Garden Log: 24 Feb 08

A promise is a cloud;

fulfillment is rain.
~Arabian Proverb~

After 9 long, hot, dry weeks it finally rained on Friday!
It was great to hear water trickling
into my empty water tank again!
After soaring temperatures during the week
the rain heralded a cool change.
Friday's max of 17.5C was a pleasant change
from Tuesday's top of 39C.
Total rainfall was 1.6mm..better than nothing

After the long, dry summer I didn't think I'd have much of an entry in the "Harvest Basket" competition at Garden Club this year but when I went out to scrounge in the garden I managed the entry in the photo above...

See here for a list of what was in this year's
This was last years basket.

A quick photo update...

Lucerne ready for planting...
...some has been planted on Bed 8.

Celpar (parcel) sprouting new leaves
with silverbeet seedlings at rear of tray.

One of the Yellow Tommy Toe Tomato seedlings
destined for the hothouse over winter.

Red Sisho's beautiful colours

Wicking boxes take off
with just a bit of a top up after a hot week

Oh and for Kate...

...already there are signs of new life
around the clay pots in the tank beds!!!

Clay Pot Waterers

Kate at Hills and Plains Seedsavers group/blog

has finally talked me into doing this.

Making a clay pot waterer:

I've been collecting terracotta pots from garage sales and squirreling away any that come my way from Garden Club members. I've been planning this for a while, this post from Kate made up my mind .

I wasn't sure how to block the holes up in them but Kate's notes suggested coins. I found some 'olympic supporters' coins/medallions that the kids collected from newspapers when we were living in 'pre-olympic games' Sydney some years ago. I doubt they are of any real value now. But as seals for these pots they will be valuable to me.

Doc bought me some sealant a while ago so I got that out. I plugged up those holes and thought about what to plant and where.
I'm not ready to plant anything in the veg beds yet as I'm still planning the re-vamp there.

I made up a small batch of planting mix with moist coir, compost and some potting mix. This went around the edges of the pots to help draw out and retain the water that percolates through the terracotta pot.

I chose a shady spot close to the potting area and another near the end of the potting bench (in more sun).
The larger pots were put there with Kale and Silverbeet around the edges...the one in the sun I've put NZ Spinach and Bronze Fennel.
Filled them the pots with water and covered them with a piece of slate to stop evaporation. They are covered with chook wire to keep Mrs Houdini out (we really need to do something about that chook!)

In 2 of the Tank Beds in the Dog Pen Garden I've put the smaller pots, 2 into one and 3 in the other. Around these I've planted seeds to see if they will grow. I've planted Spinach, Pak Choi, Wong Bok, Coriander, Fenugreek and Queen Anne's Lace just to see how things germinate in this watering system.

I'm also keen to see how planting before the Full Moon goes, according to Deb from Nirvana Organic Farm today (Tuesday) is a good day to plant out seeds. See Deb's Garden, Kitchen & Veranda blog entry here.

Garden Log: 17 Feb 08

As I said last week the temps are on the rise...
...around 35C all weekend
and until Wednesday this week.
We also have the best chance for rain this week,
that we have had for 8 weeks now.
Fingers crossed.

Doc has had enough of the birds (including the pretty Ring Necked Parrots) stealing his fruit so one night we spent wrapping fruit trees up in net curtains. Only to have the wind pick up over the following few days and blow all the curtains off!
They are being replaced now and more securely attached.

Fruit harvesting is coming along well...early apples are being tested...sometimes a little too early! Figs under the curtains are nearly there, and buckets of Almonds have been collected from under the big tree, smaller than normal this year but plentiful.

The Wicking Boxes are looking good but the surface is very dry...this is ok but some of the plants I put in still have shallow roots systems so these I have minimally watered from the surface. I shouldn't need to do this once their roots have grown further into the growing mix.

Last weeks planting of Lucerne Sequel has germinated well and I've begun preparations of the bed (8) to plant this out soon. I've replaced the in-line dripper hose to the bed and moved the surviving 3 cherry trees (still small) onto this bed.

I intend to keep this bed fenced, from the chooks and grow Lucerne under the Cherry trees which hopefully will survive long enough to be grafted next spring and then trained as per the Spanish Bush method.

The Lucerne can be cut for chicken feeding or for mulching around the garden. Once established it only requires light watering hopefully from rainfall!

This is part of a major re-organisation of the main vegetable garden area.

More about this later...

Wicking Box Gardens

Wicking Box Gardens

I had to plant some of these rapidly growing brassicas so I decided on a few wicking boxes.
The concept of these is the same as the in ground Wicking Beds.

You need a container without drainage holes, it's sides need to be at least 30cm tall.
Here in Aust broccoli is packed in polystyrene boxes that are just about right for this.
They are 600 mm x 300mm in size and will need a hole made in the side about 100mm high for drainage. Experiment with the height of this hole.

If you only have boxes with holes in them use these but line the base with plastic. Only the bottom 100mm needs to be covered as it's only to this height that will need to hold water.

For these I'm using up some hose that is sold for distributing grey water from washing machines.We're not using this in our grey water set up so it's been sitting in the shed. It's a 22 mm hose and has holes the length of it.
I had some of the larger drainage pipe left-over from making the in-ground beds so I tried some with this too.

The ends of the small hose were blocked with some of Doc's leftover dowel bits. The larger hose was able to be wedged against the edge of the box.

These hoses were placed in the bottom of the box and covered with some chux-like cloth (thin cleaning cloth) off a roll from the cheap shop.

The covered pipe was surrounded with chopped pea straw and shredded paper to hold the water. This was covered with a thin layer of chook house bedding a mixture of wood shavings shredded paper and chook poop.

