Front Yard Veggie Patch. Feeding the wicking beds & a small harvest.

It's mid Winter here in the patch so last weekend I knocked over a few jobs that needed doing before the weather starts to warm up.
The asparagus plants got a good trim & the beds were feed some home made compost & aged horse manure. Also planted out a few extra broccoli to see if we can squeeze in another crop before summer.




This weekend it will be a few beds out the back that get the same treatment. Also have some ginger & turmeric to harvest so am looking forward to that.
Cheers all.

Finishing off the front veggie patch & home made compost..

& now there are 6...
As mentioned in the last blog I have been rather busy over the past few weeks trying to get the front garden beds up & running.. Added another 2 beds over the weekend just past to bring the total number of beds up to 6..

The last 2 beds will be made up in a few weeks time after we pick up a couple of ½ tanks that have been offered to us (Thank you sir).. Once they are all in Bianca & I will decide on what sort of cladding will be added to them to finish them off..
I have decided to keep using the wicking beds in the front yard after seeing how invasive the onion weed has been in the hay bale & lasagne style beds.. Not sure we will use IBC or tin style beds in the lawn as of yet & still have some tin put aside if we want to go down that road.. The compact dimensions of the IBCs would suit the slope of the land better but the tin beds wouldn't need to be clad so it will be something we think about later..

Wicking IBC beds...
Have been using the IBCs as wicking beds for a while now & have come up with a few modifications on the way they are being put together so they can store water in the reservoir..

Will be interesting to see how they go over summer once it kicks off.. I have a feeling that the corn in particular will be very appreciative of having the extra water available to it..

Harvesting the compost...
We have had 2 "slow cooking" piles of compost going in the patch now for close to 8 months.. As I ran out of horse manure on the weekend I decided to raid these piles to help add some organic matter to the new beds.. One pile was actually supposed to be a "Back to Eden" style wood mulch that just "cooked" a tad too much..

Must say that was very pleased with the way both batches had broken down & have already used over ½ of the composted timber pile.. There is a fair amount of the clipping compost left & think that most of that will be used in the last 2 IBC beds planed for the front yard..

Super fast manure mulching...

As you may have guessed by now I love using horse manure in the gardens & as an edible bedding for the compost worms.. The manure we normally get has been sitting in a pile for a few weeks before it is bagged up so is semi composted & normally very moist.. My local supplier was out of his finest pony poop when I stopped in on Saturday but I was lucky enough to get a few bags the next day from local farm gate.. Some of these pellets had been "sun baking" for a bit becoming rather hard to push through the screen so the big guns were brought out to process it : )»

Have tried the lawn mower method before with the moist manure but it just didn't want to cooperate by clumping up & stalling the mower.. Am thinking that I might be sun drying the moist manure for a few days in the future then running over it with the mower.. Will also save the gloves from extra wear & tear methinks...

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Looking at playing around with a chook feeder this week so shall do a quick post on that once it's built..
There is also our Bits Out the Back Facebook page that we post mini updates on the worms, fish & veggie patch if you feel like a visit..

Have a great one all..

: )»

Catch up Time.. Aquaponics, Chooks & a wander through the veggie patch..

Has been a while since I ventured over here to blog land so thought I would do a bit of a catch up post..Think we shall start with he Fish..

Aquaponics...
I did a "What is Aquaponics" style clip a few weeks ago to help a friend explain aquaponics to her family members.. Not a real in depth one but it will gives a rough idea on how the system works including the relationship between the fish, bacteria & plants.. It also shows a bit of the growth in the system if your interested on how it's looking at the moment..

Not much has happened with the aquaponics of late which is a good thing on one hand but frustrating on the other... The fish are all well & happy (so they tell me) with the growth in the beds travelling along fine.. The celery is still being picked every couple of days & the strawberries have been fruiting well..

Harvested our first aquaponic pepino last weekend which was great.. There are a load on there with a few easily 50% larger than the fruit above :D
Really hoping to get the grow beds sorted out into their new positions by the start of spring.. First a wicking bed needs to be pulled down & the ground levelled to make room for them.. The new configuration should free up some space to try out a few new ways to grow plants with the system..

