Quote of the week, from a ten year old who didn't go on the halloween walk in our town: "Well, I don't know why this stuff is still up," indicating halloween decorations, "we shouldn't be celebrating it anymore. And anyways, it's really all-hallows we should be celebrating anyways."
Planting and preparing: Have put in another trellis on the 'back' beds, then sown with beans and corn in one of the beds. In the other I've put beans, corn and cucumber, and corn and spring onions. In the first bed, didn't mulch along the bean row. In the second, mulched the whole lot. Of interest, something has come along and scratched holes in the soil where the beans are/were. Suspect it was a bird.
Cucumbers planted in the water 'basins' around the Yacka's on the northern house bed. Mulched with old pine needles.
Seedlings finally arrived in egg cartons - Tanunda orange daisies and stocks.
Transplanted one pot's worth of tomato seedlings of each variety (gross lesse and cherry) into planting tubes. About 12 tubes of each type.
Sunflowers transplanted into 4" pots. Appear to wilt and die after about a week. Suspect pots too big/exposed (put out under sunlight). More sunflower seeds put in both soil (with bird wire over this time) and pots.
Transplanted parsley and a mint into herb patch in sun (central bed, near rosemary). Mulched.
Soaked (in tubs of water) all pots I could manage to lift etc. Totaled about 120. Mulched a lot of the exposed larger ones. Started populating under the central shade cloth with pot plants between the herbs and silverbeet.
Mulched silverbeet, sprouts, leek in beds, strawberries in pots.
Tall sloping shade structures built over the two path beds. Did it with scrap timber, metal, fence droppers and poles for a frame, bound with baling twine, with shade cloth over the top. Made it so that one has to duck only a little to use the central path, and can stand up inside the structure. Catches morning sun, deflects the west wind.
Flatter shade stucture over centre of central bed. Droppers, old prunings and shade cloth. Need to duck to get under it. Most of central beds remain uncovered (plants not wilting so presumably okay at present).
Started a hot compost heap on S side of driveway. Picked up a uteload of scraped up horsedroppings (with hydrophic soil to about equal volume) from a friend. Used this as base nitrogen content (along with prunings from garden, fridge clean out 'product', and five litres of nettle juice) to which I added the various piles of weed from around the yard to equal volume for the carbon. Layered this, soaking every two layers. Size of heap is a bit over a metre square at base and a close to four foot high. It was 55'C in centre in morning and over 60'C at dusk. Today was the third day, I turned it over. Covered heap with tarps due wind/heat etc while I'm gone. Will be at least three days before I get to it again.
Thursday, October 31, 2019
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Spring half sprung
Today marks the halfway point of calendrical spring so it's time for a catch up here.
In September I put most of my energy into bringing some new garden beds into operation, soil conditioning, and a bit of potting and repotting.
New Garden Beds include the most barren bed between front of house and the street, the hot wind tunnel on the North side of house, 'grass' between back door and turtle tank, and an expansion in the vegie garden towards the wood piles.
The beds to front and rear of house were previously cardboard covered for weed suppression. I removed the cardboard, lightly (hands, no feet) dug them over with a mix of cow manure (aged) and gypsum, covered the whole lot with a few inches of pea straw. Paving done with bricks and pavers. Nothing planted in these beds yet, waiting for soils to warm up.
Between the new bed at rear of house and the turtle tank I've put in a rockery, quite pleased with the effect. Cut down most of an old tree, leaving the stump and a few branches as bird perches for use above a bird bath I brought back into use after a couple years of activity. I put a packet of 'rockery flowers' seed into the soils filling the gaps and cracks in the heap. I put in a 'tiger lilly' type spiky plant at the rear of the rockery, it had been subsisting in a non draining pot for several years so I hope it recalls what soils it actually likes!
The bed on the North side is really just a few deepish holes dug, with some manure and gypsum mixed into the infill, and three yacka trees stuck in. One had been rootbound and struggling in a smallish pot, the other two had lived almost two years in a bucket with occasional water.
The vegie garden extension involved moving a fence line into alignment with the old rear gate (used a spare 3m sheet of roofing iron and some star droppers) and relocation of wood pile to beneath the lemon scented gum. Over about six weeks I collected 2-3 tonnes of council lopped eucalypt, sawed it into rounds and then split it all up for drying and use. So it was a lot of wood. I've only got one bed in the new extension, using the section to also store bins, potted trees, etc.
I erected trellises alongside the new bed (old reinforcement mesh running N-S) and by the third of the rear beds in the brick section (permapine lattice running E-W). All meshes supported by star droppers.
I then picked my broad beans (.7kg), dug my spuds (2kg) and manured, composted and mulched all these rear beds.
Potting and repotting in September was mainly those in small pots ready to go into larger ones. Total of 25 more plants now growing happily in small /mid sized pots and a growing accumlation of small pots to take the next lot of cuttings from the cutting trays. I consolidated my cutting trays so I only need worry about the one now, letting the other rest in anticipation of the next series of cuttings. Almost all of the current cuttings awaiting potting are from our own yard.
