Evolutions

So, what else have I been doing besides obsessing about my hot compost experience?  Lots of things!  As with all things gardening, words can't really do it all justice (it's a fractal kind of experience I find) but I'll try and at least make a record.

This blog - trying to diversify.  Haven't got around to any pictures (it will no doubt make much more sense with a picture or two).  Haven't got around to index catagories ('labels'), which would make it possible to follow themed time patterns.  If I have the inclination, will get around to both of these things because they are very much value-adding to what I'm doing here.

Weather - I'll put up a 'Spring Summary' some time soon (it's calendrical summer here now).  But, in short, we had some rain this week, maybe 10 or so mil's (a bit less than half an inch) which is the most we've had since early august.  Had a few hot days during the past month, topping 40C on two or three days, and twice that above 35C.  Nights still cool, dropping to around 6-7C consistently.  Humidity generally very low, winds generally moderate and generally blowing.

Water - I'll use a separate section to describe where my watering experiments have led me to, here I'm more interested in capture and storage.  On the back shed I've linked both sides to our 2Kl (500gal) tank, using the overflow outlet to lead in the second side.  I'm doing this because funds are tight and we're not likely to get anywhere near filling the tank.  If we do, I'll unplug it and try and get a temporary capture point somehow.  If I'm not here when a downpour arrives I'm banking on my non-fixed pipes 'popping' under the pressure and letting the water out of the system that way (albeit uncontrolled).  I've acquired a 1Kl 'tote' which used to hold herbacide off of a farmer friend, well rinsed and hopefully pretty safe for my purposes.  It's got a metal base and cage around it, along with a tap system, so it should be pretty useful when I decide where to put it.  When it's connected we'll have nearly six kilolitres of tank water storage, which is starting to approach a useful capacity (though every little bit counts).

Wildlife - besides the run of lizards and birds and insects the most noticeable visitors have been three brown snakes spotted near the southern fence.  The biggest was about 3', the others about half that.  If I'd blinked at the wrong moment I wouldn't have seen them, so I suppose there's others that have been as well.  The good thing is that there's still plenty of little lizards everywhere so I don't think any of the brownies have settled in.  If you don't know, the brown snake is the world's second most venemous snake (inland taipan is tops of this ladder) so needs to be respected.  I definitely enjoyed watching them though, especially before they became aware of me.  I could do without it though...

Seedlings - I've got a few seed trays going, along with quite a variety of scrounged materials making do as seedling 'potlets'.  Probably a couple hundred 'pods', many with several seeds in them.  For once, most appear to be sprouting.

Cuttings - I'm winding this operation down for summer, have about a dozen still in the cutting area waiting to grow big enough for a pot of their own.

Potted plants - coming from various cuttings, seeds, offcuts, layerings, totalling close to a hundred herbs, bushes and shrubs (with a handful of trees) probably ready to go out into the garden at the moment, but most will wait till the end of summer so they don't just dry out and die in the heat (easier to manage climate when they're in pots at this stage of garden development).

Vegie beds - used almost all my first hot compost heap to build three back door beds and four others out the back section by the shed.  Put about 4" of compost down on all these beds.  Then mulched over with pea straw (except for one bed I've been using to experiment with water set up so I can see the soakage properties of my mix), thin if only seeds are put in the bed, progressively thicker for those beds with seedlings.  Planted half of these out with vegetables, will plant the other half out with seelings of similar types.  Plants include; climbing beans, dwarf beans, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, basil, carrots, lettuce, corn, rock melon, sunflowers, marigolds, basil, thyme, chamomile, borage, strawberries, snapdragons, dill.  Also got more sprouts on the way, with silverbeet and rocket to come.  Also chives and spring onions.  There must be others but I can't recall them now.

Note on vegie beds - when it was 40C the other day I went out to check a few soil temperatures.  By the back door the soil was over 50C where I'd done nothing with it.  It was in the low twenties under straw and compost, under 30C where just compost.  Out the back section it was all under 30C, with coolest spots under the silverbeet under the shade cloth.  All my sprouting seeds survived.

Irrigation set up - will get a post of its own as it is work in progress.  In short, syphon connected containers all leveled and working well.  Test run of drip system using salvaged polypipe seems to be working.  Will expand to cover several beds tomorrow.  The milk carton watering system is working to specification, though will be replaced eventually with dripfed irrigation.  I think it's a success.