various links

Specifically looking at fruit tree companion planting.

companion planting site

companion plants for fruit trees (NthAm)

companion planting vegetables (NthAm)

Also have feedly'd a bunch of Australian blogs, including artist as family which I regret missing on their 'through Sydney' leg (or even their 'through Kiama' leg. Would have been awesome to see and hear their story!

a pocket full of seeds: as someone who tends to spot 'bald patches' of earth and think "dammit, that could grow some [insert vegie of choice here] very nicely," I rather like the secret subversion of it!

Also: Joel Salatin in Sydney 21st Feb | intro to permaculture

Fruit Trees and Chill Hours

I have quite a few fruit trees, some of which have been acquired over the last five years, some of which are coming to me as gifts, and a couple which I specifically bought for the new house

- lemon
- mandarin
- multi-citrus x 2
- multi-stone
- peach x 4
- avocados x 2
- multi-apple
- cherry
- persimmon
- multi-nashi

The avocados were bought for the new house. The cherry and persimmon and one of the peaches are a gift from my mother. The reason I have 3x peaches otherwise is because I bought 3 multi-stone trees and all the other grafts died.

It's the multi-nashi that's the big problem for me. I didn't read the instructions, and the plant requires high chill hours. Which means somewhere that isn't Sydney (temperate, tending to warm temperate). So I'm looking for someone to offload it to. (Currently on the list: a friend in Ballarat, Vic.) Maybe I should look at offloading at least one of the (formerly multi-stone) peaches, too? I think at least one of them still has two grafts - I'd keep that one - and one fruited this year (actually, I think that one was a nectarine, but the fruit didn't stick, so maybe...).

Mind you, I'm keeping the one with all four grafts intact!

And I'd still like an Apricot tree, straight up. But that's just me.

Also: I have decided the passionfruit can go across the side fence. I may need to nail/fasten/screw in the chicken wire for it to hang off.

Day Before Yesterday: making compost heap in driveway bed. Will be turned to new spot and planted out with a fruit tree.
Yesterday: making Compost#1 to burn off weeds and fill in the gap between Bed#2 and Bed#3. Will become Potato Heaven.
Today: turn Bed#4 north ver to burn off weeds to the north. Will become Asparagus City.

composts and other things

Eggbox seedlings are doing okay - at least, the tomatoes and zucchini and one of the watermelons are:

All those little seedlings? Tomatoes. Different types - from the black russian to the yellow pears - but tomatoes. None of the chillis. None of the eggplant. None of the capsicum. ARGH. I can't work out how to get the eggplant or capsicum seeds to germinate, but I'm going to try again. This time with really fine seed-raising mix (sand and sifted cow manure), and making sure that the seeds don't dry out.

Like the corn, both the sunflowers and the bean seeds are happily germinating away. I'm tempted to try peas, but I think they're supposed to be for later in the season?

I did end up buying a bunch of seedlings from Big Hardware Chain Of Doom. Not ideal. But I need a kickstart this year due to delayed planting. And the compost heaps are going great guns, so I have plenty of space for planting things.

You can see the two newest compost piles in the background: one covered with heshen, the other one just covered with straw. They're both still warm, so composting is happening, although they're cooling down a little. I'll turn Bed #3 and plant it out with various seedlings on Sunday night or Monday evening.

Another look at the compost heaps - with a better glance at Bed #1.

As you can see, the corn has really taken off, and is going to need a handful of vermicast per stalk before long. Except the worms aren't doing a particularly good job of making vermicast right now. It's a bit frustrating.

Maybe blending up the food before feeding it to the worms is the best way to go?

germinations

1 zucchini, 2 watermelons - although one of the watermelons has only the teeniest, tiniest solitary root. I've put it in some very rich vermicast silt to hopefully pick up some good nutrients.

Nothing else in that box appears to be germinating, and I planted the box back around the 8th-10th Nov, so it's taken the better part of three weeks to germinate. The eggplants I seeded are not germinating at all. :(

Tomorrow or Saturday will be The Turning Of Compost #2 and #3, and I think I'll dump half of Compost #2 on Compost #3, and plant Compost #2 out with...well, anything I can. At this point, probably herbs. Unless I buy some eggplants from bunnings. I'm iffy about that.

composts and seeds

Compost #2 was cooling, so I turned it, raking about half of it out to help make Compost #3, which also added the leaf/lawn mulch from Thursdays mowing. I left Compost #2 on the same site because I didn't really have anything with which to plant it out, and I wanted the layers to break up a bit better.