Hanging with the Chooks...
The chooks are at the top of their game at the moment.. Greedy decided to moult at the start of winter, which was a bit of a concern to us, but grew back back a fine set of feathers just in time for the few cool nights we have had this winter.. Have started to make up 2-3 lots of sprouted wheat a week for the girls.. I think they now recognise the sprouting jar as there is much flapping & excitement when we go wandering down to the pen with it.. Have also had a go at growing them some wheat sprouts as a fodder crop in the aquaponics but have shelved that idea for a little while :)

Hope to make a start on the modified feeder & shall do a bit of a report on that once it is done for those interested..


Wandering the patch...
Have got stuck into a few jobs around the place of late getting the patch ready for the warm season crops.. There are some tomato, eggplant & capsicum seedlings that have just started to germinate which is a great sight to see..
 

Some water chestnuts have also made it into some small 100mm pots to give them a bit of a head start before going into the sedge bathtub bed that will be set up near the aquaponics..

 The yacon are starting to throw up shoots  & I think we will have more than enough for our purposes this year.. Have quite a few earmarked for other people & have already given a fair few away.. 

Made a decent start in setting up the new front yard garden beds as well.. There are now 4 IBC wicking beds along the front retaining wall with another 4 going in over the coming weeks.. The first 2 beds have the asparagus in them with some heirloom corn planed for at least one of the other beds..  Hope to do a post on them by themselves once they are in & growing :)

Garden walk around clips..
Have a couple of clips on what's happening in the patch at the moment... The first is of the front yard last week before the new beds went in..

The pigeon pea still haven't been harvested but when they have I shall post about our attempt at making humus with them...Should be interesting methinks..


The second clip is of the backyard patch with a bit of a quick look at the 2 new pineapple flowers that have just started to form :)

Hope to make a proper start to the insect house extension soon as well (looks at list of jobbies).. After last seasons success with keeping the fruit fly out I think we might finally get a chance at growing some decent tomatoes & capsicums :) 

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Well that brings us roughly up to date... Shall post some project updates over the next few days to bring the blog up to speed all proper like ;)
Hope all are well & happy out there & have been having fun in the garden..
Cheers,
Rob..

Veggie garden walk through.. Pineapple, turmeric, okra, nematodes & chooks...

Have been meaning to do a clip for the past week but just haven't gotten around to it... Today was a sick day for the girls (dreaded cold/flu has set in here) so I went for a wander with an umbrella..

Root Knot Nematodes..

Here is a bit of a look at what root knot nematodes did to the beetroot that were grown in the barrel before the okra was planted out in there.. These nematodes set up home in the roots of your plants reducing plant vigour & in some extreme cases, suck that much nutriment out of the plant that they can die.. We have had a bit of a problem  in a few beds but think that we have them on the run with the molasses mix..
Molasses mix for root knot nematode..
1L/1quart of molasses
4L/4quart of water
Mix well together & water into 2m²/2yrd² of infected garden bed.. Once this mix was applied to the barrel the warrigal greens bounced back surprisingly quickly.. I was extremely impressed to say the least..
Hope that helps anyone else trying to battle these tiny pests..

Hopefully there will be more in the next walk through clip in the way of winter plant starts
For more regular updates about the patch come visit on the Bits out the Back Face Book page..
Have a great one All...

Vegetable garden update clip 4th Feb 2013

A bit of a catch up on how the patch is going now we are coming to the end of summer.. Many of the plants are doing well but we are still having  few issues with nematodes & grasshopper attacks in the patch..
While cleaning out a few beds I found one that was extremely hydrophobic..  Below is a link that explains what hydrophobic soils are..
http://geography.swansea.ac.uk/hydrophobicity/soil_hydrophobicity.htm
Was an easy fix that involved a bag of composted horse manure & a garden fork with the rain well & truly re hydrating the soil mix in the bed..

Hope to finish cleaning out the beds tomorrow & sowing some seeds later on in the day..


For more regular updates on the patch come visit us at http://www.facebook.com/Bitsouttheback

Hope all are well & happy..
Have a great one..
: )»

End of October Update, Seedlings & spice..

Well we have just finished a 2 week holiday of sorts with Bianca having a few weeks off.. I feel like we got a load done around the house as well as the patch..

Aquaponics..
Well, WE GOT POWER!!!
**does a little happy dance**
The day after the last blog we got power connected to a post in the aquaponic area..This has made the whole yard a lot tidier with less cords & hoses laid out everywhere..

No longer do I have to connect 2 together to water the beds behind the chook house & blueberry in the back corner.. The hose can also reach the mulberry tree up at the side of the house..

