Potatoes

Well, I fianlly did it. I got the potatoes in the ground!

They are on a slope so it was an interesting logistics exercise making sure I had enough of a gap between the rows to ensure I wouldn't uncover the ptoatoes above whilst clumping.

I planted mainly Dutch Cream and King Edward, but I did replant two rogues that popped up in the soil I turned up for the summer garden.





The plum tree has blossoms and the mystery tree above it has started to blossom. There are not a huge number of blossoms on the plum but enough for eating. We may not have a store of plum jam to get us through the year this time around. The tree above the plum has pink blossums, we are slowly getting closer to identying it.

The peaches have started to blossom and I even found a couple of little grape hyasinth in the garden. Nothing seems to be coming up where I want the sand pit, so it looks like that is ready to be built.

 The avocado our wonderful landlords so generously gave us has buds on it (lots of them)! How wonderful if we get avocados in the first season!

 The little garden outside the back door gets almost no sun in winter, but the sun has moved and the morning sun now streams in throguh there. The lettuces and herbs have sprung up. I just need to work out what to do with it in winter....



This is the summer garden. I haven't planted anything yet - but my celery is ready to go in and I will try to get the fences up (to keep the chooks out) this weekend. Just a low fence - the chooks don't go into that area anyway. We will see how high I need to make it... The pots that are in the background are my temporary solution to needing something to hold the raised bed in place. I am going to fill them with soil as well and plant marigolds (or something like that - maybe herbs not sure yet) in them. They will do for this year as I have them and they will do the job. Over the summer one of my aims to to find something more permament. My MIL has terracotta pipes in the ground and they look greeat planted up with chives and the like.

Summer garden - next move

Well, things are going very slowly as everytime i do anything in the garden I spend the next hour in the house trying to breathe. I will not let this beat me though. I am focussing on getting out in the patches of sun we are getting and only doing one smallish part of a job at a time.

So, the gardens were formed up last entry (still need to get the photos up) and today I mucked out the chookyard and dumped it on top of the three beds. I took the more mulch like layer off and dumped it on top of the compost and the risidual layers are now sitting on top of the gardens. I ran out of steam to dig it all through - that will be the next task. One step closer...

I have also given our two little chooks some new bedding. The whole plan is slowly coming together. So all the paper that I have been shredding is now beddign for the chooks. Someone told me it is one of the best options as straw invites vermin. So my gril and her boy have new shreded paper beds and the kitchen is empty of all shredded paper (for at least today).

I have also come up with a solution to our edging issue. I was going to get flitch from the local saw mill, but they only have soft woods available and it just isn't worth the effort it would take to do it by myslef. So, I hunted around the yard. A while back a friend had given me a whole heap of moss pots. They are like the inserts for hanging pots. She moved into a place with thousands of them. So, I have used them to form an edge around the garden. They will not last long term, but they should get us through this summer. I plan to fill them with marigolds or some similar plant that will distract the nasties from my summer harvest.

It looks like I will be ready to start planting in a few weeks - which should be right on time.

The potatoes are still not in despite my best intentions. I have been told this is not a bag thing, but I am keen to get them in soon. Every day it is my chief task, but somehow it keeps getting gazumped (yesterday by a desire for Tarte Tatain).

The winter harvest iscoming along. I have styarted picking the odd snow pea here and there. Lots of flowers on the bushes but not a lot else at the moment. The brocili and cauliflowers have shot up and everything is looking like it is about to burst into fruit or tuber as the case may be. I was just too late getting them in the ground this year.

Wintery going ons

So much has happened since the bee!

The landlords stopped by and were happy with what we have achived, but we needed to take the front hedge down lower so that I get the low coverage I wanted. As Dan's chainsaw broke the day of the bee, we it was a hand saw job to lower the current stumps and finish. The two Ringtail possums that lived in one of the hedges have relocated to the lovely gum that you couldn't see before. It is a glorious tree, and some day soonish it will flower. I am keen to put a name to it. So the Ringies are happy and run accross the roof every night before we go to sleep. It gave us a bit of a start at first, but now it is a vcomforting noise to hear our little couple out for the night of prowling and eating.

