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.

not entirely random list of things

Preparing

How to green manure clover?
-          Mow the clover early spring – fairly high
-          Plant established plants and trim around them fairly low
-          End of season, mow low and plough in  

ESPALIER-DUALSTONE (in front triangle yard)
-          Scrape back hay
-          Lay down comfrey, Lucerne, chook poop
-          Sprinkle potash, dolomite lime, superphosphates
-          Dig it in (hoe/mattock)
-          Smooth it out
-          Water with banana liquid
-          put hay back over
-          protect from chooks… (flyscreens in A-line, add wire at ends to keep chooks out – risk: someone tries to climb up on top of them – may require a post in the middle of the ends)  

Planting out
Tomatoes: at 10cm plant out – potash, dolomite lime, in ESPALIER-DUALSTONE
Eggplants: - potash, dolomite lime, plant out at four leaf stage?
Corn: - DRIVEWAY PATCH. Add worm castings, mature chook poop, water with banana liquid.
Beans: up next to the house?
Sweet Peas:

What to plant in AVO-SHED now that it’s been readied?
-          Leafy greens in the back
-          Eggplants in the front
-          bush beans in the front
-          Radishes?  

To plant:
Lettuces?
Capsicums/Peppers? – plant out at four leaf stage  

TO DO

Sharpening the clipper/shears?

Watering system to front beds (a clip-on watering system would be great)
-          Similar to the setup in the back: but with a snap-on component? Then snap-ons with valves for all along the watering system

Mulch delivery
-          Get someone to put the loads on the paths and the garden
-          Probably not going to happen before November   TO DO before surgery:
- chicken tunnels
-

dear diary: seeds and grafts and spring oh my

OBSERVATIONS:

Things are really starting to get going in the garden

The Lychee isn't doing so well – it's leaves are pale and a bit brown.

The tiny Longan isn't doing well either – it's very small and hasn't grown at all.

CHOOKS:

Tofu has a hernia, Carambah hasn't fully recovered from her infection, Kerry has recovered from her eye stye, Goong is broody again.

I'm still trying to build the space for them to get to the triangle garden (in the right season and weather) and haven't gotten around to it. Not likely to get to it before I have surgery (6th Sept). In the meantime, they have an access path but it's not very good.

Coop has mites. Need to keep alphamiting the water

COMPOST:

Still mites. Haven't done anything about them.

GRAFTING:

Both Fireball Apricots have stuck the graft, haven't seen the third one.

Bulida? Not sure. Cotton Candy? Also not sure. Waiting, waiting, waiting. But I'm glad the Fireball took! Not sure any of my apricots are going to produce this year – one had no flowers, one had only a couple of flowers, and the one in the backyard is still in flower but hard to spot if anything is happening. *sigh*

I think all the Royal Lee Cherry grafts failed. The Minnie Royal ones are looking good, and I think at least one Royal Crimson is taking.

SEEDING:

Tomatoes are growing. They probably need a feed.

Eggplants are growing. Also probably need a feed.

Capsicums: ABSOLUTE FAIL

Planted beans (several kinds) and Corn (F1, honey and gold).

PLANTING OUT:

A couple of Brassicas in the backyard. Maybe into the CREPE-LYCHEE,

HARVEST:

Mustards and avocados. Still oranges.

FEEDING:

Mango tree with chook poop

might need to buy some more chook poop, leave the coop scrapings for a year or so to kill the mites?

blueberries need feeding?

PREP:

Got Mike, Lou, Sue, and Cecelia over to help set up the frames for the netting. Paid them in cake. It was good.

Need to fling a netting over the dual stone

TO DO:

1. Dig out the last of the sweet potato.
2. Put chook poop (shed) under the mango.
3. Cover under the mango with woodchips
4. Dump the straw bale in the triangle garden.
5. Netting over the Dual Stone
6. Move tractor to PLUM-STONE

THOUGHTS:

Tea bushes – along the chook yard

Big flowering salvia – between Donut Peach and Cherry

better way to plant the galangal in the chook yard so the chooks don't keep digging it up?

dear diary: somewhat random post from early August (maybe?)

OBSERVATIONS:

GOLDEN PEACH has finished flowering, NECTARINE, and DUAL STONE are in full flower.

GOLDEN DORSETT is flowering.

PLUM on (former) FOUR STONE is budding.

MARIPOSA on (former) DUAL PLUM is budding

CHOOKS:

Several chooks are sneezing, dammit. That's kind of worrying.

Got several chooks laying – getting 3-5 eggs a day now. We're starting to work out whose eggs are whose: some are known – the dainty little cream eggs are Goongbao,

COMPOST:

I made a compost, it wasn't heating up fast enough – the only part that was heating up properly was the woodchips that I piled on top. I turned it to try to mix it all in, and added woodchip shavings, and now there are mites and flies all through it. ARGH.

