the end of the petroleum era

In 2017, I said At some point (nuclear war, abrupt end of the petroleum society, dire social breakdown) I may decide to start a Linda Woodrow circular permaculture garden in the front yard, but I feel that's a few years away right now...

Well, the abrupt end of the petroleum society is on its way. And I think the hardest part is that NOBODY IS TALKING ABOUT IT.

Except the paranoid. And that's a freaking giant OOF.

dear diary - May installment

Truly, these posts are spreading further and further out. Once a month, if we're lucky.

Also, I don't trust how much longer the internet is going to run free like this. Too many techbros who don't believe in the free flow of information among the peasants (that's anyone who doesn't earn a billion dollars a year, yes, that even includes you making money off bitcoin or whatever). They've been edging their way over here for twenty years, and we're about to see the fruit of their labors.

OBSERVATIONS: Colder weather, still very dry. Going to be a long dry winter, not sure about how cold - currently around 9-10C but we haven't hit the post-solstice chill yet, so might get some good frosts this year for the stonefruits (apricots in particular).

CHOOKS: The three little girls are growing up, getting to small pullet size. They're still in the triangle coop, snuggling up with each other, although we might have to take away the grille they've been sleeping on and get them up onto the perches. They know how to perch - they perch very happily during the day, but at night they cluster up on the grille.

Currently Hangyan has some honking problems, Jiandoy is limping, and Siyao has been having issues.

Sincerely, backyard chickens are way too expensive for the eggs they produce. FYI.

COMPOST: The rats have gotte into the compost bay where the girls are buried (Kerry and Carambah). I've also started a new 'cat poo compost' in the banana ircle. There's leafmulch happening in the PSN composter, and I'm probably going to have to set up another compost bin somewhere.

I should probably dig out the Coldie/Haamy compost - that's at least two years old by now, should be decently composted. And I could put the leaves in on that one.

Still have to redo the composting bays where I cleared them. Need to find something that can cut metal sheets.
EDIT: I think Matt is going to loan me a metalcutter.

PREPARING:

Set up metal garden bed in driveway
· Layer of mushroom compost
· Layer of straw
· Layer of cow manure
· Layer of garden soil

SEEDING:
· ONIONS - in a paper spiral (may have done it too deep)
· BRASSICAS (at least 6 each of CABBAGE, CAULI, BROCC, WOMBOK)
PEAS1: Sugarsnap Arcadis (with red acre cabbage)
PEAS2: Snowpea Arcadia (with golden acre cabbage)
PEAS3: Golden Podded (with broccoli)
PEAS4: Shelling Massey (with purple sicily cauli)
BOK CHOI

SWEET PEAS:
Triple 3 + High Society
Spencer Ripple
Beaujolais + Matucana

PLANTING OUT:
BRASSICAS (assorted - largely for the Crop Swap on the 31st)
CORIANDER
ZUCCHINI (a single zucchini)

I need to plant out all the small seedlings in pots that I have
DONE
COFFEE
LYCHEE
UNKNOWN (honestly, I don't remember what it is)
BETEL

HARVEST:
Yellow guava
Leafy greens
raspberries

Also, the capsicum from last year is still producing fruit, although I kind of doubt it will ripen:

much like the tomatoes

FEEDING:
BRASSICAS

PRUNING:
Need to ask to borrow James' chainsaw again (I asked, but no response)
Chipping is going to be hellish

THOUGHTS: One of the problems of prepping is that it naturally holds a paranoid mindset. I haven't found a channel or group yet hat doesn't half end up down the 'government is trying to control you' avenue, with a misty, nebulous 'they' who daren't be rusted.

Which, yes, there are certainly powerful people in places that are actively thinking to take power and food and life and hoice away from others. But a lot of them aren't necessarily politicians - politicians are often the short-sighted patsy that can only see the fiscal opportunities, not the long-term cost.

And also, I'm not fond of the "everyone out there is your enemy" narrative. It's not that everyone is your friend, but there's a difference between people who can be met and people who are just there to take from others. And I feel like most preppers think that most other people are just there to take from others, while I feel that most people can be met. It's a very different mindset.

Driveway garden
· In front of the air conditioner (really ought to just be grass tbh)
· Around the vegepod
· In the vegepod
· Behind the vegepod
· In front of the frangipani
· Behind and to the left of the frangipani
· Around the water barrels

How Gardening Is Political

At the end of the last post, I said

The goal for hosting a garden on the trail is to inspire others to growing even a little of their own food. We all need to ease ourselves off the utter dependence on the industrial food chain.

If you're here because of the Sydney Edible Garden Trail, chances are reasonable that you're interested in growing your own food. Maybe you've already got the full mindset and the reasons and just need the impetus to get started. Maybe you've started and are looking to expand and came around to get more ideas. Maybe you just thought growing your own food might be nice and hey, let's see what other people are doing!

All excellent reasons.

Please be warned: this post is not about gardening, per se. It's about people, processes, politics, pragmatism, and, yes, permaculture. It's about the way we approach problems and find solutions for them. And I know I don't have any kind of power to change anything more than my own behaviour and perhaps to influence other people to think things my way.

Permaculture always made sense to me – a permanent culture, instead of the throwaway one I grew up with in the 80s and 90s. I had more faith in politics and powers back then, I thought that more people thought like me – all of humanity, together.

The last 18 months since Trump II, six years since COVID, decade since America dived into its decline, have been a rude awakening for some, but there's been an inevitability about it, too.

War in Iran has just upped the timeline something savage.

Did you know that the LPG plant that was bombed processed a large portion of the fertiliser that industrialised nations use to fertilise their fields? And the Northern Hemisphere is going into spring planting right now.

There may very well be purists thinking “but that's great! Now we can just use natural fertiliser...”

On enough food for 8 billion people, spread asymmetrically across the world?

Yes, there are a metric FUCKTON of problems with the way we do things, but the problem is that if we stop doing things the way we do them just like that, then the billions of people who are depending on the produce of those things that are done the (problematic) way we developed them are going to suffer.

100 years ago, the population of the world was 2 billion. In a century we have cubed that. And although there are plenty of people living in poverty or on the poverty line, their lives are still valuable. They are still human beings with a right to clean water, clean air, shelter, kindness, human dignity...and food.

Let's not be absolutists about this. There are ways that we can use fossil fuels, or problematic processes less. But we cannot give them up entirely without serious horror being visited on a whole lot of people. And maybe those people don't look like you, or don't live like me, or don't think like us, but they're still people. They're still human. And I don't have to like them – or the processes that are problematic – to recognise that we need to wean ourselves off the shitty stuff rather than stop it all cold turkey.

People are going to die. Most of them will be children.

A friend (I don't remember which one, but it might have been the US Republican one) once said 'politics is the art of the possible'. I don't know if she still believes that – she's gone full-bore 'daughters of the revolution' which I think is a right-wing nationalistic 'natural citizen' type movement so...probably not. I imagine that now she would say 'politics is the art of preserving the culture that I personally want to live in with people who personally also see the world like me'.

Nevertheless, 'the art of the possible' is a nuance that entirely too many people no longer recognise – perhaps because the internet has siloed us into our groups, and we have no patience or space for those who think differently.

easy autumn to-do

In no particular order:        

• Remake compost bays
• Prune fruit trees
•       Clean Out Composts
•          Remake Composts
•        Remake Backyard wicking-bed

dear diary: 10th April 2026 - post Trail, global fuel and fertiliser crisis, accelerated planning

OBSERVATIONS:

The SEGT came and went and my garden was about as busy as last time – I’d guess around 40 visitors in about 20 groups (some individuals, some families). Most people who turned up seemed to be very interested, but a few people came and vanished without saying more than ‘hi’, if that. I hope they found something of interest at other gardens.

The weather abruptly turned cold at the equinox. There was a sudden drop in temperature to below 20C, and we had a sequence of nights at 13C. This has occasioned a need to ‘harden off’ our cheepies. More on that in the next section.

