various thoughts - fruit trees

Chill units (number of hours below 7C): Thornleigh's average winter temp is 11.9 (17.5 + 6.3, divided by 2) which puts it in the 600-800 chill units according to Heritage Fruit Trees, although apparently one can extend the chill units simply by keeping trees out of the sun for longer.

I'm sure I've already posted these thoughts somewhere...

APPLES:

Tropic Dorsett: v low chill, flowers in late August, fruit set by mid September, will need its own netting, harvest late December early Jan

Golden Delicious: harvest mid-January

Gala: late Sep-early Oct '22 flowering, harvest mid-January

Braeburn: (winter harvest, late), flowering late Sep-Oct '22 flowering, harvest mid-January

Anna: flowering Aug-Sep

Dorsett: flowering Aug-Sep

Granny Smith: never flowered, (winter harvest, late)

Akane: never flowered

APRICOTS: Reader's Digest and Forty South

Tilton : early Feb harvest, 600 chill hours (low), but it's sitting in sun from pretty early in the morning.

Paterson : Jan harvest, 600 chill hours (low),

Unknown (backyard): most likely a low-chill apricot, it gets marginal sun through winter.

I'm wondering if I should maybe get plumcots, which are supposed to be like apricots but hardier?

AVOCADOES:

Sheppard: type B, 2.5m with plenty of flowers but very little pollination: may require an A type to go with it I guess it required a really good season of rain so the flowers didn't all fall off. I can easily harvest an avo or two a week right now, with still at least a dozen on and more fruiting.

Note to self: don't ever look at how much you've spent on fruit trees over the years... An awful lot of them have died in their pots before they ever got into the ground...

CITRUS

:
Tri-Citrus (Bi-Citrus?): Oranges, tangerines - might have had a lemon/lime at some point
Kumquat

Makrut Lime
NOTE: neighbours have a lime tree and are more than happy to gift limes

BANANAS

Banana circle - at least one Red Dacca, the others are unknown, none have ever fruited - probably not enough nutrients

PINEAPPLE

three (3) in pots; have never worked out a good place for these to go.

MULTISTONE

apricot: lots of leaves, no fruit
donut peach: died 2022
nectarine: cut it off 2023 - it never usefully fruited, always rotted before I could harvest anything
plum: full of blossoms and fruit - yellow flesh, starts off very green, ripens to a violet-purple blush

PEACHES/NECTARINES

white peach - on dual stone
yellow peach (clingstone) - single
white nectarine - single
white nectarine - on dual stone

hardware:

Veggie patch AU - clips and clamps

dear diary: 25th October

WEATHER:

Hot hot hot. 31C on Wednesday. I did water nearly everything, including the composts. I'll do another water early tomorrow morning.

Then it cools later in the week and even rains. It's supposed to be rainy on Thursday and Friday

CHOOKS:

Laying. About 4 eggs every 3 days. Goong finally got off the broody after being a PITA for three weeks. Looks like Chouquette has begun laying although we haven't actually caught her at it.

They're getting a bit restless at not being allowed out into the lawn. I keep on intending to let them at the HEXABED patch in the backyard, but it requires adequate fences or else they'll just run amok and I really don't want that - especially before the trail.

OSBERVATIONS

Rats. We gots 'em again. *sigh* Might need to get some of that natural poison.

FRONT LOUNGE WINDOW: the ground in front of there is not doing well. I planted meadowflowers and they're not really taking - most likely the lack of heat, food, and the chooks getting in there and digging them up in late winter. *grumble* I need to work out what to do here. Except that it's probably too late to do so, because we're heading for summer and there's no letting up.

PREPARATION:

For the SEGT? I feel vastly inadequate, frankly. The backyard is probably fine (mostly, although the CREPE-APRICOT really needs to be planted out with *something*) but the front yard is a confused mess of everything.

I did do some sorting out of the composting bay. Still need to get some fronts on the bays, also sort out the plastic roofing (will probably need to cut them down to size).

PLANTING

Planted all the MELONS and PUMPKINS, the Honey and Cream F1 CORN, a bunch of PEAS (blue butterfly, and, I think, pigeon, although they don't look very pigeon like). Also: RADISH, and I think a bunch of ONIONS and LEEKs but not entirely certain. I didn't label them. Again. UGH.

I have to work out where the melons and pumpkins are going.

FEEDING

Need to feed the TOMATOES in the AVO-SHED and the CORN in the CREPE-APRICOT.

HARVEST

Still harvesting AVOCADOES. In fact that's becoming something of a priority, because the damn thing is beginning to drop them - most likely to make way for the next generation of fruit...