I'm worried that the woodchip shavings that I picked up from someone local had mites in them, and this has just spurred everything on.

PREPARING:

Where Tomatoes are going to go: compost, then chicken manure (for early seedlings to give the boost), then dolomite lime and potash. Lime needs to go in early before planting tomatoes. Anthony planted out buk choy.

SEEDING:

PLANTING OUT:

HARVEST:

FEEDING:

Some instructions about dealing with brassicas
potash - at growing heads
nitrogen - to get them started
4 wks - sulphate of ammonia (blood and bone) for better structure

PRUNING and GRAFTING

Got a heap of scions for grafting – cherry and Apricot

Apricot: cotton candy, bulida
Cherry: minnie royal, royal crimson, royal lee
I wanted the Plum: gulf gold, ruby god, but they were already in flower so it was too late for tem.

• grafted new cherries onto cherry after trimming it DOWN
• grafted new apricots:
2. one to frontyard FENCELINE APRICOT

This is the CHERRY:



I took

It's a Stella variety which did really well the first year I put it in but hasn't really supplied since. Let's see how the grafts take.

THOUGHTS:

Dear Diary - 12th July 2024

INTERLUDE – around the 29th June

Digging up half the 'sweet potato bed' to plant the garlic into. It will need maintainence - the vines.

Chaffcutter doesn't work pragmatically. (blades not sharp enough? Too frequent? Cogs don't have enough grip?

Planted the Purple Turban variety in the other side of the 'sweet potato bed'. 

Covered both Rose Du Var and Purple Turban with a box of chook run material. 12th July 2024

OBSERVATIONS:

Chilly week, going to be even colder next week – possibly frost.

Garlic (rose du var) are poking through, I added some water/clay to them, but maybe need to give them a regular feeding of the various microbrews

Teen worker wasn't able to start the mower when he tried today. Might need to take it for a service.

CHOOKS:

Siyao has a clean bill of health!

Daofu is a bully to Kerry, while Gladys seems capable enough of running away, at least. But the others all make threatening moves towards the two girls.

Laying again – Caramba, possibly Siyao, Gladys and Kerry seem to be doing okay.

I need to teach Kerry and Gladys to go through to the tunnels to the tractor, where they can scratch and dig all day long!

Someone is rolling the eggs out of the laying box! This is very odd behaviour, because usually the hens want ALL the eggs.

COMPOST:

Still gathering things.

Been making leaf mulch the last week or so. Stopped because I wasn't carrying the big black boxes for the leaves, but there's SO MUCH of them around the place.

Got teen!worker to chop up the branches I had,now should be able to chip them more easily when I get around to it.

PREPARING:

SEEDING:

Tomatoes, Eggplants, capsicum - set them in the new (flimsy) greenhouse to grow

PLANTING OUT:

moved: Ginger/Turmeric roots to the new flimsy greenhouse to grow

planted out: three Brassicas (probably purple cabbage or broccoli) - also in fllimsy greenhouse

dig up brassicas in PLUM-STONE, pull out coriander, move tractor let chooks in? Still want to build better compost in the garden bed spaces, but it's only Kerry and Gladys who are doing the job.

HARVEST:

Avos, Oranges, still good, harvested some scarlet silverbeets, the peas will shortly be ready, I reckon. Still gotta try that cabbage.

FEEDING:

Some instructions about dealing with brassicas
potash - at growing heads
nitrogen - to get them started
4 wks - sulphate of ammonia (blood and bone) for better structure

PRUNING:

Was going to get the lawn guy to do it, but his dad went to hospital and he didn't know if he could get it done. (I told him to go be with his family and not worry about the lawn.)

Did a bit with J's chainsaw (best chainsaw ever) but can't do all of it.

prune the backyard trees more neatly, and with an eye to a) espalier, b) netting

THOUGHTS:

After the

TO DO LIST:

Improve the flimsy greenhouse:
- aim of a greenhouse is to warm during the day and stay warm at night.

Problem: plastic isn't going to do this; heats up fine during the day, loses it once the sun goes down.

Solution:
1. Make a cloth-cover for the flimsy greenhouse to slip it down overnight. Make sure that the cover is down by the time the sun is setting. (Old cheap blanket/quilt?)
2. Add a flat stone or two (cinderblock) for heat absorption during the day so it's not quite so brutally cold at night. Place stone on the sunwards side of the greenhouse?

what do we eat?

Planted out the rose du var garlic in the black box where there were previously potatoes.

