what have I been doing with my time???

Gee, I can't believe as I look at this that it's been 3 months since my last post. This is not because I'm too busy, although I have been up to stuff, it's often because I don't think things I'm up to are all that interesting, or I've been working on a new project and I think I should have all the details together before I post it. Well, enough procratination, here's the update on recent stuff, at least the bits I'm excited enough to mention.

Firstly, I'm pleased to say my chickens have resumed laying. I've noticed a pattern over the last few years. They always begin to lay again, just after the winter solstice which for us was the 21st of June this year. It took about a week before the first egg appeared. Unfortunately it would appear that only one of my chooks is laying though, and this was the case before they stopped for the winter, so my thoughts have been straying towards getting another, although I am concerned about whether I can just introduce a stranger to their little group. If you're reading this and you've got any tips for making the transition easy for them please let me know. I recently spent a day at a friends home and was amazed at the wonderful chickens she had and my husband was inspired by her idea for raising guinea fowl as babies with baby chickens.

I've not planted much this winter, just one lot of broad beans and some peas, with the peas giving me my first small harvest today. The choko vines have continued to keep giving me the occassional choko, and from the rest of the garden, a few bell peppers, lots of chillis, a pile of ginger, lots of gooseberries and even some waterchestnuts. Spring has started to warm the garden and my peach, nectarine and plum have donned their first green sprigs and delicate flowers. Even the citrus have joined in, with my new baby lemonade tree even in flower for it's first time.  The rain has kept everything green, and my blueberries have never been happier.

 Winter has also been a time for getting jobs done in the garden that I'd hesitate to tackle during the heat of summer here. The neighbour has cut down and cut back lots of overgrown trees and let the sunshine into areas of my garden that have been really dark until now. Spurred on by the sunshine we've cleared some overhanging branches and had a big tidy up as well. The old shed has been moved onto a concrete pad that was on the other side of the house and had two sets of old metal shelves we've had for years assembled inside to give me great storage for all my gardening bits. And we've put up some great fencing that we got second hand at a bargain price to replace the holey fencing that was previously around that side of the house as well. As much as my chickens haven't tried to escape through it for some time, I've been concerned that it isn't much protection for them from dogs wandering around the neighbourhood. In tandem with digging holes for the fencing I've pulled out a lot of the singapore daisy that's got out of control here too. There's still a heap more to get out, but I've at least halved it. Everytime I pass the area now I look for any new little shoots popping up that I might have missed. It's time consuming but it's the only way I know to get rid of it. Again, if you're reading this and you've got any organic suggestions for eradicating this weed please let me know as I still have days, if not weeks of weeding ahead of me at this point.

At the other end of the garden my garden beds are undergoing a transformation. To date my gardens have started as 'no dig' beds and then after a crop has been grown, the chook pen would be moved on top, and the girls would work in lots of sugarcane mulch as they dug around searching for seeds and bugs, then left to rest after having some extra compost worked in, ready for their next crop. The system has been great except for a couple of draw backs. During summer these garden beds get large amounts of direct sunlight and watering once a day isn't enough. At times when their is no one to water them each day I've lost many new seedlings and the daily drought then flood at watering time has resulted in poorer production. So this winter I've taken time from the gardening to create new garden beds that I hope will solve this problem, but more on this when I've finished and got photos etc ready to post.

And just to finish off, I was delighted to find a big green frog in the garden. I haven't seen one for quite a while.

Clean up and replant

I had a big clean up in the garden over the last few days off. It was well over due.

The lemonade tree which although laden with fruit, failed to provide me with a decent, ripe lemon yet this season. Every time I checked fruit just beginning to show a little yellowing (you may remember from a previous post that you can't wait for the lemons on a lemonade tree to go yellow as by that time they are rotten) they haven't come away easily indicating they aren't yet ready. However when I come back on my next day off to check, they have split from the rain, or are lying mouldy on the ground under the tree. The mouldy fruit has become a problem, firstly because it's attracting fruit flies and secondly because the mould is a type of virus that then affects other fruit when the spores are dispersed on them, either by wind, water splashing etc.
I haven't been able to easily get to the fallen fruit to clear it away as the tree was so overgrown, it's branches forming a natural cage around the area, and grass and weeds making it difficult also. So in desparation I have given the tree it's first good prune in the now almost 5 years I've been there. Gone now are all the branches that grew haphazardly in all directions, gone are the branches so laden with fruit they were hidden amongst the overly long grass and overgrown weeds. Instead it's a mere shadow of it's former self, more streamlined, free of renegade tendrils that had sprouted from an unknown base graft, complete with needle like spikes along their reaching arms, free too of the swollen gall wasp stings that left new growth misshappen.
Once that terror was tamed I then had access to the ground below, cleaning up all the diseased fruit and disposing of it, removing the grass that slowly chokes the life force of these trees.
 And while on a roll, hacking  down the choko that once again is flourishing creating the beginnings of it's own mini jungle like atmosphere. Once again this year it's overtaken everything, growing along the fencelines, reaching out to snare the branches over unwary trees, crossing my gardens steathily on the ground hidden by weeds, or more obviously using stakes like a superhighway. My little pruning shears, already warmed up from the adrenalin of the assualt on the lemonade tree went into overdrive and in no time had tamed it back to something more orderly and controlled.

The choko reaching out to ensnare an unsuspecting Gooseberry bush.

 With the main culprits now demurely standing by it was time for the final onslaught, the lost gardens beneath, now buried under kikuyu grass, wandering dew and other unidentified weeds. With the help of the hoe, and the gardening rake these too had met their match!

That was Friday gone, Saturday I watched it pour rain all day, frustrated that I couldn't get out into the garden and do more, but inspired by my companion planting book I'd rediscovered.

