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: HEATWAVE - 20th December

OBSERVATIONS:

It's been a few weeks of crazy hot. Some things have survived (and thrived) others...have not.

Things that have thrived: the CORN in the vegepod, likewise the TOMATOES and ZUCCHINI. The MELON (moon and stars) is still growing (which is a miracle in and of itself) and while the SWEET PEAS aren't exactly flowering, they're still growing, too.

Interestingly, the CORN in the clover did okay, but not great. I wonder if it didn't get enough water, and that's why it didn't grow very much? The TOMATOES that I planted out under the DUAL STONE also didn't grow very much before fruiting – a decent crop but not the huge plants I was expecting.

The MANGO lost all its fruit – I don't know for sure, but I strongly suspect that the local birds picked it all off. Next year, as soon as it sets fruit, the netting goes on! But beneath it, the DAHLIAS are blooming quite nicely!

And I have BANANAS! This is new, never had a bunch before! Need to cover them over before too long or the bird might destroy them!

CHOOKS:

One of our chooks has left us – unexpectedly, it was not Haamyu the black one who was sick the last time I wrote in here, but Daofu, her white counterpart, who got a cancerous growth in her belly and had to be put down. She is now safely composting for the next year in a compost bin that's well away from any of the usual spaces where anything is likely to dig her up. (Except the rats. And they can take their chances!)

Otherwise, the two little girls are laying (Kerry and Gladys) like clockwork – we probably won't have them for more than another year or two before their bodies give up. Goong was broody through most of November, then came off it, laid for about two weeks and is about to go broody again. Instead, Siyao went broody through the early half of December – she's never gone broody before, so that was very unexpected!

I need to move the chooks to the TRIANGLE ORCHARD and the driveway space so they dig around there and peck everything down. Even scratch a few things up where possible. Also, get at the fruit flies that are more or less decimating my tomatoes and which will probably also get to the PERSIMMONS. So many things to do, so little time.

a slightly bedraggled Kerry - she's the bottom of the pecking order!

COMPOST:

The compost I had my garden helper assist me in building got to 50C and stuck there for at least a week. It was fully active until I went away at the start of December and when I came back it had cooled some.

I should probably rebuild it, turning it over and incorporating a whole heap of shredded comfrey leaves. Right now, I'm digging it out, but I can still make out some of the components which isn't the best. But the main issue with rebuilding it is that it takes time, energy, and a strong back, and mine is rapidly going.

PREPARING:

The chook tractor is still on the CREPE-LYCHEE (I don't know what to call this bed), and I need to take it off and move it elsewhere for the girls to use for a while.

I need to set up the APRICOT/LYCHEE bed for receipt of the next tree (attempt).

Trees I have to plant:
APRICOT
BLACK SAPOTE
WHITE SAPOTE
ICE CREAM BEAN
KUMQUAT
SOUR CHERRY
CAMELLIA SINENSIS (bush)
UNKNOWN (sincerely, I can't remember, I'm terrible with labelling)

SEEDING:

I need to sow more mixes – leafies and roots, mostly. I haven't been terribly assiduous about it, and with the uneven hot days, it's been difficult to get things growing before a heatwave comes along and burns it to the ground.

Maybe put down some soil, plant the seeds and water in, cover with about an inch of pea mulch. Would that be enough to give it the insulation it needs against the crazy heat? Maybe...

PLANTING OUT:

GINGER in the small VEGEPOD, behind the tomatoes. Maybe I should plant another of the MELONS? I don't know which go where and I've never been very lucky with melons, but if I went with one of the warpaints, maybe? Do I still have melon seeds?

HARVEST:

TOMATOES in great numbers. The first round of CORN was eaten. Some BEANS – I think they're a butter bean. I also have some dragon's tongue BEANS that are doing nicely. Hopefully at some point, we'll get EGGPLANTS, but the single one I've gotten to fruiting stage is not looking very good with the recent heatwaves.

RASPBERRIES and STRAWBERRIES and ALPINE STRAWBERRIES are all regularly fruiting. Not much, but it doesn't have to be much – just one or two a day and we're good.

At some point there'll be a PUMPKIN – the Galeaux D'Eysines it definitely is: that pink and warty look that's so typical of the type!

FEEDING:

CORN again, maybe TOMATOES. Do the POTATOES need any?

Maybe if I fed the back beds, they might do better? But also, they need more regular watering, I think... I don't know how to do that more regularly, unless it's mulching them pretty heavily so they have a chance to properly set roots before a heatwave comes along...

PRUNING:

Both the DUAL PLUM and the FOUR-STONE and the CHERRY and the DONUT PEACH need some serious trimming down in January or February, and then shredding the rest.

Next year, I need to trim down the PERSIMMON significantly – it's shading out the rest of the bed. If I can do it after the harvest at the end of summer, that would probably be best.

THOUGHTS:

With everything looking the way it is in the world right now, I sincerely don't think we're going to conquer climate change. It takes too much will, too much effort, and too many people are caught in the money trap. Most of those with the capacity to believe that we're changing the way the planet works aren't willing to change anything so long as they don't.