Need to dig out the chook yard and put it in the

How much cabbage do we eat? Wombok? 1 every fornight, maybe?

How much broccoli do we eat> Maybe 1 a week if B1 can get it.

Leafy greens? Maybe 1 a week? Pick-and-come-again is more my style.

TBH, we don't eat that much vegies - in part because B1 doesn't have the energy to prep them.

plans for weekend

TO DO:

Friday:
- soak garlic in seaweed brew
- dig chook yard (holy place) into a black plastic box
- move black plastic box from backyard into chookyard holy place
- prep garlic bed

Saturday:
- plant out garlic bed
- prune backyard trees
- chop into smaller chunks

Sunday:
- chipping?

Dear Diary: 24th June 2024

OBSERVATIONS:

GOLDEN PEACH has started flowering and showing green tips. (I sprayed it for leaf curl, should have done it earlier, probably should have held off now.)

TULIPS: I bought a big bag of tulips and kept them in the cool through to June. Then one morning I popped them in the freezer, intending to come back in an hour and plant them. They were there for a WHOLE DAY. Goodbye tulips! GRARGH. I seem to have zero luck with tulips and other bulbs, but I love them so much and just want some pretty spring bulbs, ARGH.

CHOOKS:

Tractor has been moved to AVO-SHED and the chooks are occasionally sitting in it.

Okay, the chook situation: at some point in May or June, we got two chooks from the postman. Literally, the postman. The 'Posties' had names, but we ended up renaming them Daofu and Haamyu (Tofu & Black Bean). They're down the lower end of the pecking order, and they haven't laid. We had them set up in the separate space for chooks for about four weeks, and then we started mingling them with Siyao, Goongbao, and Carambar.

It's always interesting watching chooks blend and mix. Goongbao is the prettiest and the top chook. Carambar is next, and then it seems like it's Haamyu, Siyao, and poor little white Daofu is at the bottom of the pecking order.

Well, sort of.

Because hard on the heels of getting Daofu and Haamyu, we also got two new chooks (new new chooks from a local girls school. They are collectively known as the “Lockdown Ladies” - Gladys (Berejeklian) and Kerry (Chant). I have no idea why we landed on those names, but we have and that is what they will be known as going forward. They have already started laying, which is a good sign. They're pretty happy digging everything up quite devotedly, and they have a voice and they're gonna use it!

Chooken Siyao is still with us, still holding on, still going about as strong as she's ever gone. Took her back to the vet, she got an ultrasound, the cyst had vanished. They think, however, it might have burst and caused general inflamation around the abdomen, which is why she's still not comfortable. We are giving her anti-inflammatory painkillers, and she seems to be doing okay.

Generally, the chooks are all doing about as well as one expects in the middle of winter. They seem pretty healthy, even if everyone but the Lockdown Ladies aren't laying, nor as active. (The Lockdown Ladies are pretty young – maybe a couple of years old.)

Today, I took away the old feeder that the Posties learned to feed from. They're still learning how to eat from the 'Grandfather feeder' – not to mention, we're running out of food! The remainder of the food in the bucket is mouldy and they shouldn't be eating it. Not quite sure what to do with it – compost, I guess?

Going to start them chooks on Vella food tomorrow: it's cheaper, and we'll see how much they like it.

On Sunday (Saturday?), sister and I cleared out the chook house of six months worth of cardboard and chips and poop. There are bags and there are buckets and I am hoping that there are no mites. I'm pretty sure I sprayed for mites a couple of months back, but I don't have a record of it anywhere, dammit!

COMPOST:

Would like to make some compost from the chook poop we cleared out, add with some chipped branches, and maybe some woodchips.

Am making leaf-mulch in the “display composter” between the APPLES and the DUAL STONE. Need more leaves.

PREPARING:

Lime Sulfate: Sprayed the TWO-STONE, the DUAL STONE and the Delicious/Dorset APPLE, then realised I wasn't supposed to spray that APPLE and quickly rinsed it off with water.
ETA: 25th: Sprayed the PLUM, STONE, CHERRY, and DONUT PEACH in the back (lightly). Also the PERSIMMON and a few of the leaves of the MULTI-CITRUS. Early morning, everything was still damp, may not have been the best choice. Sprayed the APRICOT in the front once the sun was out and the branches dry.

SEEDS:

Going to toss down some flower seeds along the fence bed: POPPIES, ECHINACEA, and some other stuff.

SWEET PEAS. Those need to go out ASAP.

PLANTING OUT:

Two ORIENTAL POPPY plants. Got to decide where they go and FAST.

FREESIA bulbs which look like they might have survived the freezer... Maybe?

