Potato Planting

smwalker1970's photostream on Flickr.

Today we decided to plant our Potato's a different way and use the wire method. I saw this on Gardening Australia or possibly Better Homes & Gardens anyway its a fantastic way to save space and grow a crop of Potato's. I had my eldest child search the yard for 3 steel posts, I found the chicken wire - in the chook pen and I already had straw and potting mix, and Sheep manure. I had previously brought the seed potato's and there were 14 in the pack so I will be interested to see how many we get once harvested. Basically you build you Potato pen, lay some manure at the base then straw and then a bit of potting mix and manure, then your seed Potato's, then more potting mix and cover with straw. As your Potato's grow you keep up the layering and water as required. It took about 20 minutes to build I am super happy with the end result. :)

The 30 minute garden blitz

After saying in my last post that I have a lot of time I actually manage to fill it pretty well and although I would LOVE to spend an entire day gardening that rarely happens as I LOVE exercise too and have dogs to work kids to tend too and well I don't need to explain life to anyone we are all I the same boat! But the weather has been divine for Victorian Winter and I have been determined to get in 30 minutes of gardening the occasional morning and 30 minutes every night sometimes its right before dark but never the less I grab the opportunity and usually have a plan of what I want to achieve and its amazing what I can get weeded in that time. I have my garden tools out all over the yard for easy access although sometimes remembering where I have left them can be a bit tricky! A couple of days ago as soon as I exited the car before I went in side I managed to hoe little drains in the front beds then hoe the paths and rake the leaves off the path and it looked fantastic! I usually weed most afternoon 30 minute slots as I can try and get all the Vitamin D I can from the sun - its so rare in Ballarat Winters! I have included some before and after shots of how much you can get done doing little bursts of gardening. :) Also I posted this a month ago - now the weather is arctic but still if its not raining I can often manage to get out there after the kids get home from school for at least 30 minutes.

Bunny Chick Liqued Poo Tea :)

I have had much time on my hands with 4 weeks forced leave of massage work! So I have been able to do things I've had little time to do for years and Chick Bunny poo tea is one of them. My father in law taught me this one as a farmer from years back, I am altering the method slightly as I don't want any chance of contact with the poo! He used to get very technical with the ratios of poo to water and use a hessian bag to strain the poo, I don't do this and I feel my way is much easier. Basically I have gathered large amounts of poo from the chooks - easy to do as they aren't terribly bright and instead of laying eggs in their nice hay filled lay boxes they kick all the warmth out leave it bare and sleep there leaving copious amount of poo behind so easy to gather transfer to a large bucket fill with water and leave for about 10 days. I then pour the lot into a open ended watering can - forget the ones with spouts it gets too blocked, you then use liquid as a tea for my newly planted veggies. Its the same deal with the bunny poo, as a rule the rabbits will always poo in the one spot making it easy together, most of the time its directly put on either Roses or the fruit trees but the tea works well directly poured over the leaves for a easier uptake for the plants. I probably wouldn't do this right before harvesting....its really just to kick off growth, anyway its working well and plants are thriving. I have a picture here of our Bok Choy and this was planted about 5 weeks ago and is getting harvested now so it really does make for very fast growth.

Autumn 2013

Hi all, having some huge changes around the yard this year, as I found over Summer and goodness Summer went until April this year which I loved but for the garden it was a nightmare. I had 10 Veggie beds and really I could not keep up the water to any of them so lots died and then we ran out water and I found it such a time guzzler having to do all that watering particularly as this Summer I was kayaking up to 4 times a week always in the evenings - when I needed to be watering! Because I feel one problem was the beds were not raised enough (about 6 inches) I have reduced the number of veggie beds to only 3 and doubled the height of those 3 beds. As I have moved all beds up to the fruit tree area where there is tons of Winter sun I am going to use the old veggie garden area to plant a few more fruit trees, a Peach tree, Nashi and another Apricot. I have just moved my Rhubarb crowns to the old veggie area and my middle child made brick grass guards around them Summer we extended the chook pen its massive now and I will plant a Lemon tree and perhaps a Lime in the pen too. I like that Iv'e moved the new beds closer to my rabbitry area as the bunnies often get time out and its cute watching them run all over the place while I work out there. I am no longer breeding or showing and only have 5 left now so they all get time out with me in the paddock while I am working, have a picture of my gorgeous Siamese Sable on here. In Winter only draw back is the kids keep asking me to kick the footy with them while I am gardening and best to do that or risk ball to the head! Our little chick born last November that I swore was a girl, ended up being a boy and starting crowing right on 6 months and was rehomed today. Bummer so I am now waiting on 2 lovely Sussex chicks from a soup bus friend and cannot wait to meet those girls as I need regular eggs! Have been busy removing all the front yard plants on the eastern wall of our home to create my own little sensory garden and herb area and we are growing; Coriander, Flat leaf and Curly Parsley, Sage, Oregano, Sweet Basil, Lemon Thyme, Thyme, Aloe, Citronella and Lavender in there, have already been using the produce most I brought from the wonderful Talbot market. Today I have planted out the 3 veggie beds with Leeks, Red Onions (lots of them), Winter lettuce, Pak Choy, Brussel Sprouts and Broccoli. Each day I am moving a massive pile of gum leaves around the border of our place to supress the weeds have about 220 metres to cover I think I will still have left over leaves! Until next time....:)

Home Made Ice-cream!

