Dear Diary: 26th April

OBSERVATIONS:

I want to dig up the entire FRONT FENCE bed. In part because there are mugwort MUGWORT seedlings popping up everywhere in it, in part because I think the ELDER TREE roots are in there somewhere. Also, the SALVIAS have gone a little cray-cray. As has the THAI BASIL. And the GERANIUM.

But there are DAHLIAS in there that are doing beautifully, some LILIES and some COSMOS - a deep magenta one, not just the orange ones! I need to save the seed from that ASAP.

I fixed a wheelbarrow! Okay, not entirely - it was mostly put together by a friend, but there was some angle-grinding required to remove wheels and bolts and trim down axles. But it's done! With a new wheel! And it rolls! *pauses to admire*

CHOOKS:

Haami is back to normal - as normal as she gets. She needs some special feeding (she gets a lot of human-level food) and all the chickens are getting enriched water. Kerry's egg shells are no longer quite as fragile as they were, which is good.

COMPOST:

I've started sieving the compost I made...last year? Longer? IDEK. But I'm working my way through it pretty slowly. It's always slow.

The presence of the wheelbarrow makes sieving the compost much easier. It would be even easier with a second person there to help, but that's not going to happen anytime soon, I think. Or maybe I could get one of the sistren to do the spinning of the sieve while I shovel in the soil?

PREPARING:

In the last week, I set up the two metal-frame beds in the front - ESPALIER-STONE - plastic on the bottom, then woodchips, then chook manure, comfrey, some lucerne, more woodchips, compost soil, some worm castings, and pea straw on top to keep the moisture in. Don't know how well they'll do if we end up having a dry year. I think it's more likely to be a wet year than a dry one, but still...

SEEDING:

The second sowing of BRASSICA seedlings are sprouting - all the F1s are coming good, the heirlooms? Not so much. That's not comforting, in fact. Then again, I also can't be entirely sure how old these seeds are. They don't come with a date on them (which they really should). So they might be older than viability can manage.

PLANTING OUT:

BEETROOT seedlings are going strong. They'll need to be planted out very soon. I might have to do them on ANZAC day - most likely in between the existing BRASSICA plantings.

HARVEST:

I think the AVOS are ready again. I picked one, but it's taking its sweet time to get soft.

FEEDING:

I haven't beeen feeding the BRASSICAs much, but I think I should do some more. Need to work out what they need for the fruiting stage that's coming along.

PRUNING:

I got the lawn guy to trim down all the fruit trees, so I have a giant pile of chipping to do. There needs to be some neatening of the clustering branches, and trimming down, but I can do that in bits here and there on days that I have the time.

THOUGHTS:

Thoughts on where the fruiting/longer term plants should go.

1. Grape
- front yard in front of LOUNGE ROOM
- front yard in front of PORCH

2. White Sapote, Black Sapote, Ice Cream Bean
- under jacaranda, with intent of succession planting. Issue might be the jacaranda crowding them out of deeper nutrients. (How do you kill a jacaranda?)
- what if I dug a hole deep enough for a watering tube next to the intended tree locations?

3. Lychee
- along chicken yard?

4. Apricot
- along chicken yard?

5. Kumquat
- along chicken yard?