HARVEST:

Occasional CHERRY TOMATOES from the small vegepods. Could (and should) probably try the CABBAGE in the CREPE-APRICOT (which is no longer a CREPE-APRICOT, but a CREPE-LYCHEE), and start harvesting leaves off the SILVERBEET and the other BRASSICAS. Also occasional PEAS which are growing in the dining room VEGEPOD

Still can pick some KALE, also CORIANDER.

Dug up a heap of SWEET POTATOES from under the mango. May need to dig some more out of there – they're pretty solid, and cutting back the space might give the mango a bit of space.

FEEDING:

Dug out the contents of two worm boxes, put them in another container (covered against rain), then rinsed out the worm boxes over the GARLIC bed.

PRUNING:

Gave the RASPBERRY patch a pretty good trim on the weekend. Also, a pretty severe one. Still have no quite worked out which are the autumn-ones and which are the spring-ones. Need to mulch that patch better, too.

Pruned the DUAL STONE, but very badly. Frankly, I'm surprised it survives, I've hacked it so many times. There's definitely some wounds that are bleeding gummosis, and I should really start looking at those.

In BACKYARD
Pruned: FOUR-APPLE
Still needs pruning: STONE (apricot branch). PLUM, DONUT PEACH.
Haven't decided on: CHERRY. I don't even know if this tree will produce anything in the coming years.
Need to decide on a time: AVOCADO. It keeps sprouting right as I think it's time to prune it!

THOUGHTS: Maybe put the new Lockdown Ladies in the ASPARAGUS beds and see how they go there. They're diggers, they might like that.

Need to think about how much space I need for the trees in the front bed. Might have to take the garden beds out, no matter how good and useful they are there!

plans for getting things done with young garden helper

Garden plans if young help comes over:

1. re-setting the apple espalier, which is starting to fall over! ARGH.

2. get mulch delivered and move it to the backyard paths
(2a. dig out the paths, and dump them in "compost piles"? What about a big compost pile in the 'hexabed' space?

3. dig some holes for the tea bushes (in front of the chook pen)

4. trim the trees

5. spray the trees

6. chip the branches of the trees

planting: potatoes

I'm going to try to seriously grow potatoes. In their own boxes. In as controlled conditions as I can manage, given everything on the property.

I never seem to do well with potatoes, I'm not sure if that's because the boxes/bags I grow them in are too hot for the potatoes to properly form, or if I plant them in the wrong place, or if they don't get enough food.

I saw a guy growing potatoes in some boxes very similar to what I have and have been thinking about utilising those boxes to grow my own potatoes

potatoes: heavy feeders - potash and phosphorus (not so much nitrogen; not fresh chook manure)
previously:
plant lettuce, radish, pea, spinach
then green manures

thoughts
- layer in-situ-compost in bottom of boxes to halfway up
- microbial liquid
- soil
- pea straw
- potatoes
- worm wee
- pea straw
- seaweed solution

every two weeks - pea straw and seaweed solution

The problem is (as always) keeping the chooks from getting to it.

Dear Diary: 28th May 2024

OBSERVATIONS:

Weather's growing colder. Down to around 10C at night, still warming up to about 15C during the day.

Leaf-fall has happened on all the stonefruits and the persimmon. The persimmon dropped all its leaves in about the space of a week. The apples are holding on, both the front two and the back.

At some point, I think I killed the Gala apple with the Braeburn graft on it. I think I sprayed it with a poison rather than the antifungal I thought it was. All its leaves went brown at once, but didn't fall off. I had to strip them off once they were dead, and now it's utterly bare. I've repotted it into another box, at least for the time being. It's hopefully getting better care and remaining alive. Hopefully.

The pumpkin in the front is still pumping. It's got a small pumpkin growing after producing at least three others. They're all Kent-Butternut mixes, no idea about flavour.

The avocado is full of avos. I'm not sure if they're the right season to ripen, I've picked a few, but they seem to be ripening with extreme slowness. One has '13/4' written on it – which means it was picked six weeks ago and it's still hard as a rock. I guess we'll see...

CHOOKS:

Siyao got sick – a swelling in her abdomen, and a raw wound on her cloaca, and she was just sitting around with very little energy. We took her to the vet, she got scans done, came home with antibiotics and painkillers, and she seemed to get better.

I've spoken briefly before about the difficult of deciding if the chooks are pets or producers. Right now, they're being treated as pets, in part because neither the sisters nor I really have the distance to treat them as producers. And I have the money to afford vet care. If I didn't, that would be another matter. But also, I don't want to pay for them like pets. It's also extra difficult when the vets expect you to treat them like pets.