That said, the shade patterns across the garden are shifting, and I’m keeping an eye on where the sun is shifting. Not htat it seems to matter to the pumpkins – March appears to have been their month. The early Musquee de Provence looks like it’s going to be the one and only of its type, but there was another one (nice, plump, not very lobed) which I was growing and I had to cut down because it started moulding from the bottom. However, once baked with a miso-soy glaze, it was DELICIOUS and now I know how to eat my pumpkins! Another ‘plump-not-lobed’ one seems to be growing quite happily away right now.

More pumpkins are churning out – these ones start off in the shape of patty-pan squash and then seem to get bigger. How much bigger I don’t exactly know because none of them seem to have gotten to a big size, but there’s at least two of them ripening.

And the backyard is full of the modified butternut – the one that climbs all over the trees and produces something like a cross between a butternut and a trombocino. They dry well and keep well.

I really need to see about getting a keep-cupboard.

Also: we finally have a solar battery! Now to get on a solar program that actually gives us a decent return...

CHOOKS:

Right, so the big news in the last month has been about the chooks. But I haven’t posted about it because…well, it’s pretty sad. March was a lot.

We got two new tiny chickens – Nien-goh (new year cake) and Jima-wu (black sesame) – and they were doing fine for about ten days in our care. We called them the Tweety Sweeties, because they were very adorable, but also very chirpy. And then we think they got a bacterial gut infection due to damp grass we put in their cage with them. They started pooping very red, and not eating very much, and since the deterioration began on a Friday over a weekend, we couldn’t get them to the care they needed until Monday. They got thinner and stopped eating or drinking and we tried to feed them nice tidbits but they just weren’t eating at all. We finally got them to the vet on Monday but Nien-go was smaller and thinner and the emergency care came too late. She died that night.

Jima-wu continued on as a solo chook for about a week. We kept her inside the house, in a cage, so we could medicate and feed her as needed. Then I made a decision to get a couple more chooks from a (more) local breeder. Enter Jindoy and Hangyan – a cream legbar and a leghorn cross. They’re about a week older than Jima-wu, larger and leggy, and after the first day, we put them and Jima-wu into the same day cage, then took them out at night.

And then Jindoy and Hangyan started showing signs of red in their poop and…

We took them to the vet (great moogly googly, these chickens are expensive) and the diagnosis this time was coccidiosis. So they got amprolium in their water, and a ‘food boob’ (crop) check before bedtime. After five days they seemed to be going fine, and so we started putting them out into the yard with the coop where they’re going to be spending the next couple of months getting used to living outside. For the first few days, we put them outside during the day and brought them in at night. And then we started leaving them out at night.

Jima-wu was not happy! As I recounted, she’s been an indoors-at-night chook as long as she’s been here. There’s been much piteous cheeping from down in the yard for the last couple of nights since we started leaving them down there, but they seem to be mostly resigned to it.

Anyway, the two newbies are still a little spooked, but Jima-wu is reasonably friendly, although still not that the ‘hop up on your lap’ stage. I’m working on that with treats…

COMPOST:

I dismantled the two rightmost compost bays in the hope that the solar battery would be able to go in that spot, but there wasn't enough space for them. (They're large batteries!) So now I have the choice on whether to put the compost back, or else work out somewhere else to build them, or remake them in a different way or…

TBH, it's a pretty convenient place for them to go: out of the way, out of sight, in the midpoint between the chook yards and the chook coop, and somewhere nearish for the chipper to plug in and be used.

I also have to turn the composts more often, and for the current compost, I need to chip the branches I've got, trim some more, chip them, and add them all to the present compost.

Also have been wondering about making the sides of the compost bays with the metal shed panels I have from a shed teardown several years ago. It might make shovelling/forking it out easier with the panels.

Several composts are in process. The square one near the fence, the leafmulch in the PSN display composting, the composting bay. They might need to be turfed out/remixed, and the chipmulch mixed in with chicken poop for composting.

PREPARING:

I need a bed for the new brassicas to go into. They're still strengthening as seedlings, but when they're done they're going to need somewhere to go.

My first instinct is to put them in the TRIANGLE GARDEN again. Or the DRIVEWAY BED. Maybe run the chooks through both sections for a while? That'll be later on in the year, I think - in full winter, once the Sweeties have acclimatised.

More soil is required. See COMPOSTS.

SEEDING:

Need to plant more brassicas, leafy greens, onions, beetroot and other root vegies: turnips, sweded, rutabagas, etc.

QuestioPlanted out one set of GARLIC into one corner of the Water-Ups wicking beds.

PLANTING OUT:

Planted out one set of GARLIC into one corner of the Water-Ups wicking beds.

Need to plant out the BANANA I got from Cecelia. Plan is to set a compost bay in the middle of the circle (netting wire around the base) and add the BANANA to the edge (and mulch it).

Planted out and mulched the GALANGAL I got from Passionfruit Garden along the lattice fence on the other side of the solar battery.

Need to plant out the BANANA I got from Cecelia. Plan is to set a compost bay in the middle of the circle (netting wire around the base) and add the BANANA to the edge (and mulch it).

SEED SAVING:

Seed saved the WATERMELON from Zdenka. POPPIES (from somewhere).

HARVEST and PRESERVING:

Mangoes are delicious. We sliced open the watermelon and it was pretty good. I've pickled a bunch of cucumbers and I fear there are a bunch more coming! And there was a very nice chocolate CAPSICUM from the Old Capsicum plant on the ASPARAGUS STEPS

Picked the remaining persimmons - there were about fifty of them. Sliced and dried a bunch of them (using the battery overnight to dry them was AWESOME) and I'm going to slice and dry some more. Or get B2 to do it since she's off work today.

FEEDING:

Regularly feeding the brassicas in the WaterUps beds.

PRUNING:

All the trees. Priority: the dual stone, the persimmon, the pomegranate, the apple espalier.

Need to borrow back neighbour's battery-op chainsaw.

THOUGHTS:

Plant more: ONIONS, GARLIC, GINGER, GALANGAL

A cabinet for keeping harvests.
- looking at one in Pennant Hills - an old tallboy. It's close and it's convenient. I need to contact the woman to see if I can get it into my car - that'll be the tricky part.

A polycarbonate greenhouse.
- found one on FB, but the guy is a bit snarky, possibly because he's had too many "is this still available" questions and not enough decent responses. It's a decent greenhyouse, but it can't be taken apart, and it doesn't seem to have shelves so I'd have to provide those myself...

dear diary: 20th March - The Sydney Edible Garden Trail 2026

So the Sydney Edible Garden Trail starts tomorrow: weekend 1, day 1.

The new garden beds are in, filled, and planted out. The three new girls (long story behind that) are getting used to each other and being set up in the triangle coop down in the south-west yard. The back beds have been neatened up, and the paths mulched.

I'm so tired!

The garden beds are Water-Ups, and yes, it's possible to do wicking beds cheaply but I wanted the neatness, the squareness, and to find out how these ones worked.

They're not bad. I might have designed them slightly differently, but they're good and they seem solid. Will report back after a couple of seasons of weather and use! What works, what doesn't, what leaks, what degrades, what holds up!

I had a few friends assisting me in putting them together, clearing and levelling the ground, and fitting everything into place. Luckily we did, because assembling the first one was a job! By the time we got to the second one, one friend had learned enough that she worked out how to do it all by herself. Still, I'd recommend the group effort. More brains, more ideas, more thoughts.

We didn't get around to filling them – I didn't have the soil at the time and I'd only asked for their help until lunch. But it was a great morning, good company, solid workmanship, and practical people solving problems!

Need to do more group working bees. Or even social afternoons, where people can keep their hands busy and just hang out.

I filled the beds with a combination of the mulch that was delivered to my driveway (about 6 cubic metres of it), and the diggings out from the lower chook yard, which hasn't been dug out in...just about ever? Some pretty good quality chook scratchings there!

