Timeless Oasis Garden

2011-10-05T16:45:00.001+10:30

Last weekend I finally got around to spending a voucher I got for Virginia Nursery Last year for my birthday. So loaded up with 20kg of Blood'n'Bone, some garden gloves and some Seasol, there was a few nice days to be in the garden.

Sunday saw the Citrus trees get a handfull or two of Blood'n'Bone each and a good deep watering, and hopefully this will have them growing nicely. The orange is looking very sick, I originally thought it may have had weed spray sprayed a bit too close to it, but I am hoping it is just the clay soil we have and the lack of deep watering and the few days of cold and disgusting weather we have had which I am surprised the winds didn't rip the poor trees out of the ground.

Blackberries have lots of new leaves and even flower buds ready to start opening any day.

Peach tree has quite a few fruit on it and will need to be covered very soon to protect them from the dog and the galahs which have decided to fly in most days to eat the grass and weed seeds.

Have found 3 Apricot fruits which have set, but there is still more flowers to come, again this will need to be protected from the dog and birds.

Spring is here

2011-09-23T12:47:00.001+09:30

Well I know I haven't posted for a while but I hadnt realised it had been all year, so whats happening in the garden?

The peach tree has flowered and has little fruit on it.

The apricot tree is starting to flower.

The Apple tree is still dormant but does appear to have a couple of flower buds on it starting to swell

The blackberry has grown quite a bit since putting it in last year and is now bursting into life again, and in amongst the leaf buds which are opening I can see flower buds (It was flowering when I bought it was planted last year)

The citrus are all coming to life as well, with flower buds and signs of new leaves, although the older leaves are still looking a bit yellow even though they have had a couple of feeds of dynamic lifter.

Something I am looking to try is planting a living mulch of legumes under them, for the nitrogen fixing qualities. I noticed that a Grevillia I had planted in the native garden was looking a bit yellow as well, and a couple of weeks ago I noticed some Wolley Pod Vetch had started to grow (I am assuming out of the pea straw I had used for mulch) Since this has been growing the new growth has been a darker green.

If this works it will be a perfect example of "a weed is just a plant growing in the wrong place" because we have been trying to get rid of it from another area in the yard due to the risk of snakes, but I think in a bit of a controlled environment where it can spread along the ground, rather than ramble up and over other plants, it should have a job to do (provide nitrogen and out compete weeds) and look nice and lush with pretty purple flowers.

Happy New Year!!

2011-01-02T16:14:00.000+10:30

Well there goes another year!!! Amazing that in a month and a half it will be a year since we moved here. In some respects it feels like we have been here forever and then it also feels like we have only just moved here.

When I look back on older photos I can see that we have actually changed things since moving in, and looking at the old real estate photos looks almost like a completely different house. I can remember coming here and looking through the house with the real estate agent and yes its still the same house but now we have made it our "home".

We have put in a garden shed. I have created more "garden" areas, with a native garden and fruit trees, there is intentions of having a veggie patch but for the moment that is on hold, manly due to my indecision of where to put it and lack of time and energy, and as I have told myself, wanting to see a year out to observe the yard though all the seasons (well that's my excuse anyway)

Along one of our fences which we share with the neighbours I have planted around 6 tubestock Acacia Argyrophylla (which is also known as the golden grey mulga) with a myoporum parvifolium as a groundcover. It should look interesting as the myoporum is a purple leaf variety so should provide a nice contrast to the acacia. This variety of Acacia is the same as one which I planted at our last house near Port Augusta and it grew fantastically, with very little water, reaching higher than the fence within a couple of years. With lovely silver grey foliage making a good screening plant.

I am yet to get tanks hooked up to the house to collect rainwater so that a) we can use rainwater instead of mains water to water the garden and b) we have water on the other side of the house. Would you believe it in a back yard which is around 2/3 of an acre there is only one outside tap, which is on the side of the house.

I have decided that where I originally planned to have my herb garden will probably bare the brunt of a bit too much sun, and also be positioned in a spot which is not often passed by, and hence will be likely to be forgotten about. I now want to get one of those colourbond raised beds to put out the back, in front of a 22,500L rainwater tank which we want to put in and hook up to the carport and house, this will be just off the lawned area, within eyesight of the kitchen window, and hopefully make a (slightly hidden) feature of the rainwater tank.

I also want to get a few passionfruit vines to cover what was a shadecloth covered play area for the previous owners kids. The shadecloth didn't last long with some of the windy storms we had, so we decided to pull the shadecloth off, but the actual structure is still there.

So as you can see there's still lots of plans and hopefully now that we have a better feel for the house and yard through the seasons we will start to put some of these plans into action. I should apologise for not blogging all that often anymore, but real life just seems to be taking over and I have been trying to not spend much time on the computer, as I was finding that time was just disappearing and I really wasn't achieving much at all sitting on this thing.

So until next time take care!

An update from October

2010-10-27T12:40:00.001+10:30

This is what I am creating as a herb bed, if you look closely there is a Rosemary in the centre, clumps of garlic chives along the edge and if you look really closely between the rosemary and the chives is a little oregano plant

This is where I am creating my native garden along this fence, if you look really close (and you know where to look) you can just make out the little tubestock plants I have planted, they are mostly acacia's and bottle brush's, with flowers varying from reds, to pinks to creams and yellows. I am hoping this will end up being a nice cheery colourful area with lots of bird life.

The other side of the garden shed a Thornless Blackberry (planted over our rescued galah who passed away)

The three deciduous fruit trees that were planted in late July/ early august.
Granny Smith Apple, Moorepark Apricot, Elberta Peach
The apricot and peach both have a couple of fruit on each which I am hopping they stay on the tree to ripen, so we can have a little taste.

Citrus Trees
Eureka Lemon, Washington Naval orange, Lemonade
They have taken a bit of beating this year with all the windy weather we have had, but considering that they have been subjected to they are still going fairly well

I have changed the posted date on here to reflect when these pictures were taken

Morning pictures

2010-07-25T09:21:00.005+09:30

Well this morning when I woke up it looked like a lovely day, albeit a bit chilly outside, there was frost on the lawn, I think I now know why this section of the lawn is looking a bit sad, it is the area which gets the brunt of any frost that we get, so until we get out of the frost risk time it wont be getting mowed. When look closely I can see that it isn't dead, there are new shoots underneath but their is a layer of dead stuff on top, a mow would probably tidy it up nicely, but then leave all the green shoots vulnerable in the next bout of frost.

The citrus trees are still surviving even with having some of their leaves blown off in recent very windy storms. I am yet to find out what the problem with the orange tree is, it has rusty coloured areas on the underside of some of the leaves. I am thinking it is from winds or cold because it is all from the same direction

This photo I took because the sun glistening on the morning dew on the leaves just looked wonderful, but as good as my camera is I don't think it quite captured the moment

And here's evidence of my recent weeding activities

Cold gloomy wet days

2010-07-18T09:46:00.004+09:30

Well yesterday it was lovely, sunshine blue skies, even warm enough at times to take my jacket off. I spent quite a few hours out the front pulling up knee high plus weeds out of the garden beds and reclaiming a few dieties plants which had become engulfed in grass and stinging nettles. I am wondering if it is possible to build up an immunity to Stinging nettles. I remember as a kid being so itchy after running though a patch of them (before I knew what they looked like) and it was a solid learning experience not to go anywhere near them.

Well that was before we moved here and they started taking over the garden beds. Thinking I was doing the right thing, with gloves and long sleeved shirts but the little buggers still managed to find any little exposed part of skin. When I started pulling these up a month or two ago I would try to be as gentle as possible grabbing them from the base but pointing the rest of the plant away from me as I pulled them out of the ground and straight in to the wheel barrow to avoid any unnecessary double handling. Even with doing this I would still end up with stinging itchy lumps between the ends of my sleeves and my gloves, which I would put up with until it just got unbearable and I had to give up, go inside wash my arms and turn to the trusty Neem oil or bepanthen or any other anti-itch stuff I could find.

Yesterday I noticed that yes the little buggers still manage to sneakily attack me, and yes it does sting, and itch but after the initial sting it seems to go away, leaving a little bump and then it disappears all together, am I getting tough or are the nettles just getting weak in their old age.

Today I think the rain has set in for the day, yet again, so it is a lazy Sunday inside, although as I sit here I think of all the things I want to (or need to) get done outside, but then there are also many thing that should be done inside too, and how sitting on the computer is not getting any of them done, So I am going to engage some self discipline and sign of for now and enjoy the cold wet gloomy-ness from the comforts of inside.

Rain = Weeds = New mower

2010-07-16T14:39:00.004+09:30

Well I'm not sure if this year is a wet year here, or if I am just really not used to winter with rain after spending three years up near Pt Augusta, but everything seems to be rather soggy around here.

The weeds are absolutely loving it, so much that we decided that we would buy ourselves a ride on lawn mower to try to keep it under control, so as owners of a John Deer we are now propper country people!!! LOL!!!! It has definately made things a lot easier, taking just over an hour to do most of the yard, which I think we spent close to that doing the little bit which is out the front with the normal mower (and almost killing the poor thing).

Now our huge patch of weeds could almost (well with squinted eyes and a lot of imagination) pass as a nice lawn area (well green and tidy area).

Since I last posted I have put in the citrus trees (Eureka Lemon, Washington Naval orange and Lemonade) These were planted around the 12th June, I am hoping that they have not been affected too much by the few frosts we have had or the few windy storms that have come through, I am looking forward to spring when they will hopefully start to grow nicely.

You can see from the pictures that the weeds are growing really quickly, and this photo was taken about a month ago. I also got the apple (Granny Smith) planted last week, now to get the Moorepark Apricot and the Elberta Peach inthe ground.

New House, New Garden

2010-06-14T12:30:00.007+09:30

Ok here is what is sort of classified around here as "My Garden" the fist photo was taken just after we moved in at the start of April and the second photo last week. As you can see we have had a bit of rain and the weeds just love it. I am thinking of turning this area into a bit of an orchard/veggie area, but I am not too sure how harsh it will be in Summer.

This is what I am thinking will be the "Colourful Garden" those standard roses are all different colours, whereas most of the other landscaped areas of the garden are very uniform, both in colours and structure. I am thinking of planting some native bottle brushes along that cream fence and making it more friendly for native birds and insects.

This is one thing off my list, my garden shed!
It's almost 5m x 3m, fantastic size for storing gardening tools, wheel barrow, bags of horse manure, potting mix etc close to where I use them.

I have made a (slight) start to veggies, these are some rainbow chard I planted before the cold weather came in, Perfect timing I think

Boof growing up from 5 months to 14 months old

2010-06-14T10:45:00.011+09:30

Five months old (5/9/09)

Almost 6 months old (3/10/09)

Six months old after being desexed and having his due claws removed (18/10/09)

Six months old enjoying a pigs ear (27/10/09)

Seven months old. One of his favourite past times, making mulch, aka destroying things (29/11/10)

Almost 10 months old, this is his "come chase me!!!, you know you want what I've got" look (4/2/10)

Almost 12 months old. At the new house, with a new toys, the rope toy which lasted all of about 48 hours, and the ball, well that lasted a few plays before it went "pop" but it was really fun while it lasted!!!! (3/4/10)

Worn out from all that playing (3/4/10)

Playtime with friends. (15/5/10) 13 months old
Blaze my mums dog, a Staffy x and Jack my dads dog a full bred Koolie, Jack is about the same age as Boof

Boof relaxing in the sand pit after Jack has worn him out

I'm back in blog land

2010-06-14T08:49:00.001+09:30

Well I guess I have taken a bit of a break from blogging, almost a year looking at the date of the last post. What can I say; life in the real world sort of took over.

So what have I been up to in this time?

Well the big thing I guess is that we sold my house and moved back to Adelaide in February this year, so garden photos from now on will probably be quite a bit different from what has been posted here previously (hopefully a bit more greener and lusher). Hard to believe we have been in the new place for four months already!! Definitely seen a change in the seasons from the end of summer to winter and weeds….argh…so many weeds, I think I need to quit my day job just to keep them under control.

Boof has grown up lots, he is now 14 months old, I think he loves it at the new house. He use to swelter in the Port Augusta heat so coming down here was a nice relief for him. He grew his winter coat quite quickly and although I shudder that he wont use his kennel we bought him, preferring to either sleep on the paver's or on his hessian bed, and he looks so cold all curled up, but when I go out to check on him his fur feels cold on the outside but under that he is so toasty warm. He also loves that there are windows all the way round the house so he can almost always see us and see what we are up to, or more appropriately if we are getting him food.

Ok so about the new place: We are on two acres, there is some formal landscaping already done out the front, and to one side of the back yard but nothing in the way of fruit or vegetable gardens, so I have a blank canvas to work on in that respect, not sure if that is a good thing or not. The back yard is separated into two, creating the house back yard and the “back paddock”, both which are around ¾ of an acre. But for the near future I think there is more than enough to keep us occupied in the front and back yards without worrying about the back paddock (for now)

I will update shortly with some pics of Boof (seeing he is "all grown up" now) and also of the yard, oh and not to mention my ever growing list of plans for this place.

