It's been a very busy six weeks. A lot of things going on, a lot of stuff happening, and on the roll to the solstice, to Christmas, and the new year. OOF.
OBSERVATIONS:
The weather is absolutely all over the shop. Hot and then cold, humid and rainy, and then dry and soul-sucking. But things are growing pretty well.
One thing I need to remember is how much water everything needs in the middle of summer!
The water in the tank is beginning to smell. I think it needs emptying and then cleaning out.
One of the odd things is the harvest disparities.
The MANGO is way up, so is the PEACH (yellow clingstone).
Definitely down are the AVO, APPLES (golden del, gala), the NECTARINES (white), and the PEACH (china donut).
Same-state of unproductive are the backyard 'DUAL' PLUM, FOUR-APPLE, APRICOT, CHERRY, and the front yard APRICOT.
UPDATE: I have an apricot off the APRICOT in the tub!! OMG, SO EXCITED!
Same state of productive are the backyard PLUM, and the citruses - LIME (makrut), KUMQUAT, and CITRUS (oranges and tangerines).
Two that I can't really tell are the POMEGRANATE and the PERSIMMON, which are late-summer/early-autumn harvests, and the fruit set on these doesn't look very good.
One thing to note: I've tracked that a lot of times my fruit trees have a 'bounteous' year and then an 'ordinary' year. It switches between a year which is really good and year which is ordinary. Sometimes it's harder to tell with some trees - I pay more attention to the nectarine-peach duos, but I also keep them pruned back pretty hard so I can actually harvest them, and still every year I get a pretty decent harvest. But last year was crazy for the persimmons, so this might just be a quieter year.
CHOOKS:
The four left remaining after Kerry died back in late August have all been fine. We have a series of very hot days coming up, though, so we're keeping an eye on them - spraying down the enclosure, sometimes making them sit in cooling baths.
Goong is broody, and has been so for about a month. She should be coming out of it now...
We buried Kerry in one of the compost piles. See below.
COMPOST:
Dug out the middle compost pile - it's been processing since before I went away, but hadn't fully decomposed. With the assistance of the sisters, I sieved it on Saturday, and dumped most of it back in the new compost, which we built around Kerry.
Contents:
- leaf-and-grass mulch
- cutting from the garden (most of the mother-of-herb vines, trimmed back)
- comfrey
- ferns
- lucerne
- Kerry
I topped it off with a layer of leaf-and-grass mulch. I'd hoped that the gardener would have come by on Friday, but it rained all day and so I guess he put it off after I said last Wednesday wasn't any good. Anyway, it's reached the middle of 'active' status but not 'hot' according to the thermometer, and I'm tempted to try injecting it with some manures - chicken and cow by preference - and see if that gives it a kick?
PREPARING:
I have MELONS and PUMPKINS growing, and they're going to need some pretty decently prepared ground. I have the soil, I have a few planting sites, I just need to plant them out and remember to water them. I'm thinking of putting an olla in each bed. I just have to work out which set of melons and pumpkins are going together.
SEEDLINGS PLANTED OUT:
SNAKE BEANS - germinated and planted out in LOUNGE VEGEPOD
BUSH BEANS - Cherokee wax, full germination - plant out in AVO-SHED
BUSH BEAN - royal burgundy, full germination - plant out in CREPE-APRICOT
PLANTED NO GERMINATION:
BEAN (Soy green) - no gemination at all
EGGPLANT tsakoniki - no germination
No ZUCCHINI
PLANTING OUT:
PUMPKIN - mystery (brett cooper's green-orange turban type) - 2 germinated
WATERMELON - moon and stars, no germination
PUMPKIN - galeaux d'eysines, 3 germination
POLLINATOR - lion - 2 full germination
MELON - zdenka's - 1 germinated
MELON - rockmelon - 4 germinated
PUMPKIN - musquee de provence - 1 germinated
CUCUMBER - burpless - 1 germinated
EGGPLANT, TOMATO from Jen in Hornsby
PLANTING OUT THOUGHTS:
I have the BANANA CIRCLE, the FRONT TRIANGLE, and the FRAGIPANI
I would like to do THE CHOOK YARD FENCE and the FRONT LOUNGE WINDOW
1. Bury an olla next to where the seedling is going to go.
2. Plant the vines around them with:
half a bucket of compost
half a bucket of cow manure
a handful of wood ash
3. surround with straw and water in with:
an ice-cream containers of bioworm liquid
4. fill the olla with plain water
5. first week, water every second day with:
seaweed solution
worm wee
6. second week water with
bioworm liquid
HARVEST: Still baby tomatoes, still white peaches, all the nectarines are gone. Golden Dorset apples, the (lone) apricot is nearly ready (maybe one more day; hopefully it's not the day that the damn possum eats it), and the golden peaches are starting up
FEEDING:
Corn planted mid-October, blood and bone, cow manure
See melons
PRUNING:
STONE in backyard needs pruning (apricot above)
CHERRY in backyard needs pruning
DONUT PEACH in backyard needs pruning
THOUGHTS:
PUMPKIN - mystery (brett cooper's green-orange turban type) - 2 germinated
PUMPKIN - galeaux d'eysines, 3 germination
PUMPKIN - musquee de provence - 1 germinated
POLLINATOR - lion - 2 full germination
MELON - zdenka's - 1 germinated
MELON - rockmelon - 4 germinated
If we have five places to grow then keep them together by type - so all the Galeaux d'Eysines together, all the Musquee together, etc. Pollinator can go one for the PUMPKINS and one for the MELONS (more or less)
if we have three places to grow, then one each of MELON, PUMPKIN, and POLLINATOR in each spot.
TO DO
0. Prep ground: add compost/manure
1. make labels - wood, large, painted
2. group where they're going
3. Plant out.
FINAL PLANS - Sunday 30th Nov:
I'm going to use the Frangipani and the Banana circle this year, doing the work on the Triangle Garden this year I'll improve the soil along the chookyard fence and the front garden in the coming seasons.