Both Compost #2 and Compost #3 are warm, tending to hot inside. Compost #2 is really hot, while Compost #3 is just warm on the outside (but hot in the middle).

I'm a bit worried by the way Compost #2 and #3 are releasing nitrogen, though - the compost heaps have a distinct smell. I'm tempted to rake out half of compost #2 and turn it into compost #4, adding carbon matter to both #2 and #4, but it's a bit late in the day to do that now and I'm working tomorrow.

Maybe we'll see what comes of Compost #2 and the 2nd turning - supposed to be more hummus-like by the 2nd turning. Hopefully my seeds will have sprouted and there will be things to plant by then! (Looking at the weekend, since I'm going away the week after. Argh. Must get sister to keep an eye on the garden...)

Seeds are not germinating. Well, some are, others are not. The tomatoes visible in the pic all sprouted in the fruit pots and were transplanted out when they were big enough.

I don't seem to have much luck with capsicum and eggplant in particular, and the rarer tomatoes (that don't grow from the self-seeding cherry tomatoes) also don't take too well. A couple of pumpkins seeds sprouted, only to die in the heatwave on Friday. I think the zucchinis are giving it a go - one of them popped leaves today. I hope so. Zucchiiiiniiiissss...

Acquired some black cherry tomato seedlings. Need to plant them out. Should have done it this PM, except it was raining. At this rate, they won't get planted out until Wednesday evening. :(

I keep a more detailed paper diary - easier to just make notes there. This is more of a public infodump.

So, Bed 2 is composting nicely - steam rising from the 'vents', hot to the touch, the initial scent of nitrogen is giving way (I suspect I have too much nitrogen in my heaps - they smell very distinctly for the first day or two, then settle down.)

This one is going to be turned onto another space to keep composting (on Monday) and will be planted out - hopefully with the seedlings that will have sprouted by then. *glares at her seedlings* SPROUT DAMN YOU!

The pumpkins have germinated, so they can go on the sides. I hope the watermelons germinate. The cucumber has decided to come up in Bed 1 (eventually), and the tomatoes in the Salad Box are starting to sprout.

And I think I have a potato growing in one of my fruit tree pots.

Speaking of which, I need to get the avocadoes into bigger pots. And then out in the garden. And decide where the watering system is going to go and how to arrange it.

SO MANY THINGS.

Including this small detail about aerobic compost heaps:
1. they get really hot.
2. as in really, really hot.

I put down some seedling boxes on the compost heap to take advantage of the heat...and they warped. Hopefully not releasing toxic chemical gases that inhibit the germination of...oh crap. :(

*sigh*

Anyway, I've started to mark out where the next garden beds will be. Fairly crudely, but enough to get the idea of what and where and how.

There is a small issue of the paths, however. They're still grass at this point, and I rather like walking on the grass. Long-term, however, the grass is going to try climbing up my garden beds, which I really don't want.

Finally, I need to get my vermicast production up. Which means locating a cheap and old blender for whizzing up worm food so the worms can easily consume it. I think my chunks of food are not working so well for them right now. And we might have to supplement from the local grocery store.

I wonder if there's an organic grocer at the local shopping centre...

linkaroos for Nov

Sweet potatoes...with personality! LittleEcoFootprints

Fruit
Beans
Capsicum
Chilli
Cucumber
Eggplant
Melons
Peas
Pumpkin
Squash
Sweet Corn
Tomato
Zucchini

Stem and Leaf
Celery
Endive
Leek
Lettuce
Rhubarb
Silver beet
Spinach

Root
Beetroot
Carrots
Onions
Potatoes

Might do a cover crop in the woodchip garden, and maybe along the picket fence, then plant the fruit trees out there in autumn.

Bed 1 growing, Bed 2 composting.

The corn is growing well – I planted more in Garden Bed 1, and the lettuces/mustards are germinatingly nicely in both Bed 1 and Salad Box.