Boof is growing

2009-07-12T16:09:00.003+09:30

Just thought that I would share a few more photos of Boof. He is now 13 weeks old. He is getting into a bit of "puppy trouble" doing things like digging holes, and taking the pot plants out of the pots so he can play with the pots, but how can you stay mad at this face?

Meet our new little man!

2009-06-19T09:21:00.006+09:30

Well this is Boof, the newest addition to our family, we picked him up on Wednesday night. He is a Koolie x Rottweiler and believe it or not he is only 9 and a half weeks old.

Thursday morning saw him getting his first ever collar which he is not entirely impressed with, even after being de-fleed he is still occasionally scratching at it, but apart from that he seems to have accepted it.

Thursday afternoon was the trip to the vet for his shots and to get microchiped, the first injection wasnt too bad but the microchip one was a much bigger needle which hurt a bit more, but it was soon forgotten about. The vet couldnt believe how big he was for 9 1/2 weeks, if we didnt know his birth date he would have guessed that he was about 3 months old, so we may be in for a rather big boy once he is fully grown.

So far (touch wood) we have not had too many problems with him, he slept in the laundry for the first night and after that took some getting used to not dashing inside as soon as the backdoor was opened, each day (and night) he has cried less and less. He has taken really well to his makeshift kennel which is an old kitchen cupboard on its side, but if we are outside then he loves to sleep behind the table and chairs or sit on our feet.

He loves his toys as well as a bone we got from the butcher, we often hear him from inside "squeaking" one of his toys as he plays with it by himself.

In just the few days we have had him, he has learnt the "sit" comand, maybe a bit too well, trying to get him to walk on a leash he wil stop, sit and then just look at you, as if to say "see I'm a good boy, now I get a treat....dont I? I'm not going anywhere until I get a treat!" So we are slowly working on who is the boss with the treats, but I think we are getting there, The vet did warn us that he may be quite stuborn. He is slowly learning the "heal" command, well not exactly keeping at the heal, but at least walking with the lead on and not stopping and pulling the opposite way on the lead which is what he did at the vets, resulting in me walking into the vets with this 10kg+ puppy in my arms because I didnt want his first experience on a lead to be too traumatic, and we only had a few hours until the vets closed. Everyone "oowed" and "ahhed" over him and wanted to know what he was and how old he was, then all came to the same conclusion that he is going to be a big boy.

He has definately won a place in our hearts, and has done well to have won DP over only in a few minutes after arriving home. I know we are going to be in for many months of "Puppy Terror", we have already had our first attempt at the washing on the clothesline, which luckily was caught as he was doing it with a growling telling off (but it was a pair of jeans that were just so invitingly flapping around in the breeze!!! how could any puppy resist, especially just after a bath, I think we may have washed some of the nice calm puppy away) and one pot plant has been upended but I think the chooks might have had a bit of a helping hand in that one. But who could stay mad at this face.

Things have been so busy!!!

2009-06-19T08:20:00.002+09:30

I cant believe it has been over a month ago since I last posted here, well I sort of can looking at everything that has been going on. Having sold DP's house in Adelaide, and all the cleaning before it was sold, and doing weekend courses in Adelaide has meant that this is the first weekend I will be home for the last 6ish weeks, so to celebrate this I have turned it into a "long" weekend by taking a couple of days annual leave. Hopefully get some sorting and tidying up done, we still have a few boxes of stuff that needs to find a home and also a couple of pieces of furniture to fit in. And I know there is quite a lot of stuff of mine that can be donated to the charity bins, mostly clothes that will never fit me again!!! Hmmm a cupboard with out boxes in it, ah space that I could use to store more "stuff", without clogging up the loungeroom, or the bedrooms. Maybe even just to see the kitchen table again. Well being on here is not getting anything done, so I will sign off for now and see what I can get done.

The cool weather has arrived

2009-05-03T19:45:00.002+09:30

Well it seems that summer has packed her bags and left us for a few months, and the cooler weather has arrived. We are now getting lovely days for being out in the garden, which turns to chilly nights once the sun disappears, great for retiring inside for the night to a bowl of hot soup, or a nice roast, before snuggling under blankets on the couch for the evening.

Over the last couple of weekends I have acquired a 5000L rainwater tank, (thanks to Mr Rudds $900) which is residing next to the 5400L tank. The bigger one was overflowing, but not having a pump for it, it was very difficult to get the water to the veggie patch where I wanted it. Now there is a pump hooked up to it, which means I can water the veggie patch guilt-free more than once a week, and the bigger tank is now almost empty (that one is hooked up to the shed gutters, and is going to be used as a collection tank) with the water from that one being pumped into the other one.

So with raintanks, with rainwater in them, and a pump, and this cool weather I decided its time to get a move on getting the veggie patch producing some yummy vegetables. Hopefully those which I planted today will be ready in a couple of weeks to plant (to coincide with me taking a week off of work)

Heres what I have planted in seedling pots so far:

2 x Pak Choy
2 x Silverbeet
4 x Broccolli
4 x Cabbage (sugarloaf)
4 x Corn Salad

Hopefully they grow nice and stong and stay out of the way of "munchers"

I love our Gulf

2009-04-16T07:32:00.003+09:30

Over the Easter long weekend we took the tinny out fishing, it was a wonderful day. We put the boat in at the boat ramp around 9am then headed down the Gulf for a bit, found a nice little spot and put our lines in, and for a change we started catching fish other than Shittys (trumpeters). Just after lunchtime, we decided to head back, seeing that we had caught more than enough fish for ourselves for the day

.
10 Salmon trout, 7 Garfish, and 2 Mullet

Happy Birthday Spooki!!!!

2009-03-25T15:29:00.002+10:30

I just reallised that tomorrow will be Spooki's 1st birthday. Seeing that I dont know when she was born (or hatched) I dont know her exact birthday but it will be one year since she joined our family, so I'm calling that a birthday.

Seeing that I am taking a couple of days off of work I'll be able to let her and Squeak be outside for the whole day, and I am hoping to find something special for her, although what ever I find will inevitably be for Squeak aswell, as they are both living in the same cage these days, they even eat out of the food bowl together without fighting, although this might be just because they're hungry.

Visitors

2009-03-15T14:06:00.006+10:30

During the week we had a visit from these little guys, they are a White-browed Babbler, we heard them from inside and actually thought it was someones pet bird that had escaped because they had a quite peculiar whistle. Initially I thought they may belong to the Willie Wagtail family because they are similar in size and have the same sort of behaviour.

Looking for insects

And then hoping on their way

My Soapmaking blog

2009-02-17T12:37:00.002+10:30

Hi guys, I just thought I would let you know that I have started up a new blog My Soapmaking Adventures which will look at my venture into making soap, the recipes I try, things that go right or wrong, and things that I'll look to improve.

I'll still continue to work on this one but I just thought it would be handy to have another to keep track of soap recipies that I have used and liked or what went wrong, especially seeing there is at least a 4 week wait for soap to cure properly before using it.

So if your interested in soapmaking pop over and say hi.

Just some garden pics

2009-01-17T16:24:00.003+10:30

Ok well I am still impressed with the new camera. I havent got into playing with it properly yet, just on the auto settings with the two different lenses, and playing around with lighting and angles and that sort of thing

Pomegranate bush has quite a few pomegranates on it and is still continuing to flower

Here is a little pomegranate bush with a flower, amongst the agapanthus

Im not sure exactly what this plant is it might be a Gazinia. What ever it is it grows well here and has lovely bright cheery yellow flowers that brightens up the garden

Veggie garden update

2009-01-17T15:35:00.006+10:30

Despite the hot weather we have been having, the garden is going pretty well. I had to decide, now that I have stopped going away so much with work and I am home more often and can put a bit more time into the garden, whether to plant a few more things in the garden, and know that I will have to water them during the summer or to wait until after summer when the weather was a bit kinder. Well my decision was to put more in and try to keep it alive, so far so good.

The capsicums are flowering and have fruit.

There is fruit setting on the burpless cucumbers.

Something a little unusual is that a patch of what I thought was corn is actually millet, which really doesn't cook up much like corn at all but the cockatiels are not complaining, they love it when I put a millet spray in their cage, they are straight at it pulling it apart, picking the seeds apart. So shortly I will be picking the seed heads off and drying then for use later, saves buying them from the supermarket for them. This is the same spot that I tried to grow corn last year, so I thought that was what was coming up, some seeds that hadn't sprouted last year, but I had forgotten that I had thrown the cockatiels left over seed out there a couple of times. I had thought that the toppies (crested pigeon) that come in each afternoon would have eaten it, but they must have missed a bit, including the sunflower which is providing a nice bit of shade for one of the cucumber plant and a rogue pumpkin plant, which I gave up on last year because it was only producing male flowers.

The Moon and Stars watermelon I planted a while ago (the start of December), no flowers yet but it is growing well.

Visitors to the garden

2009-01-17T14:38:00.005+10:30

In the garden we regularly have many visitors of the animal kind, mostly birds and lizards, so I thought I would share a couple of photos with you.

Here is a little skink, I haven't been able to get many photos of these guys because they scuttle around the place so quickly, and as soon as you get close enough to take a photo they've disappeared into a crack somewhere.

This is a rather large Bearded Dragon, these are quite common but this is only the second time I have seen one around the yard since moving here.

And here is one of the few resident Magpies, I love hearing their warbles, it would have to be one of my favourite sounds.

My New Toy!!

2009-01-09T08:01:00.000+10:30

As a present to myself (well deserved I think, considering the work I have been doing out bush for the last 6 months) I bought myself a new camera.

But not just a new camera, a Canon EOS 1000D, SLR, with twin lens kit. I am very impressed with it, I haven't played with it too much yet but on the auto settings it takes very nice photos without too much effort at all. The colours come out lovely, just like what you see, even in sunsets. So I just thought I would share with you some photos I have been taking with my new camera.

Spooki sitting on the arm of the couch

At Miranda

The almond tree with Lucerne

MIL's garden

It could have ended in disaster

2009-01-08T08:18:00.003+10:30

On Saturday, it was a normal day, head out in the morning to do shopping that needs to get done before the shops close at midday, then spend the rest of the day around home.

While having lunch and watching some (taped) telly in the afternoon, I heard the Cockatiels playing with their toys in their cages, rattling bells, and chewing things, only one of them sounded like they were doing something different to the usual. When I checked on them, there was Squeak with toy in beak walking up and down his perch, I thought he was just being a bit more aggressive with it than usual until I realised he had it stuck!!!

So with both hands in the cage one trying to hold him still and stop him from trying to fly around the cage and the other trying to undo the clasp to take the toy out of the cage, then came the task of trying to hold him still, work out what had happened and how to get him free. It tuns out that the little dangly bit in the bell has a split in the side of the hole at the top which allows it to fit into the bell bit itself. Squeak had found this little split and worked it open with his beak trying to dis-attach it from the main bit of the bell, but in doing so it got stuck on his bottom beak so it ended up looking like he had a pierced beak (with some very funky jewelry). With him and the toy out of the cage I held him against my chest and tried to pull the piece off of his beak but it had a tight grip, and I was really quite scared of hurting him even more. I knew all that had to be done was to make the split in the metal bigger so his beak could slide out but with one hand full with a panicking bird I just didn't have enough hands.

After a few stressful minutes for everyone DP came to the rescue with a little multi tool thing and with pliers twisted the little piece of metal to open up the split and allow it to come off his beak. Free of the beak jewelry, Squeak was not too happy with the whole ordeal and proceeded to bite me, which I was actually happy about, because it meant that his beak still worked, and he hadn't done too much damage, probably the only time he wasn't told off for being aggressive and biting!!

So after that we had cuddles and kept an eye on him. He was a bit sleepy, which was understandable after that bit of stress, and kept sticking his tongue out the side of his beak like he had bitten it and it now hurt (like us humans would do running our tongue against our teeth). Back in his cage I gave him a millet spray to make sure he could eat OK and he was straight into it, so I was a little less worried about him. Now he seems fine, whistling his own combination of whistles, doing his "hops" around the cage, and squeaking back at us, when we call to them.

We have now taken the little dangly bits out of the bells, they are only a simple cut out shape and made of fairly soft metal (Spooki had already opened one of them up and removed it from the toy, but she is much stronger, and seems to destroy everything) and who know what would have happened if we weren't at home when it happened.

Garden Progress

2008-12-21T14:13:00.004+10:30

Well after the "little" bit of rain we had last weekend the garden has taken off!!! Including the weeds!! The tomato plants I planted a few weeks ago are coming along really well, they even have a few decent sized tomatoes on them, although with the rain I did have the first Black Russian tomato that was ripe split, but so far the rest look good. The Pepino plant is asking for a pruning it is starting to smother the other plants near it.

