Exclusion

The Haybale Garden on Bed 3 is proving to be a worthwhile addition to the plan.
The young Broccoli and Cabbages are looking good...just one problem!

The warm weather has brought the cabbage moths out.
They are everywhere.
Each time I visit the garden I check the backs of the leaves for the tiny eggs that these pests lay and squish them before they have time to hatch.


I needed a way to keep the moths off the seedlings. The weather is warm now but not really warm enough to cover things up with shadecloth yet.
I have some fleece fabric but with the very strong winds we are having lately they'd be ripped to shreds in minutes.

I scrounged around in the old caravan that has become a store for 'you don't want to know what' (read everything) and found just the thing.
Some old net curtains...left over from days when we lived in houses with big windows. I bundled them up and took them to the garden...they were too small.

So I took them inside and ran them up on the trusty Janome (sewing machine) and in five minutes was back in the garden with a cover that fitted.


The curtains were held in place by lengths of wood with rocks on them because we had 50km/h plus winds forecast.

I put jars over the ends of the stakes so they don't rip the fabric

They survived and hopefully so will the seedlings and their tiny companions, the newly emerged peas that are just showing their heads.

These curtains should keep the birds off the peas too!

Drinking Out The Tap!

Whenever I empty the chooks water bucket they always drink the water off the dirt.

But 'Pinky' thinks there is a better way...
...she'd rather have the clean water...

...but it's coming out that little hose...

...shouldn't really drink from the tap but what the heck...

...gurgle, gurgle, gurgle..

...mmm that was better than muddy water.

Spring Planting List 07

Planted and potted on as of 27 Aug 07

Most (except where stated) in individual containers, cut down milk/juice bottles, with no bases to enable easier and less disruptive planting.

See Food Gardening for Beginners Part 6 - Getting Your Seeds To Grow for more information on growing from seed.

Living in the Plastic Hot House:

• Black Zucchini x 10
• Lebanese Mini Cucumbers x 3
• Just Another Pumpkin x 5
• Nasturtiums x 7 containers of 2 ea
• Sunflowers mixed 17 containers
• Marigolds 36 Cell tray + punnet
• White Cosmos 26 Cell tray
• Basil Green and Purple 18 mixed punnets (for fete stall)
• plus 1 Cell tray (30) of each for us
• Black Russian Tomatoes x 27
• Pacesetter Tomatoes x 5
• Ida Gold Tomatoes x 1
• Goldfinger Zucchinis x 6
• Lemon Cucumbers x 5
• Rouge d'Etampes Pumpkin x 5

Aug 26th noticed some dampening off/fungus damage to 1 cucumber...mixed a cup of organic Chamomile tea and diluted it to spray everything in the hothouse!!

Black Zucchini, White Cosmos,
Evening Sun Sunflower and Sweet Basil

Just Another Pumpkin, Crackerjack Marigolds,
Lebanese Cucumbers and Alaska Gold/Scarlet Nasturtiums

Sunflowers - Giant Russian & 'Gringo',
Rouge d'Etampes Pumpkin, Purple Basil & Black Russian Tomatoes

Emerging but not quite ready for potting on:
Living in the old Hot House or in the Shade House;

• Buttercup Pumpkin
• Delicata Squash
• Anise Hyssop.
• Silverbeet
• Parsley
• Dill
• Bronze Fennel
• Phacelia tanacetifoli
• Nigella - Blue
• Nigella - Mixed

Seeds Sown 23rd Aug 07:
In the old Hot House;

• Rockmelon Hales
• Watermelon Golden Midget
• Watermelon Moon and Stars
• Bean Gourd
• Bottle Gourds
  

Bed 3 Straw Bale Garden

Planted in the Garden 21st Aug 07:
Bed 3 Straw Bale Garden;

• 9 Di Cicco Early Broccoli
• 2 Golden Acre Cabbage
• 12 Coriander
• Sugar Snap Peas
  

Emerging Potatoes

Planted in the Garden 1st Aug 07:
Into Bed 6;

• Mixed coloured Potatoes under plastic cloche

Oca in pot

Planted 26th Aug 07:
In Bed 2;

• Mixed coloured Potatoes

In Dog Pen Garden - in big pots;

• Oca - Oxalis tuberosa (See here)

Compost Making Update: 27 Aug 07

This is the final update on this compost heap...because I'm starting to use it!

The compost has been 'cooking' for 12 weeks through our cold and very dry winter.

Since building this heap we have had a total of 30mm of rain. We haven't had more than 5mm fall in one day so basically this heap has had no help from falling rain but has been watered with rainwater from the tank on each turn.

This heap:

• Was built on 2 June 07
• First turned on 11 June 07
• Second turn on 30 June 07
• Third turn on 11 July 07
• Fourth turn 29 July 07
• Fifth turn 18 Aug 07

The cover has remained on most of this time only being removed on 17 August when rain was forecast (4mm fell)

I have begun using it:

• mixing into soil for building up beds for spring planting;
• putting in trenches when planting potatoes;
• filling holes in preparation for pumpkins;
• as a feeding, surface mulch which has been covered with dry straw.

It is quite damp and smells wonderfully 'earthy'.

Go HERE to see how it was built
and updates are HERE
and HERE.

Mushrooms!!

With the price of mushrooms sky-rocketing lately I've been considering growing my own for a while.

At the July Garden Club meeting J from the garden shop said they were having a sale on the mushroom farms available in boxes so next morning off I went to buy one.

I wasn't sure about these kits because in the past I'd always had them fail (read I always managed to forget about them)

This time I was going to succeed!

I set the box up as per instructions and placed it in the laundry *mistake* I soon realised this was much too cold.

The instructions said "Room Temperature" which is fine if the room temperature is between 18-22C. During July in my laundry the temperature is lucky to go above 10C. So this meant moving the farm into the dining room.

A check with a thermometer revealed the temp was just right.

This week I remembered about it!!! When I went to mist it with water I found it was indeed alive and actually sprouting 3 tiny mushies.

It's working! Ya!

I'll need to keep a close eye on it for the next few days to see how fast these little mushies grow...

Update 1 Sep 07
See here

Lucky Dog - Garden Dog

Matron at Down on the Allotment had a wonderful post the other day featuring our canine friends and how the 'help' us in the garden...Lucky-Dog was included in the group with some other great 'helpers'.

We got Lucky from the Animal Welfare League rescue home soon after moving back to South Australia in 1994, she was about 4 months old then and very soon after let us know that the front fence was not going to hold her in by skipping over it as if it wasn't there. She wanted to follow the kids to school as they rode off on their bikes!

Fortunately we had plenty of room here to build a more secure area for our then 2 dogs that we named the Dog Pen. This was really just a well fenced off area with grass and trees in it for the dogs to live, safe (for us) in the knowledge that they couldn't escape.

At Thirteen years of age now, we're noticing that Lucky is starting to become deaf, so she isn't just ignoring us when she refuses to come when called.
We have to whistle or clap to get her attention now, but she responds well to hand signals.
This means that she relies on her nose even more when out and about and can track a cat for miles. Well it seems that way.

She helps me track down the hidden nests that the chooks make under bushes but I have to be quick so she doesn't claim an egg or two!

She always checks out the straw bales. When she was younger she used to catch mice from the bales brought back from a nearby farm. That was during a mouse plague.

Her other favourite job is to check out the compost...she thinks that smells rather yummy!

Most of the time she is just snoozing around or keeping a close eye on everything in the garden. Doesn't harm the occasional escapee chook and is best friends with The Black Ninja Cat.

Update: Sadly Luckydog died in her sleep on Saturday 27th March 2010.
She was aged 16 years.