I think I should move the chook tractor to the AVO-SHED bed, let them run around in there for a while. Keep tossing chipmulch and other things around, let them eat what's in there. I've decided the AVO-SHED bed is a tricksy place to grow things – it's now shaded by the Avocado, and it's the bed that gets the least sun in summer. I really shouldn't be putting tomatoes in it. Where the tomatoes are doing really well? In the two small vegepods on the path from the street to the front door! Still growing, still cropping. The old sections are spotty and brown as are their leaves, but new growth is definitely happening! It's kind of crazy, we're only a month out from winter solstice.

COMPOST:

I haven't made compost in months. I really need to pack a rake or two, a pair of gloves, and a black box in the boot of the car for when I'm driving around and spot a space that I can pick up some leaves. Just a box a day – if I did that for a month, I'd have all the leafmulch I could use and some besides.

Worm farms are still going steady. Chooks are turning over the lawn clippings when we get them. And I have a big pile of twigs to chip, and a half-dozen trees that need some serious lopping.

I was thinking of getting a delivery of chip mulch, and hiring a young man from church to help move it. But I also need a working wheelbarrow for that, and the ones I have all have flat tyres or need repairs, dammit.

Chook poop hasn't been cleared from the henhouse in months. Possibly half a year. I just haven't had the energy/inclination, and the mite infestation didn't help one bit, because then I'm nervous about spreading them all around everywhere.

PREPARING:

Chook tractor on AVO-SHED, but also I've planted a bunch of green vegies out in the garden beds – I'm always late with that.

What if I use the chook tractor to make compost. Like, bigcompost. Just keep piling it up? Will the chooks still go in there? Maybe? I think they start ignoring the tractor when it gets too high. That's not good.

What do I plan to plant this summer?

1. I need to check if it's likely to be a hot summer or a wet summer.
2. Start developing a food forest?
3.Magic Square gardening (again? I've tried it several times, never quite managed to get it pumping, maybe because I'm not dedicated/organised enough?

SEEDING:

Need to plant the SWEET PEAS. I still haven't. Under the two apples, and beneath the front

PLANTING OUT:

Planted out assorted brassicas. Caulis, I think, and Gailan. I sowed a line of spinach in various beds, they seem to be doing pretty well.

HARVEST:

I've harvested all the BLACK TURMERIC. It grew really well in the driveway vegepod – as did the GINGER and the (putative) GALANGAL. I've dug up the galangal and was planning to plant it along the chook pen. Haven't done that yet, either. I've mentioned picking an avo or two off the tree, and there's a silverbeet in the vegepod that's just asking to be made into something like quiche or spanakopita.

FEEDING:

I have been using the Biocast+ (liquid vemicast biostimulant, from Island Biologicals), also seaweed brew, also comfrey brew. I feel like my buckets are producing considerably more weed teas than I can comfortably use. But a regular mix of weed teas, worm wee, seaweed brew, and biocast will hopefully give everything roots and get everything more firmly growing ready for the spring.

PRUNING:

Lawn guy has agreed to help do some pruning and lopping and stuff, and I'm going to hire the kid from church to help out – he was supposed to come on Saturday, but got sick and so I ended up trimming back the pomegranate and cutting back the pumpkin. And that was plenty on a day I got my period! Plan is to get all the trees down to a manageable height – including the DUAL PLUM, the MULTISTONE, and the DONUT PEACH up the back. Maybe the AVO, too, but that might have to wait until its fruiting is done. The TWO STONES don't need much trimming, and the APPLES are mostly manageable in their fan espalier, but the DUAL STONE always needs major trimming down.

THOUGHTS:s

1. Get Lawn Guy to do the bee garden – pulling out the sugarcane and trimming down the shrubberies there.

2. Get HS (church kid) to help reset the APPLES trellis, which is leaning on the houseward side.
- needs gravel (or use the stuff in the green box down the bottom)
- needs some sand/soil to 'cement' the post in

3. I wonder if the slowness of the plants in the tractor beds is in part because of the root systems of the trees above them. The best of the beds in the backyard is the bathtub garden and the wicking bed. It wouldn't surprise me that the tractor beds aren't getting quite enough nutrients for the plants I'm planting in them. Maybe a greater focus on leafy greens, wild greens, etc. Less on the cultivars? Could save the cultivars for the vegepod, perhaps?

Autumn Planting: flowers and roots

Update: I started this log back in at least April, if not March. It's now May, and while some of these have been planted out (the root vegies), a lot of them didn't make it.

also planted: garlic

planning for: potatoes

FLOWERS

POPPIES: tossed in under frangipani
MARIGOLDS: planted along driveway
MEADOW DAISY: planted under cover in seed bed
NASTURTIUMS: lost the really nice red one (dried out)
SUNFLOWERS: not until summer
SWEET PEAS: not planted yet
CLOVER: white clover – sown all along the frangipani space. Red clover: not yet used, contemplating filling in the south side of the yard with it
CHOOKFEED: went in along the inner court of the chook pen, covered by upturned baskets, but the light is being blocked by corrugated iron, so need to move this.

