Showing posts with label Wicking Bucket. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wicking Bucket. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Catching up...

Have been a tad slack with the blog with all that's been going on so though it was about time to have a crack... 1st up, here is a post on our other blog with a few shots of our Wedding.... (click on "Wedding"..)
Now to the garden....

Gates...
The 2 side gates finally have been fixed.... Both are a temporary fix but should last for a few years... I think they were mentioned in a walk trough Clip last week...



Mushrooms...

The first flush of Swiss Brown Mushrooms have been harvested...We bought a kit from a local nursery, set it up about a month ago & forgot about it...  B☼ harvested just over ½ KG of fungus on Friday night... The top layer of peat has dried out a bit so it got a small watering & is being misted daily now but fear we may have neglected them for to long...



Out with the old...
A decision was made to remove old Goliath to help make room for the reception marquee so a new one was made out of bits of leftover play equipment... Not as big as the old one **Sigh** but will still hold 2 loads from our 7.5kg washer... It looks like we will be making a proper more permanent line in this style up the side of  the house...



Quick update clip...

When wicking beds go BAD !!!!
This is what was found in & under the plastic liner in Bed #5 when it was removed....


Harvests....
We have been getting heaps of fresh veg from the patch at the moment...
Left is what the Raspberries looked like before the wedding & the guests got to sample the fruit... Getting ready to cut it right back after the last 3 or fruit ripen... Right is the Swiss brown we picked on Friday....


Left is the huge Kohlrabi that has been used in 2 stews, last nights Chook & tonight Beef one... Right is a shot of Mangles in the patch... After reading a thread on Simple Savings we "thinned" some out last night & they tasted great in the stew... The leaves make a great Spinach substitute...
Have finally started to harvest some mature Carrots over the past week or so & must say, we are most Chuffed with the results... No bitter taste as some have told me their home grown ones have had... We will be making up some more Carrot seed tape tomorrow so another batch can go in...
The Beans, Snow & Sugar snap peas have all gone crazy... We are harvesting about 500g of each every 3 or so days... Think the Snow peas my be nearing their end but have plans for that bed so all is good...
Right... Tonight's Beef stew with Carrots, Beetroot, Kohlrabi, Beans, Snow & Sugar snap Peas from the patch.... Very Tasty!!!!!!


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

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

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!!!

: )»