Dear Diary: mid-Feb

WEATHER:Hot. Upper 20s, heading for the 30s over the weekend. It's going to be very hot.

The patterns are shifting out of La Nina. Whether they'll head for El Nino is another matter, but the chances are about 60% right now? No more normal seasons; too hot, or too cold.

RAIN & WATER

Had some very decent rains the last few months - usually very clear skies and then abruptly, DOWNPOUR. Last Thursday night had a pretty major storm to the point where the large water tank was significantly overflowing. I pretty much removed the cap on the 'first flush' and then it stopped overflowing but it was basically all going out to stormwater.

I've been using the watertank to water the trees and the beds in the triangle garden, the potted trees and so forth.

CHOOKS:

B1 and B2 have been formally named - in French, because our knowledge of Chinese dishes ran out pretty fast: Caramba (Caramel) and Chouquette (Cream puff) for their colours. They're growing very fast and today are much more chicken-shaped than pullet-shaped.

Goong is back to being broody again. Sissy (Siyao) is laying. We're afraid that Coldie or Shantung's chip has worn out and they're laying again, though - we got an egg that didn't look like a Sissy egg today, so the sister is worried. I have the money to put another chip in, but I kind of don't want to.

OSBERVATIONS

Comfrey is growing really thickly just about everywhere. I'm picking off the flower buds as fast as they grow, but they're still growing quite fervently. Not sure if they'll dry up and die with winter (I think they do, which: whew) but I hope so.

PREPARATION:

The APPLE-CREPE bed has chicken poop and straw all over it. I should put another layer of straw on there, Maybe mix it all in together, rake it flat, and cover with more straw?

PLANTING

I tossed some old PARSNIP seed down in the BACKYARD BATHTUB earlier this week.

Need to interplant some carrots, I think.

Might have to use the front vegepods for ONIONS, LEEKS, CARROTS, BEETROOTS, RADISHES...

RIPENING

The Rosewood PUMPKIN is long and green, the Queensland Sunrise is round and fat and orange, and there's at least one large longneck from the ginormous vine that started in the pumpkin-potato bed. Not as many fruiting flowers as I'd have liked, only one per major vine so far... The smaller curcubit vines aren't producing anything.

TOMATOES:

HARVEST

APPLES - the Gala are very ready, and the Delicious are ripening steadily.

CORIANDER - the short sprouts are starting to go seedy, but even just having it there makes it good and ready

BASIL - the bought basil is doing great, the seedling basil keeps getting dug up by the chooks when they get out. ARGH!

PRUNING

Fruit trees will need major pruning, quite possibly involving a chainsaw. I need to get one of the neighbours in on this sometime.

THOUGHTS

Still haven't heard back from the window guys; need a date - trying to arrange to move things away from the windows.

I want to make a vegie frittata entirely from Things Grown In My Garden: potatoes, basil, sage, parsley, green leafies, eggs. Okay, maybe I'll add cheese to that. It's kind of the wrong weather for baking though. I always want to bake when it's hot. I don't know why.

2023 is here

There are AVOS in the tree, APPLES on the branches, PUMPKINS growing in the front, and TOMATOES in the triangle garden. The CORN is doing very well up in the back corner by the APPLE tree.

But oh, I'm starting to fret about the backyard and the way it's falling apart. It need a serious makeover with a solid chicken tunnel and better garden beds. Plus, I need to let some of the grasses grow back - but not the awful runner-grass that just ends up growing everywhere and is impossible to get rid of. That's starting to take over the paths because I haven't chip-mulched them in a year...

Then there's the comfrey that is refusing to stay down and dead, and which I planted all over the place and which is going to be a pest going forward...

I mean that, there, in the pic above? That's rhubarb. Something else entirely. but, yes, comfrey can be a pest, too...

Something that I'm thinking of doing this year is redesigning the 'Victory Garden' for:
a) Sydney, Australia and our temperate climates (far more variety available, and a recognition that summer temps are not going to grow cabbages and leeks very well)
b) permaculture gardens (instead of rows along a backyard which would be awful to weed)
c) my permaculture garden

It will require rethinking things in time and space. And possibly remodelling the backyard. Even remodelling the front yard.