PRUNING

Plum needs more pruning, I think the Dual Stone does, too - the branches on the nectarine side are getting out of hand, even inside the netting..

THOUGHTS

I'm thinking. What if the movable vegepods went down to the south-west corner of the garden? They wouldn't take up too much space, I could put things in them that take a long time to grow (onions, carrots, etc.) and they wouldn't need tending and wouldn't take up all the space in the carport.

Now the really tricksy question: how to actually get them down there.

I'm actually very bad at fertilising my garden - that is, adding worm wee, seasol, seaweed brew, weed tea, biosol, etc. I just forget, or occasionally toss a heap on. Probably not great for the soil or the plants. My plants grow pretty well, sure, but not fantastically.

What if I made it into a routine? Wormwee this phase of the moon, seasol/seaweed next phase, weed tea phase after, biosol after that...

TO DO:

1. make the seats
2. finish off the redo of the chicken tractor
3. net the HEXABED
4. Move VEGEPODS
5. fertilise EVERYTHING
6. Plant out CREPE-APRICOT
7. Plant out APRICOT with spinaches/lettuces

SEGT 2021

I found this post from the SEGT 2021, which was originally scheduled for March, but got put off until May thanks to weather issues!

--

Not recommended for introverts, but a really great day.

I had the place set up for 9am, starting to put it all together around 6:30am. Misty cool, even a little chilly, and overcast. Good weather for people visiting, so long as it didn't rain.

(It didn't; a spatter or two around 1:30-2pm, but otherwise cool pearly skies or else the blue of a Sydney autumn.)

My first quartet turned up at 9:30am and about five minutes later 2 more turned up. They stayed about 30-40 minutes, then I didn't get any until 10:40 and after that it was a steady stream of people all through the day until around 3:30pm.

Lots of conversations about the garden, about putting together a garden, about contexts and patterns vs. details, about community groups that people belonged to, and chickens.

There were at least two visitors who came specifically to see me and my garden - a cousin and her three kids, and a friend from my childhood church with her daughter.

The cousin is Cousin T's older sister, and I think she sees a bit of T's independence and verve in me. With two daughters (oldest and youngest), she's also intent on making sure her daughter have examples of women. Her son is trans, and she and her husband have been really great in supporting him, but I think there was initially some resistance in the extended family because of the conservative Christian upbringing. So far as I know, they're respecting Xave's pronouns and gender.

Friend from childhood church checked to see if it was okay she come and just visit with her daughter; she's part of a fruit/veg co-op program, and the daughter has interests in gardening and wants chickens. (Daughter's twin brother, however, apparently walks through the zoo holding his nose...)

Lots of people were interested in the chickens, in the keeping of them, in the way I set up the keeping of them for maximum gain with minimum fuss. I think most of them understood that the chooks were about more than just the eggs - after all, these are people who are taking time out of their busy autumnal Saturday to run around and look at edible gardens on international permaculture weekend. Still, it was good for people to realise that a chook yard can look very different to what they've been seeing all this time...

Anyway, because there weren't too many people, I could mostly give attention to the groups, although I didn't manage to speak more than a 'hello/goodbye' to some people. I feel bad about that. Still, I think that most people got some value from the day...

I had a solid breakfast by 8am, then 'refilled' at 10:30 during the quiet 30 minutes. I felt halfway bad about eating an eighth of a wheel of cheese and some of those fruit&nut cracker thingies that I really have to learn how to make, but as it turned out it was a really good decision because I was slammed from then on until about 2pm when my first 'admin help' of the day arrived. Just one or two groups, but always people around and having to ask them if they'd logged in and everything.

Next year, I will ask wildly around for help long before the final week, because having someone to help manage the 'front desk' would have been wonderful for that early stretch.

My throat is sore from all the talking, I can barely write straight, and while I would really like to put my feet in a hot mustard bath, I think I might have to settle for a hot shower and a good night's sleep.

Dear Diary: 8th October

I entered my garden into the Sydney Edible Garden Trail 2023. They won't be running it for 2024, unless someone else takes over. Sad, but they've done such good work and it's a lot of effort.

It'll be open on the Saturday from 9am to 4pm, so if you're inclined to come visit, buy a ticket!

On the pragmatic side, that's just under 4 weeks from today, and so everything is GO from here!

TO DO (from a couple of weeks ago)

• cut panels for last garden bed, or else buy more barrier edging from Hammerbarn.
• draw up measurements for BENCH SEATING
• white oil/pest spray KUMQUAT, MAKRUT LIME, PERSIMMON (after heatwave, when temps have dropped again)
• repot TINY BLUEBERRY
• pot TEA CAMELLIAS
• net front NECTARINE and GOLDEN PEACH
• shade back beds

WEATHER:

The lows are still in the teens, the highs can be anywhere from the late teens to the mid-30s. *sigh*

Sprinkly week coming.