(Bonus: the guy who I got the mulch from was supposed to invoice me, but he hasn't so...free mulch? He probably saved on the tip fees.)

So it was mulch, chicken yard scratchings, then a layer of sieved compost into which the plants went.

I am indebted to the teenaged garden worker who helped shovel at least three to four of those cubes of mulch – a good kid, I've hired him before to help out. He's nearly adult now, and going to start his own business. Holy moly, they grow fast.

So far as I can tell I planted out:
CAULIFLOWER: Broccolo di Bassano
BROCCOLI: Aurora
BROCCOLI: Di Ciccio
CABBAGE: Savoy Verona Purple
SILVERBEET (Gerry from Crop Swap)
CAVOLO NERO (Gerry from Crop Swap)
BEETROOT (Detroit, various)
CABBAGE: Wombok

And some SNAKE BEANS, because the last ones did just so well, although now they have spidermites, and I really should have cut them down a week ago.

AND there's a WATERMELON hiding in the leaves! Along with a number of PUMPKINS. But pumpkins are old hat. Although one of them is a Very Cool Shape. We're going to have to start eating more pumpkins. Brett and Nici of Limestone Permaculture go through heaps of them, in salads and in soups and all kinds of things. Need to do more of those.

MANGOES are steady (and delicious), and so are the PERSIMMONS – maybe just a little underripe? But I like them on the softer side, while B1 likes them crunchy like an apple. Alas, the POMEGRANATE only had three fruit this year – one got eaten before it was ripe. The second got infected by fruit fly before I picked it. The third...is sitting on the tree, waiting for this weekend, after which it will get picked.

There's a few things waiting on the weekend to be picked other than the pomegranate– the last couple of mangoes, a cucumber or two, and I think some eggplants.

A solar battery should be installed by the end of next month. Possibly by the end of this month? One hopes so. And, damn, I need to tell the installer that we're going for the larger size. Also installed in a slightly different place to where we initially agreed.

That, or I'm going to have to move the watertank. That will be An Undertaking And A Half.

Anyway, tomorrow looms. I feel my garden isn't very impressive, but familiarity breeds contempt and comparisons only serve to make us bitter.

The goal for hosting a garden on the trail is to inspire others to growing even a little of their own food. We all need to ease ourselves off the utter dependence on the industrial food chain.

dear diary: 18th Feb - hot and growing and prepping for the SEGT

I really do need to do these blogposts more often, because I'm definitely missing things along the way.

OBSERVATIONS:

The Illwarra Flame tree has releafed. And how! About a week ago, it started putting out little green leaves and suddenly the leaves are full grown. Wow. Okay, I don't remember this from previous years, but it's certainly something to consider going forward.

Could I grow something under there in midsummer, when the laves are down and the sunlight is right? It's a thought.

The APRICOT in the 40cm pot is doing okay, but not great. IDK. It probably needs more space, and it's root system hasn't bounced back quite so handily.

Several of the smaller branches of the new APRICOT died, but the rest of it seems to be holding on.

The DUAL STONE in the front is taking a long time to lose its leaves.

Bronze stink bugs on the BI-CITRUS, going to need to remove those.

Green manure mix in the TRIANGLE GARDEN is doing very well (I wasn't so sure of it

PLANS:

I've ordered two Water-Ups Oasis wicking beds, 200x40x45, and I'm going to set them up at the front of the house, along the lounge room window, just outside the gutter line. Inside the gutter, there's no rain, and it takes something very hardy to survive (a feathery kind of grass covered it for years, but in recent times, it's mostly ended up as a passage for the chooks and just gone bare.

The point of the wicking beds is to expand the growing space without taking up too much of B1's desired lawn. Also, to create a 'passage' for the chooks that we can herd them down so they reach the TRIANGLE ORCHARD without digging up the lawn. Yes, there will need to be a tunnel, but we can manage that. The backs of the wicking beds will form part of the wall to keep the chickens confined, and we'll keep them from getting into the beds by having growing lattices up the back. It will shield them from the public view, and give them a bit of shade to dig around in, dustbathe, and generally enjoy when they're allowed in there.

I'm thinking, from the TRIANGLE ORCHARD:
1 long bed, 1 tree pot, 1 long wicking bed, 1 tree pot. At that point we should have reached the gas meter, and will need to make space so the guy can come and do the reading every month. (We should get in the habit of doing the reading every month.)

HOUSE:

It took ages to get the Home Battery guy to get back to him. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, he's kind of slammed - but also, I'm wondering if he wouldn't treat a man's interest in getting a battery installed with more respect.

He quoted us 25kW, but the main issue is where we're going to put the batteries. The space nearest to the inverter against a wall is currently taken up by the water tank, and while I was wondering if we could put it on the front porch, or perhaps on the back porch, the guy said it wouldn't be worth it, what with power loss along the way.

Currently the best place to have the battery is up against the lattice that runs along the edge of the house.

I was wondering: if we removed the compost bays, could we have the battery up against the back of the shed, instead? I just don't like the idea of them against the lattice fence, I'd rather them next to the shed.

I have asked for assistance for a working bee in a couple of weekends' time. Haven't gotten much response from the "local group", will ask the broader permie group.

CHOOKS:

Goong was broody for a month. Now she's moulting, losing feathers everywhere. We're giving them extra calcium, and today the temp is supposed to be mid-30s, so we're trying to keep them in the shade. It's not as bad as in the middle of summer, but still not great. Better go out shortly and check if there's wings-away and beaks open.

COMPOST:

I turned the compost we made of Kerry and Carambah, and Kerry still hadn't fully decomposed, and neither had Carambah. Actually, I think Carambah had decomposed more than Kerry had, eek. They still smelled pretty bad, so I turned the compost over into the next box, added some comfrey, and hopefully that will decompose better this time around. Or even just continue the decomposing.

As per discussion about the home battery, I am wondering whether we could remove the composting bays and redo them elsewhere. Where else, elsewhere? IDK. I feel like I'd want to do along the fenceline, so we can collect composting materials, but mostly we'd just end up with dogshit in plastic bags, knowing people.

I'm contemplating the 'lower' chookyard - what the twins call 'the holy place' (*sigh*). I've tried doing composts in there before and they've never been very successful unfortunately.

Maybe we need to completely reorganise the chookyards. Current setup is really problematic in terms of space.

PREPARING:

Mostly for the Edible Garden Trail, trying to get things in that will look decent and work.

SEED PLANTING:

With the moon on the wax, it's time to sow some more fruiting species. The brassicas, mostly, although I'm tempted to try late CORN.

PLANTING OUT:

I planted out some of the brassicas in the PLUM-STONE, and a couple in the AVO-SHED.

Also, planted out some garlic in the DRIVEWAY WICKING bed.

HARVEST:

The eggplants in the driveway wicking bed are doing very well, and we've gotten quite a few snake beans from those in the wicking bed.

And the mangoes are getting ripe.

FEEDING:

I really need to work out when things need B&B and when they could do with compost or worm castings or what. I'm very bad at that, I just keep feeding whatever I have to the relevant plants.

PRUNING:

Bee bed definitely needs a digging up and pruning, and so does the back trees. I'm thinking of trimming the two central ones (CHERRY and DONUT PEACH) down very hard to make them smaller (and easier to net/harvest) and also to enable more sun to the southern side beds.

THOUGHTS:

CORN in the CREPE-APRICOT is not doing well - neither did anything in the AVO-SHED. Not enough sun in summer, I think with the crepe and the avo shading the beds. I'm going to need to rethink that.

The backyard really needs a rethink: as fond as I am of the coop and the bed system, I don't think it's working.

The chooks aren't there all day and night, so their poop doesn't really have sufficient opportunity to sink in. They just clear the spaces and disrupt the weeds, they don't really fertilise very well, and I haven't been good about digging out the night coop to put the manure on the beds on a regular basis. The trees next to each bed are taking up all the nutrients (especially in the spaces under their leaf canopy), and the trees in the middle of the yard are growing tall but shading the beds in the summer (and not producing fruit).