So the hedges are all lower and there is so much more light nd sun coming into the house. This is great for winter, but it might make summer interesting. I have turned the brain to ideas for shade on that side in summer - but more of that later. Our landlords are so wonderful. I told her of my desire for fruit trees and she turned up with an avocado and a lime. We both agreed on the sitre for the two, but mum is not going to be happy as it means cutting down a camelia ust outside the back door. It is pretty enough, but it doesn't give us privacy from the neighboor's window high up that looks down into our dining area. So, the avocado will go in just to the left of where the camelia currantly stands and it is such an extablished tree that I think it will block that window by summer. Diggers say that anywhere a camelia thrives is a great spot for an avocado! We will test out that theory. The lime, I intend to put out the front. It will go under the balcony so we can pick from the top. I will keep it low so the shade in winter shouldn't be an issue. It will be going in where a berry bush is. The bery bush is driving me wild with all the regrowth from the berries! I also have a lemon to go in along the balcony a bit. It can get a lot taller there and still not be an issue in winter. SO two of my wish list trees have homes and are in location waiting for the weather to warm up so that I can put them in (mounds of course with our clay soil).

The winter garden is coming along. I was too late for the brocolli and cauliflower. They are still very small plants but they might come good as the weather gets warmer. I will need to get them in earlier next year. The peas are good though and nearly ready to eat! The parsnip looks very vigorous, but I haven't checked under the ground yet. All the garlic I planted is going really well. It looks like I might have enough to get me through the year and even have some to plant out. That is a great investment!

On Sunday, I attended the newly formed seed savers group for this area. There were about nine of us there and we had a lovely wonder through the host garden. I had my first introduction to Yarkon - which was such a wonderful surprise. Similar in texture to nashi and just lovely for a salad or just to munch on! This is one description I found on the net as they are not in any of my books: The tubers can be eaten raw as a refreshing treat on their own, finely sliced and mixed into salads,boiled or baked, fried as chips or prepared as a pickle. There is also commerical interest as a flavouring for yoghurt. They are sweet, juicy and almost calorie free. The main stem can also be used like celery. The texture and flavour have been described as a cross between a fresh apple and watermelon. So I am going to have a go at growing them.

For those who don't know, at a seed savers meeting you come together and swap seeds you have saved and learn about saving seeds. It is not restricted to seeds though - I took some rosemary, which is about all I have ATM. I learned that you don't eat the best produce from the garden - you save the seed from it for next year! The stash I picked up is shown below and I am keen to get my head around how to save all the good seeds I have to contribute at the next meeting!

So, I am intending on planting the yakon and two varieties of Jerusalem artichoke along the fenceline. The soils is good and there is plenty of sun. As they have lovely sunfloweresque flowers, they should look fabulous and I think the neighboors will love them too.

The bad news for my fig cuttings are that they like moist well drained soil. I am guessing that the clay I have doesn't really qualify. My plan for the figs is that I will put them in just in front of the varandah. I know it gets lots on sun and I can reach over the top for the figs. I am happy for it to grow up in summer to cover the front of the house and offer shade for the summer and then I can cut them back a bit each winter. There is a really good layer of top soil, so I am hoping if I mound it up (like the citrus) I will get away with it...


I have also got asparagus. Another sandy soil plant. I am intedning on popping this one in a pot. We intend to be here for quite a few years, but asparagus is such a long time invetment that I will pot it for a few years and see how we go. I I can maintain a couple of plants in a pot ready to go into the soil then I should be right when/if we move...


The only other thing I have left to do is poatoes. I started on the bed on Saturday, only to find out on Sunday that around here you should waint until August. This is OK though as the bed is taking a lot more to prepare than I thought it would (always the way!) so I now have time!