RAIN

There's enough rain that the gardens get watered and the rain tanks stay full. Except for the carport tanks which have a leak which I still haven't fixed.

CHOOKS:

Goongbao (Goong) is broody again. Siyao (Sis) and Carambah are laying, Chouquette still hasn't. I'm starting to think that girl never will. All noise and stomach and no eggs!

OSBERVATIONS

The COMFREY has already started to flower, prepatory to setting seed. It's really aggressively trying to reproduce and I am rather nervous about it, all things considered.

PREPARATION:

Someone came by to do the mowing, and I think we got most of the dandelions on the north lawn. I'm still thinking about cardboarding it, then covering with mulch. But the lawn does look nice when it's all mowed!

Got the local teenage help to assist in the backyard: he was pretty good at pulling up the weeds and helping lay newspaper and cardboard down before covering with the mulch. It looks pretty, but there's not a lot of mulch: might need another application in a couple of weeks. We'll see how the grass grows.

Got the CREPE-APRICOT bed in tonight. That took quite a bit out of me. Cutting the bed sides, then just setting it up in the bed so as to be able to lay it all out. A little concerning: the cardboard I laid down in CREPE-APRICOT under the straw mulch hasn't really decomposed at all. I think it's going to need a bit more wetting and then also more mulch. I also need to plant out the corn - the F1 edible variety, I think.

Need to work out the space between the ESPALIER APPLES and the DUAL STONE: I have a couple of pumpkins planted there, but maybe also some tomatoes? It's this big empty bed space, just waiting for weeds to take over and I don't want that.

PLANTING

I planted a whole heap of stuff in the PLUM-STONE bed: radishes and beetroots and brassicas and everything. Even various onions - hopefully spring onions, although they might be leeks, who can tell? Some of it is growing pretty well, but the goal is to have a decent bed of greens by the time the SEGT comes around.

>

RIPENING

Peaches, Plums, and Nekos are growing growing. Early apples are growing growing. Avos are setting more fruit. Late apples are flowering.

HARVEST

Tangerines. Parsnips. Leafy greens. Avos.

>

PRUNING

I'm thinking that the FOUR-STONE APRICOT needs a haircut. Also, all the shoots coming off the cherry, crepe-myrtle, 4-apple, and even the two-stone.

THOUGHTS

I have to go through my previous lists for the SEGT and work out what I wanted to show.

Do I make some videos - short, minute-long TikTok types? On Espaliering apples, and more on keeping chooks, and fruit trees?

I also need a watering system in place for when I go away from the start of December through to January.

TO DO

• fix carport tank leak
• draw up measurements for BENCH SEATING
• white oil/pest spray KUMQUAT, MAKRUT LIME, PERSIMMON (after heatwave, when temps have dropped again)
• plant out CORN in CREPE-APRICOT
• pot TEA CAMELLIAS
• shade back beds
• plant out ARTICHOKES in APRICOT bed
• plant out AFRICAN DAISY along front fence
• dig up grass in BEE BED

I'm really sore and really tired and really itchy, and I think I'm probably sunburned...

Dear Diary: 28th September

WEATHER:

The high temps are rising, but the low temps aren't moving - currently around 13C minimum, but getting double that during the day. 30C predicted for tomorrow, a cooler day on Sunday, then HEATWAVE for early next week. ARGH.

RAIN

Rain last night - about 5mm, I think. Cool and occasional showers today. The tank is filling, there's more due later next week, but we have to get through the heatwave first.

CHOOKS:

Laying regularly: Siyao, Goong, and Carambah. Chouqette is still fluffing around, being noisy, but not apparently laying.

OSBERVATIONS

Dandelions everywhere in the front yard. Couch grass everywhere in the back. Keeping the grass in check is a trick and one that I've not gotten the hang of. The comfrey is growing back in places I don't really want it, and there's onion weed everywhere. I think the removal of that is going to be manual and slow, season by season. It's just a PITA to have to do so often and so much!

PREPARATION:

Trying to manage the dandelions, manually pulling them out (wonderful tool) and weed-tea-ing them for compost. However the north lawn (driveway side lawn) is a bit of a loss - it's almost entirely dandelions at this stage. I've actually acquired some weed 'n feed and am trying that on the lawn, but wow it smells of iron! I did find an article about organic weed control which recommends a product called corn gluten meal.