My inclination is to seriously prune down the CHERRY and the DONUT PEACH this winter - like, close to stumps. We might then get better sun on the southern beds.

The issues of a lack of sun/fertilisation of growing things in the backyard is one reason why I'm getting the Water-Ups beds in the front yard - better sun, constant watering, and the hope is for better outcomes. Making a chicken-run out of it is an added bonus.

dear diary: 17th January - rain clouds have come and have blocked out the sun

The title is from a song I learned at school back in 1988. I recall it being some kind of indigenous song, presumably about the rainy season.

We probably will not have that kind of a rainy season this year, but the next two weeks are supposed to be cool(ish) and cloudy and rainy, and so it seemed appropriate...

OBSERVATIONS:

We have a week or two of rain – quite a bit of it today – and then some light showers for the rest of the week and into the next week.

The spout over the water tank is too far over the collection hole for the water to go smoothly into the tank when there's a heavy rain. It needs to be cut back. I basically need to cut it back, maybe later today.

I'm concerned about the Illawarra flame tree still; it doesn't seem to be releafing up the top. Is it the drought conditions, or something else? And who do I call to look at it?

The possums are going over the roof at night to get to the persimmon tree now. I think they've managed to get inside the net and eat some of the fruit. I need to better seal that up – possibly with a piece of metal netting so they can't easily get out.

I scattered some B&B over the spaces and didn't hear anything from the possums for a while – so maybe that's a way to keep them out.

ESPALIER APPLES are flowering late – at least, the Golden Delicious did. Not sure it will fruit, though – and if it fruits, no idea if it will manage to produce.

HOUSE:

We had a local guy come by to talk to us about installing solar batteries for our house. The price he quoted (roughly) was less than half of what the last lot tried to sell us a battery system for! But I need to follow up with him this week.

We're looking at 20-30kW, although B1 wants max battery options – entirely off-grid. I want longer-lasting. I've explained my reasoning for battery-ness to her:
1. We need something in place now. The sooner the better. If we have spare capacity, we can fill it and trade it right now.
2. Longer-term – in the 10-20 year bracket, I expect the battery to fail, as many electronics will in the coming decades. They'll be expensive to replace. What I want is the very old-school nickel-iron batteries – the one that Nikolai Tesla came up with and which can still be working 100 years later. They're higher maintenance, but they're really robust, and they last. And no, I don't expect to be existing 100 years later, but I'd like something that is built for the long-term. We lucked into the house being solidly built (in spite of all the asbestos and the tendency to mold) and there's a few things we didn't do as wisely when we should have, but them's the breaks.

ACTIONS:

Cleared out the collection hole for the water tank – it was full of jacaranda bits left over from when the jacaranda shed earlier this summer.

I repotted the APRICOTS – I bought a new APRICOT from Flower Power Glenhaven – and potted it out into the large plastic terra-coloured pots...

And then I discovered a sale on some big metal pots that have a watering bit in the middle and are on wheels. And bought four of them. I think. They were pricey, but four metal pots with a water reservoir, on wheels! You try and resist it.

Anyway, I will need to repot the apricots again – I might leave it until winter, though.

And the other two pots can go for the ICE CREAM BEAN and the SOUR CHERRY.

Mixed up a bag of compost a bag of garden soil (both cheap version), and some blood and bone – brunnings, I think, possibly Yates? - to make some soil for planting out leafy greens, spring onions, and finishing planting out the APRICOTS.

CHOOKS:

Sad news. Carambar was taken from us, and in a very violent way.

A neighbour's dog got out and started harassing our chickens while we weren't home. We have fences up that generally keep the chickens in and most attackers out, but we think that Carambar got so panicked by the barking that she launched herself up over the fence and then had to run away from the dog. The dog pursued Carambar under the house where the neighbour (both the dog-owner and another, helpful neighbour who called me when he first heard the barking and squawking) couldn't follow them and then had her at his mercy for about ten minutes.

When I got home – I'd been called by the helpful neighbour as soon as he heard the kerfuffle, he had to ask for the dog-owner neighbour - they'd gotten the dog out, but Carambah was still under the house. I went under and got her out - she was all the way tucked into the far corner of the underhouse. She was bitten all over her head, and when we took her to the vet her wing was broken. We had her put down, because there was no guarantee she would survive and she was in terrible pain.

We've had an issue with this neighbour before – she's in her sixties and has two very young, very energetic and bouncy spaniel-types who are too strong for her – a couple of times she actually lost control of them while walking them, resulting the dogs bounding into our yard and barking at the chickens.

She paid for the vet bill, but we're just angry and sad, because the chickens are at least a little bit pets as well as producers, and as the helpful neighbour said the next day, “it shouldn't have happened and was entirely preventable”.

Anyway, we're contemplating getting a few more chickens – perhaps the next time our broody girl is broody. And also a fence along the back.

Otherwise, Siyao and Gladys are still laying, Goong is broody. We're going to bury Carambar this weekend, and cordon off the lower front yard for the chickens. B1 really doesn't like leaving them without green areas to peck at.

Have set up the lower grassy area for the chickens to run about in. The problem: they're going to eat the carrot seeds and then poop it out everywhere and it will spread. We're already having so much trouble with the lower lawn and the grass – it doesn't grow there anymore. And B1 doesn't like clover. (I like clover. I love clover. In fact, if I had my druthers, I'd be using now to grow clover instead of letting the chooks eat all the grass. But B1 really wants them to get to eat green stuff... UGH.

COMPOST:

The compost built back in November has cooled down. We're going to rebuild it with the contents of the compost next to it, and with Carambar. It already has Kerry further down. At some point, I'm probably going to have to dig out the one with Haami and Daofu in it, and either remake it, or distribute it out.

ETA: Just came inside from rebuilding it – although really, it was more 'layering on top': paper shreddings, comfrey, Carambar, more comfrey, more shreddings, coffee chaff, sawdust, stonefruit prunings, cardboard, and a wet sack on top.

PREPARING:

I've set up a watering system (connected to the carport collection barrels) for the triangle garden. The aim is to plant some of the BRASSICAS there in the coming winter.

Just took the chook tractor off PLUM-STONE and laid down some B&B. Will cover with sugar cane mulch this evening and leave for a few days before planting out in it.

SEEDING:

LETTUCE(Mignonette, from Segolene and Sebastian) – in BATHTUB and APRICOT beds
SPINACH – bunnings packet type – in CREPE-APRICOT

Added a dollop of seaweed solution to most of the seedling water trays.

Of the brassicas planted, most are exceedingly productive...but the heirloom types are not...

BROCCOLI:
Aurora (F1)
diCicco
CAULIFLOWER:
di bassano (F1)
snowball early – only one sprouting
CABBAGE
Matilda chinese cabbage (F1)
golden acre – none
verona purple – a few sprouting

I think the heirloom types are going to need careful herding along, possibly in a separate tray, and with more immediate notice

PLANTING OUT:

ONION – spring – in CREPE-APRICOT – purchased spring onions, I think.

HARVEST:

POTATOES. I got at least a couple of kgs of potatoes from one of the front pathway vegepods. Mostly small and medium sized – no really large ones. That's okay – they're easier to eat in smaller numbers, even if they're more tricksy to wash and cook. Now I need to work out how to store them...

FEEDING:

Honestly, I'm just running around feeding everything B&B right now. Need to do more of the biological activator stuff from Lee, also seaweed solution.

Tossed a light layer of B&B on the PLUM-STONE, letting today's rain seep in, then will cover with mulch tonight.

PRUNING:

Pruned down the PLUM in the backyard, also the APRICOTS in the front. Need to get a ladder/structure and do the DUAL STONE in the TRIANGLE garden. The chipper worked pretty nicely with the smaller branches I have, but I stlll have some larger ones that my home chipper won't manage. Going to try taking them to the local mulching day, where you can get branches and stuff chipped, but also collect some materials.