Basically, I believe we're screwed.

So my job on this property is both to pay off the mortgage so it's ours in title and deed, free of the bank – which I can do in the next two years if my current job holds.

Extensions are never going to happen. I've settled with that. I wish we could afford some house improvements - get rid of the asbestos, insulate, and replace the fake weatherboard with real wood weatherboard. But that'll take way more money than we have, although if I could hold this job for another five years, then we might have the money – but who knows where the market will be by then?

Energy wise, we need to get on a solar battery ASAP. Preferably two. I should check in with a friend who I think does something related to solar community... I mailed him about it maybe five, six years ago when I first heard what he did. Need to go back and re-read those; I wasn't in the space to parse it all then, I kind of am now.

The other job I have is to maximise food production, which is going to be a lot more difficult. Limestone Permaculture manage it, and they have a knowledgeable and committed couple and their daughter on an acre of land, with a community both locally and more broadly. We have some starches – the taro is an excellent starch through the winter, and I can kind of do potatoes and pumpkins – more starches. The eggs provide protein, although we're dependent on getting more chickens as they die off, and we're not slaughtering them. (They probably wouldn't be very big anyway. Meat birds are a very different proposition to layers.)

I have the knowledge, actually using it and refining it to make a regular harvest is another matter. That said, I'm pretty sure that we could produce enough basic calories to survive on this site; whether they would be useful and suitable and of sufficient variety? That's another matter.

Deep and depressing thoughts, I guess. I'm not giving up, and neither should anyone reading this, but realistically, we don't have the social/political will nor the awareness to see what's coming, let alone meet it on a social scale. Individual and small community will have to be it.

Dear Diary: 28th December

OBSERVATIONS

Still have rats - have worked out how the buggers get into the feed stations for the chooks, am blocking them off. They still try during the day, though. Might need to reposition the rat baits (none of which apparently were touched from last time, which is not actually very encouraging).

It's crazy hot around here which makes ti difficult to do anything in the garden (or anywhere else, in fact): the weather has been steadily 30C since before Christmas and we're so very not used to it after two La Nina summers. I keep on going out and doing tasks at 10:30am in the morning when the heat of the day is the worst.

CHOOKS

We have two new girls - Quambys, presently nicknamed B1 and B2. They're coop-ready, but not laying yet. "Pullets" is the term. They're very cute and I am accustoming them to me, although I don't know how successful I will be. It takes a lot of patience, and the twins don't have any when approaching chickens.

I hand-feed them, and they're getting used to me coming and going, although they're not entirely sanguine about me standing up and doing things.

Need to move the tractor on to the AVO-SHED, but want the girls to do a proper scratch-through at some point. Might need to fill it with the pre-pecked grass clippings from the chook yard, along with a zine page or two of poop from the night coop.

PRUNING & PREPARING

It's a job right now, cutting down all the things that are seeding. I should probably have saved the mustards, but I just pretty much tossed them back into the chook tractor. I feel like I need to throw a few more things in there that are compostable, but the problem is that the rats will eat anything that's still vaguely edible, and the chooks are not exactly reliable about eating everything (or even processing them).

PLANTING

I need to start planting for late autumn/early winter things. I'm going to try brassicas again, but I'm going to plant them out by the time they're 10cm tall. (Actually, if I can keep the last few alive over the remainder of the summer, then I might be able to just plant those ones out!)

Today, though, I discovered a collection of seeds that's been sitting around since February! Dang. I could have planted these out! I might still try a couple of seeds each, and see if I can't coax something out of them before the end of the season. We should have gotten past the worst of the heatwaves.

I also accidentally dug up what I think are the DAHLIA tubers, and had to replant them. Hopefully they've survived today's heatwave (of course I had to dig them up in the heatwave), and the next few days should be slightly cooler. "Should".

Planted in PICKET FENCE BED: LOOFAH, MARIGOLDS (African, French), HONEY BEE AND POLLINATOR mix, Ladybird POPPY.
Plant out: BEANS, CAPSICUM, (EGGPLANT?) Pretty much anywhere.

RIPENING

Corn silks are happening, I'm collecting the pollen for fertilising the next couple of days, but there'll be a break over New Year when I won't be home.

HARVEST

RASPBERRIES - a handful every couple of days. Some of the branches with fruit have dried out, though, I think because they weren't sufficiently watered. Also: some of the canes aren't fruiting and I'm not sure why.

Unless you count the POPPY seeds from the HEXABED which I started collecting.

NOTES

WATERING SYSTEMS: hook up to the tanks, work out seals and pressure.

ASPARAGUS: 1. plant out second step bed with asparagus ferns. 2. Dig out female plants, leave only male ones.

dear diary - 6th Dec

OBSERVATIONS: The rodents have basically destroyed all the fruit in the backyard, and are working on the fruit trees. They haven't hit the avocados yet (so far as I can tell) and they may not be able to get to them on account of the avos hanging. Depends on how smart they are - whether they realise they can gnaw the things off and then eat them.

Got pest managers in to set traps and baits, and the rats have reduced around our lawn, but are still in and out of the chicken yard, and along the neighbour's fence. I think they have them under their house, too. Wondering if I should move the rat bait boxes into the chook yard...

