Two weeks ago …

There is really nothing I like as much as spending a day in the garden with Bec, Abbey and the Dog. Even if we don’t end up getting much done, its still so nice to just muck about and lie in the sun. Two weeks ago we decided that we’d plant the seedlings that we had grown from seed (Tommy Tomato’s & Yellow Leaf Lettuce were all that we had from seed) along with some seedlings we had bought (Carrots, Broccoli, Cellery and other lettuce species).

The first step was to clear the garden bed of the viney thing that was growing in there. This thing grows like crazy and it gives me a little bit of confidence that we might be able to grow something in that icky sandy “soil.”

 

The compost in my first bin (we have two now along with our worms) was nice and ready to go at the bottom, so after taking the bin off, we saw SO many nice big fat worms, we put the top 50cm of compost back in the bin as it was still a little green and used everything underneath. It was beautiful, a lot of it was still a little unbroken down, but the majority of it was of perfect consistency and black as tar. We dug this through the “soil” (I use quotes because our “soil” is very sandy) where we intended to plant our seedlings along with some potting mix from Bunnings.

Once this area was up to standard, we put our seedlings in. A little too close together to start with as the surrounding “soil” was just not good enough to put them in there.

We also put Lucerne over the soil and between all the seedlings to keep the soil moist, keep pests out and keep nutrients in. The benefits of Lucerne are amazing and I highly recommend all gardeners use it. Lots of organic liquid fertiliser and water were applied to increase the goodness available to the plants.

In the “soil” surrounding the vegie patch, we applied the Diggers Cleaver Clover kit to grow through winter and be dug in before summer. However, after doing this we had 2 weeks of solid rain and only one species of Clover have sprouted and it would appear the rain has washed away the mustard seeds. I will scatter some more today or tomorrow.

Two weeks later…

Well, as I took my sweet time posting this, I can include my follow up in the same post (its called Structured Procrastination.) The bloody chooks have gotten out a few times and done their bull-esque foot shuffle all through the vegie garden. Everything is ok, but they keep scattering the Lucerne everywhere.

Unfortunately, my Tommy Tomato is not looking great, despite the raging success of the others.

I have been making sure it gets lots of water, but its not picking up.

The clover is growing like its 1999.

All in all a success. I am happy to have a vegie garden finally, even if it is a little pitiful and pathetic, I am still chuffed that somebody like myself who used to spend more time on my car than sleeping and working combined, can achieve something like this. So many people seem to be afraid of this, afraid of the potential failure. The thing is, if you want to start, just don’t go too big, research a few plants you want to grow and just focus on those, you wont get overwhelmed that way and the benefits and feeling of sheer satisfaction are second to none.

I haven’t had much success with getting my seeds to sprout yet, but I did find a good video about how to do it.

I have two seeds sitting here now waiting for my next attempt.. Wish me luck!

What you are looking at in this picture is a sub-week old Australian Yellow Leaf Lettuce. Planted on the 9th of February and left in last weeks rain (that was an error on my behalf but it doesn’t seem to have upset it).

This is one of two lettuce seedlings to have sprouted. Its so exciting. I want to eat it now, but I don’t think that’s too wise. Its in a seeding tray with another 3 lettuces, a Chilli and an Asparagus. In my eagerness to start growing my own food, I did not notice that the asparagus wont produce squat for over 2 years… Oh well.

I also have a little ‘Green House’ that I bought from bunnings with the same plants in it. I was seeing which one they preferred but it seems they like open air more.

Please take no notice of my labels. My daughter thought it’d be a hoot to draw all over them after I had finished writing them (I’m not even sure if they are in the right slots – that was her next trick).

Btw, the seedlings are sitting on my beautiful DIY, Luxury-spec chook coop which sports a Polyurethane roof and gutter (which fills the chooks’ water). When its finished and ready for a population, I’ll take some snaps and show you how I made it (cause, there will no doubt be people wanting to copy it).

I was reading a nice new blog that I found today (Green Change) and came across an interesting post.