THOUGHTS:

January is in fact a very busy time in the garden. So many things to do, and such a lot of stuff to plan for.

In particular, the Sydney Edible Garden Trail requires entering.

dear diary: January 2026

OBSERVATIONS:

First half (well, really three-quarters) of December was hot and hot and hot and hot. We are definitely in the thick of climate change and it's terrifying. We've already had 45C days here in Sydney, and not enough rain to compensate.

Most things have fruited, now it's just a question of getting it before the DAMN POSSUMS do. Possums plural, because I chased at least two of them out of the back yard the other night, and as revenge they ate ALL MY PLUMS.

NOT. HAPPY. JAN.

By the end of December, the weather cooled down significntly – enough that I needed an extra quilt on the bed to sleep through the night. It was almost too cool, but that provided a nice buffer for planting out a bunch of brassicas.

That said, I may have planted out the wrong brassicas. These are the ones that should be planted out in March or thereabouts...

At this point, a lot of focus will be going into getting things ready for the Sydney Edible Garden Trail – getting beds filled with plants.

Also need to remember to ask people if they can anchor for me while the SEGT is on.

CHOOKS:

The chickens aren't coping with the hot weather, to the point whereB1 wants to bring them inside.

Here's a funny point: we have a front porch, it faces west and south, at one point, I mentioned that maybe we wanted to turn it into a sunroom in winter or something, abd B1 pooh-poohed the idea because it would heat too fast and too much.

Guess where she wants to put a 'spare room' for the chooks...?

For our use? Hell no. For the chickens? Yes, please!

Bubby is back to laying after being broody for...over a month. Well over a month.

Sis and Gladys seem to cope the least well with the heat. Carambar is big but somehow not overheated most of the time – well, she's not laying, and Goongbau (“bubby”) is much the same.

They mostly spend their time in the tunnel in the backyard, where there's a stretch which is covered by greenery and shielded by the donut peach. We and they generally do pretty well around there.

COMPOST:

Probably dried out – I simply haven't had the time to water it, which means it's probably stopped composting.

Maybe I'll turn it sometime later this week and water it. Sometime. Later.

PREPARING:

Need to start working out which beds the BRASSICAS are going in this winter and prepping the soil now!

SEEDING:

Nothing is growing. Nothing.

Early Jan:

Okay, a few things. Some of the water spinach is sprouting, but I don't know how long it will last when it doesn't have water and only the hot summer sun.

I've sown a row of a 'roots' mix of radish, char, lettuce, and possibly carrots in the APPLE-CREPE, along with a row of carrots (F1 kuroda).

Planted out the CORN (Silver Gentleman) – also found some glass gem seeds! I can try them now, or I could leave them to next year... Hmf. Not sure there's enough time right now.

BROCCOLI: Aurora (F1), diCicco
CAULIFLOWER: di bassano (F1), snowball early
CABBAGE: Matilda chinese cabbage(F1), golden acre, verona purple
note: Aurora and Matilda are 'winter' varieties, so I don't know how they're going to do through the Jan-Feb heat. I've ordered some of the other varieties, but they'll take a week or so to come.

PLANTING OUT:

I planted out the water spinach, and two tomatoes (no idea what kind they are) after the possums ate the sprouts of the last one. I have a bunch of what look like capsicums grown from seed. Don't know how we'll they're doing.

I also put the PASSIONFRUIT in the ground – most likely a banana passionfruit, grown from seed, I think, I have no memory of how I got it, though! It's planted at the chicken coop entrance, because they're going to need something broad and spreading and shady to shelter under if the neighbours cut down the tree. It got some claybreaker in the bottom, charcoal (damp, not sure what they're in), a scoop of chicken poop (from the run), a scoop of blood and bone, and a bucket of water.

HARVEST:

Not much right now. Like, almost nothing. Oh, wait, I harvested some GARLIC from the small vegepods on the path – not all of them. Some weren't large enough. But some most definitely were!

Okay, and before that, I harvested all the dorset APPLES, and then had to pick all the other apples (gala and golden delish) because they were riddled with fruit fly. I've put them in the chicken coop for eating.

The ones I picked that were good were sliced and dried.

The PLUMS on the former FOUR-STONE were doing well, at least after I got rid of all the half-ripe, half-eaten ones that were clustering. I had at least a dozen fruit, slowly ripening...and then the bloody possums took 'em! All of them! Quite gone!

The golden PEACHES didn't do as well as I hoped – they weren't very large. I think the weird weather did them in.

Otherwise the PERSIMMONS are netted, and I'm hoping they'll keep going okay...

FEEDING:

Fed everything in the APPLE-CREPE and CREPE-APRICOT beds with blood and bone.

PRUNING:

Got the chipper working again – huzzah! Now need to change the blades and do some of the thicker chunks (if they don't get stuck).

Might need to borrow James' chainsaw again. I don't feel like asking Joe to come over for something so small as a few branches.

THOUGHTS:

Cleaned the gutters of the jacaranda leaves. In the middle of a downpour. Do not recommend.

Need to ask people to assist on the Edible Garden Trail weekends.

dear diary: 30th November

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.

dear diary: 20th October and previous weeks

OBSERVATIONS:

I've been gone six weeks and the garden has changed...significantly.

For starters, I left in late winter, and returned mid-spring and EVERYTHING IS GROWING.

The weather has turned hot and dry, with a couple of temps at 35-40C. Unfortunately, the watering system in the back is leaking and I need to fix it before I can properly water the back. DAMMIT. I guess that might end up being a job for Saturday perhaps?

In the front triangle, the PERSIMMON has grown back super-thick and leafy, and I'm thinking it's going to need some trimming so it doesn't get too out of hand. It's shading the space where I was growing tomatoes and some pumpkins, thinking that it would take longer for the shade to hit. But no, apparently not. So both the CITRUS and the bed I had behind the STONE arein full shade.

The beds I planted have overgrown, and while things are surviving in there, nothing is really thriving, thanks to the heat and the lack of watering. B1 couldn't really manage it, which isn't surprising, and I didn't have the watering system properly set up, unfortunately.

Several of the grafts took, but some didn't.

The APRICOTS on the TWO STONE took, (the cherries did not)

The PLUMS on the PLUM took (the cherries did not) (I'm seeing a pattern with the cherries.)

Something that concerns me is a kind of fungus that seems to be growing out of the cambium layer of the tree – I think it's because the sealant stayed on too long – the full six weeks, instead of being taken off at three or four weeks. I've taken it all off now, but...we might have to wait and see if I've killed the trees entirely.

Next job is to trim down the scion trees, because they're entirely too vigourous right now.

Neither of the APRICOTS, nor the STONE fruit APRICOT, nor the FOUR-APPLE are flowering. Not at all. The GOLDEN DELICIOUS APPLE is flowering a little, and the GALA usually comes in late, but it's also not looking great. Don't think this is going to be a good year for apples, anyway...

Somewhat surprisingly the WHITE MULBERRY in the chook pen survived. It even has a little fruit on it. I should pick those off before they get much bigger.

The WHITE SAPOTE is almost dead, the BLACK SAPOTE is surviving. The ICE CREAM BEAN is comfortably in the fake barrel along with...another tree that I don't know.

Almost all the COFFEE seedlings dried out. And several of the LYCHEE trees are on the blink. B1 insists she watered them enough but I have my doubts.

I suspect the FIG strikings that I took have failed, but one of the branches from the BLACK GENOA that got worm eaten has survived and has a leaf on it.

PASSIONFRUIT vine is probably dead. KUMQUAT has survived, although isn't looking great.

MANGO has a bajillion little fruits on it, and I'm going to have to keep that one watered properly this summer. And that's going to be an effort and a half!

the GRAPE is doing wonderfully, thanks very much. I need to get some kind of a frame up so that we have a hope of growing it for shade, maybe? IDK. B1 and I are on two pages about that. She wants a shade that we can pull back (ie. Man-made mechanical), I'm for the grape in summer and bare in winter.