And then today, with the sun out again, with everything clean and refreshed, I took my seed collection outside and contentedly planted Broad beans accompanied by Spinach and Beetroot in one bed, and Peas bedded with Radish and Turnips in the other. With a final flourish of confidence, stakes were thumped in and lines strung ready for this new growth to begin and take hold.



Useable lemons and chokos from the day's cleanup.

I've made some Lemonade from the lemons already and have plans to cook and freeze the the chokos for later. Anyone with inspiring suggestions for choko recipes? Please share, my husbands bored with them already, and there'll be more to come yet.





New Birdie finally gets a home

For my birthday this year in January my parents gave me a Birdie. For all those not familiar with them this is a self assemble (luckily they'd already put it together for me) raised corrugated colourbond garden bed. The one they've given me is the same size as the ones they have been using with really great success, about a metre squared.
At the time I had no idea where I would like to put it in my garden plans so I just put it to one side, and ended up using it like a temporary compost bin until I could decide where it would live more permanently. Since then it has had all sorts of garden debris added, the occasional kitchen scraps, and even an "in the garden" worm farm (although no worms yet). The compost has broken down so quickly and I've overfilled it several times now.

Yesterday, after a fairly rainy week it was down to about two thirds in height again, and with the rest of the garden a little out of control, I decided to use it to plant out my the tumeric and extra ginger plants I'd struck into small pots over the last few months as they were starting to put down roots into the ground below the pots, and if I'm going to get any real harvest from them, I've only got a few months left at best.

My collection of garlic, tumeric and ginger I've managed to strike.

 So I topped the garden up all the way with a mixture of potting mix, composted manure and the leftovers from my abandoned worm garden and planted away.
I also popped in a couple of Pepino's I'd bought recently. Previously I had Pepino's growing in the front yard, but although they got a couple of fruit, they weren't very successful there (much drier area, lots of eucalytus leaves from big eucalypt overhead) and all but one have died back. I have to confess here, these new Pepino's came from a moment of weakness, when I also bought a punnet of coriander, two punnets of beans and a couple of comfrey plants which had now been sitting on the back verandah for two weeks.
In a last desperate act before sundown, I've also added the coriander to the new garden in the corners and a few of the bean plants (not the climbing type). The rest of the beans went into the top garden where the snake bean is now on it's last, but I didn't want to rip out it's climbing frame yet as the choko vine has taken it over. It may be important to note here that the beans may not make it, when I said desparate before I didn't mention the driving incentive came from the fact that my chickens had eaten every bit of leaf off them while sunning themselves on the deck! Not to worry, we'll still give them a go.

And the comfrey, well it's still sitting there waiting for my next day off. I have plans for another banana garden area...

One of the many chokos growing. The vines have taken over everything!

The bean eating culprits, not looking remorseful at all!

Holidays

Well I've been on holidays for a week now and feel like I've not achieved half of the things I would have liked to have done. The time has been good though, I've had time with family which is something I always treasure, some time in the garden, and yesterday and today, some time in the kitchen.
We've had two new students arrive from China today. Amy and Rose (not their Chinese names, they take English names to make it easier for everyone while they are here) joined us yesterday and will stay for the next 6 weeks to get a taste of Australian life and learn english. At only 11 years old, it would have to be very scary for them coming all this way and living with strangers. We'll try to make their stay a memorable one.
With some time at home I've taken the opportunity to make some fruit bread today and a batch of yoghurt tonight ready to use in some new recipes I saw on the Food channel today. I was motivated by a recipe for spicy eggplant.


You can see the white eggplants here amongst other goodies harvested late last week.

I just happen to have about half a dozen little round egg shaped white eggplants I picked the other day just waiting for inspiration to strike. It necessitated a trip to the shops for all sort of spices I just don't (correction "didn't) have on hand. It was a joy to buy lots of new goodies, including All spice, Cayenne Pepper, Fenugreek, Black Mustard, Saffron and Cardamon pods. I can't wait to try them out tomorrow. They aren't all for the eggplant, some are for other dishes. I'm not sure if I'll get to try them all out before I return to work, but I'd really like it if I can.
The garden has had a bit of a clean up. Hubby insisted I chop down the choko vines that have not only run rampant through our garden, but also ventured into the neighbours trees. The chokos looked like Christmas baubles hanging off the branches of their palm trees! It was hard for me to do, especially as I was getting such a great crop off them this year, but Hubby is sick of them now, and groans with each new harvest I drag in. I can't complain, he has made heaps of pickles using them, and some Chutney as well. I've smuggled them into all sorts of meals, both savory and sweet, and we have more in buckets that we haven't gotten around to using yet, and they are starting to sprout! Definately a sign that the time had come.


Chokos hanging like Christmas decorations off the fence

Clearing all the vines has let more light into some of the garden beds. One I've planted out with some French bean seedlings and a few broccoli tucked into one end. The other had nothing much except a large old capsicum bush in it (after the chickens had excavated the snow peas for the third time and there was no saving them). The capsicum hasn't been producing well, so it was time for it to go. The beds are usually "made" over by the chickens (we place their pen over the garden, they dig it up and work in sugar cane mulch over a few weeks) but I've been too impatient to wait as they are still working what was the sweet potato bed and will probably be there for at least another week or so. I've mounded it up for the time being, placed some weathered sugar cane mulch into it and given it a top up with some composted cow manure and leaving it to sit ready to try some more peas, or perhaps some silverbeet or chinese cabbage.

You can see the French beans starting to come up around  a wire frame made from old fencing wire that is used as a trellis

There's still more clean upI'd like to do in the garden before my week is out, including pulling out the remaining pumpkin vines that aren't doing much now and tieing up my peppers that have fallen over with the support of the choko vines that had enveloped them. So little time, so much garden...