Tuesday, April 19, 2011

April Update

A few things to report.

The broad beans planted about a month ago now are averaging about 10cms in height.

About four days ago I planted a small area with seeds from last years red flowering broad beans. These were from seeds grown in Nannup and purchased from a seed saver at the Nannup farmers market. They didn't do too well given a late planting and a very well drained part of the garden, but they survived enough to provide seeds to keep them going and I am positive an earlier planting this year will see a decent crop for both seeds and eating.

There appears to be a problem with the fish pond dropping its level by about a foot. Not sure if there is a leak somewhere. Other small yabbies have been seen which affirms they must be happy and breeding well.

The fish tank for the aquaponics project is in place and has about 150 litres of rain water in it at the moment. Shortly I will move some of the many goldfish offspring into it.

It occured to me today to begin to make a list of those plants in the garden that we utilise.

I also received an order yesterday of bulbs from Bulbs Direct. These are for planting out for spring and most of them are fragrant flowering plants. More later.

The jerusalem artichokes are still standing, though the flowers died off weeks ago. I will leave these until the stems die off a little more.

A small patch of bull garlic was also planted a few days ago from bulbs kept from last year. Many of the plants in the garden have done well enough to give us enough for hopefully further crops and some eating this year.

The kitchen sink pit is ready for winter. I have piled on newspaper and old bath towels and soaked cardboard with layers of straw. I've intentionally piled it up high for several reasons. There are A LOT of worms making the most of this area and no doubt breeding profusely. I also had a lot of materials under the house stored that I wanted to clean out and get out of the way so I saw it as the perfect opportunity to feed the worms and have them remain relatively undisturbed and well fed throughout the next 4 -5 months, after which I will probably empty most of it out and check the pipe and start another batch for the summer season. That way should have some nice compost for the spring pots and vege beds.

Spinach plants are coming on well and strengthening up with the cooler weather. Other seedlings of spinach coming up in the pebble paths that I will transplant later.

The pepino is fruiting well and other cuttings have been planted around the garden simply for the greenery and to see how they perform in other areas of the garden. The fruit is so close to being ripe, but just not quite!

We are harvesting tamarillos almost on a daily basis now. Some are not quite ripe but are removed because of the winds and weather and the extra burden on the trees. Chokos are doing well also and are keeping us and friends and family in supply.

Lots of silvereye activity as they scavenge heavily amongst the choko vine and native wisteria. The wattlebirds have had young and are very defensive of their flowering gum out the front of the house. And very vocal too.

The frogs have not been seen for some time. There was one hanging around the potted pond a few weeks ago but I haven't seen it for a while.

It was around this time last year also that the smaller frogs started with their calling. I hope they are around too, there really isn't any way of knowing until they start calling, they are so small.

Still deciding on grow bed materials for aquaponics given use and budget.

C'est tout.

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