CHOOKS:

All seem healthy and laying (except Carambah, who has an implant and shouldn't be laying at all). Life rolls on without Dr. Kerry, and she's in the freezer awaiting the moment for burial. Also, a location.

Currently TRACTOR is on CREPE-APRICOT, should stay there until early November

COMPOST:

I thought it had dried out while I was away, but the temp in it was just under 'steady', and when I turned it on Tuesday 21st it was damp (but not moist) and most of the non-fibrous things had decomposed. I turned it and covered it with sacking.

Lawn guy came this afternoon, said it was okay mowing the leaves, but ended up leafblowing most of it to the edges of the garden. Oh well. I'm going to have to whip out the mower myself on Friday and give it a good going-over. Then use the leaves as mulch.

PREPARING:

I'm pretty much preparing for the Sydney Edible Garden Trail in March 2026. I want to showcase how much can be grown in a small space, and effectively using chickens.

That would mean I'd have the chooks on one of the tractor beds. And I need to make a decision about which one. My instincts say that the AVO-SHED would be best: it's a good visual, and it's difficult to grow things in there. So I need to do any growing in the AVO-SHED ASAP in the next six months with an eye to having the girls on it by early March

FORWARDTHOUGHTS:

AVO-SHED
thoughts: not a lot of sun happening here, things tend to grow badly when they grow at all now that the avo is next door. I wonder if some careful planting and feeding might do a better job now?
Perhaps try a ZUCCHINI, assorted BEANS and some LEAFY GREENS (SILVERBEET) – going to need to feed and water them hard.

CREPE - should be ready by early November
- plant the GLASS GEM CORN in this bed, with ZUCCHINI and TOMATO and BEANS

APPLE-CREPE
- BEANS, ZUCCHINI, TOMATO

PLUM-STONE

DRIVEWAY WICKING
- plant the COUNTRY GENTLEMEN CORN in this bed, in a triangle at the top left corner (around the watering pipe)
- CUCUMBER along the back edge
- SNAKE BEANS along the back edge
- BEETROOT and SILVERBEET spaced through the middle
- BUSH BEANS along the front

HARDWARE WORK:

1. Watering System

2. Garden seat

3. Take the TRIANGLE beds out and consolidate into a single bed

4. Make up the IBC bed on the porch

SEEDING:

So many things need planting, especially for the SEGT 2026, which is in March (I think).

21st -22nd and 27th - 28th
CORN – Country Gentleman, Glass Gem
CUCUMBER – Burpless
ZUCCHINI – black beauty
PUMPKIN – musquee du provence
ROCKMELON – zdenka's?

Also: SILVERBEET, SPINACHES, maybe WATER SPINACHES?

PLANTING OUT:

Nothing to plant out. Anything I seeded back in August is pretty much dead.

HARVEST

FEEDING:

Fed the potatoes shop potash. Or phosphate. Hm. I have a feeling it was phosphates.

Need to try actual wood ash from Sue's fireplace next time.

Found this advice about POTATOES on the internet:
Leaf mulch, compost, blood and bone, potatoes, compost, leaf mulch
planted in June
watered very regularly
fertilised halfway through growing season – potash

she had some really good potatoes in October after planting in June.

Was wondering if I could do the same from the August planting by December in the small vegepod on the path...

LET OPERATION POTATO COMMENCE!

PRUNING:

Honestly, everydamnthing in the garden needs pruning.

dear diary: short September

Just a few updates while I'm out of the country.

CHOOKS:

Kerry died the morning I left to go overseas. We medicated her, B1 tried to put her back into the coop, she was already wilting – as in, head drooping, everything failing, and before we got to the expressway, she was dead.

Poor Dr.Kerry, although I like to think she had a magnificent life at the end there, once she'd come to us.

GRAFTING:

I found some notes!

Apricots: grafted to Nectarine
- Cotton Candy (300) and Unknown Apricot grafted onto Two-Stone Nectarine. It was very wet while doing so, and I don't know how well it's going to hold. You do what you can, I suppose.
- Fireball (450) and Bulida (500) grafted onto horizontal Two-Stone Nectarine. Again, very wet while doing so. 

That's all the notes I have, but it's more than I had before!

THOUGHTS:

It looks like it's going to be pretty dry while I'm away, and while I left instructions on watering the seedlings, I do wonder a little how they went in the cold snap we had on the weekend.

dear diary: end of August

NOTES:

Been a lot of things happening lately, And entirely too long since I updated this.

I keep thinking I have things to talk about, which I do, but then I haven't really had time to write them down, so I haven't typed them out.

I grafted a bunch of stone fruit to each other, BUT I DIDN”T TAKE NOTES and, uh, now I have to work out what went where.

Stupid.

- Royal Crimson, Minnie Royal, and Royal Lee
-Bulida, Fireball, Cotton Candy
-Gold Plum and Luisa

Do I remember which one I grafted where? Nope. NOPE.

I didn't even take photos, because it was in the middle of a week of rain and I just wanted to get it all done.

CRIIIIPES.

CHOOKS:

Finally buried Haami. She's gone into the compost bin where her sister Tofu went nine months ago. More composting down to do.

The girls have been let loose on the northern lawn, which is mostly dead thanks to me already growing brassicas on it, and also due to the frangipani dropping all its leaves and not getting them raked up. I wish I had some seed to plant on it (clover, maybe meadow flowers).

I need to block the girls off from the northern lawn while I'm away, though. B1 will let them roam there for the entirety of my trip and the whole zone will be an absolute wreck when I get back.

COMPOST:

Made another compost, it's not heating up. Was going to put some chook poop through it to improve the nitrogen, but didn't get around to it before the crazy weeks of rain.

PREPARING:

I've been adding composts and worm loads and fertilisers to the various beds, and netting frames for the trees, so the netting for keeping the fruit fly out is all set up.

I set up a bed for the tomatoes in the TRIANGLE GARDEN, have added worm castings, and some 'dino dung' (I got from someone in a swap).

I've added 'dino dung' to the small vegepods, plan is to grow POTATOES, GINGER, and maybe a MELON there? IDK.

SEEDING:

I should plant some things to be ready for when I get back:
- ZUCCHINI
- CUCUMBER

I already have CAPSICUM and EGGPLANT, although not many of those.

More TOMATOES? (Roma in particular)

I just planted COTTON, ZUCCHINI, CUCUMBER, ARTICHOKE, and some more EGGPLANT (blacknite, seeds from Zja).

PLANTING OUT:

TOMATOES: roma, pink bumblebee, jaune flamme – into the new bed in the TRIANGLE GARDEN. They're going to need extra nutrients, because there's tree roots all through that bed.

POTATOES: planted in one of the small vegepods

GINGER: planted in both of the small vegepods – note; also iron pelleted the pods b/c of slater bugs

HARVEST:

Avos still going strong

Going to be BROCCOLI available for some time

Already harvested and pickled one RED CABBAGE, need to do something with the other

The WOMBOK are still good, but probably need to be picked

FEEDING:

everything, once it's in

PRUNING and PEST CONTROL:

I have learned that one should never prune APRICOTS in winter

All the stone fruit have been whitewashed (hydrated lime, water, copper spray crystals, a little paint) against pests

GRAFTING – SO FAR

Okay, so I grafted the CHERRIES onto one branch of the triangle WHITE NEKO, and grafted some APRICOTS onto another branch of it. I've trimmed the WHITE NEKO down .

I grafted more CHERRIES onto the back PLUM and also the two PLUMS.

More detail than that, I don't have. I didn't take photos, I didn't write it down, I'm a dumbarse.

At least one of the CHERRIES on the WHITE NEKO has taken

Nothing on the APRICOTS

Need to fix the sealing on the joints (all of them, looks like the wax has shrunk and cracked) and remove the envelope from around the branch

THOUGHTS:

It's going to be another six weeks before I next get to update this, so it'll be interesting to see what the garden will look like by then.

while I'm away, my sister will be watering the seedlings (and possibly the rest of the plants, too). It's going to be a wet year, it looks like they've decided this is going to be a LaNina year, and the ElNino is going to wait until next year. So the goal this year is to get as much water into the landscape as possible. Lots of organic matter, lots of mulch, lots of things decaying to improve the soil as much as possible...