Another jobbie that has been sorted is the backup air pump for the aquaponics for when/if the power fails..

This has given us some peice of mind but would still like to refine it further if I can scrounge some parts.. To start with, a solar charger for the battery would be great.. Would also like to try to run the 12v pump via a inverter & UPS set up but that is still being researched..

Had a bit of a scare with nutriment readings from the system this week.. The pH has dropped to 5.6, ammonia is steady at 0.5ppm with nitrites trace... The big shock was the nitrates that have spiked to above 80ppm (hard to tell for sure as I have lost the card that goes with the kit).. A few of the plants had started to yellow off a bit so I dosed the system up with some iron & upped the feed for a few days but I think it may be the acid conditions causing the yellowing off.. I posted an enquiry on my Backyard aquaponic forum thread & have been told it's not as bad as I thought but should be addressed ASAP... Slacked lime (also known as hydrated lime, brickies lime, Calcium hydroxide) was also suggested as a quick way to bring it up & an option I was considering, Thanks RupertofOZ.. I  decided to add some shell grit to buffer/raise the pH as we already had a bag under the house that we use to supplement the chooks diet.. My mistake there was to tie a insect exclusion bag to the water inflow tap on a grow bed so the water could flow directly over the grit..

After some fish solids had collected it made the bag less water permeable & the bag swelled up over the side of the bed under the pressure..

The water had to go somewhere so it  started to  overflow down into a tray of pepino cuttings underneath.. At least all was not waisted &I think they all loved a good drink of fishy water..

I decided that having the water flow through the bags wasn't necessary so just tied them off & placed them in the clay directly under the taps..

I think we lost ½ the sump, about 300L, over night so that shall be replaced on Friday.. I will hold off adjusting with slacked lime until the system is topped up just to see if the the fresh water (which I know is alkaline here) will help raise the pH..



Community gardens...
Have been visiting the local community garden as much as we can on the weekends.. I am really loving the social aspect as well as learning about different plants, skills sets & ideas others have to share.. Just to give you some idea of what the garden looks like I have done a small walk around clip...

 Hopefully a full clip behind the ideas of the garden & the future plans will be made in the near future..
Last week we were lucky enough to have a tall raised garden bed donated & installed by the local Bunnings store..

It was great that not only did they supply the bed, help to assemble it but also provided the gravel, soil, mulch & plants needed to get it all up & growing..

I think these raised beds are a great idea especially in a community garden.. Members of the community that have back & other mobility issues will now have somewhere where they can comfortably garden & help out.. If we could get a few more of these beds set up we may be able to encourage a few more people to participate in the garden & maybe decide to have a go at growing their own food at home..

Turmeric..
Thought we may have lost the turmeric that we left in the ground over winter so we planted out a few more corms..

We didn't need to worry it appears as the plants in the IBC beds have all survived & sent up new shoots..

Seeds & seedlings...
16th October (missed from last post)
1 row Bulls Blood Beetroot (BOGI) into bed #1
1 row of Dragon Carrots (Eden Seeds) into bed #5..
18th October
7 Passion fruit Giant Granadilla (BOGI) into 2 pots
(These are the largest of the passion fruit family with fruit up to 40cm in length)
 2 lots of Mini Lee watermelon seeds (BOGI) into IBC Wicking beds near the AP & house..
22nd October
3 x red tomatillo seedlings into bed #1
3 x purple tomatillo seedlings into bed #2
24th October
Planted a few of the trees we got from the BOGI fair into larger post & installed Wetpots into them I did a little clip explaining what Wetpots are & how they are installed..

I think the plants will be very happy here over summer until we finish the design for the front yard where they will be planted out..

28th October
3 x turmeric corms into pots
9 x asparagus seedlings (THANKS Tammy) into 2 pots, added to Wetpot system
3 x Opal/Sweet basil mix into bed #2
1 x Thai Basil into spice bed behind aquaponics
1 x Yakon into wicking barrel at the end of bed #3
Potted up the following seedlings that had been sitting in the trays..
1 x Yellow 7 chilli
5 x Bih Jolokia chilli
5 x Jalapeno chilli
8 x Udumalapet eggplant

30th October
1 x Blueberry bush (BOGI Fair) into Wicking barrel..



That's about it for now... Will do a harvest update for the past month when I can scrounge some time..
Have a great one all..

: )»

Wicking Beds & Barrels for a water wise garden..