I got some Thyme and Chamomile lawn from Diggers and am planning on getting that into punnets in the next week or so. I also have put some herb boxes out on the varandah (the best place for sun with handy access to the kitchen). I prompty filled them with spring onion and brown onion. I am not sure how they will go as I think the browns are a little early. We will see how they go. I have sprinkled German Chamomile along the driveway bed against the fence. That way the wind will only blow it into the fence and it shouldn't cause a problem...famous last words! I just need to work out where I want to put my peppermint now and I am all done for the next little while!

Working bee

Nothing hits the gardening bug button quicker than a working bee. We had our turn in the Working Bee's Gang rotation this weekend. I sent out an email with about a thousand jobs on it, but undaunted, along came our friends all ready (some even willing) for work! I think the advantage of the list gave people a chance to settle into a job and so they were mentally prepared when they arrived. Here is the list we had for the day:

Remove agapanthus

Cut down conifer

Cut down fiscus tree

Remove concrete from summer garden location

Remove weedmat from new winter garden location

Return front hedge to manageable hedge proportions

Move all lopped branches to back for burning

Break up concrete near back door

Make paper bricks

Remove bird netting from Nashi tree

A long list and somewhat high expectations you might think. I had several reasons for this extensive list. The first was these are the most pressing jobs I wanted doing and I didn't have a p[reference for the order in which they were completed. Second was the thought that if I offered enough variety, more people's skill sets would be catered for thus optimising the amount of work completed. Also, I didn't expect to get all of the jobs finished. 

On the day, I had the in-laws for the weekend (this was absolutle NOT pre-arranged but a welcome addition). My MIL had talked me out of moving the agapanthus as it was doing a job and would leave me with large areas that the weeds would just take over. Hearing her reason in this, I struck it off the list and will contamplate any removal with the thought of encroaching weeds from here on in.

One of our friends turned up with pruning shears in hand and set to work on al of the fruit trees I have inherited. Whilst not on the official list, I was very happy with this! I am a learner (had you worked that out yet) and recovering fruit trees that are several years without attention is way beyond my skill level at this point. I knew they were in good hands as he has a vested interest knowing anything I can't use he is welcome to take! (He also has a link from my blog for those who really want to know...)My first job for the day was to remove the netting (especially as no one else had taken pity on me and opted to do it - can't imagine why?).

The conifer out the front is gone!!!! I have a rather large gap in my hedge that I am contemplating filling with a second carob tree (awaiting advisement). It took two blokes, and a FIL's ute (with him driving of course) to pull down the two (yes not in fact one) trees that had been hacked to death as they were too close to the road to be allowed to grow in peace. The conifer was blockinh a lot of my sun and really taking over the front yard on the side it could actually grow. We hadn't realised just how much light we lost! Everything out the front is much brighter now.

The brightness might also be attributed to the success of 'trimming' the front part of the once-known as hedge accross the front. Very little privacy at the moment, but this is the price you pay for a lucious hedge come spring (maybe even a little earlier the way our crazy weather is behaving). The rest f the hedge is still to come down I am really hoping before the big bunfire date we have set to rid ourselves of the rest of the 'trimmings'.

The completely overgrown fiscus (otherwise know as firebush) out the back has also been removed. I think at one point there may have been a hedge along the fenceline. I find hedges a little overrated as all I see is hedge trimming! So it has come out completely and we have plans for a rather stylish fence that I can grow kiwi fruit on. It has meant that the back yard is a little more open to the neighboors, but I think I can cope with that for the moment.

The concrete has been removed from my summer garden plot (see photos from a previous post). The happy man who grabbed the hammer drill in the eagerness of using a serious power drill is now probably cursing my name as he is nursing his back muscles and preparing to set off to work. But, I must say - such a fabulous job! And he managed to get onto the concrete by the back door. Soon my picking garden dream will come to fruition!

The kids enjoyed making paper bricks out of cross shredded paper the other half had brought back from work. I htink this is a great activity that could keep them busy for future bees - we might need to invest in a few more brick makers though...

So, at the end of the day, the only job that didn't get finished was the removal of the weed matting! What a hugely successful day and I am so thankful to all my wonderful Bee Gang members for inspiring mew to get back out to the garden in the middle of winter and keep working on the project!

