A Garden update.. the Autumn edition.

On the evening of 20 April Lake Macquarie and other parts of the east coast suffered some significant storms.  The high winds and torrential rain lasted for 3 days.  A lot of trees came down, a lot of property was damaged and a couple of people lost their lives.  I got off lightly.  The power was out for 36 hours and the phone ....  a whole lot longer, about 6 days!!! As a result there was a lot of damage in my veggie patch.  Some root veggies like carrots survived unscathed, but others, like ginger and garlic were awash.  I'm not sure if they will survive and prosper, only time will tell.  Above ground crops were badly affected.  All the corn was lost, an entire bed of it. Although it was planted late in the season and may not have been overly productive anyway.  I thought the broccoli was a goner, but it seems to have survived and the first heads are ready for harvest.  The silverbeet was lost, the spring onions flattened and the peas and beans and all their climbing framework was lost.

After the winds abated and the lawn began to dry out I cleaned out beds 1,3,6,7,9 and 10 and replanted with new seedlings.  20 silver beet, 4 mini cabbage, 8 brocollini, 8 cauliflower, 2 rhubarb, spring onions and a mix of different varieties of peas and beans.  There are still 4 beds unresolved.  Today the sun is out and bed number 11 is getting a makeover.  The basil in it was flattened, but has much young edible leaf.  It will have to go though and then the bed will be built up with a bag of moo poo, and a handful of troforte M, Searles 5 in 1, dynamic lifter, blood and bone and some lime for good measure.  I try to feed the soil, not the plant and it has worked for me so far... but I might be doing it very wrong.

I'm not sure what I might plant in bed 11.  Possibly more beans but it will be dependant on how the rest of the veggies are coming along and what is in stock at the nursery.  The yard needs a lot of work, there are two mid sized trees right down the back, both are harbouring dead limbs.  One assaulted me as I tried to remove it.... one is far to big for me to attempt.  Both might get a visit from Mr Nextdoors chainsaw later today if I see him!!!

Last Autumn white moth decimated my broccoli crop.  So I visited my local hardware and built a  frame of PVC covered curtain rods and plastic corner pieces that allowed me to drape mosquito netting over the frame and effectively exclude the moth.   This works well but the framing cost nearly $40.  A few weeks ago I saw flexible pvc coated metal rods that were 180cm long.  I bought 3 at the enormous amount of $2.80 each and they work in the same way.  They are only suitable for lower growing crops like cauliflower and cabbage, but work well to exclude the moth and uses less drapery in the process!  Still looking for the ideal solution, but I am moth free this season!

As usual, photos follow.

This is the set up with the 180cm bendy poles and mossie net.  Underneath is 4 drumhead cabbage and 8 broccolini I think the broccolini might grow too tall.

As the sign says!

Wish I could get more of these markers, they will last forever and are pretty groovy!

Snow peas, not my favourites, but I couldn't get any sugar snap ones. I usually plant peas and beans from seed, but after the storm took everything I used seedlings to speed up the process.

This time I used carrot tape as my last 3 attempts all failed. 

Pilchy, on guard duty!

Light Sussex or Welsummers? Choosing chooks!

Well I took one step closer to self sufficiently sunday morning.  I bought a chicken coop!  I hadn't planned to buy a coop although I have been tossing up whether to just continue to buy eggs at the fruito or go all out and "grow my own".   I hadn't made a firm decision but was wavering towards the fruito option!!   This indecision has been about 12 months in the making, with me going backwards and forwards between being a producer or just being a consumer.  Whilst I saw the benefits as far as recycling vegetable scraps and bug control in the veggie patch goes, I just couldn't see myself being a chook wrangler!  

I've never had chooks before,  never touched a chook and whilst I don't endure the same bird fear my sister has, I'm just not fussed on them.  I'm not a big consumer of eggy deggs either .  The Old Cheese on the other hand IS a big egg consumer but she too has lead a chook free lifestyle for her 84 years.  Then a couple of mates stuck their two bobs worth in and both commented on how good it would be to have a few chookies in the yard,  espousing the benefits of the feathered egg producer.  I was still hesitant but when I found a super cheap coop for sale locally I was hooked.

So with coop selected and collected the big question is what breed of chookie to keep.  The coop will hold 4 in comfort, but I was only planning to have 2 chooks.  The dude I bought the coop off suggested Isa Browns. Said they lay every day.   I like the look of the Light Sussex and the Welsummer has been suggested as a good producer of large brown eggs.  2 chooks should give me 10-14 eggs a week thru the warmer months and less thru winter.  That is PLENTY for myself and the Old Cheese.  Sister will reap the excess.  I had not realised how many breeds there were until I surfed the net last night  and found page after page of chookies to choose from!  All have their pros and cons and some are definitely prettier than others!  But how do I decide?   And WHERE does one obtain a pair of chookies???