Posting a bunch of photos here for the record.

dear diary: end of July

GRAFTING PLANS
Gonna go visit the guy with the fruit trees on Sunday, going to get APRICOTS, CHERRIES, and PLUMS from him. Promptly come back and
· white NECTARINE stump: graft APRICOTS onto it
· Backyard CHERRY tree: graft low-chill CHERRIES onto it
· Backyard PLUM tree: graft low-chill PLUMS onto it

PLANTING PLANS
· TOMATO: eating and canning tomatoes
· CUCUMBER:
· ZUCCHINI:
· MELONS: what if I grow them in the EMPTY BACK BED?

DRIVEWAY BRASSICA BED
-for tomatoes later in the season? After the chooks have run through it again.
-maybe try CORN again? Or leave that in the backyard?

(FORMER) APRICOT bed
Run chooks through the area? (how?)
Manure, bucket waste, comfrey, seaweed solution, weed tea, cover with pea straw

Timing will be everything I think.

Two things I have to think about:
1. going away through September and half of October
2. the Sydney Edible Garden Trail in March 2026

Things I particularly want for the SEGT:
1. CORN (late sowing)
2. MELONS (always late)
3. APPLES (just ripe)
4. PERSIMMONS (should be in full flow)

I feel like I should plant out the garden beds before I go, but the risk is that nobody looks after my garden while I'm away and the whole thing dies...

Same with seedlings. It's kind of going to require someone to at least do some of the basics of watering my seedlings while Im gone and keeping an eye on them. I'm not sure my sister is up to the task.

To do this weekend:
Plant TOMATOES seeds
- ROMA
- eating
Plant CUCUMBER seeds
Plant ZUCCHINI seeds
Plant MELONS seends
Chop out some CHINESE CABBAGES and pickle
Prep MELON bed locations
Move chooks to NORTH DRIVEWAY BED

dear diary: 8th July 2025

OBSERVATIONS:

Okay, let's have a proper gardening post.

It's been a fairly mild winter. It doesn't feel like it, of course. It feels cold, just as it always does, because the walls leak heat something fierce. We're doing okay with the windows, but to do the walls is a dream – possibly a pipe dream at this point.

We have a slow water leak somewhere on the property. I have no idea where or how, because I checked all the taps and they seem fine, but the meter is moving ever so slowly - by milliliters, I think, but still. It would add up to a litre or two a day at least. IDEK. I'm worried with all the rain and drought, that something has cracked or twisted just a little and the result is a tiny leak. I'm also worried about mould and rotting, both of which are issues if the leak is somewhere in the walls.

EDIT: I have a feeling it might be at the tap which turns off the mains water. There's a tiny seep around the tap head. Which is a problem, because I suspect that Sydney Water will have to turn off the mains in the street to replace the washer or the tap or something.

Otherwise, mostly sunny days, generally very dry weather. Occasional squalls, and those two weeks of rain back in May.

CHOOKS:

We had Haamyu chicken put down on Tuesday. Big and black, she had all kinds of internal issues through her life, some of which were more costly than we needed. But after consultation with a vet who *does* do terminations (unlike the ones who didn't and basically just kept doing scans and palliative care) we determined that she wasn't ever going to get better and it was better for all involved that we just put her down. Now I got to find another place to bury a chicken.

B1 thinks we could put Haamyu in the same compost that we buried her 'sister' Daofu in.

That's one of the last photos we have of Haami roaming with the others. In the last week or two, we'd brought her inside as she just became more and more lethargic, until we took her to the vet and made the decision.

COMPOST:

Still making leaf mulch. Tossed more leaves into the chook yard for them to scratch over. Need to go back up the street and grab that pile of leaves (if it's still there after tonight, which is green bin night).

PREPARING:

Need to prep a melon patch. Exactly where from? IDEK. Maybe in the BANANA CIRCLE? Or possibly the FRONT LOUNGE bed? But need to make a decision and pronto.

SEEDING:

Should probably do some tomatoes, although I have no idea when I'm going to be able to plant them out... Maybe do some just before I head out on the trip. If they survive, they survive...

CORIANDER. Was going to plant some of that to go with the avos.

PLANTING OUT:

Planted out another set of brassicas, I think it's WOMBOK and BROCCOLI again. Half in theDRIVEWAY VEGEPOD, half in the PLUM-STONE bed in the back. I anticipate the ones in the PLUM-STONE will be slower-growing than the DRIVEWAY VEGEPOD which is fine – hopefully we will be eating those in October when I return from overseas.

The DRIVEWAY VEGEPOD lot were planted out, fed a bit of wormcasting mud, and watered around rather than on top of. The PLUM-STONE were planted out in worm castings, and watered in. Both were sowed with iron pellets to combat the snails.

HARVEST:

The BROCCOLI in the DRIVEWAY GROUND bed are doing splendidly. I've cut several heads, and more are still growing. AVOCADOs. ORANGEs.

The damn cockatoos ate most of my kumquats. Although 'ate' is a misnomer: they picked off the branches then ate the seeds out of the flesh! AUGH! There was a decent crop, too - about two dozen, maybe three?

Oranges are still on the tree, though. Avos are producing. It's some, and I hope it's enough.

FEEDING:

The brassicas in the two beds in the TRIANGLE-ESPALIER. They need some seaweed solution, and also some Biocast. (Should see about getting more of that.)

PRUNING and GRAFTING:

I'm getting a bunch of grafting scions from a guy in Sydney at the end of July, and will have to promptly graft them on. I need to have my tools cleaned and sharpened by that time.

THOUGHTS:

I have a bunch of thoughts related to The Apocalypse here. That's more planning than planting, but that's also a part of what I'm doing here.

In essence, David Suzuki thinks it's too late. Something catastrophic is going to take us down and out, and at this point we need to start building communities and connections. Doing what we can with what we have, and working out what we're going to do when (not if) it all goes to hell in le handbasket.

Make Water Filter Barrel

I'm also thinking about water collection off the carport roof. It's aluminium and needs a decent clean with a pressure-sprayer, but the water from it shouldn't be chemically contaminated, so a run through gravel and sand and a ceramic filter should be sufficient to make it drinkable.

Trying to work out where to put a number of trees, how to build a space for small birds to shelter in (they get driven off by the mynas), and how to trim stuff down so I get a good crop in the coming year.

It's a lot.

if it's the last thing I ever do...

This is going to be a more grim post than is usual for this blog, but it's no longer about 'gardening' but about 'survival'. Skills, teachable and otherwise. I haven't quite gone full prepper, but certainly I'm looking to start preparing for the worst. The world is going down, and while I don't fear death I don't want it to be slow, and I want to be enough of a survivor to be able to help the community around me. That means brushing up on knowledge and being both someone with the knowledge, as well as someone who other people know have the knowledge and are willing to ally with.

Black swan events

· Unpredictable events that change things
I think it's a matter of 'when' now, not 'if'. These are the basics for my own household, but we'll be dealing with a lot of far less prepared people, too, so it could get sketchy. May need to work better at connecting with the neighbours, getting to know their skills and so forth.

More difficult than it sounds. We are instinctively self-involved with our lives and our little thoughts, and the belief that today, next week, next month, next year will all be the same as it was last year, last decade, last century. That is almost certainly not going to be the case. So I'm getting myself organised (in my head and in my house).

What black swan events are possible in the next decade?