Garlic

Nearly all of the heads of garlic I am buying have a few sprouting cloves. I am popping these in the ground where ever I can. We get Australian garlic and local whenever it is available. I am hoping many of these come up. I have now planted about 50 cloves. That should just about do me for a whole year!!! I can't wait to plait them up!

Starting the summer garden

Well the winter garden is chugging along. I love that when you turn over earth that has been used before all sorts of things crop up! I have found about six lettuces in amongst the other vegies in my winter garden. So I have moved them up closer to the house into the picking garden (well it will be once things have grown). So far in this little area I have six lettuces and some tine baby parsley. I also have a sage that we brought around from the old house. I am keen to get a few more winter greens into it, but just haven't as I am still fighting this nasty bug.

So, how is the winter garden looking? It looks great! I am really happy with it. I have heaps of veg popping up everywhere (none that I can eat yet) and even my parsnip is happy.

Don't look too closely, there are lots of little weeds that I am making an effort with.

So the next step is to start to prepare the summer garden. I was going to put in a crop of green manure, but I think I may have missed the boat. There is, however, still time for me to turn the soil over and put some gypsum down. So I tidied up the area and pushed all the vine back over the fence from whence it came.

I love the fence that was exposed. I really love eclectic items like that! I think I will grow my own vine - but soemthing that will provide food for the fam! So, the plan is to have four meter wide veg gardens in this space. I have been doing a little bit as often as I can. Just getting out and turning over the soil slowly working my way from the back. I have been finding a lot of river pebbles and tossing them over to the side near the shed. If I find enough, I can use them for the paths... Then I hit something hard not quite a shovel depth down. I hoped it was a large rock and tried to work around it with the following result:

As you can see it was a rock - of sorts! A little slab of concrete in the middle of my summer veg garden. Oh, what to do? I am slowly excavating it to find out how large it is. A friend has a jackhammer, so I could break it up and get rid of it. I will just have to see how we go. Of course, the other option is to build a garden up above it - but I really don't like the idea of my little plot sitting on top of concrete. I would so much prefer it to be on the mother earth...! So, I am trying to enlist the kids' help to 'excavate' as I am still so short on breath!

On other fronts, Dan is purchasing a chainsaw this weekend in order for us to gather our own wood. $15 from the state forest or a friend said we could come up to their farm. They have a few fallen trees. The in-laws farm could also do with a tidy up on the fallen tree front. So there are plenty of options for wood.

Now that winter is here and the cold is seeping into the house, I have been waiting for the sun to raise its head to ensure the house and windows are getting max exposure. This was certainly not the case, so I have been trimming the 'hedge' out the front to assist with the thermal heating option. Again, this venture is somewhat hampered by my inability to breathe, but the kids love sitting in the hammock as I slowly expose them to the sun. They love yelling advice regarding which branch is next to come down (usually one I can't reach!). Our house is very daughty, so we are turning our attention to trying to eliminate heat loss. I found the box of curtains and we are looking at putting up two sets at each window. There are a coulple of windows with vertical wooden blinds that I think need more insultation than these blinds are offering. I am trying to come up with a simple and elegant solution.

That's about us for the moment.

First growth

I have had a hiccough in my health lately and haven't been able to get a lot done. A friend gave me some Russian garlic which I managed to find hidy holes for all over the garden. I haven't managed to get the bulk of my garlic in yet though. I am really hoping it is not too late! It will be my top priority once I am up and about.

I made it out to the garden today for a quick look and found several little sprouts poping up. I was very pleased. They are exaclty where they should be in the rows, so fingers crossed they are even something I planted.

I found my watering can but the nozzel had been broken off in the move. A lovely friends offered to take it and get it fixed. So now I can water. Before I had the chance the rain obliged my garden's requirements for drinks. I need to get a rain gaugue to keep an eye on how much the garden is getting....

I have removed a big bush from the area I want to start turning into my picking garden. It looks like it is really nice soil, so I am hoping it won't take much to get going. Fingers crossed for full health to return and I am back into it...