Spring Planting

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.

Making the most of Water

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?

Shade for The Chooks

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.