The Early Autumn Update

Well It's been an interesting Summer, the heat is still hear turned into humidity down in Ballarat but we are starting to get the cold mornings and evenings so Autumn weather is certainly here to stay.

This year I got a absolutely massive crop of plums but due to the fact I lost the crop each year to the birds, and it's literally overnight I picked the lot early hoping that they would ripen. I had about 20 kilos of plums and they didn't ripen so Ivé certainly learnt a valuable lesson there. The other plum tree I was able to pick early and all went well although there were only about 10 plums of that bush, anyway a lesson learned.

I have been getting a good crop of gold nugget pumpkins although they are so little deseeding them and peeling them is tedious!

The yellow zucchinis are ripening nicely they don't seem as prolific as the traditional green ones. Strawberries are coming along nicely, carrots good, although with both these things it is so hard to determine how much they produce as I have 3 children constantly raiding the vegie beds! Still it's better than eating processed food.

I don't think the cucumbers will ever produce fruit unsure why I think though the soil in that new bed is not quiet good enough yet, needs more manure added. I have recently been sent 10 large 30 kg bags of cow manure at $3.50 per bag, I am going to save so much as normally I buy about 10 kg's at $7.00 from Bunnings, although moving 300 kgs of manure was not that much fun!

Silverbeet is going rampant and it's a big shame no one likes it here!! It was more grown for the chooks and they love it so get fed it regularly.

Had some really bad luck with some plants as one of the chickens escaped into the vegie garden and was pretty much in there for hours. She ate most of the lettuces although some of the purple coloured ones seem a bit more hardy. They also got to the radishes, all the spring onions, Japanese turnips and the rocket and the rhubarb. Also the celery is going well, I tend to break that off and feed to the rabbits, they love it.

The next plans for the garden are to break up the taller beds and half the height size and by doing that I will be able to add 2 new beds so I will have 5 large beds in the vegie garden, the horse water trough bed and a smaller long pot bed.

Also managed to find a male Kiwi fruit plant and I brought some trellis and planted that with the female, it's in the area the chook range free though so Ivé had to fence it a bit.

Have started to move the vegie beds since first started this posted, very heavy work and one spot I wanted to put a bed gets virtually no sun so rethought that placing and have placed it in a more suitable position.

I love Autumn, there's so much potential for the garden now the heat is lessening and we can actually miss a day here and there of watering, all that water Victoria recently received has topped up the tank to a fantastic level.

The New Puppies

Although this is completely not a self sustainable topic, I cannot skip by talking about my 2 new puppies Brahma and Phoenix, I believe they will both add, enrich and possibly change my life so I feel they are important to include.

Earlier this year in fact of New Years day I was unfortunate enough to lose my 7th baby. I have 3 young boys for which I am eternally grateful for and made the decision that this would be it, no more children. My youngest started Kinder this year and whilst I could certainly put my energies into the garden and my work (Remedial Massage Therapist) I felt I needed something more. My oldest dog Benson is no longer able to walk great distances anymore so I decided to buy another dog and a pound one at that. Unfortunately everyone I enquired about I was not able to even look at due to having young children, rabbits and chickens and I repeatedly told to look at getting a puppy, preferably an 8 week old one.

In pretty much the same week I found Phoenix, a chocolate Border Collie and then Brahma a liver nosed Rhodesian Ridgeback, the story behind Brahma is pretty amazing, I went onto an Internet dog site to look up breeders for a Ridgeback as I have always been interested in getting one and upon searching found the only 2 breeders that had just had pups in Victoria, one was a familiar name.

It was Sally my childhood and very best friend when I was 14! I was amazed and immediately contacted her, and through many conversations and e-mails I eventually went up there and brought Brahma. He is a Liver nosed Ridgeback and was apparently pick of the litter so as an agreement as Sally gave me a huge discount on him we have decided to keep him entire until Sally decides whether she would like to breed and show with him, int he meantime I will teach him obedience basic and possibly go on to do agility or endurance work with him. His Pedigree name is actually "It was fate"!