As are the cucumber and tomatoes of Salad Box:

A friend recommended planting the cucumber out among the corn, so it would grow up the corn. Which I might do in a week or so.

Unfortunately, the shrooms are also sprouting happily in Bed 1, fuelled by the composting and the cool. I keep having to dig them up. And I think I have slugs there, too. Will have to look at beer/fruit traps, and getting rid of them.

I pulled up some of the weed carpet to make Compost Bed 2:

Looks like it has some worm activity beneath all that, so decent drainage? We’ll see how Bed 2 (composting) does.

This one’s going to be a compost pile for the next couple of weeks, after which I plan to turn it over, rake out about quarter of it for the multi-apple that’s going on one side of it, and another quarter for the avocado that’s going on the other side, and plant it with various seedlings that will have hopefully sprouted by then.

It’s too wide, though, and I think it’s losing too much heat through surface area. There’s a sliiiiight warmth in the middle this morning (admittedly, I only made it yesterday), but not enough for the kind of composting I want. So tonight is pickup night for a bunch more manures, and tomorrow will be ‘completion of the compost heap’ with another five or so layers – enough to make it about ½ a metre high and get it hot composting decently.

I planted watermelon, pumpkin, zucchini, and eggplant seeds in a clear plastic box with a lid: If they sprout, I’ll plant the watermelon and pumpkin on the sides of Bed 1, and perhaps up against the fence for Bed 2.

Tomatoes, chillis, and capsicum – at least the chillis and capsicum – are next for the planting box. I should have done them last week, but let myself get distracted by the garage sale. Maybe I’ll do some carrots and onions on the ‘quiet’ side of Bed 1 as well – and put coffee grounds to deter the slugs? Must find somewhere that I can get used coffee grounds – so many cafes around here, surely they get rid of some?

The noble art of scavenging. Easier than it sounds.

veggie tales

Added another set of layers to the compost heap and achieved hot composting! YAY!

Planted corn, carrots, and spring onions, tomatoes, capsicum, eggplant, and cucumber. Corn, carrots, and spring onions germinated - YAY!

Forgot to water during a hot day (and the gardening calender advised against watering) and all but three of the corn died. BOO.

Moved into the house. Brought all my fruit trees and several planter boxes (wish I'd asked them to bring all the garden things over - now I'll have to get them over in my car, getting my car dirty in the process).

Everything has survived, although I think the citrus are in a little shock right now - they're getting a full day's sun after years of mostly shady afternoon sun. I have to remember to water them rather more regularly than I used to. One more thing to do.

I'm filling a planter box with 'salad vegies' - lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers. Added oregano to the planter box with sage growing in it. And tried to sprout some more asparagus in the passionfruit planter box.

On the 28th, planted more corn, tomatoes, cucumber, melons, pumpkins in the compost heap which has now cooled down (it was hot for nearly two weeks). It doesn't quite look like it's fully composted - at least not on the outer levels - lots of white mould-ish looking things, and a mushroom that decided to grow out of the side of the compost - but otherwise we'll hope. And keep it watered this time.

Must remember to get to the North Shore Permaculture meeting.

Have to contact gardener about mowing the lawn and helping sort out the garden beds. I want the underlayer pulled up and the woodchips mulched. That will take some major deliveries of manure and straw, I think. And working out where is good to grow the cherry, doughnut peach, and fuyu persimmon my mother is giving me. I know where the raspberry canes are going.

So much to do, so little time. But the small garden bed is the first priority. That, and working out where the fruit trees should go.

I hope the seeds I planted on the 28th do better...

Garden start - the first no-dig bed

No-dig garden started:

Newspaper, cow manure, sugar cane mulch, woodchips, cow manure, shredded paper, cow manure, sugar cane mulch

Needs another five or so layers I think: chook poo, lucerne, cow manure, woodchips, chook poo, sugar cane mulch

Then planting on top:
- ccrn seeds, capsicum, eggplant, zucchini, pumpkin, onion tops, cucumber seedlings

Seed raising mixture:
- coir fibre, perlite (vermiculite?), mushroom compost?