• Flood
• Fire
• Earthquake
• Riot/government safety net failure
• Cut off electronic access to money (no card, electronic payments, only cash)
• Internet shut down (blockade, cutoff)
• Water cut off
• Power cut off

How to plan for them
There's only so much you can do, really. THe one that worries me most is fire - it's also one of the most likely, unfortunately. Fire through the area would leave us without a home, and no way to rebuild. That'll be the tough one to deal with. Flood is unlikely, quake/sinkhole also. Can't spend too much time preparing for what might never be. Government failure will be a slow descent. Electronic severance is going to be more of an emotional/psychological difficulty. Even if we're used to communicating and dealing with other people in meatspace, the ease of communications in this era is going to take a big hit if connectivity goes down. Water would be a real problem, and so would power.

1. Energy
• a. requirements
• i. Fridge and freezer
• ii. Computers/modem
• iii. When power goes down, what will we absolutely need?
1. Fridge
2. Freezer
3. Internet/charging
4. Cooking: Rocket stove & gas oven+stove
5. Warmth: gas heater (requires electricity) or manual coverings

Home battery for extra storage 20kwh/day?

1. i. Lithium ion (may not last long)
2. ii. NiFe - will last a long time, so expensive
3. iii. LFP (lithium iron phosphate batteries)

'Standard' battery would be the ones that are being offered right now. They're not very recyclable, but they're cheap. I'd like the Nickel-Iron ones that last for a long time, but apparently they don't do so well with solar panels? (Check with Nev.)

Do we want one for power? For longevity? For reusability (charging cycles?) Price?

2. Food
   • a. More sealable containers (anything in sealable rectangles? - what about the pool chemicals boxes? Do they seal?)
   • b. More pulses, grains - solidly sealed. Buy one extra soft package next time at store.

3. Water
   • o Water filter - purchase is looking at least a couple of thousand
   • o Better water storage (additional tanks/under house water storage?)

4. Can I pay off the house before it all goes down?
   • a. Yes, by selling stocks. However, it will leave us with no savings, and let's assume I won't be paid after July. B1 has useful healthcare and assistive skills, I have homesteading skills. We can live off what we have stored and can grow for a while, although it will not be be pretty.
   • b. Wanted to pay off B2's place as well. Not likely to manage that. Also B2 is having other issues with the costings of her apartment. She might need to take assistance from the parentals and damn the electric fence, even if that's not something she wants to do. But I'd help her get the apartment paid off, so that's one less thing she has to worry about.
   • c. The twins might be more able to hold their jobs: helping, assistive, "femme coded". Low paying, but still necessary and valuable.

Priorities?

1. Water filter for roof
2. Another water tank supply
3. Water bladder for under the house
4. Home battery (unless found cheaply before)
5. More dried foods

Thoughts: I better get the trees in this winter, bushes also. If they fail, they fail. At the least, I need to get them in and give them a chance - particularly the coffee bushes!

dear diary: 30th May 2025 - i love it when a good garden comes together

OBSERVATIONS:

At least one BROCCOLI is ready! Maybe two! Going to have to cook it and eat it this weekend! Whee!

I've never really managed decent BRASSICAs before, so this is very exciting. Hopefully it tastes as good as it looks!

Even better is that they're not all growing at once. The two that are ready grew over the last couple of weeks, and are now full-sized. Another couple look like they're going to grow over the coming weeks to full-size. There are CAULIFLOWERs that are building those 'cover' leaves. And the KALE is going great guns.

KALE is harder to sell to my sister, but I rather like making kale chips from them - they're pretty tasty and crunch and excellent.

PURPLE PODDED PEAS are growing in the backyard, and doing okay as they climb the CHERRY TREE.

GARLIC has all taken off in their various spaces.

CHOOKS:

Haamyu is going okay, no more vet visits. They want to do more tests and more investigations. But we've spent way too much on her, and B1 really doesn't like saying 'no' to these nice people at the (nearby, expensive) vet who do everything in their power not to have to terminate the chicken. So, basically, the next time she flags, it'll be the chop, and the parentals have offered to assist.

That'll be interesting. I do want to learn how to do it, because I think it should be a part of responsible chicken keeping. That's a whole other discussion to be had, and I've put it off for the last five years since the first time one of our chickens started flagging. She gets extra nutrients because she can't seem to process them, but when those no longer help, it'll be the end for her.

Kerry (well, all the girls) have scaly leg mites. We treated the entire flock, but Kerry has them badly enough that she needed some painkillers, and she and Gladys get extra treatments at night because their situation is so bad. And Kerry is running out of feathers because the others are just picking on her something ferocious.

The only chicken in our current flock who hasn't needed any vet attention at all is Goongbao, possibly because she goes broody several times a year and doesn't lay. That presents its own set of inconveniences, but at least it's manageable and not expensive.

Otherwise, eggs have dropped down to just about one every couple of days (Gladys). Unfortunately, we no longer have our extra eggs from the last month: one of our cats, Smokey, jumped up on the bench and upset the egg carton...

COMPOST:

Making leaf mulch from collected leaves. Take a couple of black boxes out with me when I'm going places, scrape up the leaves and pop them in the composting box.

PREPARING:

The HAYBALE is being watered every couple of days with a liquid fertiliser or worm wee. Still not 100% on what's going in there...

SEEDING:

No seeds being planted right now, might have to sow the next round of BRASSICAS. I wonder if it's an okay season for the heirloom BRASSICAS. (I wonder if the heirloom aspect is why the previous BRASSICAS got aphids and this round doesn't)

PLANTING OUT:

Still have a punnet of BRASSICAS (not sure which ones now) and...a couple of other punnets (I think one is CHINESE CABBAGE) to go – there's also a very badly-eaten punnet of what might be another CHINESE CABBAGE.

COFFEE seedlings

LYCHEE seedlings

HARVEST:

Otherwise, the ORANGES are going nice and bright. A couple came off when I tugged them from the tree, I'm not sure what's happening there, though, because they don't smell ripe. The

KUMQUATS are once again producing a nice small crop of about thirty fruits. Something to munch through the day is the theory.

AVOCADOs are going okay, the ones that get picked don't amount to much right now. I'm not sure what season they are. All seasons? Any seasons? I was taught that you could pick them and ripen them inside, but they seem to be rotting or going brown by the time they're soft enough to open. 

I picked a SINGLE TOMATO at the start of this week. The last one from those plants, which have been there for a couple of years, just steadily producing tomatoes, battling caterpillars and slater bugs. (The slater bugs were on the verge of eating the tomato - they'd gotten the little stem-leaves, and all rolled off once I picked the thing. Greedy buggers! They've got the entire plant to eat and have been munching away on it for months.) But these tomatoes have been very faithfully producing ever since January 2024, when I got back from going away. I planted them in the spring of 2023, so a good 18 months of tomatoes, although not very frequently eaten. My bad.

LOOFAHS are still too heavy to harvest. I think I'm going to harvest them once they're a bit yellow, so there's less rot on the membrane.

The two metal beds I planted out (ESPALIER-TRIANGLE? I don't know what to call the bed) before I went to Melbourne have solidly bedded down: ONIONS, SPRING ONIONS, GARLIC, BEETROOT, BRASSICAS (probably BROCCOLI, I can't remember) - actually, go check the post CROP: BRASSICAS Timing because that's got the details needed.

I also harvested the BANANAS and chopped down the stalk. The bunch are sitting in the laundry cupboard. I should set up a hook that will enable them to be hung, so they don't ripen quite so fast... 

PRUNING:

I keep on saying I need to do some pruning, but I really really do.

THOUGHTS:

I think this weekend, I might try to lay out the LOUNGE ROOM BED. It'll be the GRAPE, KUMQUAT, PASSIONFRUIT, HOPS also ROSELLA and BLUEBERRIES maybe COFFEE bushes... Wait, what happened to my COFFEE seedlings... *runs outside to check* Oh, they're fine.

Whew!

Things to remember: GRAPE, PASSIONFRUIT, and HOPS are vines. HOPS will spread. ROSELLA and BLUEBERRIES are bushes that can be trimmed. COFFEE is less trimmable.

Maybe the BLUEBERRIES could go up under the APPLES?

KUMQUAT is citrus and will have shallow roots, while GRAPE can go deep.