The Lucerne is growing well too and is flowering these lovely little blue/purple flowers, I keep braking bits off for the chooks to eat, so I am glad it is growing so well. There is even seed pods starting to set so hopefully it will self seed a bit, I can handle Lucerne as a weed, its useful, but I guess by definition its not a weed then.

We got two apricots of the tree this year, the first fruit, and they were delicious, actually tasted like apricots!!! I cant wait for next year we should get a few more. I'm still watching the two peaches to get them before the birds do, mmmm they should be yummy too, cant wait for home grown fruit!!!!

The little chooks are getting big!!

2008-12-21T13:45:00.004+10:30

Ok here is some photos of the "baby" chooks. They would be about 15 weeks old now.

They are almost the same size as the older ones now (middle, bum facing the camera, and on the left)

This one I think may be going to start laying soon, her comb is looking quite red compared to the others, I love the pattern on her tail feathers.

We got rain, and lots of it!!

2008-12-21T11:57:00.011+10:30

Well last week on Thursday night (11th Dec) around 9pm it started to rain, and continued, and continued, and still continued. At around 7 in the morning I went out side and measured that we had had around 70mm of rain over night. Everything was nicely soaked including the chooks food, I dont think they were too impressed with "Chook Food Soup" for breakfast. This was the end of the street on the way to work, now you cant really see it in the photo but we do actually have gutters on both sides of the road, and that water is actually flowing down the road it is not because the drains had blocked up, there was just lots of water!!

But that wasn't it, the rain continued throughout the day and fell consistently, when I got home from work we had received another 60mm of rain (since I had checked at 7am), that's 130mm in less than 24 hours. I probably should say that for us 10 to 20mm of rain is something we get a bit excited about, and our average annual rainfall is around 250mm, so this was just amazing. It even closed some of the bitumen roads around the place because the creeks were flowing, really well. This is a picture of the road to Quorn, which at the time was closed, when I took this it was flowing at around 0.2m but apparently a couple of hours before that it was at 0.6m. As you can see this was a bit of a novelty event, people came out to have a look and for kids to play in the water, I haven't seen this creek flow in the (almost) 2 years we have been here.

While the rain was good, and we don't dare complain about it, after the lack of rain that we have had, the weeds have loved it too, and has meant that even DP has given me help to get out in the garden and try to keep the Caltrop prickle plants under something which resembles control. A little bit at a time is the key I think, it is amazing how much progress can be made by a quick, well half hour, stint of wandering around, pulling a few plants out here and there. This is what I now have to contend with, after this lovely rain, this is a ground covering plant but in this picture there are quite a few plants that are starting to mat together, and each plant can set heaps of thorny (magnetised to your feet) seeds.

The other interesting thing that came from this down pour is this:

No I didnt dig a hole and no we dont have a dog, on closer inspection the ground has collapsed and there is a tunnel either side, my thoughts is an old rabbit waren. There is rabbits around this area but I have never seen any in or around the yard. I thought because it is down the back of the yard maybe the lady over the back had once had an "escapee" rabbit that might have tunnelled under the fence, but no she has never had rabbits and she has been there for quite a few years. Ahwell ready made fruit tree hole, although I would have liked it about 2m this way a bit LOL.

Just a little garden update

2008-12-07T15:39:00.002+10:30

It is a lovely day here today, blue sky, sunshine, a light breeze and the temperature is probably in the mid 20's. Could be a little cooler for doing work in the garden but still nice all the same. I have just been out in the garden and put stakes in to tie up the Black Russian and Cherry tomatoes and the capsicum. There is already a couple of capsicums on the bush as well as little cherry tomatoes and a couple of Black Russian tomatoes, one of which is starting to colour up. The Big Beef tomatoes seem to be going well, also with a few tomatoes around the place, I'm not sure if these will need staking or not because I have read that they are a bush variety, we will wait and see.

In amongst the tomatoes I have planted a few seeds of Stars and Moons watermelon from Green Harvest, I dont know hoe they will go with the tomatoes but again we will wait and see, I am trying to keep all that needs a fair amount of water all together, not only to save water but also time and effort when it comes to watering.

I really cant believe it is the end of the year already, I had hoped to have the garden in a much better state than it is, hopefully after Christmas I wont have to go away as often for work and I will be home a bit more and can start to organise things a bit more. I really do have to start to organise my seeds and actually get them in the ground and growing, they really wont do much sitting inside around the place.

Un-Summery weather

2008-12-06T14:29:00.006+10:30

Well as I sit here writing this it is raining outside, and it is supposed to be summer.

The cockatiels are out in the rain having a bath and loving it!! The rain water is over flowing, and I am sure the weeds are growing at a phenomenal rate as I type this.

But I guess we can be thankful that the rain waited until this afternoon and let us do the Toy Run in mostly dry weather this morning. The Toy Run, for those who don't know, is where motorcyclists get together to raise money and toys for disadvantaged kids. There's a meeting place where the run starts, then everyone follows the leader (usually santa) through a set route through town, waving and tooting their horns and throwing lollies to the kids, who all come out of their houses to watch the bikes go past, then there is a gathering at the end with prizes for best and worst bike, and a big trailer where people can put toys in. These toys then go to the Salvation Army to give to kids who wouldn't have much of a christmas. Accorning to the MRA (Motorcycle Riders Association) site there is 48 Australian Toy Runs and 8 International Runs, so if there are any motorcylists out there check out the Toy Run website and see if theres one near you, it really is for a good cause and give you (well me) a reason to get the bike out the shed and take it for a run

Shhh!!!! We're hiding

2008-11-25T13:32:00.003+10:30

While sitting outside taking a break from weeding around the fruit trees I spotted these two "never before seen" peaches. I was certain I had looked over all the trees after they had finished flowering and had grown leaves, but it seems that I missed these, but maybe if I couldnt see them then the birds cant either?? Hopeful thinking I think I might have to organise something before the birds do spot them.

Then I thought I should take a look on the other trees and see if there were any others that I had missed, and what do you know there are two apricots too, wow our own little Noahs Fruit Ark, at at least if they survive to be ripe there will be one of each for both DP and myself.

Whats happening in the garden

2008-11-22T19:58:00.005+10:30

Well the last week we have been lucky enough to have a bit of rain, the garden has appreciated it but so to have those pesky weeds, I have just been outside to identify a few little boxthorn seedlings I had thought might have been some sort of useful plant, but no just a noxious weed, green and healthy but a weed all the same. I also noticed that the caltrop is starting to germinate around the place so I will have to keep ontop of that and pull them out before they flower and set seed.
I have planted some tomato seedlings (a Black Russian, 4 Big Beef, and a Cherry tomato) and a capsicum seedling where the rocket was in the middle, and because I let it go to seed there is now little rocket plants coming up amongst the tomatoes but they will stay there if they survive past the two leaf stage, I'll just have to make sure I keep them pruned back the last lot ended up quite big. Things are a bit messy and need a bit of weeding, but thats life, no airbrushed photos around here.

The plants in the native garden are powering along, especially the acacia argyrophylla which I want to use as a screening plant, its about halfway up the fence now and its only been in for around a year, and that was as a tubestock, so I am quite impressed.

The lawn has magically truned from being dry and brown into being lush and green, helped along by a very timely (not at all intentional) application of blood and bone (by DP) a couple of days before we got rain a couple of weeks ago

Wicking beds from Broccolli boxes

2008-11-22T13:10:00.007+10:30

About a month ago I (finally) got around to making a couple of wicking beds from Broccoli boxes I picked up for free at one of the local supermarkets. The idea of a wicking bed is that water is stored at the bottom and is "wicked" upwards to where the plants need it in the root zone. I have seen on a few peoples blogs that the idea is begining to take off, in these times where we all struggle to keep water up to our plants (for more info have a look on this site)

I thought I would try two different methods and see which worked better.

The first I filled the bottom with some gravel I had around the place, then placed a 2L milk container upside down, in the corner, with the bottom cut out (for watering) and the lid off and then filled the rest of the box with potting mix. Into this I planted a coupe lof Everlasting Lettuce seedlings, a Spaghetti Squash seedling and a couple of Purple Pak Choy seedlings

The second I decided not to use the gravel but instead I used a juice container cut in half length ways, and placed along the bottom to create a tunnel to hold water, then I filled the box with potting mix and planted it out the same as the first one. I gave them the same amount of water each and left them to do their thing.

Almost a month later and the one on the left (no gravel) has definitely performed better than the one on the right (with gravel). In both of them the Pak Choy has not survived (on the right of the boxes), and in the gravel one the squash died, but the lettuces seem to like both.

Just look at them now, I was considering replacing the seedlings that died with some more of the Everlasting Lettuce since that seems to be going really well in both, or maybe something like some rocket. It really is nice to see things so green and lush without having to constantly water.

Our new arrivals

2008-11-08T17:01:00.006+10:30

After heading to Adelaide for a weekend, two weeks ago, we came back with four 7 week old chickens. We had recently lost another of the four originals, Miss Bossy, which left only two, so while running some errands there, we came across these girls, I had thought of getting three more but there were four there and I couldn't leave just one alone there, so they all came home with us.

They had the delight of coming visiting with us and meeting the family, complete with a short stay in the rabbits cage (with the benefit of being able to eat the rabbits food, scratch in his bedding and drink his water) while he was out exploring the garden, much to his disgust when he arrived back home LOL.

We got home late at night and so put them in the roosting area with the other two with the hope that they would all wake up together and not realise anything had happened. Well that wasnt quite the case, Big Mumma decided she didnt like these little teenagers coming into her home and would chase them away if they came near her, or tried to eat. This meant that during the day they would hide together in the roosting area then at night when we went to check on them they would all be huddled together in a corner of the run, so for a few nights after it was dark and they had settled for the evening, we would pick them up one by one and put them into the roosting area and then go back and check on them to make sure they hadn't been kicked out by the other two. It took a few nights but now they are all putting themselves to bed, and sleeping together.

We had to do something about the feeding situation, so each day after work I would let the older two out, and shoo then out of the roosting area, then lock up the run so the older ones couldnt get back in, (and block of the roosting area so the little ones couldnt go back in there and hide) and let the young ones have free run of the place . As soon as they realised that the older two weren't around they pigged out on the food and water, so I think they were hiding out for most of the day not getting food or water. Now two weeks on, they still get chased but they are getting a lot more confidence even sneaking in with the older two to grab some food, they get their grower pellets in the frypan and the older two get scraps put in another large saucer away from them.

Yesterday I gave them all some kangaroo mince with garlic and an egg mixed with it, half in the scrap container and half in the youngsters frypan, the older two were straight into it, but it took the younger ones a little while to work out that it was tasty. But once they did they were into it, chasing each other if they didn't swallow it straight away, a couple of them even ventured over to the other two and stuck their head in (until they got told of by the crabby old chook) I think they should end up sorting themselves out.

I cant wait until they start laying and we have an abundance of eggs!!!!

Spooki and Squeek love their Silverbeet

2008-10-15T08:20:00.001+10:30

I just thought I would share some photos I took this morning of my babies. It looked like it was going to be a nice day today so I took them outside and picked some of the silverbeet that is starting to bolt to seed (I hadn't even started harvesting much of it) As soon as I hung it in their cages they were straight into it. I'm so glad they like their greens. They were actually eating it too, not just pulling it apart. (Click on the pictures to see them better)

Spring is definately here!

2008-09-26T08:33:00.007+09:30

Well my seedlings are coming along nicely, even the latest ones are starting to emerge, there is a couple of the tomatoes that are starting to poke their head through and the kale and nasturtiums look like they are going well. Its good to have come back from a week away with work and see them all still going well and just look at those spaghetti squash, I cant wait to try some of them.

Top row: Satsuma Plum, Almond, Apricot Bottom Row: Apple, Peach, Lemonade
The fruit trees are starting to look good, and the weeds seem to like the watering they are getting as well. Even the Lemonade tree looks like it might end up looking like a tree again rather than a bunch of sticks after last years harsh summer

This (left) is a Lucerne plant from those seeds I tried to grow earlier in the year but got munched by a visitor of some sort. And my pea plants from the peastraw have now got peas of their own, and the cycle starts again!

More seeds to grow

2008-09-14T16:12:00.009+09:30

Well the seeds I planted a week and a half ago, are doing well the Red Stem Welsh onions are just starting to emerge and I think I can see movement of the potting mix in the Spaghetti Squash, the lettuces are coming along nicely too now I just have to get my butt into gear and get some beds ready for them, I cant see them lasting too long in those pots. Oh and I have to remember they are there when I let the chooks out, I'm sure they once they found them there wouldn't be too much left.

Seeing that my order from Cornucopia Seeds arrived last week, very promptly I might add too, I will definitely be keeping them on my list.

So my second lot of planting involves:

Tomato - San Marzano (x2)
Tomato - Principe Borghese (x2)
Tomato Rouge - DeMarmande (x2)
Capsicum - Californian Wonder (x2)
Chilli - Thai Hot (x2)
Chilli - Long Thin Red Hot (x2)
Lemon Balm (x4)
Strawberry Spinach (x4)
Kale - Red Russian (x4)
Rosella (x4)
Nasturtium (x4)

Sqweek Whistles for us!!

