Wicker-Watering Bed Up-date

See Here for how it was built!

We had only 5mm of rain during this week, one of the hottest days on record for Sept 30.9C and horrible strong winds gusting at nearly 60km/h.

I've only watered these pumpkins at planting, giving them a thorough soaking. They haven't drooped their leaves at all and are rapidly growing away!

I'm already planning more of these beds in other places where tree roots have invaded the Vegetable Garden.

Seems to be the way to go for conserving water

Friday Photos 28 Sep 07

Sturt's Desert Pea (Link Here)

As a change this week I'm posting some photos from our son and his partner .
The whole area around where they live in the north of SA
is just red with lots of these beautiful flowers.

He was intrigued by this plain red flower at the rear of this cluster.

He has also tried to get a photo of a very rare albino flower (pure white) closer to his town but the locals have been out digging them up and taking them home with the highly unlikely view that they will transplant.
Being a desert plant it has a very long tap root and rarely transplants well at all
So these people are just killing these rare plants off.

Our son is not amused!!

All he wanted to do was take some photos to send his mum.

Thanks for the photos!

Tuesday Re-Use-Day - 4

On each Tuesday for the next few weeks I will be featuring photos of things that are re-used around Scarecrow's Garden.

Remember to click on any of the photos to enlarge them!

*The Re-used items are written in bold!

Water

The best way to re-use rainwater is to store it in a rainwater tank.

These 15 litre mild detergent containers have been well cleaned
and re-used by connecting the taps on the bottom
to the 13mm feeder hose of the dripper system.
They are then filled with water by watering cans.
See how here

Ice cream and cake containers
make handy 'saucers' for pots when going away.
The water in the containers should keep the pots moist.

A 2 litre milk bottle with a hole in the lid
becomes a handy waterer with a slow flow.

2 litre drink bottles fit onto special spikes
(or make small holes in their lids) upended
and used to slowly water plants.
This is especially good for pots and containers
which need to be slowly watered.
Cut off the bottle bottoms to make filling them easy.

This detergent tub has been re-used for a source of water,
for hand washing, near Doc's workshop.

These 5 litre containers are filled with water
and stored in the hothouses
to absorb heat during the day and give it off at night.

These drinking water containers are
re-used to store rainwater in the hot houses.
They not only supply warmth at night
but also provide an emergency water supply.

This ex-pickle barrel has been utilised in our grey water
(from washing machine) recycling system.
See Here

Wick(er)ed Dreams

The latest news from the govt. on Water Restrictions indicates that they are set to change on the 1st Oct to allow us 1 day of using drippers per week.

As we live in an even numbered house that will be Saturday here from 6am to 9am OR 5pm to 8pm so we'll be having some early starts on Saturdays.

Although this will help in some of the less easily accessible areas, in the vegetable garden I will continue to use the containers I have attached to the various beds as this is working very well.

I am investigating more efficient watering systems including a technique known as 'Wicking-bed Watering".

This basically consists of building garden beds on top of a plastic membrane thus creating a 'pool' of moisture in the lower layer and the vegetable roots draw this moisture up via capillary action. I often water seedlings by standing them in a tray of water and this is a similar principle.

I have recently seen articles written on this style of gardening using various methods of getting the water 'sub-surface' - usually this involves the use of agricultural drainage pipe.
Here is a link for further information.

I wanted to trial this method but not spend any money to set it up so I chose to use a small section of ground in which I wish to grow pumpkins in this year.
The area is under a very large gum tree which will use any water that I try to give the pumpkins so this method might just solve this problem.

First I dug out the area
and found a piece of wood from Doc's stash pile (again)
to allow the area to be built up.

I levelled the area with soft sandy loam.
Note the site very gently slopes to one side to allow heavy rain
(although rare, it does happen remember this)
and excess water to drain away.

Then I found a sheet of plastic

(leftover from the hothouse project last month)
and lined the area with this.
The plastic only goes up about 10cm at the sides
meaning it will just be this level that will contain the water.
The plants should use this water up over about a week
before needing to be watered again.
(that's the theory anyway)

The area was then filled with a manure mix
that I had been allowing to 'cook' over winter

in preparation for the pumpkins.

Then topped up with some of the compost
I've also been 'cooking' over winter.

I then raided the worm farm for a few helpers

And tucked them up with some felt covering.

One week later after less than 3mm of rain during the week
and no extra watering, the whole site was still quite damp.
The worms could be easily found
and there was evidence of young worms in there!

2 weeks later I put some 4 litre juice bottles
(minus their lids)
in to enable the lower surface of soil to be watered.

Then plant 3 Rouge d'Etampes Pumpkin plants

that are bursting out of their pots in the hothouse.

At the very least the plastic should prevent
the gum tree roots invading the area!

More on Wicking Water Beds:

First Up-date Here:
More Wicker Water Beds

Apple Blossom

Apple Blossom time in Scarecrow's Garden
is wonderful this year.
This Cox's Orange Pippin is just buzzing with bees!
Not much else to say except don't forget
to click on the photos to make them bigger.

Friday Photos 21 Sep 07

After reading about other Aussies harvesting their
Asparagus mine is finally starting to come through.
I was beginning to think the dry winter had killed it off.

In the Shade House cuttings taken earlier are growing:
Thornless Blackberry, Pink Lady Finger Grapes,
Thompson's Seedless Table Grapes
and Variegated Elderberry.



In the Fruit Garden the Pome fruits are flowering:
Nashi Pear and Cox's Orange Pippin



Outside in the Main Vegetable Garden:
The Potatoes are awaiting mounding
and Perpetual Spinach is running to seed
for collection later.



In the early morning the Arctosis take a while to open.
These Lachenalias are 'soldiering' on,
like other Spring Bulb flowers this year
they have been rather small



The first load of Spring seedlings have been planted out:
These Sunflowers into a sheltered spot
in the Dog Pen Garden
and about 40 Silverbeet seedlings
were potted on in the Shade house during the week.