The story behind Phoenix is an interesting one also as I actually used to work with the breeder that bred him she worked for the Shire I once worked with for 10 years, she was there on a temporary position for 6 months. This is 200 kms away from where I live now by the way! So all very bizarre!

When thinking of a name for Phoenix I really wanted an angel name, or something spiritually significant. I meditated on it and choose a card from my angel card pack and this name Phoenix came up and here is the meaning;

According to the most popular variant of the phoenix, the bird lives in Arabia for 500 years at the end of which, it burns itself and its nest. In the version of the phoenix described by Clement, an ante-Nicene (basically, before Constantine legalized Christianity in the Roman Empire) Christian theologian, the phoenix' nest is made of frankincense, myrrh and spices. A new phoenix always rises from the ashes.

I thought this was fitting as this dog would symbolise a totally new path in my life and moving on from my whole raising babies one.

So far the pups are fitting in nicely although at times they fight they seem to be settling into a nice friendly pattern with each other, they both highly intelligent a complete change for me after owning a Golden Retriever!

The plan is for my eldest son to take the collie and for myself to train the Ridgeback at obedience club for 1 year before moving onto to our specialised fields. I am really looking forward to having something in common with Jordan and to sharing this special time together.

The Edible Garden

Well things have been growing like mad in the veggie patch! The Pumpkin gone off and is huge, starting to get tiny little pumpkins on it! We have been eating carrots from the patch, and the lettuce seedlings we planted is doing quiet well too. I have finally been able to locate a male kiwi fruit and brought a trellis for the vines to grow up so it doesn't pull on the chicken wire.

I also brought another Fejoa that is more of a bush than a grafted plant as my other one is. Ivé not heard of a Jostaberry pronounced Yostaberry but brought one at Bunnings last week as apparently they love the fronty Winters so I thought perfect for Ballarat! It's a X between a blackcurrent and gooseberry, should be tasty in Jordan's famous Blueberry muffins!

Something is attacking the Japanese Turnip leaves, radishes and rocket it looks to be something eating the leaves so I made up a garlic/detergent spray and have been applying regularly.

Didn't quiet make the window for moon gardening for planting all my leafy veggies, I did put in more lettuces but wanted to plant some endive too and some dandelion, oh well not to long to wait until the next best dates by the moon garden calender, although I will have to wait until February.

Have had to water all the veggies pretty much every day and when we go away camping or for the night I always hope it will rain so I don't lose anything!

I am actually going to sow a crop of Dandelions sounds silly but the leaves are actually very nutricious and the bunnies love them but I would like to add some to our salads and I don't want to risk getting wild inorganic ones. Here's some medicinal info on it;
Diuretic, tonic and slightly aperient. It is a general stimulant to the system, but especially to the urinary organs, and is chiefly used in kidney and liver disorders.

Dandelion is not only official but is used in many patent medicines. Not being poisonous, quite big doses of its preparations may be taken. Its beneficial action is best obtained when combined with other agents.

Have a gorgeous self seeded Sunflower with multiple heads in the garden too, it's just lovely and I should get loads of seeds of it, so nutricious for the chooks!

Update on the pets

Well after loosing Remy our adorable blue mini lop we have replaced her or rather brought another baby pet for Sian to cuddle up to and she is a Dwarf lop like Pepa our older rabbit. So she will grow quiet a bit bigger than Sian but hopefully won't take over the hutch and become to dominant.

We are also in the process of buying a new puppy. I have gone beyond all the things I said I would do this time around for the next dog, I wanted a dog that would be very large, protect me while out walking late, have a short coat, and I didn't want a puppy to go through all that destroyed garden and shoes!

Ivé just brought and pick up next week a Border Collie Puppy (chocolate) who is 8 weeks old with a medium to long coat! Basically we looked high and low through all the shelters in Victoria for a dog that met our criteria but because I have the chickens and the bunnies it was quiet hard to find one that didn't have a prey drive.

This dog may want to round up the chooks but hopefully can be trained easily, the parents of the dog was lovely and we have named the little fella Phoenix, which has a special meaning for myself.

On the chook front I have sold all 7 babies and we decided to keep 2 although it's looking quiet likely that one will be a cockeral and not much good for egg production! We sold all the chicks to friends which is nice for $5 per chook as we now know they will have a good home.