2008-09-14T15:49:00.003+09:30

Yesterday it was a rather warm and windy day, so not the best of days for doing things outside, especially trying to hang out washing (including bed sheets) and get it to stay on the line. We did however with all the windy noise get blessed with hearing Squeek whistle. We had not heard him whistle since that day in the shop and we were starting to think that maybe we had been mistaken and that it was another bird that we had heard. DP had said during the week that he had heard someone whistling but when he went to look whoever it was stopped.

We think that it was mostly because it was a noisy day with all the wind around and seeing that where he had come from was quite noisy it might have been a bit too quiet for him.

I thought I would share his whistles with you. The whistle he does in the last clip I think is from an Indian ringneck parrot, which was in the aviary next to him in the shop, he has lots of whistles that he has obviously picked up from there because we haven't heard them before.

Cockatiels are putting on wieght!

2008-09-13T10:02:00.008+09:30

Saturday has become "weigh day" here for the cockatiels. Since losing our Chicken I have been reading a lot about illnesses and how to see the first signs, because as prey animals they will hide any signs that they are sick because this would cause them to be an easy target. One of the best ways is to take note of their weight and if they start losing weight, 10% is something to worry about, then it is a good indication that something is wrong.

30th August (the day after we got Squeek)

Spooki: 79g Squeek: 64g

13th September

Spooki: 86g Squeek: 67g

According to what I have been able to find out the average weight of a cockatiel is 80g to 100g so I hope that Squeek is still growing and will get closer to the 80g mark, although maybe he might just be a little bird.

Squeek seems to be settling in nicely, he's getting to be a little fiesty the last few days but that may be because he has discovered his mirror (I have taken that out of his cage to see how that goes) or it might just be becays he is starting to come out of his shell, he was even thinking about whistling yesterday afternoon.

Wicking Boxes

2008-09-12T07:23:00.001+09:30

This is the start of my wicking beds. I first saw the idea on Scarecrows Garden

The gerneral idea is that the bottom acts as a reservior and the water is "wicked" up to the root zone for the plants to use

Ok today I dropped in at the local IGA to pick up a few pieces and thought "ahh, they have broccoli on special and it is all nicely displayed on the shelf, what would broccoli come in......broccoli boxes......wicking beds...." so I asked the young guy who was stacking the banana shelf if they had any empty ones. so home I went with three broccoli boxes to turn into wicking beds, inspired.

I had looked into doing it last year and asked at the fruit and veg shop (where better to get broccoli boxes) and they would sell them to me for $2 each (empty that is too) surely word hasn't got out that fast and every one wants broccoli boxes for their wicking beds and the demand for them is overwhelming?

So after last years disappointing efforts of trying to produce food in the middle of summer on sandy soil, with water restrictions I thought maybe I would try something a bit different. Ohh and also being very disappointed with "Woolworths, the not so fresh people"s limp and overpriced lettuce, bok choy and the like, when I have seeds here that should grow perfectly with the right conditions.

I dont think I am ready to jump in to the inground systems, or should I say my diary and back are not ready. So I am thinking of something simple, using things I have around the house, buying as little as possible. Also I have come to think that there is a lot of "junk" around the place, so surely some of that would have to be useful, why else would I have kept it so its a bit of a challenge to myself.

Heres what I'm thinking so far, hole up the side to create the reservior, 10mm gravel in the bottom, cut PET bottle or milk container as the watering tubes, maybe a margarine container with the bottom cut out for the feeding station, so a lid can be used to give the worms "privacy". Then fill it with some potting mix I have in the shed. Should be pretty much FREE.

I have to think about what plants to use, I am thinking the ones that just wont make it in the beds, the high feed/water needing plants (the things that wilt the first in the garden) and also things that I can continuously harvest, like lettuce, bok choy, kale, herbs and other greens....hmmm thats the end of my list, surely there must be more?

Seedings Showing Growth

2008-09-12T07:16:00.002+09:30

Some of the seedlings that I planted last week have started pop out of the potting mix maybe it is just a coincidence but these were planted in the leafy moon pase and that is generally what has popped up. Coincidence or proof that moon planting works??

Birdy Bathing Time

2008-09-10T18:21:00.000+09:30

Spooki and Squeak having a shower in the rain

We had a little bit of rain this afternoon, so I took the opportunity to let the birds have a shower the way nature intended. Not really captured in this photo but they loved it, Squeak was walking around on the botom of the cage and and was almost rolling around, head right down on the bottom of the cage wings up.

It was just wonderful to watch, I had taken Spooki in the shower with me but she didnt seem to enjoy it just sat there, so to see them both fluttering around and turning themselves inside out was bilss.

Harvest

2008-09-09T18:42:00.001+09:30

The first harvest of carrots and beetroot. I sould have had something in the picture for a size comparison but for an idea the beetroots are about the size of golf balls. The carrots are supposed to be "baby" Carrots but I think that is just a little bit too baby, maybe another order of seeds might be comming up :0)

The Blossoms begin

2008-09-06T12:05:00.001+09:30

The Almond tree is starting to blossom and there are little green shoots of leaves starting to appear too. Spring is definitely here.

Weekend Jobs

2008-09-05T16:40:00.001+09:30

Well that's another week over, so now its time to think about the weekend and what needs to be done, but most importantly what do I want to do. So yet again it is time for the lists to begin.

Inside:

Sweep/vacuum floors
Tidy up kitchen table and kitchen benches
Sort out HECS money I owe to the tax dept, put in separate account and set up reminder to pay in March.

Outside, Frontyard:

Pull up weeds
Decide on locations for the plants from Arid Lands to go (some of the larger ones may go along the front fence, creating a screen/backdrop for other plants)
Sort through seeds and see if there are any flower seeds that can be planted

Outside, Backyard:

Clean poop from chooks house
Give fruit trees a water
Plant lucerne, red clover and nasturtiums under Fruit Trees, under the pea straw that is there (after they have been watered and the ground is nice and wet)
Sort through plants under Carob tree and discard any dead ones and store pots
Clean up under Carob tree throw out rubbish, and rake up leaves, just make things look tidy.
Clean gutters, using our newly purchased ladder.

I'm sure there is lots of other things to do around the place but that's what comes to mind now, how much actually gets done is another matter.

My money, My interest

2008-09-05T07:31:00.000+09:30

After Spending 5 years at uni I have a HECS (now called HELP) debt that I have to pay back.

Now most people in this circumstance just tick the box on the tax form when they start work that says "I have a HECS debt" which means that payroll takes an extra amount of tax to cover the amount you will have to pay, which is what I did when I started working.

What I didn't realise until I got my statement after I started working (no more fees added) and the amount I owed hadn't gone down at all even though I had been getting money taken out of my pay for it.

After talking to the ATO I discovered what actually happens. I had thought it would be like a normal loan and when you made a payment then that amount came off the total, but what actually happens is that that money is collected by the ATO and put in a holding account then at the end of the financial year when they have your complete taxable income (from your tax return) they then work out how much you owe and then take that out of the holding account, returning the left over to you as a tax return.

So after finding this out I decided that if its not coming off my debt then I would rather stick it in my own "holding account" and earn interest on it while it is sitting there. Now as I have been told by my accountant this is fine to do as long as you realise that you will get a bill at the end of the year and you have to be disciplined to put that money away and not touch it.

So far so good, earlier this week I got the ATO letter, which usually comes with a cheque attached, but this year it was a bill (which I was expecting), but the amount that is in the account is more than the bill is which means I effectively still get a tax return.

Because I'm on a salary I set up a automatic transfer for each pay, but lately I have been fortunate enough to do some overtime, meaning that each pay is different. More pay means more you have to pay off your HECS debt. What I have been doing is looking up the tables and adding the extra amount to my HECS account. But I have now found that the ATO has a HECS calculator for working out how much you need to pay as a compulsory payment. Its much the same as the tables but you can be a bit lazier and just put in some figures and out come the figures you need, well almost, it only works on yearly figures, but that's just a matter of multiplying my fortnight;y pay by 26 then dividing the amount it spits out by 26.

The bank account I put the money into is an online account with high interest but low accessibility (perfect for what I need it for) and it also has the added bonus that within the one account you can set up sub-accounts so I have one for "emergency/big bills" and one for HECS, but now that I don't have to pay last financial years HECS until March next year I am going to set up another one so I have two HECS accounts, one for last financial year one for this financial year, and leave the money sitting there until March next year earning me more interest.

Cornucopia Seeds

2008-09-04T19:03:00.001+09:30

Well I couldn't help myself, today I had to go and have a look at the Cornucopia website and have put in an order for

Capsicum - California Wonder
Tree Lucerne
Kale - Red Russian
Spinach - Strawberry
Borage
Lemon Balm
Gypsophila - Convent Garden Market
Native Iris

Not bad for telling myself I really didn't need any more seeds, I really need to sort out what I have at home, well at least I controlled myself enough to only by the things that I know I don't have at home and that will (well most of them) go into the garden shortly after I receive them. So now it is that anxious time waiting for them to arrive

Planning to .........

2008-09-04T07:15:00.000+09:30

Well I have planted some seeds now but I still want to plant more. The problem that I seem to have is I seem to have great ideas when I am in the middle of something, or just don't have time to write it down (or do write it down then loose what I wrote it down on) so I thought I would jot down a list of things I want to plant (and do) which I can come back to and say "ah yes that was what I was going to do with that"

OK here goes:

Plant some Pigeon Pea between the fence and the chook yard (maybe interspaced with some Tagasaste if I can get hold of some seeds), hopefully this will end up being a perennial rather than just a summer growing annual, and grow into a nice bushy tree which will provide shade for the chooks in summer and also can be used as fodder for them and be cut for mulch, and will also do the soil good, being a legume.

Get the "Chook Patch" up and going. The plan is for this to be a smallish bed (2m x 1m , behind the BBQ) which is by the door of the chook cage, and I can just grab a few things here and there from the bed when the scraps are getting low, and feed it to the chooks. Things like Silverbeet, lucerne, clover, parsley, garlic, mint, grain crops.

Set up a "Cockatiel Patch". I have been giving the cockatiels millet sprays, but now that they know what they are they are only lasting a couple of hours before they are completely stripped, so I want to grow some of my own, a) because I don't want to buy it all the time, and b) so that I can know that there isn't any chemicals used on it. This will probably be a handful of bird seed thrown around (and covered to stop the wild birds from eating it before it grows). I also want to grow some greens for them, things like silverbeet, kale (is supposed to be really good for them) herbs like mint, parsley. I could combine this with the Chook Patch but I sort of want to keep it separate and have it purely for "Cockatiel Safe" food.

Plant living mulches under the fruit trees and have them growing well by the time summer comes. I have lucerne, red clover, woolly pod vetch, which I had thought about sowing in a bit of a mix, but I'm not too sure about woolly pod vetch as a living mulch crop, might have to grow some and see how it grows, oh and nasturtiums, I did plant some last year but they didn't transplant well so this year I think straight into the ground.

Sow some "good bug" plants in amongst the veggies, I'll have to go through my seed collection and see what I have bit I am sure I have some marigolds and cosmos, and I know I have some alyssum, red clover and lucerne

Spring Planting

2008-09-03T07:33:00.006+09:30

Ok, well September is here and that means it is now officially spring, so before it disappears I thought I'd better start to get some things growing.

So last night I found a bag of potting mix that was hiding in the shed and some tube pots that I acquired from somewhere around the tracks (I think they might have been use for trees for life seedlings or something).

I put them in a 4L ice cream container, which will fit 16 of these little pots, nice and snugly, and that will catch the water in the bottom helping to keep the seedlings watered, now just to make sure I don't over water them and drown them. I am hoping that these pots which are bigger than a punnet but smaller than a proper pot will allow the seedlings to grow nice and strong and develop good roots before they are left to fend for themselves in the garden.

I have two ice cream containers of pots, so 32 pots in all (at the moment) which I have planted:

Luffa (ALS)
Spaghetti Squash (ALS)
Broccoli - green sprouting (DT brown)
Pak Choi (DT brown)
Purple Pak Choi (seed savers)
Cone Flower - Echinacea (ALS)
Cucumber - Lebanese (ALS)
Lettuce - Everlasting (Greenpatch - ALS)
Onion - Red Stem Welsh (Greenharvest)
Green Apple Cucumber (ALS)
Italian Parsley (self collected - Adelaide)
Unknown - I think it is Sweet Basil (self collected - Adelaide)

For labels I have recycled an empty milk bottle and cut it into strips about 1cm by 10cm long, which I have written on with a thin permanent marker (like the CD pens) and then stuck into the side of the pots, hopefully I will be able to reuse these when I go to plant more later, when these ones go into the garden. They're not all labelled because they are in rows, once they start to grow it should be obvious.

