And sometimes I write up an entry…and then somehow the damn thing gets lost. Entirely. Which puts me off rewriting it.
This diary entry has been written across about 2 months, and so may not make a lot of sense, jumbling a bunch of things all together.
OBSERVATIONS:
Wintergrass along that stretch on the lawn.
No grass on the south side of the triangle garden and the wood is mossing over and beginning to degrade. I’ve thought about setting this section up so it just ‘slides down’ to the lawn, rather than attempting to keep the raised bed and the lawn separate. I don’t know if this will solve the ‘no grass’ and ‘mossing wood’ problem. The lawn is always going to be its own degree of difficult to deal with.
Chickens really like the green things – the younger ones especially. Weirdly when Hangyan was escaping (the Leghorns are absolute Houdinis) she didn’t usually end up eating the greens available. She spent more time scratching up the woodchip mulch on the paths.
My first planting of garlic died. The life got sucked out of them by those little black aphids that usually end up invading my alliums.
CHOOKS: When I started this entry originally, we had six chickens, and now we have five.
As at the start of August, Hangyan was laying. Sissy has begun laying again. Gladys is not laying, and we are feeding her calcium every night. (I'm not sure it's a good idea to be feeding her so much calcium if she's not laying.)
In the end, Gladys was dispatched on Monday 3rd Aug. I learned how to do so a month earlier at a course up in Limestone Permaculture, which was focused more on bird processing for the table. It was very helpful, and I was exceedingly glad to know how to do it as swiftly and neatly as possible.
We don’t really talk about death enough in our culture – the end of life process that is going to happen to every one of us. I’m not sure if most older people – my parents’ generation - have really made their peace with it. I’m pretty sure most chicken owners haven’t.
Yesterday (17 th august) we had five eggs from five chickens, and one of them is an Easter Egger! So, yes, one layer of blue eggs. We aren’t sure who just yet. We thought it would be Jima-Wu, because Jiandoy is a Cream Legbar and their eggs are supposed to be creamy white, but everyone else was laying creamy white eggs (except for Sissy, who lays brown ones with patchy sections) so…
We known Hangyan lays white eggs – she’s a Leghorn, that’s what they do. We thought that Jima- Wu was laying creamy-coloured eggs, too, because she looked like she was laying. But there in the laying box yesterday was a dainty blue egg! So obviously someone lays blue eggs, and it should be Jima-Wu, but we thought she’d already laid and was laying white ones. Very odd.
COMPOST:
Several leaf mulches are going, hopefully breaking down in batches.
I chipmulched a lot of branches, but only small ones. The larger ones have been a persisting problem - the chipper doesn't take them, and I don't know how to get them to a manageable decomposition size.
I have a bunch of weeds that need mowing over, but haven’t been able to get the mower working – those bloody pull-cords. I really need to work out a solution to it.
PREPARING:
I dug up the section right behind the seat by the driveway and planted the Yakuma peas, and added the sweet peas that are up against the picket fence.
later note: I should add the rest of the sweet peas, which are presently sitting in their cell pots still, on the WaterUps bed in the Triange Garden.
New Water-Ups base in Triangle Garden - outlet runs into the bed rather than visibly out (that was a mistake) Very heavy feeders in this bed, suitable for summer. Probably the CORN once I get it grown. If I get it grown…
I really need to work out what to do with the backyard beds. They’re pretty good for growing lettuce and salad greens, but I’m not sure they get quite enough sun until summer – also the beds themselves are largely invaded by the tree roots of the tree above.
The backyard is a big question mark in any case. It’s intensive gardening and takes a lot more effort and work and watering than I like.
SEEDS:
CHILLIS - Angela's, one jalapeno, one long yellow chilli (can't remember which is which)
EGGPLANT - Angela's
TOMATO - Red Boar (Seed collection) – some of them are sprouting as at 18 th August
CORN - F1 Sweet (Fothergills)
EGGPLANT - heirloom mix (Diggers)
PLANTING OUT:
GARLIC in garage step beds - DONE
I figure interplanting with the STRAWBERRIES and ASPARAGUS will give it somewhere to
grow – this is more for the GARLIC STALKS rather than the bulbs, as I’m hoping to get from the
Water Ups bed.
PEAS - golden podded - planted in the LOUNGE ROOM WATER-UPS
HARVEST:
The one cauliflower that headed was brown and promptly went to seed.
Mini CABBAGES have headed quite nicely. One picked, the other still growing in.
There’s some kind of brassica that looks a bit cabbage-ish that is doing pretty well. I have no idea what kind of brassica it is, although I probably would if I went and looked up my old diary entries: THAT’S WHAT THEY’RE THERE FOR, SILLY...
Just went to look up the diary entries and no help there. They’re long, like wombok, but they look standard cabbagey
Anyway, otherwise the BROCCOLI are doing nicely. There are still a few ORANGES. No shortage of SHALLOTS, and I’m even getting some nice SPINACH, SILVERBEET, and other various LEAFY GREENS
FEEDING:
TBH, I’ve just been feeding everything with SEASOL, WORM WEE, adding fertilisers and composts, etc, wherever possible. I’ve even been feeding the brassicas with the ‘boron water’ made from the leaves of commercial cauliflowers, which contains boron – a necessary element for cabbages which the Australian soil does not typically contain.
PRUNING:
Heavy pruning late July on a lot of the fruit trees. Chipped a lot of the thinner branches and put them into composts.
THOUGHTS:
What are we going to do with the beds in the backyard? Taken over by tree roots, not great at growing anything anymore…
TO DO:
Set up the frames for the netting – quite a few of the trees are in flower.
