Link to the Permaculture Institutes article on Glyphosate and Dr Don Huber.
A must read.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Work In Progress
My garden has turned into an obsession.
It's crazy. But its getting closer to where I would like it. After moving the lemon tree and lime yesterday to new, sunny spots in the garden beds with their own little patches I planted out the italian parsley from the wine barrels. I was amazed that the roots went so far down. I'm sure if put in the ground the actual tap roots of the parsley would go nearly a metre! So I have decided that they will be of more benefit planted in the garden than pots. And it's a wonder that the lemon and lime survived with the limited nutrients.
So now they are all planted out in the larger garden bed on the sunny side of the house. The lemon, the lime, some parsley plants and 160 cloves of garlic with a couple of freesias thrown in for something pretty to look at.
The aquaponics system is testing me. I replaced the watering pipe to the garden beds today with pvc and just had the water running through holes. It worked a little better, but I had to also face up to the conclusion that on paper the pump I got is capable of what they say it is, but in reality, I really need a bigger pump.
It's working alright at the moment, but nowhere near where I would like it to be. Still I look for a solution...
It's crazy. But its getting closer to where I would like it. After moving the lemon tree and lime yesterday to new, sunny spots in the garden beds with their own little patches I planted out the italian parsley from the wine barrels. I was amazed that the roots went so far down. I'm sure if put in the ground the actual tap roots of the parsley would go nearly a metre! So I have decided that they will be of more benefit planted in the garden than pots. And it's a wonder that the lemon and lime survived with the limited nutrients.
So now they are all planted out in the larger garden bed on the sunny side of the house. The lemon, the lime, some parsley plants and 160 cloves of garlic with a couple of freesias thrown in for something pretty to look at.
The aquaponics system is testing me. I replaced the watering pipe to the garden beds today with pvc and just had the water running through holes. It worked a little better, but I had to also face up to the conclusion that on paper the pump I got is capable of what they say it is, but in reality, I really need a bigger pump.
It's working alright at the moment, but nowhere near where I would like it to be. Still I look for a solution...
Monday, September 5, 2011
Early September Update
It's all been happening.
Lots happening.
Firstly I have wanted to reclaim my shed and get all the STUFF out and have some SPACE. But not without cleaning out under the house and creating some space for some of the stuff.
And it wouldn't be as easy to do all of the under the house part without using some of it to do the retaining wall which was going to be needed at the back of the block to: Stop earth piling up against the fence and create more garden space.
So, the wall came first. And I also did under the house where and when I could to make the most of the wet days and do other things out in the garden on the dry days. I put slabs under the house and made what has been affectionately called "The Man Cave" where I will plant seedlings and pot up plants for the garden.
I have also been tinkering with the aquaponics set-up as the water is still doing more filling in some beds and less filling in others. I think I'm nearly there. The water is clearing and the fish seem happy.
So this grunting, digging and shifting heavy stuff has been going on for the last week starting with picking up the sleepers from the sawmill last Monday.
I also replaced the fencing wire to the chook yard and planted out pepino cuttings to wind through it as the chooks don't seem to peck the leaves of the pepino that much. I have plans to move the meyer lemon out of its pot and plant it into the garden where it will hopefully thrive a little more. It has fruit forming on it at the moment.
The wall took the best part of a day to put up, most of the time being the foundation laying before putting the sleepers in position. Then I deliberated on how to make raised garden beds out of the spare sleepers and in the end decided on a plain rectangle shaped garden bed coming out the width of the chook fence. This left a small edge garden along the cement edging where I had the inspired idea of leaving the grasses that seem to have thrived there and made it a real hedge garden of flowers and herbs and grasses that will eventually mask the sleepers and create a natural-looking fence to the vege garden beds behind.
So I began liberating spring bulbs from their pots and strikings of rosemary and borage seedlings that were coming up in random spots of the garden. There is still a large cape gooseberry bush which is doing really well as it was getting water from an over-flow pipe. This water was also helping out the broad beans planted nearby. Because it worked so well I have left the pipe there and built the wall around it.
Likewise with the kitchen water soak. The garden is chock-full of worms in that area and I have extended the pipe to carry water a little further from where the sleepers are, to another area where I can keep the system going and probably much better.
In the low, far corner I have mainly planted exotics that I had no real purpose for but which have made, collectively, a nice little jungle corner. The pond is still leaking but I have not ventured into it to any extreme as the pond is likely to get an overhaul at some stage. I do need to do something to with the water chestnuts which I took out of the pond and have now just started to sprout through the earth brand new little shoots.
As usual for this time of the year the nasturtiums have taken over the garden but I welcome this as it keeps the soil moist and shaded and makes great compost later on. Actually, the soil in the back garden where the trees where is fantastic! I have added to it when we first moved in sheep manure and trailer loads of horse manure which has helped somewhat, but by far I think the biggest asset to the quality of the soil has been newspaper and cardboard. Placed in sheets with thin layers of soil in between the worms just flock to the stuff and have made it over the last eighteen months a really wonderful, dark, rich, friable soil.