The truth is, I don't want the lawn so much as I want to be able to develop a nice meadowy space on that north side. Grass need not apply! Unfortunately what I have is creeping buffalo grass (and couch in the backyard; ugh). It's going to need more work and maintenance in the coming season to try to get it to a point of survival - especially as the summer gets hot. That said, a meadow might survive where a garden would not.

Backyard, the couch grass is starting to perk up; I'm pulling some of it up and have weed tea'd it in a bucket off to the side. The promised teenaged assistance has not materialised, so that's a PITA, and I'm mostly pulling it up by hand (and doing my back in the process).

Got the PLUM-STONE, APPLE-CREPE, and AVO-SHED beds in. Need to get the CREPE-APRICOT bed frames cut up and put together and set in place. It wasn't difficult to do - easier with 2 people, I suspect - but it wasn't difficult.

TO DO

• cut panels for last garden bed, or else buy more barrier edging from Hammerbarn.
• draw up measurements for BENCH SEATING
• white oil/pest spray KUMQUAT, MAKRUT LIME, PERSIMMON (after heatwave, when temps have dropped again)
• repot TINY BLUEBERRY
• pot TEA CAMELLIAS
• net front NECTARINE and GOLDEN PEACH
• shade back beds

PLANTING

I repotted both the KUMQUAT and the APRICOT

ICE-CREAM BEAN seeds planted

PLUM-STONE: SPINACH (perpetual), BEANS (blue ribbon - double check this) with a climbing pole in the middle, SILVERBEET?, RADISH (black spanish), BEETROOT (found in packet, unknown type), ONION (found in plastic packet, unknown type)

PLUM-STONE: TOMATOES (both indeterminate and determinate types: indeterminates up the back with suitable structures for hanging plants off (hopefully), EGGPLANTS (labelled, but also have a pic saved and set up), BEANS (pole, possibly snake) at the back.

1 Jaune Flamme, 2 Marmande (red), 2 Brad's Atomic Grape (yellow), 2 Waspinicon Peach (orange), 3 amethyst cream (magenta), 3 blue berries (blue), 2 pink bumblebee (green)

VEGEPOD: Planted Cecelia's GINGER - I don't think the other rhizomes are GINGER, they don't smell right.

RIPENING

Last of the CITRUSES. That's really about it, I think. Other than the fruit which are slowly growing.

HARVEST

Brassica leaves from APPLE-CREPE: should be suitable for a coleslaw-type thing. Last orange, maybe a couple of tangerines? Oh PARSNIPS from bathtub. There's also CORIANDER and ALPINE STRAWBERRIES coming good, and some RED CELERY is making itself known in various spots of the garden.

PRUNING

Pruned the AVOCADO tree - it's too broad and too wide, and I'm kind of worried about the weight of the avos going forward. Not very neat, though.

THOUGHTS

Thinking I'd like to plant some groundcover in front of the chook yard, but the problem is giving it enough time to get some roots in, particularly this summer.

Dear Diary - 19th September

WEATHER:

Hot and sunny. Still heatwave - 35C easy. Middle of the day was boiling hot, I went out to check the chickens, also move things around.

RAIN

Officially, we're in El Nino territory with the an Indian Ocean Dipole which moves cooler, wetter air on the western half of the continent even further west. It's gonna be a very dry summer.

CHOOKS:

They're hot and noisy. Two eggs today, three yesterday. Free run of the front lawn, pooping everywhere and digging up things I don't want them to dig up.

OBSERVATIONS

I actually think there's a BRUSSEL SPROUT growing in the APPLE-CREPE. Not sure it's going to set the little nubs because we're heading straight for summer this year, no spring.

PREPARATION:

On Monday or Tuesday, I dug out the HOPS pot, and got about a dozen roots suitable for replanting - green leaves or budding nodes. Planted them out into four containers for the front yard, looking to vine them up the front if possible.

Actually, thinking that a vine shade will probably need a lot more things growing.

Also repotted the GRAPE (Iona) and a large BLUEBERRY. Didn't get around to the smaller blueberry or the newbie that mum gave me. Didn't manage the KUMQUAT either. BLACK SAPOTE and LYCHEE are doing okay-ish but not great. I start to feel like I need much larger pots for the trees I have to grow successfully.

Made the APPLE-CREPE bed frame, set up the netting frame and have the netting over it. Also planted into it - WOOLLY POD VETCH and a whole heap of MUSTARD. Was going to do CABBAGES (mini) but then realised what I thought was a massive envelope of seeds of a single type was actually a massive envelope of several smaller envelopes of specific cabbage varieties. Need to go through those and work out what can be used.