In the front picket fence bed, the elderbush is shooting everywhere. So is the mugwort. The mugwort I still have a half-hope of digging out, but the elders put out roots all over the place. And when you dig up one, then another just keeps going! Not sure if mowing them will do the job. Am hiring a local company to do the lawn as often as needed - next one in the week before Christmas.

CHOOKS: Shantung has gone back for another implant - she had a swollen belly. Si-si has also been sitting down a fair bit; I found her just parked on the grass this morning. Might be a leg injury. I'll bring her water and some food later. A day or two later, she's recovered and seems to be in good spirits. But while Shantung is pretty spirited, she's not all that spry anymore and her abdomen still feels swollen even after they took out the fluids from it. Basically, there's another pathology going on, and the vet may not be able to do anything short of surgery. And I'm not really willing to pay for another surgery.

The chooks are being allowed to run pretty much across the front yard. They make whining noises when they're confined to the yard; there's not much there to eat or play in there, and they like nesting in the triangle bed under the citrus. It's low enough to give them cover, and thick enough that they don't feel exposed.

PRUNING & PREPARING: I put the chook tractor back on the Crepe-Apricot bed, but nothing much is happening in there - the girls don't seem to much like going in there right now. Might be the open-airness of it? Need to cover it with one of my new sacks.

I'm going to severely prune down all the backyard trees next year. Especially the Flavor Supreme plum, which doesn't produce anything at all. Or maybe I should do that now? Let them spring back over the summer/autumn, then maybe fruit in winter/spring next year? Need to think about that.

I've decided to cut down/dig out the front nectarine in the triangle garden, because it never produces edible nectarines - they go mouldy far too easily and don't grow to a decent size. If I cut it down, I could use the stump for grafting. But if I dig it out, I could put an apricot in its place. But I wonder if it's never done well because it's sharing the space with the golden peach... Also, if I could dig up the golden peach and reorient it so it's more upright, that would be excellent.

PLANTING: I'm not really in a planting mood, tbh. Should toss some stuff down - lettuces, radishes, beets, etc. Green mulches, etc. anything that will grow in the coming weeks/months. (Coriander? Needs/wants cooler weather.)

Put tiny baby potatoes in the SMALL VEGEPOD 2 (King Edwards). Trying to decide where to plant out the peanuts.

Planted out the various pumpkins into spaces where they have a chance to grow and spread (I hope), we'll see how they do! I should put something under the apple trees, but I'm still trying to kill off the grass weeds underneath, I think...

RIPENING: Peaches now, very rapidly. Lots of the potatoes in the triangle garden potato bed.

HARVEST: NECTARINES. I'm pretty much asking everyone to come by and get nectarines. Done with preserving - did that last year, still had crazy numbers, now mostly looking to give away fresh. Including making local connections if I can.

NOTES: Sydney Edible Garden Trail is next November - 4th and 5th. Before then, I would like to:
- change the chicken tunnels from the plastic wire to metal tunnels. Also make them a little wider than they were.
- change the Apricot-Avo bed to a seating space (not enough sun in summer) Maybe also consider the Avo-Shed, although that could be perennially leafy greens and maybe some green shallots which don't need all that much sun.

diary: 1st December

OBSERVATIONS: The rodents have basically destroyed all the fruit in the backyard, and are working on the fruit trees. They haven't hit the avocados yet (so far as I can tell) and they may not be able to get to them on account of the avos hanging. Depends on how smart they are - whether they realise they can gnaw the things off and then eat them. I'm getting pest managers in to set traps and baits. 

The elder is shooting everywhere. So is the mugwort. But mugwort I still have a half-hope of digging out, but the elders put out roots all over the place. And when you dig up one, then another just keeps going!

CHOOKS: Shantung has gone back for another implant - she had a swollen belly. Si-si has also been sitting down a fair bit; I found her just parked on the grass this morning. Might be a leg injury. I'll bring her water and some food later. 

PRUNING & PREPARING: I put the chook tractor back on the Crepe-Apricot bed, but nothing much is happening in there - the girls don't seem to much like going in there right now. Might be the open-airness of it.

I'm going to severely prune down all the backyard trees next year. Especially the Flavor Supreme plum, which doesn't produce anything at all. Or maybe I should do that now? Let them spring back over the summer/autumn, then maybe fruit in winter/spring next year?

Also going to cut down/dig out the front nectarine, either grafting other stone fruit on it, or else planting the spare apricot.

PLANTING: I'm not really in a planting mood, tbh. Should toss some stuff down - lettuces, radishes, beets, etc. Green mulches, etc. anything that will grow in the coming weeks/months. (Coriander?)

RIPENING:

HARVEST: NECTARINES. I'm pretty much asking everyone to come by and get nectarines. Done with preserving - did that last year, still had crazy numbers, now 

NOTES: Sydney Edible Garden Trail is next November - 4th and 5th. Before then, I would like to:
- change the chicken tunnels from the plastic wire to metal tunnels
- change the Apricot-Avo bed to a seating space (not enough sun in summer)