Sad Times, but New Beginnings

2008-09-02T08:29:00.006+09:30

On Tuesday last week (26th August) we sadly lost our cockatiel "Chicken". It was very unexpected and hit DP and I like a tonne of bricks. She was only just over 4 years old, and didn't show any signs of being sick, (although that is not uncommon with birds) but on Tuesday morning when I went to say good morning to them she was on the bottom of the cage, and had passed away.

It was a very teary Tuesday, and that afternoon we had a burial in the garden with a Grevillia (Flora Mason) planted on top of her, and more tears were shed, finding it hard to believe that she would not be around anymore with her funny little antics for us to laugh at and enjoy. Funny how such a small little animal could have such a big personality and leave such a big hole in our hearts and lives. Our other cockatiel, Spooki was definitely missing her, each time we took her out of her cage she would look around to where Chicken's cage was and screech out for her and not get any response, and kept looking around to try to fly to where she might be.

Slowly the teary moments got less and we started to think and talk about getting another cockatiel, although, we knew we could never find a replacement for Chicken, there would only ever be one Chicken.

On Friday at lunch time I decided to duck into the shop that I got Spooki from back in March to just see what they had, and they had two aviaries of cockatiels. I stood there and watched them for at least 20 minutes, just looking at the different colours of them and watching their antics. I moved to the other aviary and straight away a male started to tap the perch with his beak and do a little strutting walk and then started to whistle at me, he had me laughing at him with his strange whistle song. So I was thinking about taking him home but I really wanted the next cockatiel we got to be a joint decision between DP and I, so after work we went down to the store together and another one, which I hadn't even noticed when I was there, did a wolf whistle and then broke into other whistles, we watched them for a while and just fell in love with this little guy who sung to both of us, and seemed to have a very gentle nature to him. And so we took him home.

He is a whiteface cinnamon, meaning that he doesn't have the usual orange or yellow markings, and the parts that are grey are more of a fawn colour, being a whiteface he should have been $40 but the guy at the store said he would give him to us for $10 seeing as though he had been picked on and had some of his head feathers pulled out, so bargain. He also said that he is probably around 7 months old, so a bit older than what we had hoped for but with a bit of patience and persistence I'm sure he will become part of our family.

Getting weighed, 64g, see the bald patch on his head.

He is already letting us handle him without biting hard, and will most of the time step up onto your finger or hand, apart from when we have to play chasey around the kitchen floor, inlcuding under the kitcken table LOL. The first couple of days that he was home (over the weekend) he was very sleepy which is understandable after the trauma of being caught in the aviary, and taken to a new home, with new sounds and surroundings, I know I wouldn't have a restful sleep in those circumstances. But he is much more alert and active now.

Together with Spooki on the kitchen chair.

They both seem to like each other, although they have separate cages they will quite often find the corner nearest each others cage and sit there. When I take them outside if I don't take them out or bring them in together (not an easy task with two cages) they will screech for each other until they are back in the same room and then will squeak to each other. He hasnt whistled for us like he did in the shop but I am sure with time he will share his songs with us.

It's the weekend again!!

2008-08-23T12:36:00.008+09:30

Ok, well news is....

The rainwater tank is full, the weeds are still loving the little bits of rain that we have been getting.

The veggie garden is still going well, it looked especially good this morning with the sun on it after we had a little rain last night, the plants are now big enough that they are (mostly) surviving two naughty chooks getting in there, scratching for tasty treats of grubs and caterpillars.In the bed next to the veggie patch is what I believe is a Satsuma Plum, last year it was looking quite sick, with almost half of it dead wood, and I think after our rather hot and dry summer this year it may be completely dead now. So this afternoons job is to get the secateurs out and see if I can find any non-dead wood, and if I cant then to pull it out and I will have myself another garden bed.

From the fruit trees that were planted last year the Almond tree has a few buds on it and is waiting to come into flower and the Apricot tree is showing signs of flowering too, there is deffinate dead branches that need to be cut off but some definite "alive" ones aswell, (see what happens with a little rain and no "easy-fix" poisons, I choose to think of it as "living mulch")
The two apples still have a few leaves on the tips of the branches, the lemonade tree is slowly putting out new leaves, but I will have to wait and see if the Satsuma plum and Peach tree have hung in there after last summer, I cant see any definite buds but they dont look dead either, so it is a wait and see thing.

This week I have gone out an bought more plants from our lovely Arid Land Nursery:

Melaleuca Pentagona (0.5 x 3m high)
Eremophilla Deticulata ssp trisulcata, pink (2m x 2m)
Eremophill Serpens, red stamen
Eremophilla alternifolia, Magenta (2.5m x 2.5m)
Eremophilla Galbra Roseworthy, red (ground cover)
Eremophilla Galbra hybrid, plum (0.5m x 2m)
Grevillea Flora Mason (2m x 2m)
Grevillea Ellendale Pool (ground covering, 1m x 2m)
Chamelaucium sp, geraldton wax
Hardenbergia violacea, Purple Coral Pea
Hardenbergia violacea Rosea, Pink Coral Pea

Hopefully I will get a chance this weekend to get them in the ground some of them will go in the native garden out the back but I also want to try to get something growing out in the front yard that wont need lots of watering, so what used to be a rose garden I think I am hopping to turn into another bird attracting native garden.

So now I shall be off to enjoy what is left of this wonderful day outside in the garden.

The lesson of "a little bit, often"

2008-08-10T17:44:00.004+09:30

Ok well I have realised that getting out in the garden and doing a little bit at a time can really help.

With being away and I have found the imense value of being able to spend half an hour here and there looking after the garden. When I go out to check the chooks for eggs and food and water each day, or just for a wonder around the garden in the afternoon, pulling a weed out here and there, or spending a few hours on the weekend, tidying things up (like weeding the veggie patch, and pulling out marshmallow plants (or whatever is starting to take over) when I come across them).

We have been having some rain here (so my garden and rain water tank is telling me - yes I might be a little nuts) so what has been barren ground has now turned into knee high weeds, which I know will die off once the weather warms up, and I will be left with the sticky skeletons of the once lush weeds.

The view from the inlet of the rainwater tank (5400L/1200G) only a couple more rungs and it will be overflowing

The last weekend I was home I did a quick calculation of the amount of weeds in the back yard and the time that it would take for me to pull them out, and came to the conclusion that the time I had would come nowhere near the time needed, so out came the whipper-snipper. After a few hours, a fuel refill, untangling line a few times, and a few breaks for me, the yard looked a little tidier. Hopefully by doing this (and yes I know it wont be a quick fix) I will stop some of the seeds forming and also create some mulch, might as well put those weeds to some use. One good thing is it has meant that the veggie patch is doing well.

Yes those rows are still there theres just a few weeds in there too.

This weekend it has been raining (well light showers here and there) but I did manage to get out and pull up the weeds in the "Native Garden". That one wasn't whipper-sniped because the weeds were taller than the plants, and I didn't want any "accidents" so after what didnt seem like that long we have plants again. I didnt take a before photo but you can see by the piles of weeds around the place it looks much better than it did, some of these would have been past knee height. The bricks are to stop the chooks from deciding that is a good place to have a dust bath, oblivious to the fact that there is a plant there that I want to stay in the ground!!! LOL. The chooks had a ball waiting to see what grubs and insects were being uncovered, of course for the sole purpose for them to eat.

I am still around!!!

2008-08-10T17:14:00.003+09:30

Ok I just realised how long it has been since I have posted on here, well I guess I have a pretty good reason: work has me working out on the Oodnadata Track, near Oodnadatta, which is about a days drive from where I live, and I am spending a week at a time out there coming home for a few days in the office and then off again, so life has been kind of hectic.

While I am out on site we are lucky that we have working (sometimes not all that well) Satelite telephones and satelite (free to air) TV, definitely no internet where we are, not even on those fancy new mobile phones people are getting around with now days (no mobile coverage at all outside of the "major" towns like Coober Pedy.

Winter is here, Good time for Pea and Ham Soup

2008-06-08T17:50:00.003+09:30

Well the days are getting shorter and shorter, it is cold and.....wait for it....it is raining.....yep it is winter!

I thought I would share a recipe I made for Pea and Ham Soup Which turned out delicious. It is super easy and doesnt use anything to fancy.

Here goes.....

Into a slow cooker put some peeled and chopped potatoes, and a couple of peeled and chopped carrots (I put about 4 potatoes, and 2 carrots) then out in a bacon hoc, then around the edge of that put in soup mix (I discovered that I didn't have any soup mix left in the cupboard, so I put in what I could find in the pantry, a pour of red lentils, a pour of yellow split peas, and a pour of pearl barley) then fill up the slow cooker with water and turn it on.

In my case I had to go in to work, but by tea time it was lovely. Big chunks of meat had fallen off the hoc, the peas and lentils had cooked through to make a lovely thick soup and the potatoes and carrots had cooked enough to still be a bit chunky.

On a cold wintery day which we even had rain it was very much appreciated, and all for very little effort. Much easier than doing it on the stove top and forgetting to keep stirring it and ending up with that lovely burnt flavour though it.

Rain, Rain, Lovely rain

2008-06-08T17:36:00.004+09:30

Its a long weekend here (Queens Birthday) and as I sit here writing this the rain is starting to get heavier, in yet another shower that is passing through.

It has been raining steadily since Thursday afternoon, stopping for yesterday afternoon long enough to do a load of washing and hang it out to dry before starting again last night. It has been truly wonderful a nice soaking rain, not enough to cause the yard to flood but enough to ensure the ground is wet for more than the top couple of mm's (the usual thing around here).

Checking the rainwater tank yesterday (cant convince myself to go out today and brave the wet and cold today) it is at least a third full and I think after today's efforts should be pushing the halfway mark if not more.

Now if only it would stop long enough for me to get the natives (mostly eromophilas) that I bought this week into the ground. I managed to decide which ones were going where, dug the holes, and filled the holes with water (before I knew there was rain forecasted) but didn't get around to planting them so they are sitting in there pots, in their holes waiting for the rain to stop so they can enjoy their new home.

Some pics

2008-06-01T11:04:00.006+09:30

I just thought I'd share some pics of what is happening in my garden

I haven't been spending much time in the garden lately and it was a lovely surprise to go for a wonder and see that after a few mm's of rain a few weeks ago things have suddenly sprung to life and I even have water in the rainwater tank.

This is something that greeted me last week in the native garden an Eremophila Maculata in flower

The Acacia Argyrophylla (Golden Grey Mulga) growing new shoots

The veggie patch which is struggling along, and I think I have decided that in the future I'll grow most things to seedling stage and then put them in the bed, It has been very difficult to try to work out what is weeds and what is a plant and then there is the elusive rocket thief which has left me with 1 rocket plant out of a row (decided that the two leaf stage plants were irresistible)

From left to right, there is rows of silverbeet, ruby chard, rocket, broad beans, beetroot, and carrots, and that bushy thing in the back is a pepino.

This is something I noticed this morning, one of the succulents in the front garden is flowering

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend, the weather here is just wonderful, the nights are getting chilly but the day today is sunny with blue sky and just warm enough to lure you outside into it (which is why I am going to sign off and enjoy it while I can).

A visitor

2008-06-01T10:45:00.005+09:30

Well I havent been around in blog land for a while, life has taken over a bit, but that sort of thing happens every so often.

A few weeks ago I got a visit from this lovely bird. I think it is a Grey Falcon. I was in the kitchen doing the dishes and heard something crash into the fence and then saw this guy fly up into the tree, realising it was the wrong colour to be a magpie I got the camera and went to see what it was. He was just sitting there not fussed by me at all until I walked around by the fence to try to get a photo from the front of him, and from behind the gas bottles a blackbird took of (frightened by me I guess) and that was it he was off after it, definitely a bird of pray. Just lovely.

And a close up.

Don't let Good Food go to Landfill

2008-05-12T13:23:00.005+09:30

I just thought I would help to spread the word for a great cause. My cousin is embarking on "Bike for Life".

She will be attempting to cycle from Perth to Melbourne (one side of Australia to the other) in under 30 days to raise awareness and funding for the people at Second Bite.

Second Bite is an organisation that collects perfectly good food that would otherwise go to landfill and gives it to those in need.

So please visit her blog Bike For Life and Second Bite support a good cause.

Our newest addition

2008-04-13T09:55:00.008+09:30

I may have mentioned in a previous post that I have a pet cockatiel, well now I have two. I had been thinking for a while about getting another as a companion for our little "Chicken" as both DP and I work full time but I wanted to get a young one so that it could be easily tamed. We got Chicken when "she" was just out of the nest so maybe 6 weeks old, old enough to eat for herself but still young enough to be hand tamed. 4 years on we have a bird that thinks it is a human (with wings), favourite past times include watching tv (perched on the highest knee available), having "my humans" scratch my head and whistling to the very sexy bird that always seems to appear in the mirror (or the stainless steel sink, or the saucepan lids). It is rather amusing to have her on your shoulder and try to make some cheese on crackers as a snack (for the real humans), she will stretch to try to intercept favourite foods like wheatworths, or cheese, or lettuce before they get to your mouth accompanied by a begging squeak.

