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?
