Sunday, May 22, 2011

Organising the Yard...

This weekend was meant to be spent getting the back yard ready to hold our reception in it... Saturday morning saw B☼ & I wander around & find some locations to put the migrating Sweet Potato bed & spots for 2 barrels that will have our new Berries in them... This took longer than we thought it would due to grub harvesting from the Brassicas, spending some quality time with our Pumpkin dwelling Lizard friend & general garden maintenance...  After that was done with I set about finishing off the Worm harvest from the barrel that had been flooded... Some timber was then routed in preparation to be installed as chair rails in the dining room then ½ a Wicking Barrel was put together & placed down the back to plant the Blueberry bush into... Not a bad days work but still had heaps to do Sunday, before & after a trip to visit the celebrant... That was until I reached for some Muffin trays to make some mini Sticky Date puddings in & sliced open the knuckle of the index finger of my right hand... Not a deep cut but it is in a position that I can't bend my finger for the next 4-6 days so all the little jobs that were planed to be finished during the week like the Wicking Barrels, painting the back stairs & fitting the chair rail & painting the Dining room will now have to be put off until next weekend...
Such is really... At least I have time to sit & blog I suppose... : )»

Worm Barrel...
I started to harvest the worms from the half barrel farm Monday last week but got side tracked with the solar panel installation & painting the back stair area... The idea of the barrel farm was to have no drainage & run it as a "dry farm"... The tower farm was run like this last time as the semi composted horse manure blend that went in there was moist enough... The problem came when we had some heavy rain accompanied with strong wind gust.. Some of the water from when I water blasted the back stairs ended up in there as well but not much...


I finished going through about 3 quarters of it & used the last ¼ to top up the trays in the tower farm... It is a bit hard to gauge how many worms were in there by weight as I probably pulled out five 5-25mm (1/5 - 1inch) long worms for every adult + the hundreds if of eggs as well... Was very slow going as it was basically mud...

Solar Panels...
Just a quick clip on the Solar set up we had installed just over a week ago...
Still need the get the Feed in Meter installed by Energex but it is good to see the meter running backwards...


Wednesday Walk through with Potato & Tomato update by Moo...



Moo took the camera for this one & I only butted in once...
Or  ½ a dozen times, but who's counting...

This weeks harvest...

This week we got heaps of green beans, a few Eggplants, a couple Kohlrabi, Mangel leaves, a Mignonette Lettuce, a few handfuls of Snow Peas, A couple of Beetroot, Assorted herbs, & a very small Sugarloaf Cabbage...

 

 B☼ made a great Warm salad last night to go with a roast Leg of Lamb using Our Beetroot, Sweet Potato Kohlrabi, Sweet Basil & Dill... She also added some Asparagus, Capsicum & Red Onion we bought at the shops...

That's about enough nattering from me I think...
Have a great one all...
 : )»

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Sweet Potato Bed...

Got a bit busy in the garden today & removed the Thai Green Eggplant while wandering around the patch as well as trimming back a few leaves on a few of the Brassicas to feed the Chooks...
When I came to Bed #5, or the Sweet Potato bed, I decided it was time to make a start on clearing it out to make way for the Aquaponic set up... I started to dig up what I thought would be just a few Sweet Potato's but was pleasantly surprised with about 4 kg of usable tubers...  The big surprise was the roots from surrounding trees that I had to dig through to get to them...


I have been planning a few things for the side "yard" but have been putting them off until the solar power system has been installed as they need access to that side of the house... I got a call today saying that it will be going up tomorrow so I can start with the Black Mulberry & Blueberry Barrels & will also start planing where I can put 2 beds that will be made from the old Sweet Potato bed...  Can't wait to dig up more yard !!!

Have a good one all...
: )»

Grow Bucket Update with a quick walk through the patch....

Just a update walk through Clip....


& an update on the Bucket experiment... (lazy I know....)



Shall do a proper post soon on what's been going on in the patch later this week...

Have a great one all!!!

: )»

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Little bit busy...

Has been a tad busy here with the realisation that a wedding is but a few weeks away... We have stairs to fix/paint, a yard to tidy & numerous little odd jobs on the go so the Blog has been suffering a bit...
Was a bit frustrating trying to paint this week...



New additions...
I finely caved & let B☼ get a Mulberry tree on one condition, It gets planted in an adapted Wicking style Barrel & gets espaliered on a trellis up the side of the house...
We also found a Bell Chilli (not to be confused with a Bell Pepper) at the markets on the weekend just on closing... The Lovely people that ran the stall gave it to me so I was mighty chuffed... We had grown a few at the last house but like so many seeds they were misplaced in the move... They are a mild Chilli that are great for salads & not too hot for kids...
We have had mixed results from the seeds we planted just over a week ago... The Cauli's, Kohlrabi, Cabbage & I think a few Kale have shot but no sign of the Lettuce, Parsley, eggplants or Broccoli... We do now also have 3 Onion shoots in the Onion tray that was sown a few weeks ago... Think I might just bite the bullet & go buy a punnet of seedlings...
I am starting to think it may be either the seed raising mix or the seed supplier that may be faulty & not I... Have never had so many misses over such a short period...
Aquaponics...
A site has been found for the set up, where Bed#5 is... It shall be removed slowly over the next 3-5 weeks (unless a Wedding gets in the way)... Some gravel & large pavers put down as a base & some conduit dug into a trench to provide power to the set up... Would be nice to have some goldfish or Blue Eyes in there & the system cycling to start up the nitrogen cycle but I fear I may be dreaming...
The totes are still in the same place in the yard, one of which has the Strawberry Wall tied to it while the stairs get painted... I need to purchase some special security "bits" to undo some of the screws so we can start to cut them up...

What's on our plates...
The first 3 pumpkins were picked on the weekend... We have been trying to cure them the past few days but sun doesn't want to cooperate unfortunately...
 Aside from the herbs & Shallots, we have started to harvest the Snow peas, Lettuce, Kohlrabi & the Broccoli as well as having an Eggplant for the table every other day so we are very happy... There are a few Beetroot's that will be picked for a Friday roast if they are lucky... The remaining Cauli's Are starting to form tiny heads & we are about a week out from our first meal of Silverbeet...


Well, the last ½ of this week has been flat out so so didn't manage to do much other than get the stairs ready for painting, doing the top coat around the Strawberry wall then host have a family get together today...
Shall hopefully be more entertaining & insightful later in the week...
Have a great one all....
: )»