The Veggie Garden

I thought I would write up what I have planted this year and what seems to be going well.

I have in the western most bed 2 very large pumpkin plants and a gold zucchini plant that are doing really well, Ivé just added all the rabbit mulch (the rabbit poo and straw) to that bed as a mulch to give it and added boost. I also put a row of corn behind and in front of the plants but I grew this from seed and the seedlings are tiny so time will tell if they do ok this season.

In the next bed I have planted rocket, Japanese Turnip and radish from seed and they are doing really well, probably ready to be pricked out to create some space and there are also lettuce and carrots in there.

The next bed has some lettuce and silver beet, carrots and more lettuce that is nearly at the end of it's time and I am mostly just using it for the bunnies feed now.

In the old horse trough Ivé planted celery and lettuce and they are doing ok but we did lose some seedling as it was so hot so I should add some more lettuce in there next time it's right to plant leafy veggie which is in the new moon to first quarter cycle starting on the 15th January.

I have 3 Styrofoam containers of strawberries that are doing really well leaf wise but some of the fruit looks a little odd not sure what is happening there. The bed to the front of the chicken shed has a blueberry bush in there, elderberry bush and some lettuce along with oregano, and planters above it of cress, coriander and white mustard.

I have 2 small wine barrels from Bunnings with tomatoes in them and I am getting loads of tomatoes I also have sweet basil for the companion side of gardening as it grows so well with tomato.

I have some lettuces in with my Pineapple Guava tree and they are doing brilliantly I think because they are getting more shade than the other lettuces and that seems to be really important with this severe heat we are getting at the moment. It's funny 20 years ago veggies had to have the mandatory 5-8 hours of Sun and now with the climate all messed up we are having to provide shade for them.

Then in the flower beds I have some nasturtians doing well which I must add to some salads and about 6 zucchini plants some doing well others a bit slow.

From the 15 to the 23 of January it is the new moon to first quarter and it's time to plant fruit crops, beans, flower annuals, lettuce, spinach brassica's and if your wanting to increase the growth mow the lawns now.

The Pottage Garden

A traditional pottage garden was done to save space years ago when land owners didn't have the space for a sectioned off area for fruit trees and veggie gardens. These days blocks are getting smaller with some blacks on new estates being only
350m2 in size! So it can make sense to go back to gardening in this way.

I am living on 3 1/4's of an acre so while pottaging isn't really necessary I did find myself in the position of running out of space for my zucchini plants I had grown from seed.

I have some photo's here of the zucchinis planted in with a flower bed I have near my clothesline. I have also planted a Fejoa (Pineapple Guava) up in a cement look alike wine barrel and added some lettuce seedlings to that and dotted through the entire garden we Nasturtian plants, I like to eat the leaves and keep the plants for medicinal reasons the leaves are potent antibiotics and they will also be very beneficial for the bunnies and chickens too.

On a sadder not a few days ago we lost our beloved Remy our little baby blue mini lop rabbit - RIP sweet girl.

The Fruit Trees

Well this year has been a good one for fruit for us although I did have more Apricots on last years trees but they say they put one year into growing and the next into fruiting. So one hasn't got any fruit and we harvested about 20 Apricots from the older tree.

There is nothing like the taste of home grown fruit and nothing more that I enjoy than picking the fruit from our paddock before the birds get a chance to eat the lot!

We didn't put nets up this year the trees are starting to get too big and it's such a huge job with so may trees. I think I managed to get the lot with only 1 Apricot that had been slightly pecked at but the plum tree with be the tricky one as some years we watch patiently as the fruit ripens and takes on that purple hue only to come out the next day and the entire tree has been picked clean!

Anyway I have two full tree of plums this year and they should be ready sometime in February, two gala apple trees that are just about touching the ground they are so heavy with fruit. A sad nectarine that is recovering from a previous years bout of leaf curl and another that has a good 30 nectarines on it. Haven't seen any pears on the pear tree as yet, and the fig is way too small for fruit yet.
Posted by Sue at 3:47 AM 0 comments