A meadow garden along the driveway: marigolds along the border.
1. rake space around, dig up DANDELIONS
2. spray under the frangipani with SLASHER weedkiller - everything that got sprayed died
3. lay down some compost (finely sieved)
4. plant seeds: POPPIES in the middle, MARIGOLDS along the edges, NASTURTIUMS around the base of vegepod and under the frangipani, SWEET PEA under the apples, CLOVER in the grass around vegepod
5. cover with pea straw

&nsbp;

Along picket fence and on front verge (under the Illwarra flame)

1. water?
2. lay down some compost, finely sieved
3. seed CLOVER 
4. cover with pea straw

In the bee garden

1. Pull out the big sugarcane (wait for Huntley's help)
2. trim down the bushes severely
3. dig up the DAHLIA bulbs 

planting winterveg

note: most of this was planted out, Unfortunately, the chooks dug it all up! So only some of the radishes have survived. I've since planted out a lot more of the winterveg, but it's all over the place and I didn't make notes.

BEETROOT: golden detroit, red detroit, early wonder
RADISH: daikon white, black spanish, china rose

backyard Bathtub: daikon white 
front vegepod: black spanish, china rose
ONION: red burgundy, white spanish, early creamgold , gladalan brown, barletta, unknown 
backyard Bathtub: red burgundy, early creamgold
front vegepod: white spanish, gladalan brown
LEEK: mix - backyard bathtub?
TURNIP: mix - front vegepod:
ROCKET
SPINACH: bloomsdale, english
KALE
SILVERBEET
LETTUCE
WATER SPINACH: bamboo leaf
PEAS: shelling, massey gem, purple podded, golden podded, yakuma, sugarsnap, snow pea, telephone(?)

1. Where am I going to plant the peas? (under the apples in the front yard? Around the new lychee in the back? Do I plant them in different spaces and places? The sooner I get it in, the better it's likely  to be growing. 

Saturday worked out

Helper turned up and was very helpful. Willing to take direction. Not always thinking about the next step, but a good worker. Glad to have him back if I need more work - and I probably will need help trimming the fruit trees in a few weeks after the leaves have all dropped.

It'll give me time to consider exactly how I want the layout of the trees for next season.

• dig up galangal out of lounge room vegepod
• acquire chainsaw/lopper
• acquire wooden pallets
• spray Slasher weedkiller under frangipani

plans for front lounge bed/tunnel

• dig trench for sugarcane
• chop up sugarcane for planting
• plant sugarcane & galangal

plans for chook yard

• take out sunflower branches
• rake up chook deep litter
• dig up fig, put in black box
• make platform for chook feeder
• dig hole for mulberry along boundary line
• dig hole for kumquat along fenceline (inside)
• (dig hole for apricot, lychee, apple along outside fenceline, staggered with kumquat)

extra things done

• pull out dead apricot
• plant lychee

more thoughts

• blueberries in pots - where could these go?
• still have apricot, apple, kumquat, fig(s), tea bushes, longan, black sapote, ice cream bean (sheesh I have a lot of trees)
• pruning fruit trees after fruiting
• flowering bush/shrub in box on back porch
• assorted plants out back

Plans for Saturday

I have the minister's teenage son coming around to help me do some work on Saturday afternoon. A young strong back, I hope! I remember him as slim and sweet-faced, but that was when he was 13 and boys change a lot as they grow. Anyway.

Prep

• dig up galangal out of lounge room vegepod
• acquire chainsaw/lopper
• acquire wooden pallets
• spray Slasher weedkiller under frangipani

plans for front lounge bed/tunnel

• dig trench for sugarcane
• chop up sugarcane for planting
• plant sugarcane & galangal

plans for chook yard

• take out sunflower branches
• rake up chook deep litter
• dig up fig, put in black box
• make platform for chook feeder
• dig hole for mulberry along boundary line
• dig hole for kumquat along fenceline (inside)
• (dig hole for apricot, lychee, apple along outside fenceline, staggered with kumquat)

plans for fruit trees

• trim dual stone fruit down significantly
• dig out dead apricot

other things

• chip all the waste
• make a compost

No idea if I'll get it all done - I only have him for a couple of hours, but going to give it a red hot go!

Dear Diary: 14th March 2024

OBSERVATIONS & WEATHER:

A few rainy days going forth, I was planning to get a bunch of seedlings in but didn't manage to do so.
Edit: I put a bunch more in just this afternoon in 10-minute spaces of time.

