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:
- 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)
- Pulled out the mint roots as best I could
- Added chook manure
- Dug a hole, put the long pot of potatoes in
- Added more chook manure and the Marvel Black mix (from Bunnings)
- rolled potatoes onto their side (away from driveway) and covered with soil dug up from the driveway side of the bed
- Did Edge-in-situ composting (comfrey, nettles, chookpoop) along driveway side of bed
- Watered in
- 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.
- 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.