This post describes the current ignorance-filled, idiotic water restrictions currently implemented for Sydney. A small excerpt from the site will give you a little indication of the level of sheer moronic thought that must have been excreted from the orifice of some Neanderthal recently revived and given this task…

Hosing residential building structures including windows, walls and gutters is allowed using a hose with a trigger nozzle or high-pressure water cleaning equipment (to a maximum of 10L/minute)

Ok, so we can hose down our houses, thats kinda cool. But…

Hand-held hosing of lawns and gardens and drip irrigation is allowed only on Wednesdays and Sundays before 10 am and after 4 pm

We are not allowed to water our gardens outside the specified 36hrs within the week…

As Darren (from Green Change) says;

Kids can run under sprinklers any time of the day, you can hose windows and walls any time, and you can wash your car at any time. You can also leave your hose running unattended to top up pools or fill containers, and you can even fill pools under 10,000 litres without a permit.

But try to hose your tomatoes any day other than the dictated Sundays and Wednesdays, and then only before 10 or after 4, and you’ll be fined $220.

As my wife said, obviously its more important to have clean cars and houses than it is for you to be able to grow your own vegies (or even use your lawn as a carbon capture! Heaven forbid…).

This insanity makes me sleepy.

A lot has been going on in my garden recently and as it all surrounds my efforts of making myself more sustainable, I thought I would update you all on it.

I never used to consider myself a green thumb until I got my own garden. I used to enjoy the idea of gardening but couldn’t see myself really taking it seriously. Now, I love every moment I can get in my garden, I love my compost, my worm farms, my citrus tree’s, my lawn and everything else out there. It’s something that a lot of people take for granted but its all so beautiful.

My Compost

Initially I had just a single Tumbleweed compost bin, I wrote about my initial composting experiences in a post back in October 2008. Well, that bin got full very quickly once I started putting my lawn clippings in and if I wanted it to break down, I had to stop adding to it.

The compost in there is looking great but because the bin is in a shady spot, its not happening quite as quickly as it could if it had full sun. So, because it was full and because I continued to get about 150L of grass clippings every 4 weeks from my lawns, I went and bought a second ‘cheapie’ 240L compost bin from Bunnings (for only $40! Bargain!). This is taking a little bit of our food waste, but mainly the grass clippings which I am turning every few days.

I am also reading Tim Marshall’s “Composting: The ultimate guide to recycling your garden” to help me make my compost as best I can.

My Worms

My worms. I love my worms. These little blighters are so fantastic. We feed them all sorts of stuff, they just keep on chewing and reproducing and giving in return nothing but fantastic nutrient-rich castings. What amazing little creatures they are. When I first started my worm farm, I got a little discouraged as it seemed like the worms were staying down below the food and not coming up very often. I think its because they weren’t too strong in numbers (although, I did introduce 2000 of them). These days they are covering the food in there, they never stop! We are putting more and more in at a time (over-feeding can be very bad for a worm farm) and they continually keep up with the demand. I am going to grab a few and pop them in each of my compost bins to help with the breakdown process.

Because of our worms and compost bins, we don’t throw out anything organic. They are all working a bit much at the moment, so once the chook’s arrive, they can have a breather. I am reading David Murphy’s “Organic Growing with worms” to better educate myself on these little fella’s.

My Plants

Our garden here was beautifully landscaped when we bought the place. Lots of palms, ferns, a pond, teirs, steps, paths, everything. We loved it, but now I am starting to think that while all these plants are beautiful, they don’t produce anything except shade and privacy. So I need to start introducing food producing species’ to our garden. The whole garden is hooked up to a drip irrigation system too, but I don’t like turning it on as its still on town water. Need to wait for my water tanks (post on that coming soon). So far, we have a Cumquat tree, its beautiful except my bloody naughty dog pulled the biggest branch off it last night (with the most mature cumquat on it too) – so cranky!

But how can you get angry at her?

We also have a nice little lemon tree that I got for my birthday last year. Its been planted in full sun on our fence so it will eventually provide yummy lemons as well as some privacy (not that Harold and his wife are intruding…). See the 2nd pic in this post for the lemon tree.

We also have some potted herbs that we brought from our unit. They now get very little wind and a lot more sun so they are growing extremely fast. We have mint, parsley, Shallots and Chives.

Anyway, that’s my garden. I am getting my water tanks soon and will need to plumb in my down pipes etc, will post about that soon. Also, I have built a chook coop and will write how I did it soon.

Oh, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOPHIE! She is my sister and turns 23 (give or take a decade or so) today. Go and check out her blog at herheartmyhands.com NOW!