CHOOKS:

Goong is broody. Again. Everyone is laying, just a little irregularly. The chooks are about due for another alpha-miting so they're not putting all their energy into fighting the little buggers off.
Edit: alpha-mited the water

COMPOST:

Sieved about a black box of compost, dumped on the LOWER TRIANGLE bed.

PREPARING:

LOWER TRIANGLE has been covered with chopped bits, bought-compost, and home-compost. This is in prep for...GARLIC, I think. I hope! (I thought I ordered some, but I can't find a record of it and nothing seems to be arriving.)

FRANGIPANI GRASS needs slasher weedkiller on it. Should have done before the rain. (Should have done everything before the rain. ARGH.)

SEEDS:

I received a bunch of winter leafy greens from Digger, haven't planted them out. I planted out a bunch of BEETROOT, SPRING ONION, SPINACH, and I think even KALE seeds the other week, and most of them have germinated and are little sprouty things.

Have the seeds from the Giant Pumpkin Of Longlast and will be sowing them next summer.

PLANTING OUT:

BEETROOT, ONION, SPRING ONION, SPINACH – planting some of these out in the APPLE-CREPE (and I think some in the CREPE-APRICOT, but I think those have died).

WASABI – into a small self-watering pot, I think, at least at first

LOTUS – various pots without holes so they can grow.

HARVEST:

Too late to get the last of the BASIL, but it was purchased, not grown from seed. It lasted all summer and gave us a solid crop, and a supply of BASIL, so I'll say it was a success.

FEEDING:

Should feed the CORN in the CREPE-APRICOT. I'm sure I have some chook manure somwhere.

PRUNING:

Once again, it is late summer/early autumn, and everything needs pruning. It's such a pain. I need to look into a chainsaw or lopper.

The cliveas between the CHERRY and the DONUT PEACH need thinning out. They're beautiful and huge but rather too much.

THOUGHTS:

Need to work out how to manage the chook yard. Needs something that can take a bit of extra nitrogen, particularly along the northern line of the fence. The fig tree isn't doing well because it has too much TO DO

• clear out the pond
• pull TOMATOES and hang in shed
• sow random BRASSICAS (leafy greens) in AVO-SHED
• slasher weedkiller on the Frangipani grass
• pH test the new soil (due to go in the persimmon/dual stone bed) for the GARLIC
• plant FAKE GALANGALalong gutterline in front of house

Improvement Plans for the next 12 mths

metal bed in triangle garden

• Garlic
• Lettuces

IBC Wicking Bed on porch

• Grape
• Passionfruit (??)

Under the Frangipani

* use slasher weedkiller on the space

• freesias
• other bulbs
• meadow seeds
• poppies

Big Vegepod

• Passionfruit up the north side from vegepod?

In front of lounge room chook run

• sugarcane, lemongrass
• ginger, galangal, turmeric
• dahlias in front? Or too close to the grass?
• fig? In a deep pot?

In front of chook yard

• kumquat - citrus, likes rich soil
• mulberry - suitable for chickens to shelter under and eat from
• apricot - likes lighter soil, not clays: build a mound? (needs potassium and phosphorus more than nitrogen), feed once a year in early spring
• black sapote
• lychee - fragile, wants protection

permaculture socials

So it looks like we're actually getting our act together this year and doing some local socials.

A small group of us are also trying to do more small communal things that are permaculture-ish, but not fully organised.

eg. Sunday plum processing. M&K have a couple of plum trees that have been producing great gonzo this year - so many that they simply haven't had the energy to process them. So they invited the local group around to help pick, wash, and process the plums. They got four people to help, plus a neighbour, and since Sunday was crazy hot, we started picking plums around 8am and finished processing around 2pm.

Y'all, we picked 9.5kg of plums, and there were still some on the tree! That's not counting the ones that were lost to mould or blight, or which dropped while we were trying to pick them!

We managed to use about 3kg of it to make jam and chutney, but three groups of us still took about 1kg home each, and they still had plums to process!

They also picked elderberries and made elderberry cordial! So thick and deep purple! And tasty! Very tasty!

This is something I'll definitely something that I'll think about doing next Spring-Summer when the peaches/nectarines are going.

I also have some recipes for plum processing - Chinese Plum Sauce and Spiced Plum Wine...