As it is getting nearer to spring I thought I would post some Wicking clips for anyone interested in making up some new beds.. There will be more posted in the future as I haven't filmed a complete clip while making a full size bed, only the barrels..

The whole idea behind the wicking system comes from a gentleman by the name of  Colin Austin...
http://waterright.com.au/wicking-bed-history.html
I came across it while we were in the tail end of a drought here in South East Queensland here in Australia & though it was one of the best ways to go to save water in a fairly large back yard veggie patch..
Wicking Barrels MK II..

The above clip is how we now make the Wicking barrels... They are a big improvement on the original design as the water holding capacity of the reservoir has doubled... As the existing barrels finish their crops they are slowly being swapped over to this design...

Wicking Beds...

I have ever only made clips after the fact with the beds so made up a bit of a sideshow clip to show how we made one of the earlier Wicking beds...

Wicking Bathtub...

This was a relative easy build with a free bath we collected from a member of a  local Free Cycle Group..  I must say the plants we had in there were probably a bit too large for the small reservoir in the bath...I think plants like small cropping herbs, leafy greens would probably do better than 5 foot tall lemongrass... Lesson learnt..

Wicking up IBC's (Intermediate bulk containers)...
These guys are a really easy build that could easily be done in a few hours if you were more organised than I...

That's about it for now...
Have a great one all...
: )»

Walk about the back...

Just a quick walk around clip to show where we are up to...

 Will be spending the week planing the start of the spring patch lay out & setting up some new beds...
What Spring plans do you have ??
Have a great one...
: )»

Srring time preps...

Bits from the patch...

We have had a great crop of Broccoli & Cauliflower this year especially in the little "white house" with only one incursion by a lone white butterfly.. I actually think it may of emerged from a chrysalis in there as we found no evidence of grubs after finding it..  We have planted out 3 lots of broccoli & caulie's with a forth batch ready to plant out now.. Shall be holding off a week or so until we the current lot of broccoli side shoots have been all picked then the bed needs a good turn & feed before the next batch goes in..

Looks like we will have a bumper crop of the Roi De Carouby snow peas this year.. We did have a small hiccup with all our saved snow peas being mixed which resulted in a crop of both the RDC & mammoth melting that were saved last year... From what I can tell even though they were planted together there is very little chance of cross fertilisation due to the way the flowers then pods form on a pea plant.. We will be planting some to make sure that they are going to grow true to type before offering them to others though..
 The honey pod & sugar snap peas have also done really well so far.. The plants starting to pump out enough pods for a meals worth every second day if the girls don't get to them first.. They have become a bit of a lunch time hit being eaten with a selection of nuts & seeds with a small handful of dried cranberries..

Spring is near, time to get busy...
Even though the summer heat appeals to the lizard in me I really must admit to looking forward to the winter cold & the crops it allows us to grow here in South East Queensland.. We are also lucky

enough to be able to grow some crops through the mild winters like sweet potato, as well as having fruit form on the tomatoes & eggplants.. Another surprise to me so far this year have been the galangal with all putting out new shoots this winter event hough the ginger & turmeric have both had a bit of die back due to the cold..







Started to sort out the bathtubs for the spring & summer crops so needed to harvest the lemongrass from the tub up the side of the house... The plant was divided & 3 were planted into a re worked wicking barrel & 8 small shoots were potted out.. To get soil for them I needed to raid the water chestnut tub where I got a bit of a surprise as some had started to shoot already..

I have a feeling that I may have planted out the water chestnuts & lemongrass it a bit to early as we have had a few nights at or bellow 0°C here... They are not looking the best at all..

Worm Bathtub farm..

Have made up a bathtub worm farm over the past week.. The stand is made from some old metal chair frames that were reborn into the Aquaponic barrel system frame & have been reincarnated once again to hold up the tub... The red side rails are from an old discarded bed frame & the bath was the old water chestnut bed.. The drainage rocks cost $7 & the weed cloth was under $2 so was a really cheap build..

Sort of forced myself to do it as I have harvested all the worms from the blue barrel farm so that can be turned into a Black Solider Fly Larvae (BSFL) farm... Once it's up & running I shall do a post on the farm & the BSFL themselves...


That's about it for now...Have a good one...
**wanders off to start worm harvesting**

: )»

IBC Wicking Beds for renters...