I was going to grow corn up against the fence, but I think I'll go for beans, or maybe a passionfruit in that spot. Corn in the centre of the no-dig bed, so I don't have to reach in to grab things.

--

From Hargreaves Nursery:
SEEDLINGS TO PLANT NOW

Flowers: Alyssum, Amaranthus, Aster, Begonias, California Poppy, Coleus, Cosmos, Dahlia, Dianthus, Gerbera, Gypsophila, Impatiens, Lobelia, Marigold, Nasturtium, Petunia, Salvia, Snapdragon, Verbena, Vinca, Zinnia.

Vegies: Beans, Beetroot, Cabbage, Capsicum, Carrots, Celery, Chinese Cabbage, Chilli, Cucumber, Eggplant, Endive, Leek, Lettuce, Melons, Onions, Peas, Potatoes, Pumpkin, Rhubarb, Silverbeet, Spinach, Squash, Sweet corn, Tomato, Zucchini.

Growing ong-choi

starting from scratch (but, alas, not chicken-scratch)

We've had the new house for a week. I've been around nearly daily when time/schedule permits, partly to get a feel for the house, partly to air it out.

Internal renovations start today and are estimated to take at least three weeks, probably closer to a month, given delays, etc. That's okay - we're planning to move from the old house to the new on the second weekend in October, and getting as much of it done beforehand is a good start.

Two things to line up: painters, and the people to do the floors.

I'm thinking I need to start on the garden ASAP, because I've already pretty much lost spring.

I did plant two cucumbers, four asparagus, and fifteen tomatoes on the weekend - in seedling pots at the current house, but not in seedling-mix. Speaking of which, I need to get some medium river sand to mix with the vermicast.

Considering chickens: I'd still like to do chickens, but at this point the major concern is working out how to integrate them into the garden. In the meantime, I was thinking I'd do a no-dig composting garden to start with - assuming I can find the ingredients around the place: animal manure, fresh grass clippings, pea straw or lucerne.

The grass clippings are easy enough; pea straw or lucerne is harder to source in the city, apart from buying it from Monstrous Hardware Store That Shall Not Be Named. However, we are about 20mins away from a right-on-the-edge-of-urbania farming area, which might have some places that sell the ingredients for no-dig composting gardens a little more cheaply? IDK.

Something to consider is also that I'll be doing this solo. My sister isn't interested in gardening (just what comes out of it) and has physical issues. And I can't imagine any of my friends giving up their crossfit sessions for gardening. (Crossfit is cool and trendy; gardening is hard work and grubby.)

To locate/source:
- river sand (medium)
- animal manures
- fresh grass clippings
- lucerne/straw bales

relevant links

Jackie French: The Magic Of Groves

Actually, her whole site looks pretty good!

I don't know that I want complete self-sufficiency, but as much fruit as we can eat and farm out to the family, along with a variety of tasty vegetables sounds exactly like my sort of thing.

--

Lunar Calendar for Gardeners

Traditional Moon Planting

I need to start remembering what to plant when. And keeping track of the phases of the moon. Might also help with my own personal emotional/physical cycles.

--

Settlement is in just over a week. I suspect that the day we get the keys I will go over and just sit on the stairs. Or inside. Or on the lawn. Just to get a feel for the place and the neighbourhood and the house and the yard.

...I wonder if the real estate agent will take the sign away, or if B1 and I will have to wrestle it out?

it's garden season!

I'm making lists right now, of things I want in the garden.

Starting with a 'hedge' of avocados, almonds, cumquats, and lilly pillies by the fence. Quandongs up the jacaranda, and apples and apricots and plums along the path. Corn along the north side of the house. Passionfruit under the front window and along the porch, raspberries and blackberries either side of the lattice, and I think I'll put up a trellis between the back verandah and the carport and try growing grapes.

I want to try out a small chook-and-vegie garden in the south-east corner of the property. And by 'small' I mean 'not more than 1.5m diameter chook dome' sized, and possibly not even 6 dome stations - possibly only five, or even four. The perennial/compost beds will be larger, and at least one of the fruit trees might struggle for sunlight, but it should present a good exercise in determining how to work the chooks in the garden on a small scale.