Dear Diary - planting record

Update: 28th Jan

Sown in black multi-seed-tray in red box, watered with dilute weed tea, undercover.
CABBAGE golden acre
SPINACH English medamies | only one has sprouted
CORN honey and cream | PLANTED OUT 27th Jan - CREPE-APRICOT bed, with weed tea solution
BEANS
CHINESE CABBAGE
BEANS - tiger's eye
CABBAGE ruby ball
BEANS "bush" | GROWING WELL 27th Jan - need to be planted out

Intent is for these to go into the APPLE-CREPE and the PLUM-STONE

Dear Diary: 13th January 2024

OBSERVATIONS:

I came back from holidays and discovered that the garden had essentially gone beserk. Not entirely surprising given the weather was hot and rainy - a combination we haven't seen for a number of years.

It's better than mild-and-rainy which is the summers we've had for the last three years, and also better than the hot-and-dry which was the prediction for this summer and which is bushfire-danger. I mean, there's always bushfire danger here in summer, but it's particularly bad in the El Nino years. That said, 1.48C degrees warming, and Antarctic glaciers melting is bad news for all of us.

CHOOKS:

Chooks have gone through another major mite incident. We ended up having to spray the coop with coopex (industrial strength) because the rest of it wasn't cutting the mustard. I blame the rats. Also, B1 (my sister) did a good job of it, but I'm always a bit anxious about mites transferring. They creep me out, and they stick around forever and it's an absolute PITA.

I tried to get predatory mites, but although we ordered them (along with alphamite solution), they never turned up. *grr* The thing about the predatory mites is that they could be spread through the garden and the compost.

Goongbao is broody again. Pretty as, but broody. Never getting a Wyandotte again. Great mothers, okay layers, but ugh the broody is a PITA.

I've come to realise that the four chooks we own are not "scratchers". Unlike the previous four that we had who would make short work of a green patch, eating every green leaf in sight and digging up the ground quite thoroughly, these four actually prefer the chook pellets we feed them.

Although admittedly they have scratched the APPLE-CREPE down to bare ground, and it's probably ready for something else to grow there (late corn, perhaps this year?) Unfortunately, they also got out several times, scratched up everything I'd planted in the CREPE-APRICOT so there's nothing left there now, and tend to decimate the edible leaves around the place (SILVERBEET in particular). Why can't they like the grass, dammit? Why must they like the human food?

COMPOST:

Last compost I made before leaving is just sitting there. I haven't turned it. I haven't really dared - that way lies mites. I used the chook manures from before B1 sprayed, but it's probably not enough to kill off the mite eggs. Another reason I wanted the predatory mites to deal with the blood mites. (Haven't heard back from the people who were supposed to send the mites but it's still holiday season so no surprise there.) Plenty of COMFREY and I need to make some more weed teas for fertilising things. I haven't dared open the lid of the weed tea I made from the cooch grass. Too many mozzies. *shudder*

PREPARING:

So there are several beds I want to prepare for the wintering crops: primarily GARLIC and POTATOES. They both want rich soil and lots of nutrients, and the beds they're going in (which I still need to decide) are going to need more work.

SEEDING:

Going to plant out a bed tomorrow (before it gets too hot or too rainy, I hope) with a lot of leafy greens, hopefully to be pickable in six weeks. Weather for the next month is likely to be hot and rainy so lots of growing. (Chinese broccoli, green summer cabbage, kale plants, carrots, beetroots, salad greens, Asian greens.)

PLANTING OUT:

Don't think I have anything much to plant out right now - haven't been growing anything while I'm away.

HARVEST:

Starting on the TOMATOES, but a fairly small harvest right now. Still RASPBERRIES, some SILVERBEET (but the chooks got out and decimated it), always the RHUBARB, lots of BASIL right now - the stuff I planted out is going great guns.

FEEDING:

Feed AVO-SHED, feed TOMATOES, feed PUMPKINS (especially the ones under the big leaves). MELONS in lounge room vegepod. MANGO tree!

PRUNING:

EVERYTHING needs pruning. I've already pruned down the vegepod TOMATOES, a lot of the PLUM tree, plenty of the others that are sticking out. But a fairly serious trim is going to be a must in the coming weeks.

Trim down the big-leaved PUMPKIN so the smaller ones can get some sun.

THOUGHTS:

The 'Turfan Depression' PUMPKINS appear to be working - we have at least one very large pumpkin vine, not sure about any pumpkins its producing (or not). There are a number of smaller ones but they're all being crowded out by the big vine! I might have to trim a few leaves to make some space for them. They defiintely need some feeding. 

Melons in the vegepod are growing well, so we'll hope for good things there - must feed and fertilise them decently.

I need  to work out how to make the sweet potatoes do better - Lolo Houbein suggests manures, mix well with the soil, mulch thickly, and keep moist. That might also do well under the MANGO tree.

Found some advice on how to grow apricots so I'm going to have to start work on that pretty soon.