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.

Dear Diary - 12th July 2024

INTERLUDE – around the 29th June

Digging up half the 'sweet potato bed' to plant the garlic into. It will need maintainence - the vines.

Chaffcutter doesn't work pragmatically. (blades not sharp enough? Too frequent? Cogs don't have enough grip?

Planted the Purple Turban variety in the other side of the 'sweet potato bed'. 

Covered both Rose Du Var and Purple Turban with a box of chook run material. 12th July 2024

OBSERVATIONS:

Chilly week, going to be even colder next week – possibly frost.

Garlic (rose du var) are poking through, I added some water/clay to them, but maybe need to give them a regular feeding of the various microbrews

Teen worker wasn't able to start the mower when he tried today. Might need to take it for a service.

CHOOKS:

Siyao has a clean bill of health!

Daofu is a bully to Kerry, while Gladys seems capable enough of running away, at least. But the others all make threatening moves towards the two girls.

Laying again – Caramba, possibly Siyao, Gladys and Kerry seem to be doing okay.

I need to teach Kerry and Gladys to go through to the tunnels to the tractor, where they can scratch and dig all day long!

Someone is rolling the eggs out of the laying box! This is very odd behaviour, because usually the hens want ALL the eggs.

COMPOST:

Still gathering things.

Been making leaf mulch the last week or so. Stopped because I wasn't carrying the big black boxes for the leaves, but there's SO MUCH of them around the place.

Got teen!worker to chop up the branches I had,now should be able to chip them more easily when I get around to it.

PREPARING:

SEEDING:

Tomatoes, Eggplants, capsicum - set them in the new (flimsy) greenhouse to grow

PLANTING OUT:

moved: Ginger/Turmeric roots to the new flimsy greenhouse to grow

planted out: three Brassicas (probably purple cabbage or broccoli) - also in fllimsy greenhouse

dig up brassicas in PLUM-STONE, pull out coriander, move tractor let chooks in? Still want to build better compost in the garden bed spaces, but it's only Kerry and Gladys who are doing the job.

HARVEST:

Avos, Oranges, still good, harvested some scarlet silverbeets, the peas will shortly be ready, I reckon. Still gotta try that cabbage.

FEEDING:

Some instructions about dealing with brassicas
potash - at growing heads
nitrogen - to get them started
4 wks - sulphate of ammonia (blood and bone) for better structure

PRUNING:

Was going to get the lawn guy to do it, but his dad went to hospital and he didn't know if he could get it done. (I told him to go be with his family and not worry about the lawn.)

Did a bit with J's chainsaw (best chainsaw ever) but can't do all of it.

prune the backyard trees more neatly, and with an eye to a) espalier, b) netting

THOUGHTS:

After the

TO DO LIST:

Improve the flimsy greenhouse:
- aim of a greenhouse is to warm during the day and stay warm at night.

Problem: plastic isn't going to do this; heats up fine during the day, loses it once the sun goes down.

Solution:
1. Make a cloth-cover for the flimsy greenhouse to slip it down overnight. Make sure that the cover is down by the time the sun is setting. (Old cheap blanket/quilt?)
2. Add a flat stone or two (cinderblock) for heat absorption during the day so it's not quite so brutally cold at night. Place stone on the sunwards side of the greenhouse?

Diary - 15th July, 2023

WEATHER:

Sunny and dry. Warmer, no bite in the morning - my car said 25C at midday.

RAIN

None for weeks.

CHOOKS:

All seem pretty happy and healthy. Goong has a red comb, Siyao's is pretty red, too. Caramabah is still demanding food all the time, and Chouquette isn't showing signs of going into lay. Chouquette comes close and allows me to pet her, but it's more a "where's the food, no food? no pets" kind of attitude.

OBSERVATIONS

Some major cracks in the front yard. Going to contact a plumber about having a look into them with one of those long and flexible cameras. If I can find one to come do the work.

One of the brick pylons under the house is rather less-than-straight. The middle one on the eastern side of B1's bedroom is not perfectly plumb, like it's gently being pushed over. I don't know if it was always like that or has only been in the last couple of years. The problem is that I didn't notice these things before and I'm noticing them now. It's one of the reasons why observation is so important, I guess.

Native bees are back and active on the warmer days. Very still and quiet on the colder ones, and I try to remember to cover them up a little on the cold nights, then open them up so they won't grow mould. But they're active and involved and seem to be doing well.

The TWO-STONE and DUAL-STONE are in flower. The TROPIC DORSET on the Golden Delicious APPLE is setting buds ready to bloom.

The TOMATOES in the bed under the TWO-STONE tree are generally dying - we had some frost, and although I had the old window screens up to give them a bit of a buffer, the one on the south blew off and I think that the tomatoes that would have been otherwise protected by them are now dying.

PREPARATION:

Green mulch. Need to plant out some green mulch in the summer beds. And I just realised that I prepped some COWPEA mulch for the back beds...and forgot that the stuff is for summer mulch. I guess I can plant it and see what survives, but I don't really like the chances. I should have prepped the Woolly Pod Vetch but that stuff can get weedy really easily and I didn't want to risk it. *sigh* Well, we'll plant the COWPEA and see how it does.

