNING:

Heavy pruning late July on a lot of the fruit trees. Chipped a lot of the thinner branches and put them into composts.

 

THOUGHTS:

What are we going to do with the beds in the backyard? Taken over by tree roots, not great at growing anything anymore…

 

TO DO:

 Set up the frames for the netting – quite a few of the trees are in flower.

the end of the petroleum era

In 2017, I said At some point (nuclear war, abrupt end of the petroleum society, dire social breakdown) I may decide to start a Linda Woodrow circular permaculture garden in the front yard, but I feel that's a few years away right now...

Well, the abrupt end of the petroleum society is on its way. And I think the hardest part is that NOBODY IS TALKING ABOUT IT.

Except the paranoid. And that's a freaking giant OOF.

dear diary - May installment

Truly, these posts are spreading further and further out. Once a month, if we're lucky.

Also, I don't trust how much longer the internet is going to run free like this. Too many techbros who don't believe in the free flow of information among the peasants (that's anyone who doesn't earn a billion dollars a year, yes, that even includes you making money off bitcoin or whatever). They've been edging their way over here for twenty years, and we're about to see the fruit of their labors.

OBSERVATIONS: Colder weather, still very dry. Going to be a long dry winter, not sure about how cold - currently around 9-10C but we haven't hit the post-solstice chill yet, so might get some good frosts this year for the stonefruits (apricots in particular).

CHOOKS: The three little girls are growing up, getting to small pullet size. They're still in the triangle coop, snuggling up with each other, although we might have to take away the grille they've been sleeping on and get them up onto the perches. They know how to perch - they perch very happily during the day, but at night they cluster up on the grille.

Currently Hangyan has some honking problems, Jiandoy is limping, and Siyao has been having issues.

Sincerely, backyard chickens are way too expensive for the eggs they produce. FYI.

COMPOST: The rats have gotte into the compost bay where the girls are buried (Kerry and Carambah). I've also started a new 'cat poo compost' in the banana ircle. There's leafmulch happening in the PSN composter, and I'm probably going to have to set up another compost bin somewhere.

I should probably dig out the Coldie/Haamy compost - that's at least two years old by now, should be decently composted. And I could put the leaves in on that one.

Still have to redo the composting bays where I cleared them. Need to find something that can cut metal sheets.
EDIT: I think Matt is going to loan me a metalcutter.

PREPARING:

Set up metal garden bed in driveway
· Layer of mushroom compost
· Layer of straw
· Layer of cow manure
· Layer of garden soil

SEEDING:
· ONIONS - in a paper spiral (may have done it too deep)
· BRASSICAS (at least 6 each of CABBAGE, CAULI, BROCC, WOMBOK)
PEAS1: Sugarsnap Arcadis (with red acre cabbage)
PEAS2: Snowpea Arcadia (with golden acre cabbage)
PEAS3: Golden Podded (with broccoli)
PEAS4: Shelling Massey (with purple sicily cauli)
BOK CHOI

SWEET PEAS:
Triple 3 + High Society
Spencer Ripple
Beaujolais + Matucana

PLANTING OUT:
BRASSICAS (assorted - largely for the Crop Swap on the 31st)
CORIANDER
ZUCCHINI (a single zucchini)

I need to plant out all the small seedlings in pots that I have
DONE
COFFEE
LYCHEE
UNKNOWN (honestly, I don't remember what it is)
BETEL

HARVEST:
Yellow guava
Leafy greens
raspberries

Also, the capsicum from last year is still producing fruit, although I kind of doubt it will ripen:

much like the tomatoes

FEEDING:
BRASSICAS

PRUNING:
Need to ask to borrow James' chainsaw again (I asked, but no response)
Chipping is going to be hellish

THOUGHTS: One of the problems of prepping is that it naturally holds a paranoid mindset. I haven't found a channel or group yet hat doesn't half end up down the 'government is trying to control you' avenue, with a misty, nebulous 'they' who daren't be rusted.

Which, yes, there are certainly powerful people in places that are actively thinking to take power and food and life and hoice away from others. But a lot of them aren't necessarily politicians - politicians are often the short-sighted patsy that can only see the fiscal opportunities, not the long-term cost.

And also, I'm not fond of the "everyone out there is your enemy" narrative. It's not that everyone is your friend, but there's a difference between people who can be met and people who are just there to take from others. And I feel like most preppers think that most other people are just there to take from others, while I feel that most people can be met. It's a very different mindset.

Driveway garden
· In front of the air conditioner (really ought to just be grass tbh)
· Around the vegepod
· In the vegepod
· Behind the vegepod
· In front of the frangipani
· Behind and to the left of the frangipani
· Around the water barrels

How Gardening Is Political

At the end of the last post, I said

The goal for hosting a garden on the trail is to inspire others to growing even a little of their own food. We all need to ease ourselves off the utter dependence on the industrial food chain.

If you're here because of the Sydney Edible Garden Trail, chances are reasonable that you're interested in growing your own food. Maybe you've already got the full mindset and the reasons and just need the impetus to get started. Maybe you've started and are looking to expand and came around to get more ideas. Maybe you just thought growing your own food might be nice and hey, let's see what other people are doing!

All excellent reasons.

Please be warned: this post is not about gardening, per se. It's about people, processes, politics, pragmatism, and, yes, permaculture. It's about the way we approach problems and find solutions for them. And I know I don't have any kind of power to change anything more than my own behaviour and perhaps to influence other people to think things my way.

Permaculture always made sense to me – a permanent culture, instead of the throwaway one I grew up with in the 80s and 90s. I had more faith in politics and powers back then, I thought that more people thought like me – all of humanity, together.

The last 18 months since Trump II, six years since COVID, decade since America dived into its decline, have been a rude awakening for some, but there's been an inevitability about it, too.

War in Iran has just upped the timeline something savage.

Did you know that the LPG plant that was bombed processed a large portion of the fertiliser that industrialised nations use to fertilise their fields? And the Northern Hemisphere is going into spring planting right now.

There may very well be purists thinking “but that's great! Now we can just use natural fertiliser...”

On enough food for 8 billion people, spread asymmetrically across the world?

Yes, there are a metric FUCKTON of problems with the way we do things, but the problem is that if we stop doing things the way we do them just like that, then the billions of people who are depending on the produce of those things that are done the (problematic) way we developed them are going to suffer.

100 years ago, the population of the world was 2 billion. In a century we have cubed that. And although there are plenty of people living in poverty or on the poverty line, their lives are still valuable. They are still human beings with a right to clean water, clean air, shelter, kindness, human dignity...and food.

Let's not be absolutists about this. There are ways that we can use fossil fuels, or problematic processes less. But we cannot give them up entirely without serious horror being visited on a whole lot of people. And maybe those people don't look like you, or don't live like me, or don't think like us, but they're still people. They're still human. And I don't have to like them – or the processes that are problematic – to recognise that we need to wean ourselves off the shitty stuff rather than stop it all cold turkey.

People are going to die. Most of them will be children.

A friend (I don't remember which one, but it might have been the US Republican one) once said 'politics is the art of the possible'. I don't know if she still believes that – she's gone full-bore 'daughters of the revolution' which I think is a right-wing nationalistic 'natural citizen' type movement so...probably not. I imagine that now she would say 'politics is the art of preserving the culture that I personally want to live in with people who personally also see the world like me'.

Nevertheless, 'the art of the possible' is a nuance that entirely too many people no longer recognise – perhaps because the internet has siloed us into our groups, and we have no patience or space for those who think differently.