After the first moult we discovered "she" was actually a "he" but the "she" has just sort of stuck especially seeing that "she" has such a little princess attitude. And she gets very possessive of the "boy Chicken" in the mirrors.

This is "Chicken" after a fly around and waiting for someone to come and "collect me"

And playing on the cage

The new one I got I have been told that she definitely is a girl so we will see, but at the moment it seems like she has a different call to the Chicken's and doesnt seen to be interested in whistling so I would say that she will remain to be a she. She doesnt have a name yet but gets reffered to as the little one, which is strange because she is actually bigger than Chicken (we think may have been a runt type thing)

This is the new little girl, she already has some strange traits (like all my animals seem to) she likes to sit in the corner of her cage with her legs out to the side, like in the picture below, I always think it looks so uncomfortable. She will sleep in one corner and get as high as she can so that she looks like she is jammed up in the corner, I tried putting sticks in the corners so that she can still perch there but be comfortable but she just climbs over them and perches on the side of the cage. Oh well, we are all individuals I guess.

Rain Glorious Rain

2008-04-12T13:49:00.004+09:30

Yesterday we had showers for most of the day. It was wonderful but everyone around here was hoping it was going to be a bit more than just showers, we really need some decent rain.

I woke up at 6:30am to the sound of rain on the roof, just wonderful, then during the day there were a series of light showers. On the way home from work I managed to catch another shower (there goes the wash the car had last weekend) and had it suggested that I brought the rain home with me. Now if only I could master that skill!!

Heres some of the Toppies having a bath in the rain on top of the chooks cage

Back to the veggie patch

2008-04-12T12:00:00.005+09:30

Ok well the cooler weather seems to have set in so its "into the garden and lets try to make things grow"

It will be interesting to see how things go because I have not really ever grown winter veggies, last year I kept waiting for rain before I put anything in, and as such waited....and waited...and waited. This year I think I will ignore the rain, and go by weather, and water buy hand.

Last weekend I got out and cleared last years efforts and spread a bag of sheep poo and a bag of pig poo that I had bought at the local markets a few months beforehand and have been sitting on the back veranda waiting for me to get my butt into gear and use them. Then watered it in and hopefully this weekend I will get around to planting something in there. The soil looks and smells lovely now, it was very aged manure.

I am in two minds as to whether I should go out and buy some seedlings or if I should just plant seeds straight into the ground or if I should try to raise them as seedlings myself. I have heaps of seeds around the place, and planting them straight into the ground is definitely the easiest but then I have to work out some way of keeping the Toppies (crested pigions) from picking all my seeds out and eating them.

Before

After

Chooks and Worms

2008-04-12T11:25:00.003+09:30

A couple of months ago I discovered that my "bossy chook" has been loosing a lot of weight, so much so that her breast bone is able to be felt much more than the other two. After reading and asking questions on a couple of forums it is likely to be worms so I started to examine fresh poops (I know ew, but a birds poop can tell you a lot about what is wrong with them) and sure enough there were little white things that were moving in them - Worms. So they have now been treated with Piparazine from the produce store and finally their poops seem to be worm free. But the bossy one I still dont know about, a lot of the time she is her normal self, scratching and eating everything in sight, then occasionally I will see her with her head sort of drawn in and looking a bit dopey, then she will hear something and be back to normal. Her comb has always flopped to one side but I think lately it has been flopping a bit more and her feathers dont look as nice as the others.

It is funny that I hadnt noticed anything being wrong with her until we were feeding them some gents left over from a fishing trip and the Bossy one was hogging them not letting the other two have any so I grabbed her around the chest to try to hold her back, and that was when I noticed I could feel her breast bone.

From what I have read these are all symptoms of internal parasites, so I am hoping that with time and a bit of TLC she will put on weight and be better. I dont think she has been laying for a while but I have been expecting that with it being the time for moulting, or she might just be getting old in which case she is welcome to live out the rest of her life just being a chook and doing chooky things.

Finally it has cooled down

2008-04-05T08:57:00.003+10:30

Ok it looks like the summer is now behind us, the track pants and ugg boots have started to become the normal dress code around the house now, and the air-conditioner hasn't been on since before Easter.

I am determined to get something productive growing in the veggie patch this year, so this weekend I plan to get out into the "small patch" and remove the dead stuff from last years efforts, rake back the pea-straw and pull out the weeds then sprinkle some sheep and pig and horse poo around dig and water it in and let it settle for a week or two before starting to plant.

Now I'm off to clean out the chook pen and get started on the veggie patch.

A weekend away camping

2008-04-05T08:29:00.004+10:30

Well it has been a while since I have posted here. In that time I've gone away camping for Easter, that was a spur of the moment decisions. We weren't going to go away because everywhere seems to be so busy at Easter, but then on Friday morning while sitting on the back veranda enjoying the unusual cool crispness in the air (we had just had a major heat wave) we decided to pack the swags in the car and a bit of food and go down the bottom of the Yorke Peninsula to spend a night or two away and catch up with some friends. It was just wonderful, walking distance to the beach, loads of room for kids and dogs to run around and wear themselves out. The friend we went to meet up with had 4 kids and a keplie cross with them, would you believe that at the end of each day the kelpie was absolutely stuffed. For those who dont know kelpies are renowned for their energy and intelligence making them perfect for working/farm dogs but endless trouble if they are kept in a suburban backyard without adequate entertainment and excercise.

Each night we had a BBQ tea and a few bottles of red wine before heading off to bed for the night. It was just wonderful to lie in my swag and listen to the waves crashing into the beach, then in the morning be woken up by the chirping of the birds and the warmth of the sun hitting my swag.

It was so good to go away camping again, a few years ago we would be away somewhere with the tents and eskis, and gas bottles setting up home in the middle of nowhere for a few days, every long weekend we could, but the last couple of years there has always been something come up that has meant that we haven't done it.

Long-weekend ahead!!

2008-03-06T16:32:00.000+10:30

Well this weekend is a long weekend. We were looking at going away but decided to stay at home instead. There is a few jobs that I have been wanting to get done so maybe this will be a good chance.

Things like:

mow the lawn (and feed to the chooks)
put more weeds into the green waste bin (it was emptied today)
trim up the agapanthus stems from the finished flowers
clean out the chook poo from their house
soak some carob leaves and feed them to the worms
order stormwater pipe and hook up rainwater tank (it has only been sitting there since October last year)

The only problem is that the weather has been forecasted as HOT!

So I think most of the work I want to get done will be done either early in the mornings or late in the evenings with most of the day spent inside under the airconditioner, but still there is a lot of things that need doing inside as well.

Update

2008-03-02T10:32:00.004+10:30

Lately I have not been on here too much, a few reasons for that, firstly I have been busy with other things and also because I feel like the garden isnt doing too much at all.

The veggie patch is almost completely dead, there is a couple of silverbeat plants struggling along still and some garlic chives, the pumpkin vines are still alive but only of their own accord, after only producing male flowers they forfeited the right to be watered.

I have been busy setting up watering systems to keep other plants alive. A simple system out the front with 19mm poly pipe laid on the ground and screw-in sprinkler dripper thingys screwed in at regular intervals. Since using this for the last couple of weeks the agapanthus are starting to look healthy again and are even starting to flower.
During the last few heat waves they took a pretty big beating, and as you can see there is quite a bit of dead foliage, but I have purposely left them looking untidy (no not because I am being lazy) because it offers them some protection from the heat.

Yesterday I got out into the backyard and set up a similar watering system for the fruit trees, and tested it out last night, it all works now it will just be a matter of time to see if the trees like it better than the handheld hose system. (personally I think it is much more efficient to give them a slow soaking watering that to flood them with the hose, often breaking their little levy banks)

During the week I put in an order to Greenharvest. My original intention was to buy some lucern seeds to grow as a greenmanure/claybreaker/mulch/fodder plant, but then figured if i was going to pay $5 postage I might as well order a few more things so I have ordered some clover to act as a living mulch, and also some woolly pod vetch and a few other seeds from their vegetable seed range.

Regular Visitors

2008-03-02T09:19:00.002+10:30

Last weekend I was lucky enough to catch a couple of Ringneck Parrots playing in the Frangipani tree. We get quite a few around the place but usually they are rat-bagging around the place chasing each other through the trees, and don't stay in the same spot long enough to get a photo of them. This day I did get a photo of one of them although it wasn't quite in focus

Hiding at the edge of the garden
(look in the lower left hand corner)

The Strez Track

2008-02-19T08:00:00.006+10:30

Last week I went on a trip for work, along the Oodnadata Track and the Strzelecki Track, for some work I'll be doing out there in about a month or so, just thought I would share some pics of one spot we stopped on the Strez (we thought we had a flat tyre, thankfully we were wrong, but it is a common occurrence, hence why all our vehicles that go out bush carry at least 2 spare tyres, some have 2 on the back and 2 on the roof rack)

This is in the other direction, where we had just come from......
We stayed at the Maree depot and this was the view from my bedroom window when we arrived for the night....Enjoy...

The joys of chooks

2008-02-18T19:51:00.006+10:30

Well the garden isnt really doing too much, well I have let the veggie patch die, the tomatoes were just not earning their keep, I stripped the corn plants and got a few ears of corn, so that was good, and I have given up on the pumpkins after I had only seen male flowers (serves me right for trying to save seed from bought butternut).

So seeing I dont have any good news from the veggie patch I thought I would share some pics of my chooks. This arvo when I went to collect the eggs one escaped out of their house then another, usually I would chase them and put them back in, but tonight I couldn't be bothered and let them go, the hadn't been out for a while (they had to be "supervised" to make sure they didnt sneak off to the veggie patch). Off they went to the lawn (which is slowly recovering, with the help of all the water from the washing machine)........

and this dirt must be special, because they all want to be in the same little bit.....

I was going to put another video in but that one took forever to upload, so maybe next time. (This is my first time of posting a video, so let me know if there are any issues with it)

and this is that patch of lawn after they had finished with it.....

Sandflies, Argh!!!

2008-02-04T08:03:00.000+10:30

Saturday afternoon at around 4:30pm we were blessed with a lovely constant, drizzling, ground soaking rain which lasted until after it was dark. It was wonderful, and much appreciated by the ground and plants I'm sure, I know the chooks liked drinking it off the top of their food container.

Being such a rare occasion these days we decided to enjoy the moment and took chairs out on the back veranda and relaxed, with a few glasses of red wine, enjoying the coolness the rain brought with it as well as its wonderful smell, and lovely pitter patter sound on the tin roof, and knowing how much it would be appreciated by the garden. All in all a lovely evening.

Only the next morning I found I had been feasted on by Sandflies. Give me mosquitoes any day compared to these buggers, sandfly bites come up the day after your bitten (if not longer) and are what I would describe as violently itchy, the bites I get end up being at least the size of a 5c piece and turn into a horrible red welt, that takes forever to heal (probably not helped by my constant scratching). The best remedy I have found so far is a mix of lavender and patchouli essential oils in jojoba oil, but even this had me waking up every couple of hours, scratching like mad before I was even aware I was doing it.

This is the first time I have been attacked by sandflies at home, mosquitoes lots, but not sandflies, so will be looking into what attracts them and at least trying to discourage them from calling my blood tea, maybe next door's digging and trenching all weekend disturbed them and they came out to get revenge.

Progress of my list

2008-02-04T07:33:00.000+10:30

Ok, well not all of my list was going to get done over the weekend but heres what I did manage to get done, keeping in mind that our weather at the moment is in the mid 30's I think it is not a bad effort.

Here's what my list looks like now

In the Garden:

~~Do the Caltrop patrol (wander around the yard with bucket and hand shovel and remove any which can be found) This has become a weekly ongoing job.~~
Move the compost bin to the veggie patch (it is in full sun where it is and gets too dry, and forgotten about)
Water the front garden either Saturday morning or evening Didnt have to we had several hours from around 4:30pm saturday afternoon of lovely steady drizzling rain.
~~Do a Clatrop patrol out the front, remove a rather large plant from the edge of the road (growing in the bitumen)~~
Water the fruit trees It rained
Fix up the "dams" around the fruit trees to contain the maximum amount of water possible
Fill in the chooks dust bath, which they have dug right in the doorway and cover with some spare paver's
"Prune" some of the weeds
Collect some of the carob seed pods and collect the seeds
~~Take Green waste bin around the back and fill up with palm fronds which have fallen off and are creating a nice habitat for snakes to move in to (be sure to wear long pants, and boots)~~ done, well the bin is full so the rest will have to wait until next fortnight
Tidy up leaves under the carob tree
Plant Giant Russian Sunflowers to get started on my privacy screen
Plant out other native tubestock which I have bought and has been sitting there for "too long"

Inside the House:

Sort out the spare room so that it looks like a room not a whole lot of boxes and stuff everywhere
~~Fold up washing which was brought inside this morning before heading off to work~~
Do washing (bathroom towels, tea towels, clothes) some of it got done
Clean up Laundry (another room where "things" seem to accumulate, to be tripped over) it got started
Sweep floors
Wash floors
Clean up lounge room by the front door (more "things" accumulated)
Vacuum lounge and bedrooms
~~General clean up and put away~~

And heres some other things I got done which weren't on the list:

Cleaned the bedroom, amazingly there was a floor under all the clothes
Clean up of the kitchen benchtops (inspired by Ali at Our Patch)
Took kitchen tap back to Mitre 10 because it was the wrong size, got a new one that is the right size for only $4 extra at Stratco
Looked at new locks for the front and back screen doors (keyed alike) because we never got keys for them when we moved in (we can lock them from the inside but not from the outside)
Looked at shade cloth to tie to the chook run to make more shade decided that I have heaps of old stuff in the shed that I can salvage, the chooks wont mind.
Replaced kitchen tap, (lengthy process involving a trip into town (after mid-day) so most "plumbing" places were closed, after we had started and discovered the hoses which came with the pack were to short, and we had to destroy the cold water hose to get it out) It now turns on and off smoothly without creaking and groaning

So there we have it, that's what I got up to on the weekend, I had to leave some things on the list for future weekends :-) what did you guys get up to?