IBC Wicking Beds for renters...
We have some friends who are renting places with no garden space for veggies so it got me thinking how we could help them out... We came up with the idea of using the same food grade IBC containers we are using as Aquaponic beds & tanks as Wicking garden beds... By cutting them in ½ you can get 2 beds that are essentially large pots that you can grow quite a few Veggies & herbs in...

We were lucky enough to get 3 of them for $40 each... The only problem being that they contained "Liquid Boot A" which is a tar like concrete sealing compound that is used to seal concrete drinking water tanks, pipelines & concrete slabs for buildings... We could not remove the compound with a water blaster as it had dried to the tank so had to come up with another way to use them...  We decided on lining them with the 200um plastic to keep the soil from coming in contact with the residue in the IBC's... I think we could find others without the residue for under $100 which makes them cheaper than the colorbond alternatives you can purchase from hardware stores & suitable for renters who are not allowed to dig a garden for a veggie patch...
: )»

Catch up time...

Have been doing a few small bits & pieces around the patch since I last posted...

Wicking Bathtub...
An old bathtub came up for offer on Freecycle  a few weeks back so we grabbed it to try turning it into a Wicking Bed...

 I wanted to set the bed up as a Thai curry bed but as we have enough Chillies already for what we need a Capsicum was planted in there instead...

 Seeding & planting update...
The morning the Bathtub bed was made we went to the local markets & purchased,
2 x Thai Mint, 1x Giant Capsicum & a Calendula seedlings... They were fairly advanced & very healthy looking so a bargain for $4 all up (if memory serves me right)... 1 of the Basils along with the Capsicum went into the Bath along with the volunteer Lemongrass we had growing in a pot...

Last Sunday (16th Oct) Bianca & I potted up all the seedlings that were advanced enough into 10cm (4inch) pots to allow their roots to develop a bit more & for us to make space around the place or find new homes for the leftovers... We now have the below thriving quite happily in their new pots,
Eggplant, Long Thai Purple  x 6
Eggplant, Udumalapet x1
Eggplant, Rosa Bianca x 2
Tomato, Black Russian x 6
Tomato, Brandywine Pink x 6
Cucumber, Mini White x 3
Rockmelon, Minnesota Midget x3
 The remaining Mini white Cucumbers & Minnesota Midget Rockmelons (3 each) went into 2 different barrels with cadges on them.. The Cucumbers should vine up alright & it will be interesting to see how the Melons will go...
B☼ also planted another 4 Amish Paste Tomato Seeds as we are really enjoying the ones we have already eaten fresh & turned into sauces.. The plants in the lime beds just are not doing as well as they could so we are going to try them in a Wicking bed where they will have constant water & see how they go.. Just need to find the room now... 

Aquaponics...
Not a lot has been happening with the IBC system other than the occasional Yabbie shedding its exoskeleton &n an influx of Mozzie wrigglers.. Some of them were taken care of quickly today after we introduced about 30 Firetail Gudgeon feeder fish into the Sump Tank... The Yabbies were put in there a few weeks ago & the Goldies from the house were put into the Barrel system along with the Pacific Blue Eyes we had in the Barrel pond in the patch... The Barrel system has still only got a trace reading of Ammonia & no readings that I can see for Nitrite or Nitrates... The tank is being supplemented with Seasol as well as Chelated Iron while the pH is above 8 as high pH locks out Iron which can appear as a yellowing of the leaves like a nitrogen deficiency...
I have been collecting bits for the plumbing work & think most of what is need has been found as well as buying a 2500LPH back up pump that is running during the day at the moment... 
Did a bit of rearranging of the AP site today & will be trying to knock off the rest of the set up in the next few weeks...


Potato update...

We have had a few problems with a Spotted Potato Ladybug infestation in the Kipfler drum... They are on all of the plants but really hooked into the barrel plants.. We started to spray all the plants with Neem & these are the only specimens I could find today but from the 

shot on the Left you can see the difference between the 2 plants...
I think we may just harvest the Barrel this weekend if the plant dies back to much... The Kipflers on the right in the shot have been left alone for now so we will be keeping the Neem up to them until harvest time...




A little Carrot experiment....

Mmmmmm.... Well, I did try to save to poor little feller...
The results can be seen at the start of the clip below.. : (»

Garden Walk through...

Tried to cram in as much as I could but still miss a fair bit out... The Patch just keeps growing which I can't really complain about..

New project....
Here is a sneak peek of a new project we will be starting today or on the weekend...

Going to be fun, messy but Fun....

Have a great one all....
: )»