If I think about it, I have a whole lot of garden beds available for use: not just the ones in the back which I plan to keep (PLUM-STONE, APPLE-CREPE, CREPE-APRICOT, and possibly AVO-SHED), but also the IBC (now on the porch), two small VEGEPODs the large VEGEPOD, two metal beds in the TRIANGLE GARDEN and a growing space between the espaliered apples.

Positioning them for best sunlight/productivity, while allowing the lawn to be mowed? That's another matter entirely...

I also need to find a swift-growing, easy-care lawn material that isn't runner grass... haha. Simple!

major things to do in the garden in 2023

Plant out the gingers/turmerics
I'm trying to work out where's a good place to put the bed - somewhere that gets both sun and rain. At this point, I'm landing at 'right outside the lounge room window'. I'd like to be able to separate the gingers from the turmerics, but right now EVERYTHING IS A MIX.

Trim down the backyard trees - very severely in the cases of the donut peach, plum, and the 4-stone.
The backyard needs a lot more sun, and I'd like my trees to be more vigourous, which means cutting them now rather than later (and then chipping the remainder).

Also, once the trees are reduced in size, I might be able to clamber around and look at replacing the chicken tunnels with something more solid.

Move the vegepod from next to the driveway: I would like to make a community garden, but I don't know who'll report it, or what the response from Hornsby Council is likely to be.

Move the IBC to the front porch: get assist by HD?

Set up underneath the house with green racks and storage: assist by HD?

wash all dirty plastic (incl feed bags) and get to recycling centre: could maybe ask HD to do the rinsing off/scrubbing?

clean and take all polystyrene boxes to recycling: ask HD?

move the things along the side (incl cinder blocks) to somewhere else: 

So many things to do, so little time! But at least I took apart the wicking bed in front of the lounge window, and relocated it as a temporary growing bed to between the GOLDEN PEACH and the PERSIMMON.

edible garden trail thoughts

What do I want to showcase in my garden?
what can be done in a small space
chicken keeping in suburbia
microclimates
fruit trees/orchard

How do I showcase these elements/philosophies?

not a diary entry: 2023

Feels like it's been ages since I typed up one of these. Probably because it has. It's easier to go through a list of things and think about them that way than to really contemplate what's going to happen and how to go about it.

2023 is going to be a busy year, starting with the window replacements - which are great, but I also need to work out how to seal the space under/behind the skirting boards of the house. See, there's a slight gap in most of them, and that's probably contributing to the heat loss in winter as well.

First things first, though: getting everything away from the windows, indoors and outdoors, tossing what needs to be tossed, and getting rid of what needs to be gotten rid of.

I need to work out categories for sorting things into, to store useful things together. eg. all pruning equiment, all stuff for fruit trees (fruit fly netting, stocking ties, etc.), hardware, chooks, etc.

Obviously, there'll be some overlap, but hopefully by having them collected together it'll be so much easier to find things!

Before I leave:
1. Fill a barrel with water, soak all the seed pots while I'm away to loosen the dirt.
2. Cut the porch rope into reasonable lengths coil, and store in the shed. (Exactly where? I don't know. Exactly how? I haven't the faintest idea!)
3. Toss out the stuff in the triangle sink on the porch, and put the quick-fix cement into the red bin.
4. Measure the space needed by the IBC and make space for it as needful. (Maybe swap the wooden shelving for the wire shelving at the back of the carport? MEASURE FIRST.) If there's space for it, wrestle the IBC over there.
5. Trim down the BRASSICAS in the FRONT LOUNGE bed.

When I get back, I'm going to hire someone to help me sort through things, because it's easier with someone else there to ask things of ("should I throw out this thing that I like to think I'll use but likely won't?") and someone to share the load.
6. pull out things from 'under the house', would be nice if I could work out storage racks or something there - making more space for things to be stored? Perhaps move the two/three green metal shelves under there? (The problem is getting things off the shelves and stored away while the shelves are being cleaned and moved...
7. I can't think of anything more right now, I'm tired. I'll make a list while I'm visiting K and J at Homeground 2023

Here, have a pic of B1 with a chook under her arm - the incredibly fluffy, broody, and beautiful Goong-bao:

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.