As a Christmas present for the kids I brought a $25 ice cream maker and have been delighted with the results! In this house we try very hard to avoid additives, colours and preservatives in our food and although we don't generally eat a great deal of ice cream we do like something frozen to cool us on those 35 plus degree days. We started with Strawberry and used a punnet of Strawberries, 100 ml of cream and a 100gms of sugar as per the instructions, its all poured in together mixed for around 20-30 minutes by the machine and then frozen for around 8 hours. It was absolutely delicious although somewhat sweet! There was really only enough for a small scoup in a cone - there are 5 of us so we decided to make the next batch a little bigger. The next batch Raspberries were on special so we used a punnet of those 300 mls of cream this time and we reduced the ratio of sugar it was meant to be 300 gms however we only put 100 gms in, sadly this batch didn't turn out as well although I really liked it 2 of the kids found it too sweet to eat as some of the sugar had not been mixed in properly. Our third batch was a massive success, this time we chopped up a whole large Mango, again used 300 mls of cream and then added only 80 gms of sugar this time and it was a hit, it almost seemed to double in size, we let it mix for a lot longer and it was so tasty it lasted us all 2 nights this time so an added bonus! Vanilla icecream has been our biggest project as we needed Vanilla pods, egg yolks, cream, sugar,mill so a little more work cooking the pods but the taste the next day was delicious! Although not as healthy as our Mango ice cream!

Tomatoes

I have had some awesome luck with my little punnet of Tomatoes brought and planted only late November! I added Sheep manure to the mix prior to planting and have this awesome crop coming with lots of little green Tomatoes coming along and the growth of the plant is massive, I did wonder if that was the nitrogen in the manure and I would not end up getting so much fruit just all be plant but I think not! In other news our little chick is growing up and looks to be a girl so good news and if a male it would not be allowed to stay have a look at the shots of this girl born only 6 weeks ago! Her father is a pure Cochin and the mother is a half Barnvelder and a half Cochin - I just love her legs!

This year 2012

This year I have been a very sparodic blogger, it has been hugely busy with my eldest child starting high school and my activities and work becoming much busier. I am hoping that 2013 can be a year for doing much less - better! I think I wanted that for this year but sadly it did not eventuate. This year we have had some pretty big highs and lows and find we go out of the year fairly tired actually but grateful for so much. We nearly changed the boys schools but in the end decided to stay with the one we are at, had some house issues but our health is good so much to be grateful for. I have been busy all year helping my youngest 2 boys Primary School with their Environmental group as my middle child was an Environmental monitor for the year, we have maintained an awesome veggie garden at the school and added 10 fruit trees that are doing really well. I go into the school once a fortnight and we planout what things we will do for the session such as make our own environmental take home harvest bags, planting seeds to grow and weeding and maintaining the garden beds. I also put a proposal into the school for a Sensory garden and that has taken off with one of the parents managing to get a grant fo the school and in the funding conditions the school will be working with the local special school and their team to propagate some plants for us. All very exciting and we hope to have some huge working bees at the school over the next year to get it all in place. In my own garden we have had to radically change a lot to get the moisture away from the house such as installing a pump near the verandah for the "one in a hundred year" storms that are happening - every year. We have slowly been removing all plants aurrounding the sides of the house and mulching and spreading the mulch onto the edging of the Veggie garden to suppress the weeds. Its a big job but we are slowly getting there. The Orchard looks to be going very well as there are tons of Plums on the tree and also Apricots this year which we have not had for a few years, the Nectarines are prolific and many Apples too. Although still only a few Pears on the tree. I started 4 new veggie beds in the paddock and got a nice potatoe crop, some Kale, Lettuce and a ton of Red Onions although not as many as last year. This season I have planted Lettuce, Basil, Tomato's, Corn, Coriander, Pumpkins, Zuchini and Chives, all going well so far nearly time to stake the Tomato's we added pulverised sheep poo to all the beds and the Tomatoe's are loving it. We had a little chicken born last month, looking to be a pullet thank goodness so will be able to stay here, we cannot have 2 Roosters, I had a hen sneak off to the veggie garden area and lay 8 eggs, unfortunetly she only had access to the Rooster for one of the eggs! Not to worry she is now living amongst the bunnies area in my paddock and will be intergrated with the other chooks when the little chick is larger. For now though mummy hen is showing her all the ropes and they are foraging and free ranging all day. We have had to sell a few adult rabbits in the rabbitry and will most likely no longer be breeding, I will no longer be showing as the entire ethics regarding showing and judging based soley on appearances never really did sit well with me, particularly as I do not have "perfect children" so why demand it in my animals? I loved breeding for pets, I really enjoyed matching the kits to new owners but unfortunetly for the 10 people you get keen for a rabbit many, many are not suitable and mess you around or are not the sort of people you want to be the owners of your pets. Out of all the people I sold to over the 4 years 98% were awesome and exactly what I was looking for, but a couple were not and so it all needed to end for me in this field as I was no longer comfortable with breeding, who knows maybe in the future once a year maybe! So not so much manure for the gardens anymore and particularly as all the rabbits get free ranging time per day in the large paddock so not so much to collect. On a personal note I have been studying Philosophy and loving it, made some fantastic new like minded friends and travelled to Melbourne occasionally with the group for cultural days which I have really enjoyed and on the way back we have managed to visit CERES where we brought a mushroom farm and some organic vegies and also a couple of Jackie French Garden books. We didn't get that many mushrooms I think perhaps we failed to water enough sadly but got a few really large ones. My sons business Ballarat Bird Houses & Feeders did so well this year he makes all manner of birdhouses we do have a Facebook page so feel free to take a peak, we have really cut back on the work there as we pre made many for Xmas so have a large stock, the business is reliant on me having the time to sell online and meet people when they arrive to pick up the houses and I no longer have such a large amount of time to dedacate this this so for now occasionally we put houses on Buy Swap and Sell sites but not quiet as much as previously and have the odd driveway sale, many cars slow down a few stop but again probably not worth the effort we put into it. Hope all readers have a wonderful 2013 and your gardens give you as much joy as mine gives me.