In October I've been busy with seed (mainly). Have put tomatoes (two types), corn, basil, rhubarb and some 'Tanunda' daisies and sunflower seeds into small pots, put those pots into larger pots and sealed them so I don't need to water them till they pop up. I've put experimental sunflowers on a waste mound out the back. Stocks, Jerusalem Sage and coriander have gone into experimental egg box seed beds. Carrots went into the soil in the newest bed. A second row of spring onions have joined the first (planted at start of September to mark the start of spring) in a rectangular 'pot'. Have just started up some Sturt Desert Pea seeds.
Have commenced a number of types of suculent cuttings in variations of pots, soil and water containers.
Have a geranium bed establishing from 'cuttings' (broken off branches) out front alonside driveway, and a different type taken from Tanunda stuck into pots with my other potted cuttings.
Jade cuttings in soil in garden path under canopy of peppertree, and one in main vegie garden..
Dill is pushing six feet tall, brussel sprouts are starting to shoot up, leeks are putting on mass, silver beet still deep green in the shadier corners, herbs all looking very vibrant.
So now it's wait for the soil to warm up and the seeds to spring up, and then it will be getting busy again
In September I put most of my energy into bringing some new garden beds into operation, soil conditioning, and a bit of potting and repotting.
New Garden Beds include the most barren bed between front of house and the street, the hot wind tunnel on the North side of house, 'grass' between back door and turtle tank, and an expansion in the vegie garden towards the wood piles.
The beds to front and rear of house were previously cardboard covered for weed suppression. I removed the cardboard, lightly (hands, no feet) dug them over with a mix of cow manure (aged) and gypsum, covered the whole lot with a few inches of pea straw. Paving done with bricks and pavers. Nothing planted in these beds yet, waiting for soils to warm up.
Between the new bed at rear of house and the turtle tank I've put in a rockery, quite pleased with the effect. Cut down most of an old tree, leaving the stump and a few branches as bird perches for use above a bird bath I brought back into use after a couple years of activity. I put a packet of 'rockery flowers' seed into the soils filling the gaps and cracks in the heap. I put in a 'tiger lilly' type spiky plant at the rear of the rockery, it had been subsisting in a non draining pot for several years so I hope it recalls what soils it actually likes!
The bed on the North side is really just a few deepish holes dug, with some manure and gypsum mixed into the infill, and three yacka trees stuck in. One had been rootbound and struggling in a smallish pot, the other two had lived almost two years in a bucket with occasional water.
The vegie garden extension involved moving a fence line into alignment with the old rear gate (used a spare 3m sheet of roofing iron and some star droppers) and relocation of wood pile to beneath the lemon scented gum. Over about six weeks I collected 2-3 tonnes of council lopped eucalypt, sawed it into rounds and then split it all up for drying and use. So it was a lot of wood. I've only got one bed in the new extension, using the section to also store bins, potted trees, etc.
I erected trellises alongside the new bed (old reinforcement mesh running N-S) and by the third of the rear beds in the brick section (permapine lattice running E-W). All meshes supported by star droppers.
I then picked my broad beans (.7kg), dug my spuds (2kg) and manured, composted and mulched all these rear beds.
Potting and repotting in September was mainly those in small pots ready to go into larger ones. Total of 25 more plants now growing happily in small /mid sized pots and a growing accumlation of small pots to take the next lot of cuttings from the cutting trays. I consolidated my cutting trays so I only need worry about the one now, letting the other rest in anticipation of the next series of cuttings. Almost all of the current cuttings awaiting potting are from our own yard.
In October I've been busy with seed (mainly). Have put tomatoes (two types), corn, basil, rhubarb and some 'Tanunda' daisies and sunflower seeds into small pots, put those pots into larger pots and sealed them so I don't need to water them till they pop up. I've put experimental sunflowers on a waste mound out the back. Stocks, Jerusalem Sage and coriander have gone into experimental egg box seed beds. Carrots went into the soil in the newest bed. A second row of spring onions have joined the first (planted at start of September to mark the start of spring) in a rectangular 'pot'. Have just started up some Sturt Desert Pea seeds.
Have commenced a number of types of suculent cuttings in variations of pots, soil and water containers.
Have a geranium bed establishing from 'cuttings' (broken off branches) out front alonside driveway, and a different type taken from Tanunda stuck into pots with my other potted cuttings.
Jade cuttings in soil in garden path under canopy of peppertree, and one in main vegie garden..
Dill is pushing six feet tall, brussel sprouts are starting to shoot up, leeks are putting on mass, silver beet still deep green in the shadier corners, herbs all looking very vibrant.
So now it's wait for the soil to warm up and the seeds to spring up, and then it will be getting busy again
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