Realised that the permabee helpers only left me with three garden bed frames when I actually need four. Also, council clean-up is coming, and I need to toss the old garden bed frames out.

PLANTING

WOOLLY POD VETCH and MUSTARD into the APPLE-CREPE bed. Not mulched.

POT O'POPPIES under the AVOCADO, along with MARIGOLDS. Mulched.

was going to do SUNFLOWERS in the APRICOT bed and would still like to do it, but not until after I've removed things from that bed.

RIPENING

Still ALPINE STRAWBERRIES.

HARVEST

Several leafy greens ready to harvest whenever ready.

BROCCOLI in APPLE-CREPE - more leaves than florets at this stage, but leaves can be steamed and stems could be pickled.

PRUNING

Cut down more of the FOUR-APPLE tree: the DORSET/ANNA grafts are too strong. But I want to lop a fairly major limb off both grafts, trimming the tree way back to give the other grafts a sporting chance.

I've been digging up the DANDELIONS on the front verge and the northside lawn. Also been reading up on meadows and how they go wrong, as my attempt at a meadow space did the other year - grew for one year, petered out thereafter, is now entirely DANDELIONS running wild. Need to fill the holes with something, though, otherwise we'll just end up with more dandelions and we don't actually want that.

Pulled up some of the runner grass out the back, put it in a bucket for weed tea. Need to get a lid for it.

TO DO
* mulch APPLE-CREPE bed more heavily
* cut panels for last garden bed, or else buy more barrier edging from Hammerbarn.
* white oil/pest spray KUMQUAT, MAKRUT LIME, PERSIMMON (after heatwave, when temps have dropped again)
* repot MEDIUM BLUEBERRY, TINY BLUEBERRY
* plant CALLA LILIES
* pot TEA CAMELLIAS
* pot WHITE SHAHTOOT MULBERRY
* find a lid for the backyard WEED TEA (one of the new pot dishes?)
* dig around and find out what can go on the council clean-up pile
* plant BASIL in bathtub around the parsnips
* move small VEGEPODs to front lawn? We'll want the garage space back.

THOUGHTS

Given we're heading into drought, priority with the water tank is to use it for establishing the garden, then heavily mulch and water maybe once a day in the evening for 15 minutes on timer.

Not sure what to do/how to fix the carport water barrels.

Dear Diary: 18th September

Am I going to join the Sydney Edible Garden Trail? It looks kinda like I am.

Someone is going to help me pull up the grass (I hope) and lay down chip mulch in the pathways. I think I might need to have an actual phone conversation with him to make sure he understands what I want, because in spite of being 15 (or possibly because of it), I think he suffers from manitis, which is the sad affliction of thinking he knows better than any woman, even one who has lived three times his life. I said I wanted help pulling up the grass, and he focused primarily on moving the mulch. Not sure if I want to hire him after that whole interaction.

WEATHER:

HEATWAVE. 35C days lately, everything needs watering in the morning and it's dried out by lunchtime, especially if it doesn't have pea straw mulch keeping the moisture in.

RAIN

Not for another week at least, and probably on cm.

CHOOKS:

Hot and grumpy because they're always complaining that their yard has no green things in it, but they're laying pretty well.

OBSERVATIONS

Citrus scale on the MAKRUT LIME

PREPARATION:

Got the PLUM-STONE bed set up and settled in. Need to do the others, but it's so hot right now. Also: the process of actually bedding it down would go easier with two people.

THOUGHTS

Bed prep for SEGT
GOALS:
-display chook tractor function
- display fruit trees in the garden
- display shade bed

APPLE-CREPE
- get bed in
- sow with more mustards
- for SEGT: chook tractor here

CREPE-APRICOT
- get bed in
- sow CORN, CUCUMBERS, BEETS (up the back), BUSH BEANS up the front

APRICOT
- SNAKE BEANS up the back
- ZUCCHINI at the front
- ONIONS around the edges (all the different types and kinds)
- mulch heavily

AVOCADO-SHED
- get bed in
- TOMATOES

BATHTUB
- BASIL

HEXABED
-need to think a bit about this - already has celery and flowers there, could probably do with the HELLEBORES actually planted there, possibly set the chooks in to weed it? Not sure how to contain the space - whether to do so.

I think this might be illustrating a shade bed - what to grow, how to set it up? IDEK. Think more on this, but not too long, or maybe leave it as unchanged ground simply for SEGT people to come by and make suggestions?

SEATING

1. need to make the garden seat sections of the chook tunnel

2. need to fix up the metal frame garden seat (possibly for next year)