This weekends jobs

2008-02-01T08:06:00.000+10:30

Ok, time to get motivated and get some jobs done around the house. For the last I dont know how many weekends I have said to myself that I will get jobs done around the house, and they havent got done.

Here's my list

In the Garden:

Do the Caltrop patrol (wander around the yard with bucket and hand shovel and remove any which can be found) This has become a weekly ongoing job.
Move the compost bin to the veggie patch (it is in full sun where it is and gets too dry, and forgotten about)
Water the front garden either Saturday morning or evening
Do a Clatrop patrol out the front, remove a rather large plant from the edge of the road (growing in the bitumen)
Water the fruit trees
Fix up the "dams" around the fruit trees to contain the maximum amount of water possible
Fill in the chooks dust bath, which they have dug right in the doorway and cover with some spare paver's
"Prune" some of the weeds
Collect some of the carob seed pods and collect the seeds
Take Green waste bin around the back and fill up with palm fronds which have fallen off and are creating a nice habitat for snakes to move in to (be sure to wear long pants, and boots)
Tidy up leaves under the carob tree
Plant Giant Russian Sunflowers to get started on my privacy screen
Plant out other native tubestock which I have bought and has been sitting there for "too long"

Inside the House:

Sort out the spare room so that it looks like a room not a whole lot of boxes and stuff everywhere
Fold up washing which was brought inside this morning before heading off to work
Do washing (bathroom towels, tea towels, clothes)
Clean up Laundry (another room where "things" seem to accumulate, to be tripped over)
Sweep floors
Wash floors
Clean up lounge room by the front door (more "things" accumulated)
Vacuum lounge and bedrooms
General clean up and put away

I'm pretty sure that not all these jobs will get done this weekend but at least it gives me something to work on.

I have Bush Tucker

2008-01-31T08:40:00.000+10:30

On the weekend when I was out the back pulling up some of my dreaded Caltrop I noticed some of my "Native Weeds" had some pretty little pink berries on them, looking similar to a pomegranate seed (fleshy around the outside with a seed in the middle).....hmmm interesting....Photo from: http://www.anbg.gov.au/gnp/gnp13/enchylaena-tomentosa.html

Once back at work I asked our environmental guys what it would be, and we consulted the plant books scouring the pictures, and "there that's it". One of my "weeds" is a Ruby Saltbush, and the pink berries are actually edible and used as bush tucker.

How great it is to be a slack weeder!!!

Native Weeds

2008-01-31T08:35:00.000+10:30

As I have mentioned before my most frustrating weed in my yard is Caltrop. Although it has to be admired for its persistence and ability to grow anywhere, and at a rate of knots, and the amount of seeds one plant can put out, which I swear most end up growing, but not for its ability to find bare feet!!

Moving into a different area to what I have grown up in came a whole lot of new weeds. My attitude was if I didnt know what it was it was allowed to stay, then once it grew if it didnt have prickles it was allowed to stay a bit longer. Then as they have flowered I have set about identifying them. Many of the plants that I had never seen before ended up being natives, most considered as weeds because they are so common but native never the less.

The previous owners used to religiously spray the whole backyard to get rid of the "weeds" so when we moved in it was completely barren, since I have moved in I have not sprayed at all (although I have been tempted by the caltrop) and have a range of "native weeds" that have sprung up. When something grows which I havent seen before,I take either a photo or a sample of it into work to try and have it identified by our environmental person, thinking I may have just found a rare and endangered species (well I have never seen it before). Most if the time I have been told that it is a native but it grows like a weed, grows like mad, producing lots of seeds (which will stick in your socks, but not really prickly like caltrop), then die off, but the beaded dragons and sleepy lizards have been seen to eat it, So it earns the right to stay in the yard.

I have also had a few acacias that have grown as well, (I am assuming out of bird droppings), these will definitely be staying, if these want to grow by themselves it saves me trying to buy tubestock and keep them watered all the time. As well as the fact that they have decided to grow near the side fence which I want to create a native screen against, to create a bit of privacy and also provide habitat for birds and lizards. Usually it is the self seeded ones which grow the best.

Goodbye Backyard Privacy

2008-01-27T13:49:00.000+10:30

Friday saw the next-door neighbours house arrive. Went to work in the morning leaving a vacant next-door block, and returning to look out the kitchen window to see a brand new house plonked, about level with the middle of our backyard. Because we dont have high fences this now means that from their front windows they can see straight onto our back veranda (where we quite like to sit of an afternoon or evening and enjoy a couple of drinks and watch the colours of the sky and hills as the sun sets)

The view from sitting height on the back veranda.

The house arrival wasn't really new news we have known since about a month after we moved in that they were planning to put a transportable on the block, and had know that Friday was going to be that day for a couple of weeks.

Since first discovering that we were going to have human neighbours (a miniature horse has live there for a while now) I set to planting a natural screen with pants from our Arid Lands nursery, these were large tube-stock, which have grown well but are still probably a few years short of being big enough to successfully do the job they were intended for.

This is a Golden Grey Mulga (Acacia argyrophylla) which was planted around 6 months ago and I plan to be the main screening plant. You can see from the clothes peg it is nowhere near the heigh that it needs to be to do its job.

I am thinking of planting some relatively short lived plants behind these (between it and the fence) to create a temporary screen until the natives grow tall enough. My thoughts currently are leaning towards giant russian sunflowers, or perhaps some sort of non invasive bamboo that would grow in a fairly hot dry climate (if one exists)

What else might be suitable? Here's the criteria: grows to around 2m (minimum), allows the natives in front of it to grow and not be permanent. I think I'm looking at at least a couple of years until the natives will be tall enough, grow in a hot and relatively dry climate, surviving on minimal or hand watering, not need supporting like a trellis.

I'm interested to hear others ideas.

First Corn

2008-01-27T13:25:00.000+10:30

This is the first picking of corn, yes it was a bit small but what was even more disheartening was the discovery after taking the husk off, the fact there is only three kernels that have developed. This is however from the first planting and is one of the surviving plants after a "survival of the fittest" incident initiated by one chook that discovered it likes the fresh green leaves of young corn plants. Maybe the bigger planting (which has been relatively free of chooks) will be a little more promising.

The heat taking its toll

2008-01-20T15:11:00.000+10:30

Well things haven't really been doing too much lately except almost dying in the heat and non-rain. Out the front I have agapanthus which I thought were fairly drought tolerant plants, but even those have withered away in the heat, what a few weeks ago were nice lush plants are now clumps of dry yellow leaves with a few green shoots here and there, even my frangipanies are looking a bit sad from the heat and lack of rain.

The corn patch has set some cobs but it didnt escape the heat either with quite a bit of the leaves being burnt.

The tomato plants dont seem to be going that well, the plants themselves look good but there is not too many flowers and the flowers that are there dont seem to be setting, not sure what the problem is there, might have to try again with a different variety.

This morning I went to the local flea market and bought a bag of pig manure and a bag of sheep manure from a nearby, farmer to go on the garden, will see how that goes I have only ever used horse manure on the garden.

Friday evening I got out the back with my hand shovel and attacked the Caltrop which again has spurted into life. I had thought that I might have to resort to spraying it because there seemed to be a lot in the back yard, which was well and truly on its way to setting seed, but after about an hour of walking around and slicing each plant I found, off below ground level with my hand shovel, I found there was fewer plants than I had originally thought, so I am happy that my methods seem like they are working. I have been collecting the seeds in a bucket by the back door, and that is starting to build up nicely.

Knited Dish Cloths

2008-01-09T21:09:00.001+10:30

During our recent "lack of internet" I decided that I would do some knitting, and thought I would make up some dish cloths for cleaning. I get so annoyed when the chux cloth starts to fall apart, but I still keep using it wanting to get the most out of it before I let the worms at it.

Here it is at the start,

and here is the finished product

It was really easy to make and only took me two nights to do it while sitting in front of the TV. Now to find the motivation to use it and get those dishes done

Pumpkin vines are looking like vines

2008-01-09T20:44:00.000+10:30

I noticed the other day that my pumpkin plants that are planted amongst the corn have grown from little things to actually looking like vines, they even have some flower buds on them so now its just a mater of waiting to see if there are both male and female plants and if they set fruit. Now starts the chasing and training to keep them in the garden.

Someone is not pulling their weight!!!

2008-01-09T20:23:00.000+10:30

Monday when I went and collected the eggs I found the usual 2 eggs, only one was much different to what is normally laid, it had been shrunk.

This picture shows the two eggs and a 10 cent coin, the one on the left is normal size.

I guess the heat is taking its toll on them as well. There have been no more "bantum" size eggs since then so I think it was just a once off thing.

Joy to find a catepillar in the garden

2008-01-09T20:07:00.000+10:30

Now most gardeners hate finding caterpillars in their garden, but even to my amazement, the other day when I was in the veggie patch collecting the flowering tops of some Asian greens to feed to the chooks, I was delighted to find a fat green caterpillar. Some may ask whywould you be delighted at this?.....well my first thought was "wow!! the chooks will love this, but pity there's only one they will have to fight over it".

What "strange" things do you find enjoyment in, in your life?

I have been lost.

2008-01-09T19:47:00.000+10:30

Saturday night I lost my internet, after over an hour of talking to tech support people and changing wires and pressing this and that and resetting this and that, they worked out it was a problem with the exchange, so nothing to do until Telstra fix it up at their end. Today is Wednesday and it has only just been fixed and I am able to access the internet at home again.

I was really surprised as to how much I rely on the internet without realising it, so many times over the last 5 days I thought "I'll just check that on the internet" then "no I wont, its not working" Simple things like the weather pages for how hot it got today or how hot it is going to be tomorrow, or what's on the TV tonight, even recipes, and then there is the internet banking and checking on my favourite sites and blogs to see who's been up to what, all these things that I have started to take for granted, its a bit like in a power failure when we still (out of habit) turn the light switches on and expect it to light up the room.

What do you do on the internet that you take for granted.

Sharing Our Land

2008-01-04T12:46:00.000+10:30

I read on Rohnda's blog Down to Earth a comment about even though we may own land it is not entirely ours, we share it with other living things, like birds, reptiles, and insects. This got me thinking about my half an acre and what I share my land with, just of the top of my head I know I have a number of little skinks (who I havent managed to get pics of because they move so quickly) many who drop their tails when they are attacked, there are spoggies that live in the date palm, there are Murray magpies, native doves, and crested pigeons (we call them toppies), normal magpies, galahs, corellas, and I have seen a couple of times a rather large green grass parrot (probably a bit bigger than a rosella)

A few months ago I had a pair of Sleepy lizards stay with me for a few weeks, they made a cosy hole in my shade house and would wonder about the garden during the day. The first time I saw them they scared the crap out of me, I went to check on the chooks and heard a rusting in the dried leaves, but not like a scuttling little skink rustle, more like what I thought was a snake rustle. It turned out to be a large sleepy that I had scared and it was trying to get away and hide. Now I pretty much grew up in the city so never had to deal with snakes and I'm well aware that where I am now is brown snake territory and especially living on the size block that I have, refusing to clear and poison every single weed and keep a perfectly neat and tidy garden, leaving water out for birds and lizards, and having chooks means that there is a fairly good chance that I am going to one day share my yard with a snake of some description, but they do frighten me and I secretly hope that they stay away (or at least stay somewhere where I don’t know about them and am not likely to unexpectedly step on them)

There is a possum around somewhere, I occasionally hear it jump onto the roof with a rather large thump, and it ate my 3 plums

The flocks of galahs, and corellas live in the trees nearby, and go out in the morning to feed throughout the day and then return at night. They make a huge racket both when they are leaving in the morning and when they return at night, my cockatiel often gets into trouble because being a small parrot and a flock bird will "call out" to the others, (she hasn’t realised she is not a galah, or a corella, or a human for that mater) only us humans call it screeching, a very high pitched loud call which gets very annoying very quickly, especially when it is inside.