PUMPKIN-POTATO bed should probably be green-mulched.

PLANTING

Today, I planted out four ASPARAGUS ferns into the LOWER STEP BED. I've been trying to grow things in that bed for years and the only thing that really grows there are weeds. But the asparagus grows fine in the upper beds with some fertilising and watering, so I'm doing it. Also put the THYME in there from Wormticklers, and tossed down a lot of MUSTARD. To finish it off, I need to put down the remaining pea-straw from the pack.

I was thinking about fertilising the UPPER STEP BED with matured chook manures collected from the coop back when there were blood mites - I think it was 2021? Going to have to look back at the diary for that. But because I associate this manure with the mites, I'm nervous about putting it on the garden, even though it's a long way from the chooks. Just gotta bite the bullet I guess and do it. Get past the fear, etc.

I also planted PARSNIPS under the apples, both the FOUR-APPLE and the GOLDEN DELICIOUS. Less for the roots themselves, more for the greens and the flowers and the promise of pollinators and pest-control. (If they flower.) Probably should have also done daikon and beetroot, just to break up the soil some.

RIPENING

Still the oranges and I think they're tangerines? The ALPINE STRAWBS have been doing their thing pretty well.

HARVEST

BROCCOLI leaves. I need to remember to cook the BROCCOLI leaves! Occasional TOMATOES from the westernmost bed in the TRIANGLE GARDEN.

PRUNING

Did the RASPBERRY PATCH a couple of weeks ago, trimming most of it down and clipping up most of the canes. I didn't really check for spring/autumn canes, and now I need to toss down a bunch of manure and maybe some hay/mulch to give it some feeding before the spring.

Backyard AVOCADO needs pruning down, snip off the tops of the tree. Needs it soon because it's starting to sprout again and I think the next round of flowers are likely to be coming...

The bush of THAI BASIL and the SALVIAS out the front need serious haircuts and soon. Now's a good time to do it, the flowers on the stone fruit trees and the Golden Dorset branch will keep the bees occupied.

THOUGHTS and PLANS

With the weather looking very fine, I could probably make the wooden seats in the next couple of weekends.

I want to set up potable water collection off the roof - I should probably look into that sustainable house in the inner west, find out what they did and how they did it and whether it's replicable here.

There's a part of me that wants to die very fast and very soon. I'm good for it, no real regrets, no need to live forever. But also, there's a part that would like to see what I've developed here go to someone who wants to use it, not just someone who'd bulldoze the lot and build a McMansion.

dear diary: Monday 25th July

OBSERVATIONS

Bulb section of yard is sprouting.

CHOOKS

Coldie and Shantung went to the vet. Coldie is fine, all healthy, seems okay after her surgery and implant.

Shantung...they extracted about 600mL of fluid from her abdomen. There was definitely something happening there; exactly what, the vet still isn't sure. Apparently Shan still feels a bit 'lumpy' inside and so she's going back after her course of anti-inflammatories and painkillers is done. (which I forgot to give her tonight. DAMN.)

She was slow out the gate this morning, retreated into the laying box and stood there for a while. But by late morning she was out with the others, happily pecking away at the prawn heads. And she was roosting tonight, so that's good. But I'll have to medicate her in the morning again. UGH. I hate medicating chooks.

The fluid they extracted from her!

PRUNING & PREPARING

trimming down a lot of the trees, ready for Friday afternoon and the chipper...

NOTES

I feel like I don't have enough things for the composting on Saturday. I was planning to chip all my branches, but not going to manage that before the weekend.

1 barrowload of mown grass (2 days old)
1 chookyard of half-mulched compost
3 boxes of half-decomposed chips
3 boxes of fresh-mulched chips
1 box of paper shreddings
3 tubs of chicken poop
1 garden bed of indian borage
1 bucket of wood ash
1 packet of rock dust

dear diary

WEATHER

Actually sunshine! After a week of rain and rain and more rain, and everything going squelchy and squishy and ugh... So damn tired of the rain at this point.

CHOOKS

Chooks seem healthy. Bub-bubs (Goong) isn't going through the tunnels to roost at night. She's been finding alternative places to roost, and I'm not sure why. Tonight I found her refusing to go along the south-side tunnel, and in the end I had to carry her out and put her to bed.

Both Goong and Siyao are laying, with Shan occasionally producing an egg. Coldie and Hainan are just swanning around eating food and being layabouts. *sigh* But I don't have the discipline to kill them just because they stop laying. It's a problem.

PRUNING & PREPARING

I trimmed down several of the trees in the backyard. Going to plant some FENUGREEK in the CREPE-APRICOT as a green mulch (maybe radish, maybe mustard, too).

PLANTING

FENUGREEK.

RIPENING

ORANGES (still!)

HARVEST

ORANGES?

NOTES

Have the composting workshop this weekend.
1. worm farming
2. Composting + collecting bits and pieces for composting
3. Sheet composting using chooks
4. Black bin composting + pest management
5. making a compost
6. Weed teas

Need to:
set down woodchips across the paths
chip all the tree branches that have gathered up over the last few months
collect more leaf litter
collect more kitchen wastes
tear up newspapers/cardboard for composting
clear out the chook coop underside for nitrogen mass
pull apart the HEXABED

dear diary - 16th July

WEATHER: FROST.