I'm getting my head around the lingo "Point of Lay", "Pullets" and "Coccidiosis".  I know I need to buy at about 18-20 weeks to ensure they are layers and I need to buy from someone reputable so they come to me wormed and vaccinated.   But I still have no idea where that person or place is!   Apparently different breeds have different attributes.  So many things to consider... broodiness, aggressiveness, frequency or laying, hard feather, soft feather, egg size and colour.  I have read how some breeds will tear apart your veggie patch and that the last thing I want!    Who would have thought choosing a chook would be such a minefield!!!

The breed names bear little or no resemblance to any of their attributes.   The Silver Laced Wyandotte is a very pretty bird, but maybe a bit showy, but its name gives me no idea about its temperament or attributes!    I do like the look of the Light Sussex and the Welsummer, but the Isa Brown is "reliable" said the seller of the coop.  I could also consider the black Australorp and the New Hampshire.  The Frizzle and Silkies are out though.  They are all show and no go! It would make my decision much easier if their breed names reflected their egg producing potential!

I haven't even considered the equipment needed to feed and water them.  Do they get leg bands? How do I fox proof the yard and poor Old Pilchy the cat. I know he is scared of them! One came in the yard once and the old boy was quivering in his flea collar.

I wonder if there is a chicken chooser app somewhere that could help me with this all important decision.   All suggestions gratefully received!

And here it is, the coop,  a little slice of chookie heaven in my backyard!

I'm no Costa Georgiadis or even Jerry Coleby-Williams

I'm no Costa Georgiadis or even Jerry Coleby-Williams.  I'm not even close to being a Jane Edmanson or a Sophie Thomson. Nor even a Pip Courtney,  but I do love to tinker in the veggie patch.  What started a few years ago with one 1200x900x300mm raised bed has become a bit of an obsession with 6 beds full to bursting with the freshest of veggies imaginable!   In the height of summer I have so much produce I give it away to family, neighbours and friends.  Now in the thick of winter I struggle to get enough out of it at all.  But that's not a bad thing. Winter is when I replenish the soil and build up the worm population.

I am trialling a 6 bed rotation system this year.  No two crops from the same family in a row.  Alternating root crops with leaf crops season by season yet still attempting to adhere to the principals of companion planting.  I don't use any insecticides or pestacides. I do make my own compost and I do use a mix of crushed up fish guts and seaweed as a deterrent to the white cabbage moth, but otherwise I hand pick pests off leaves and hope for good rainfall, sunny days and strong growth.  Season dependant I use chillies and marigolds to discourage bugs.  Fortunately the local possum population is not fond of broccoli or radish, so they leave me alone.

I've done a little experimenting too this season.  I planted spring onion seeds into a mini greenhouse and let them establish.  I transferred  them into a bed after a few weeks.   That same day they were planted I directly sewed seeds from the same packet into another bed and 10 weeks on the direct sewn spring onions are thriving.  The greenhouse crop, whilst older, is far less advanced.  Whooda thunkit!  So for spring onions at least I will buy seeds now, not punnets. Seeds are HEAPS cheaper and are always on hand so  I can zip out and plant a few rows instead of driving to the nursery and grabbing a punnet THEN planting!  Over time I will test that theory further with other veggies too.  

So with my 6 beds full or replenishing before a spring crop I needed to either buy more beds and get another truckload of soil delivered  OR acquire more space by other methods.  I'd like to increase the variety of plants I grow and so some extra beds are essential. The backyard here is massive, but massively overgrown.  It is just your classic quarter acre block, but I have left one area wild for native birds and animals.  Side beds are overgrown and have poor soil with neighbouring trees sucking the life blood out of them and being a mass of twisted tree roots.  The large lawn section is where I have placed the 6 beds I already have, but that still leaves me with masses of lawn to mow and realistically I could put another 6 beds in........  but then it wouldn't really look much like a backyard anymore!!  So in my quest for more space  I have acquired the use of a long narrow disused veggie bed that is divided into four smaller spaces at my sister home, just up the road.

That bed is in really poor condition!  Some worms, but a tangled mat of roots in the soil that will take me some time to clean out and build up.  I tackled one part of it yesterday and got it cleaned out and I planted spring onions to get something in!   Then I bought some blood and bone and lucern mulch.  Today I spent a couple of hours digging out what weeds and roots I could then treated the whole bed with blood and bone.  I covered two beds with lucern mulch and gave it all a good water.  I then planted garlic in the corner of the spring onion bed and tomatoes and capsicum in the far end of the bed.  The one remaining plant from last year is a rhubarb so it got a hit of blood and bone and a good water too.  It may well flourish again.

So what is a blog without images.  Heres some of the garden...... or should I say gardens!!!