There are a number of kites that glide around looking for food on the ground below.

And then there is the thousands of flies, spiders and other insects which I would rather found someone else's yard to call their home.

Here is a picture of a couple of galahs in the gum tree next door the other night (it didnt come out too clear because the sun had almost gone down).

And a flock of correllas last night,

And as they took off (there were three kites flying around down the road)

What creatures share your yard, and how do you encourage them?

Making the most of Water

2007-12-28T09:09:00.000+10:30

I just thought I would share what I do to save water. Since moving here I have noticed it is a lot drier than in Adelaide where I grew up. A once a week water of pot-plants in the middle of summer would be quite adequate, but here it is pushing it to go more than a couple of days. Although the weather is only a couple more degrees hotter, there is less rain and when we do get rain it seems to disappear from the ground in no time, plants seem to wilt very easily.

I am on mains water but I still like to conserve what water I can (especially seeing that I am paying for it, and it is about to go up)

So here is what I do...

Kitchen: I have got a square plastic basin which sits perfectly in the kitchen sink and when dishes or hands are rinsed, this water is collected. I have a normal garden type bucket sitting next to the fridge which the water gets tipped into (this is especially handy if I am feeling lazy and don't want to go all the way outside to empty the basin, I can keep adding to the bucket by the fridge and then make one trip) and this is then tipped into the garden each day.

Bathroom: We use the "if its yellow let it mellow" rule, reducing the amount of times we flush the toilet (using a dual flush). I have just started using the laundry "soaking bucket" in the shower, it is a 25L round tub which I put in the bottom of the shower and stand in it when showering, collecting the majority of the water, this then goes onto the garden aswell. I have also found that my showers are shorter because I can actually "see" how much water I am using.

Laundry: All the washing water (when I remember to connect the hose) gets pumped onto the back lawn, which is about 5mx5m under the clothes line and is the only bit of lawn I have.

Outside: I have an unwritten law for the non productive garden areas "if it cant survive on minimal water (mostly rain) it doesn't survive". All my plants in pots are grouped together, so that they can be watered together with the watering can.

What does everyone else do to make the most of their water?

Veggie Patch Progress

2007-12-23T13:29:00.000+10:30

The corn and pumpkins keep growing, most of the corn seeds germinated which is good considering they were out of date according to the packet.

I have a few tomatoes on the tomato plants, in this photo there is three if you look closely, these were some seeds I got from Seed Savers they were labelled "Delicious Tomatoes" so I am looking forward to seeing if they are true to their name

One of my original plantings of corn has a cob on it, it is one that survived one of the chooks discovering she liks corn plants, especially since they only had a few leaves and didn't like being pulled out of the ground completely by one destructive chicken (they now have there own run)

Theives in the garden!!!

2007-12-23T13:08:00.001+10:30

When I moved in I discovered an unidentified fruit tree, once it sprouted leaves I assumed it was a plum, but wasn't sure if it was even a fruiting variety. It flowered and 3 fruit set, Great!!!! I thought, when they ripen I will be able to tell what they are. Every time I went out to water the veggie patch I would look at the progress they were making and how they were looking closer to being ripe. Then one morning I couldn't find them amongst the leaves, I searched and searched but couldn't find them, then I thought to look on the ground, there they were, someone had picked each one, taken a few bites, discovered it wasnt ripe enough, then discarded it.

Looking at the bite marks, I would assume it was a possum. Now I dont mind sharing with the wildlife, I just wish they would learn some manners and share with me, and wait their turn!!! All I wanted was one of the plums to see what sort it was! I think the flesh was starting to turn red, so I think it is a satsuma, but I will have to wait and try again next year.

Update on the Lemonade Tree

2007-12-23T12:45:00.000+10:30

Well I am glad to say that the poor Lemonade tree that I almost killed is on its way to recovery. It has shot new leaves and is continuing to flower, so things are looking promising.

Water Crystals

2007-12-09T17:53:00.000+10:30

After reading about "rechargeable solid water" on Scarecrows Garden I thought I would have a look for it at my local garden centre. They sell a similar product called Solid Water Pouch, but at $5.50 for one pouch I thought that was a bit steep, especially when you can get 200g of the crystals for about the same price. So I bought the jar of crystals and will use this in my pot plants because I feel like I am fighting a losing battle trying to keep them alive, even with pots sitting in icecream containers trying to prolong the watering time.

I'm planning to re-pot my poor lemonade tree for over summer, (because I left it too long to decide on a spot to put it, so it will go into the ground after summer) and I will definitely be including these crystals into that potting mix.

About 6 teaspoons of crystals expanded to fill a 4L ice cream container.

Shade for The Chooks

2007-12-09T09:35:00.000+10:30

At the moment here we are getting hot dry weather (maximum temperatures around 36C to 38C is not uncommon). Where the chooks enclosure is located, gets shade from a date palm in the afternoon but until around 3pm most of their enclosure is in full sun. To create a bit of shade for them I had used some of the palm fronds and laid them against the side, the chooks loved this and this corner has now become their favourite spot. To make it a little more permanent, as the wind kept blowing them over, yesterday I tied them to the mesh using some garden string. So far so good and another thing saved from landfill.

Corn and Pumkins (+ 1 week)

2007-12-08T16:58:00.000+10:30

This is the corn and pumpkin bed after just a week, almost all of them have popped up now, its amazing how quick they grow once they start

Maybe I Havent Killed My Lemonade Tree

2007-12-08T10:38:00.000+10:30

Last week I was a bit neglectful and forgot to water my lemonade tree as often as I should, and combined with the hot weather it went a bit beyond wilting. I only noticed when the when the leaves dried up quite substantially, I hoped that I could save it with lots of TLC (and water), but seeing there was only about 3 leaves that weren't dry and crunchy I didn't hold much hope. I moved it into the veggie garden area, because this gets afternoon shade, and its about 4m from a tap (rather than being in full sun all day and the nearest tap is probably about 20m away). I have been keeping it watered and giving it love and, yesterday I noticed on one of the branches there are tiny leaves shooting, so here's to hoping it survives.

Corn and Pumpkins

2007-12-02T19:12:00.000+10:30

This bed will be a trial for me, a bit of an accident actually, I had planted some butternut pumpkin seeds and nothing happened, so forgot about them, and planted corn in the same spot, well now both are popping up out of the ground. Its lucky that they are good companion plants.

True "Blood and Bone" (plus feathers)

2007-12-02T11:49:00.000+10:30

Last Saturday morning one of my four chickens was looking a bit sick, very lethargic and not herself, so I separated her from the others and gave her food and water, and hoped for the best, but she didn't make it through the night. Not wanting to just throw her body in the bin, or the compost, I thought to bury her somewhere. I wanted somewhere that she could stay undisturbed, so the vegie patch was out of the question.

This is a pic of them just after we had some rain, they got a bit wet playing in the (rare) rain.

There is an area of the garden I had been wanting to plant some taller trees to create a bit of a barier from the sidewalk and to sort of close in this section of the garden, and also to give some shade to the house from the afternoon sun, so thought this was the perfect opportunity. Out came the spade, watering can and gardening gloves, with hole dug, the chicken was laid to rest and an Acacia (Acacia Aneura) planted on top, this Acacia is supposed to reach between 4m to 10m and will provide a great habitat for native birds and bees.

Rains mean growth

2007-11-29T07:30:00.000+10:30

Lots of things in the garden have started to spring to life and start flowering after the couple of big rains we have had in the last month or so.

The frangipani's are starting to flower, their smell is just divine, it’s a smell that I have always adored. It reminds me of lovely sunshine filled days when the weather is warm and great to be outside. I have picked some of the flowers and put them in some water to hopefully make some floral water to use as a room spray, or mix with some other essential oils.

The Agapanthus are starting to flower too, I love their blue colour.

This is a plant that I am yet to identify, but it has pretty purple/blue flowers on it, and it has heaps of buds that are just waiting to pop open.

Here's a close up of the leaves and flowers.

This I believe is a Hippyastrum which has just started to flower

My Battle with Three Corner Jacks

2007-11-29T07:18:00.000+10:30

In both my back and front yard, I have three corner jack's (or caltrop) which means that going outside without shoes on is just asking for punishment. It has decided that now is a great time to start to grow, personally I think it knows that this is a busy time of year and it has a good chance of being left undisturbed and allowed to grow, flower and set seed (in the thousands) then die off and pretend it was never there, with the seeds lying in waiting for an unsuspecting foot to come along (OUCH!!).

And a close up of one that is just about to flower:

I'm going to beat it at its own game, I have made myself a rule that if I go outside and see a group of plants at least a few of them need to be pulled out and fed to the chooks, and I also have my "sacrificial thongs" which live by the back door.

A simple walk around the back yard will result in the base of the thongs being covered in three corner, rub the thongs together over a bucket and "tada" another hundred or so plants that will not grow.
Eventually I will get them to a manageable level.

Moon Planting

2007-11-18T10:33:00.001+10:30

Recently I have been looking into moon planting, while my knowledge is by no means extensive I thought I would share what I have been able to pull together from various sources and what I am trying to work to in my garden. Some people may think that this is a load of hogwash, but my thinking is that if the varying gravitational pull of the moon can affect things like the tides then why shouldn't it have an effect on other living things which are made of a large proportion of water, in this case plants.

The moon cycles through four phases as shown below, each of these phases has an influence on different parts of the plants and their growing phases. It has been noted that on the day of the change of the phase (new moon, first quarter, full moon, and third quarter) planting, or taking cuttings should be avoided for that day (12 hours before, and 12 hours after the time of the change). The times I have put in are South Australian time

Generally energy is focused either above ground or below ground. From the new moon to the full moon (waxing) energy is focused above the ground and from the full moon to the new moon (waning) energy is focused in the root area of plants.

New Moon
Fri 10th November 2007 9:34 am

Leafy plants, green manures, liquid fertilisers, mow or trim to promote growth

First Quarter
Sat 18th November 2007 9:03 am

Fruiting plants, green manures, liquid fertilisers, mow or trim to promote growth

Full Moon
Sun 25th November 2007 1:01 am

Root crops, also a good time to take cuttings as this requires good root development

Third Quarter
Sat 1st December 11:15 pm

Barren time. Have a rest from sowing. Concentrate on weeding and pruning to restrict growth. Apply solid fertilisers.

New Moon
Mon 10th December 4:10 am

The start of my Veggie Patch

2007-11-17T13:29:00.000+10:30

This photo was taken at the beginning of April this year and is what my Veggie Patch looked like at the beginning. During summer (I think it was the end of January) we had huge rains which caused flooding in some areas nearby, leading to national highways being closed and many floodways being washed away. This also sent all the plants in the area into a state of confusion, thinking it was spring, rather than the middle of Autumn. Hence the weeds shot up and set seed before I knew it, and the tree in the background started to flower and grow leaves (about six months too early). This did however show me that the tree was deciduous and not dead, and from the type of leaves and the flowers on the tree I assumed it was a plum tree, but could not be sure until it set fruit, if indeed it was a fruiting variety rather than an ornamental.

I decided that since this garden bed was close to the house, received morning sun and afternoon shade and had a tap readily accessible, it would be a good site for my veggie patch, and looking at the layout I would guess that at some time previously it was set up as a veggie patch. I set to levelling out the mounds that had been created, a rather slow process using a nail rake, (I was being lazy and not really wanting to shovel piles of dirt, cause I know my back would let me know about it afterwards, and not in a good "I've done some physical work" kind of way) but I eventually got there. Then the peastraw went down and I started to water the start of my veggie garden.

After a few weeks of watering my peastraw garden I had pea plants starting to emerge, at least now I knew that things would grow in what I had created. At the same time some seeds that I had planted had now transformed into seedlings and so in they went in to the ground along with some corn seeds along the fence, partly for the corn cobs (hopefully) but also to create shade from the reflected heat from the iron fence. In this picture from left to right is silverbeet, chinese greens, corn seeds, italian parsley and tomatoes. The italian parsley didnt get planted because I ran out of room in that little bed, which was the one with the best soil and there for my main focus for the time being. My plan: Start with a small bed and once that is up and running move to the larger one.

This is what my veggie patch now looks like today, we have had a few pretty hot days this week (35 degrees +) and so the tomatoes are starting to wilt but they will get a good soaking tonight once the weather cools down a bit, and they will perk up again. Also I have let most of the weeds grow as I am aiming to have them work as a living mulch and also as a constant supply of green feed for the Chooks. So all in all its a bit messy, but its a natural, "organised chaos". Each morning I go out and pull the flowering tops off of the canola weeds and the chinese greens that have decided to flower rather than being leafy and any tops of pea plants which might look large enough to cope with it, and maybe for a treat a couple of leaves of silverbeet or chinese greens. I have discovered that the chooks don't like the purslane that is growing so that just stays and creeps. I am also discovering that with a bit of water the three corner jacks (or caltrop) are starting to come up, so at first site they get pulled out completely, I have enough of those seeds in the back yard to last me a lifetime.