I used Max Mixer to make up a mixture of potting mix, compost, blood and bone, coir soaked in Seaweed extract, Charlie carp, Epsom salts and potash.

An important part of this system is to add some worm bedding including some of the compost worms.

A tube of 50cm drain pipe was cut and had 15 mm holes drilled into the sides of it. This is where the worm food will be put and the worms will enter it to eat.
This saves having unbroken down food scraps in the box. The scraps are blended up and put into the tube of which about 1/3 is buried.

These boxes have been planted up with Mini Cauliflower, Broccoli, Lebanese Cress, Parsley, Kale, some companions Egyptian Onions, Thyme; later some Celpar and Coriander may be added if there is room.

I've used lengths of small conduit pipe from a cloche kit, to hold up some 50% shade cloth while it's still quite warm, later this will be replaced with a curtain to keep the cabbage moths and aphids off the growing brassicas.

Garden Log: 10 Feb 08

Another week with no rain
and none on the seven day forecast to come.
Cool conditions though...
...very unusual for February.
Friday's min of 6.5C was a bit chilly.

Early in the week I planted out some comfrey and yarrow under the potting bench near the tap. I often manage to spill or overflow the watering cans when filling them and that along with the run-off from the bench will keep them going. I used up-turned wire hanging baskets to keep Mrs Houdini from scratching them up.

The young brassicas have been growing well BUT the cabbage moths have found them already so I have placed them in a curtained enclosure...so far it's working.

The newly germinating seeds are growing, except for one that The Black Ninja sat on!
Potted on the bigger ones and put them straight under a curtain to keep those moths off.

• 6 Green Goliath Broccoli
• 4 Mini Cauliflower
• 6 Red Shiso
• 8 Red Cabbage
• 2 January King Cabbage
• 4 Corn Salad
• Celpar (Parcel)
• Poppies

Also planted some seeds of:

• Green Silver (beet)
• Lucerne Sequel

Re-potted up herbs for companion planting later:

• 4 Tansy
• 4 Yarrow
• 2 Roman Wormwood
• 5 Bronze Fennel
• 6 Canary Island Lavender

I've made up some wicking boxes and planted some early Autumn greens with companions.
Cauliflower, Kale, Broccoli with Thyme, Parsley, Egyptian Tree Onions, Lebanese Cress.
This will be the subject of an upcoming post.

We never know the worth of water till the well is dry.
~Thomas Fuller, Gnomologia, 1732

Meet the Grand Kid

This is Bindi
Brand new member of the Family
Living in North Queensland
She is pure Staffy and 10 weeks old!
And sooo cute!

Her coat might fit her one day!



Life is so busy that a little baby has to sleep...
A lot!

So welcome to the clan young Bindi!

Thanks for the photos PKT.

Cedronella triphylla

Cedronella triphylla
AKA Balm of Gilead or False Balm of Gilead
Family: Lamiaceae; Genus: Cedronella
Originated in: Canary Islands

Perennial growing to 1.5m by 1m
Grows best in full sun
Requires well drained soil
pH of 7
Said to need damp soil but mine survive on a once a week soak once established
Frost tolerant (in Aust) with shelter but tends to be dormant through winter.

The scented flowers are hermaphrodite
(have both male and female organs)
and are pollinated by insects.

Propagate by:
Seed - sow spring or warm time of year. Sown in punnets or pots it usually germinates in about 2 weeks at 15°c
Cuttings may be taken while it is actively growing.

The leaves are mildly resinous with a mix of lemon-leaf and camphor aroma when crushed and appear to be quite insect repellent. I crush leaves and rub on to skin with care to repel mozzies. (That's Aussie for mosquito )
Works well on feet and toes!

I'm planning on experimenting by steeping (infusing) in a light oil or vinegar for use as a rub on insect repellent.

As with any home made herbal preparations:
**Care needs to be taken, especially if allergy prone, so test on small patch of skin before using.
**Allergic reactions to this plant have been noted.

Garden Log: 3 Feb 08

It's still hot, not to the extreme but quite humid.
Clouds build up in the afternoons,
maybe even a very few drops of rain
but still nothing in the gauge.

I'm glad I've experimented with the Wicking beds or there'd be nothing left in the garden at all. See this post.

The non-wicking Bed 4 is going well though and since replacing the dark Green 70% shadecloth with White 50% I'm noticing a lot more insect (the good guys) activity around. The dark colour of the green must have been keeping them away.

San Marzano Tomatoes and Lebanese Mini Cucumbers

No seed planting this week but I took some cuttings of Pink Correa, Convolvulus cneorum and the White Pigface. These plants are coping well with the heat so I intend to plant more of them.

On Tuesday I raked up and filled a couple of barrow loads with some mulch form the old chook run. The Acaicia saligna that's planted in there as chook forage makes a thick layer of mulch from their leaves. As the Acacias are leguminous these leaves make a handy mulch.

The mulch was used on the Herb Spiral and Strawberry patch and if Mrs Houdini Chook leaves it in place long enough it will make an effective mulch layer.

Busy days this week...back to work...
and busy with a newsletter for the Aussies Living Simply forum...
...I hope to get back to some normality next week...

As I've completely neglected My Photo A Day Blog this week, I'll just do a quick photo update for this week's garden log!

The chooks feel the heat on these summer days
but their run has lots of shade...

...especially from the mulberry tree

with the added bonus of fruit for the picking!

The tiny seedlings of Shiso and Motherwort
are growing slowly in the shadehouse.

The Black Sultana Grapes are safe behind their curtain
and certainly are yummy!