That is all.

Okay, not quite all: I got the bulbs in, covered them with pea straw, and then it frosted last night. Was away all day so didn't get a look at the garden during the day to see how it managed with the frost, will look tomorrow.

dear diary - 15th July

WEATHER AND GROWING PHASE Full moon phase

Sunshine, a day of rain on Wednesday, but cool and dry. Frost predicted, so I want to get some bulbs into the ground.

CHOOKS

Laying, occasionally allowed out to generally peck around, but I think they're getting a bit bored. Need to grow some better spaces for them to hang out.

PRUNING & PREPARING

Dug up the picket fence bed nearest the driveway for bulbs.

PLANTING

Bulbs: ALL THE BULBS today. Will probably have to be lunchtime. They need to be planted otherwise. Full moon phase best to do this. Maybe I should add a moon phase to this diary entry. Might help?

NOTES

Contemplating signing up for the Limestone Winter Homestead Espaliered Orchard workshop - it's been moved to the 3rd August, which is a Wednesday and which I can make b/c I have that week off. However, I will have a healing back tattoo... Hm.

Dear Diary 10th July

Permabee yesterday: got most of the pruning and the digging-up-and-repotting done. YAY!

WEATHER

Saturday was sunshine. Today is pretty much on and off rain. Temps have been down to 3-4C and up to 18C during the day. We've had a few days of heavy rain, and this morning our locality hit the annual rainfall record this morning at 8:30am. That's how wet a year it is. It's our wettest year on record.

CHOOKS

The chooks have been through the northern side of the garden: the triangle orchard and the frangipani flower meadow. They got a brief full yard free-range this morning before it began raining. After that, I nudged them back to the

PRUNING & PREPARING

A video on Fig Pruning suggested cutting back the already-fruited wood each year, since that wood won't fruit again, and if the goal is to get fruit, then cutting it back each year will keep the tree manageable in size. Something to remember.

I need to dig out some of the chook yard, and lay the mulch around the fruit trees that we just transplanted to pots: LYCHEE, KUMQUAT, ACEROLA CHERRY.

PLANTING

PERPETUAL SPINACH all around the PLUM-STONE bed, some SILVERBEET in the PLUM-STONE to join the kale and cavolo nero.

LETTUCE between the rows of garlic in the CARPORT VEGEPOD: two rows of 'mixed lettuce', one of 'aggro woman' (or some such lettuce), one of the forellenschluss. Also, four SILVERBEET.

SILVERBEET in the lower step bed, a sprinkling of ROCKET on the left side.

RIPENING & GROWING

The potatoes from the Pumpkin&Potato patch are sprouting, the oats have straight green stalks, everything else is a little bit random.

TWO-STONE is flowering, DUAL STONE has been pruned down to reachable levels and requires a little more trimming and neatening to prepare for netting this year.

HARVEST

Picked the KUMQUATS before we moved the tree, need to remember to eat them!

NOTES

Now that the picket fence bed is cleared, I need to think about what's going to happen in that space, taking a moment to consider that it does need some visibility for cars coming and going, and that that area is very wet in rainy weather, and probably quite dry in drought.

ROMANESCO BROCCOLI planted back in May didn't make it. Probably not enough sun. Or too much? Or the soil was the wrong type? IDK. He didn't make it any larger and ended up dead.

Also, the only thing that survived in the LOWER STEP BED was the Valiant GARLIC. None of the Monaro made it, IDK why.

Dear Diary - 3rd July

First day in a while I felt good enough to go out and work in the garden...

WEATHER

88mm in the 24 hours to 7:30 this morning; I think they'll be worse off down south than us up north, but it's still a lot of rain. More due in the next 48 hours, plus significant winds.

CHOOKS

Still on the CREPE-APRICOT, Goong is laying in the leafmulch, Shan and Sisi in the laying box (which I've stabilised with a brick.)

Something has dug into the chook pen, probably won't find out until the pen gets fully dug out...and even that's questionable.

PRUNING & PREPARING

Trimmed off the pumpkin vines that were on the netting up to the northside gutter. I think that entire side needs a stronger pergola and something more permanent to grow across. (Vergola plans.)

PLANTING

I added two King Edwards POTATOES to the POTATO/PUMPKIN bed.
PEAS in newspaper pots to be grown up the APPLE espalier frame.

RIPENING

ORANGES, KUMQUATS.

HARVEST

RADISH from Dining room Vegepod. KUMQUATS.

NOTES

1. planted LILIES in cement planter by gas meter. Covered with chook run diggings
2. Covered TURMERIC with chook run diggings.
3. Covered POTATO (random) in APRICOT bed with chook run diggings.

...and then a friend I saw on Thursday contacted me about coming down with COVID over the weekend. She was RAT positive and her husband was RAT negative, but he's tested RAT positive in the last few hours, I think. I'm so far RAT negative, but this evening have a slightly sore throat. And I saw a whole bunch of people this weekend, too! ARGH.