This is going to have to be done in stages, I think: the fence hedge and the fruit trees to begin with - spaced far enough apart that it's not an issue to mow between them, or fit a chook tractor. Get the chooks for the small garden and learn how they work, then plant through the late spring and summer and autumn and winter...

There'll be a learning curve; what plants work, what plants don't, where the sunshine is and how well the various vegies do without it; how to look after chickens, and whether I can stand having them under my window when they're not in rotation...

We're getting some changes made to the house - dependent on how much it all costs - but those should be done before we move in. And then...it's GARDEN SEASON!

A Plan For All Things

done

Two fruit salad trees - one stone (with apricot), one apple - both planted into pots.

On the stonefruit salad trees, the apricots are always planted on the bottom graft; it means they don't seem to get as much of the energy flow through the rootstock as they need: they're always the smallest and slowest to bloom, while the peaches just go hell for leather. I've lost about four apricot grafts before this one and this is my last try. If it doesn't work, I'm just going to get an all-apricot tree and go with that. Easier. Plus, more apricots!

doing

It's been a dry winter, so I'm watering the fruit trees fairly regularly right now. The bush turkeys have been digging up the dirt in the pots, though, and my sister put some roof tiles down on top of the pots, which seems to have worked in deterring them. Seeing as we're not going to ever use those tiles, it's not a bad idea!

plans

I'm wondering if I should start planting things now. I could probably make a little cold frame out of wire and glad wrap: or possibly just find a 25L clear storage box, upend it, and turn it into a small greenhouse for shoots, etc. But it would give me a small headstart on the garden when we take possession.

Clear and compost the woodchips, dig out the old rotted stump. Put down some mulch. The fruit trees are going in just as soon as I have a clear day.

Huh. I better start making some mulch for the fruit trees! And make sure the worms have good production going. MORE VEGIES!

Chooks are still in the plan. I'm a little daunted by the idea though. Living things in the garden. That I'm supposed to be tending. I definitely want the eggs and the mulch, but I'm not sure about the bother - and the neighbours, and neighbours' pets, etc. To say nothing of my two (indoor) cats. And there's the whole 'if I want a permaculture garden in the style of Linda Woodrow, at least part of it is going to be in the front yard'.

reading

I bought Jackie French's book about self-sufficiency. I doubt that we'll ever head that way, but she's got some good advice. And I like that the book is tips and tricks, not just a list of vegetables/fruits and where they should be grown, which is every other gardening book EVER in Kinokuniya.

Must remember to bring it on the commute so I can pore over it.

Big changes: a new house with new possibilities, and a (very) old dream!

In case three years of inactivity didn't clue you in, I gave up on trying to work the south-west facing slope in Turramurra. It was too much, too hard, and not a priority given everything else going on.

Things have changed a lot in three years.

To start with, the Turrmurra place has been sold, and my sister and I bought a house about 15 mins away on a flat block that's open to the north and the west, with large expanses of land that's just asking for a kitchen garden!

The house is in Sydney suburbia, a medium-sized block (600sqm), with a small house (125sqm). The house sits on the back part of the lot, with a large front lawn, a green strip down the side of the house next to the driveway with a frangipani in the middle of it, and a small lawn patch in the south-east corner of the block where the washing line and the shed are positioned. We have no plans to extend the house, and if we did, we'd probably extend backwards, since there's already slab there.

But there's lots of garden potential. LOTS. I've already started mapping out possible garden plans!

In preparation for the move and the change (we settle on the 1st September), I've pulled out my Permaculture Kitchen Garden book by Linda Woodrow and am avidly re-reading.

This book has been on the shelf for a long time! I bought it back in 1999, years before everything got organic and healthstyle and grow-your-own-veggies. And then I got stuck in a house that had no aspect at all, dreadful terrain, and gum trees all over the slope. It would have been a full-time job setting something up that worked and wasn't backbreaking labour all the way (completely defeating the point of permaculture), plus I already had a full-time job. (I still do, but this time, I don't think it will be quite as backbreaking).

At any rate, my permaculture kitchen garden has been waiting for this moment in the sun for fifteen years.

My sister's only request of the garden is that I leave somewhere for her to grow some freesias. Yeah, a bed of freesias won't be a problem...