It has worked so well that I anticipate using as much paper as possible to build this soil up further as I now have another foot or two of soil depth to add in order to "fill" the raised garden. So over time I will leave areas in fallow and add plenty of shredded newspaper and layered cardboard.
In other areas of the garden where paper has not been covered over or has been disturbed by the chooks scratching about, the slugs and snails have gravitated to it and it has made it easy to collect them and put them into the fish tank with the perch. Happy Perch!
The odd bail of hay or pea straw has been put into the back garden too, but it is newspaper that has added the very friable, moisture holding properties of the soil as I can see what the worms have done to it in areas where I know I have placed large quantities of either paper or cardboard.
The apricot tree is now dotted with bright, white flowers and is being visited by busy bees. Only just today did I notice the greenery starting to bud out also. The nectarine flowered at the same time last year as the apricot but has instead this year starting shooting leaves at the lower branches and stem and today has pushed out flower buds which perhaps will open tomorrow, or maybe appear overnight. I will see.
The banana palm is doing well, now that it has tapped into the water supply of the worm bed and is not seeking out sun between the trees. In fact, the whole garden has benefited from the removal of the mallees though it remains to be seen what impact this will have during summer when the trees also shaded the back garden bed from the sun directly above.
In expectation of this - and because I now have the space - I have planted sunflower seeds and corn to create a bit of summer shade for some of the other crops. The timing of this larger garden also coincides with my desire to plant out as many of the seeds that I can that I have this year, so as to get newer seed stock from them. Not to mention a heap of seeds from the Diggers club.
I should also mention that over the last few weeks of holidays the chooks have had the run of the garden and have stripped the silverbeet plants of leaves and raked the soil over very well. They weren't keen when I put them back into the pen but seem to have settled in more now and the new little orpington has settled in and is regularly laying eggs.
Lots happening.
Firstly I have wanted to reclaim my shed and get all the STUFF out and have some SPACE. But not without cleaning out under the house and creating some space for some of the stuff.
And it wouldn't be as easy to do all of the under the house part without using some of it to do the retaining wall which was going to be needed at the back of the block to: Stop earth piling up against the fence and create more garden space.
So, the wall came first. And I also did under the house where and when I could to make the most of the wet days and do other things out in the garden on the dry days. I put slabs under the house and made what has been affectionately called "The Man Cave" where I will plant seedlings and pot up plants for the garden.
I have also been tinkering with the aquaponics set-up as the water is still doing more filling in some beds and less filling in others. I think I'm nearly there. The water is clearing and the fish seem happy.
So this grunting, digging and shifting heavy stuff has been going on for the last week starting with picking up the sleepers from the sawmill last Monday.
I also replaced the fencing wire to the chook yard and planted out pepino cuttings to wind through it as the chooks don't seem to peck the leaves of the pepino that much. I have plans to move the meyer lemon out of its pot and plant it into the garden where it will hopefully thrive a little more. It has fruit forming on it at the moment.
The wall took the best part of a day to put up, most of the time being the foundation laying before putting the sleepers in position. Then I deliberated on how to make raised garden beds out of the spare sleepers and in the end decided on a plain rectangle shaped garden bed coming out the width of the chook fence. This left a small edge garden along the cement edging where I had the inspired idea of leaving the grasses that seem to have thrived there and made it a real hedge garden of flowers and herbs and grasses that will eventually mask the sleepers and create a natural-looking fence to the vege garden beds behind.
So I began liberating spring bulbs from their pots and strikings of rosemary and borage seedlings that were coming up in random spots of the garden. There is still a large cape gooseberry bush which is doing really well as it was getting water from an over-flow pipe. This water was also helping out the broad beans planted nearby. Because it worked so well I have left the pipe there and built the wall around it.
Likewise with the kitchen water soak. The garden is chock-full of worms in that area and I have extended the pipe to carry water a little further from where the sleepers are, to another area where I can keep the system going and probably much better.
In the low, far corner I have mainly planted exotics that I had no real purpose for but which have made, collectively, a nice little jungle corner. The pond is still leaking but I have not ventured into it to any extreme as the pond is likely to get an overhaul at some stage. I do need to do something to with the water chestnuts which I took out of the pond and have now just started to sprout through the earth brand new little shoots.
As usual for this time of the year the nasturtiums have taken over the garden but I welcome this as it keeps the soil moist and shaded and makes great compost later on. Actually, the soil in the back garden where the trees where is fantastic! I have added to it when we first moved in sheep manure and trailer loads of horse manure which has helped somewhat, but by far I think the biggest asset to the quality of the soil has been newspaper and cardboard. Placed in sheets with thin layers of soil in between the worms just flock to the stuff and have made it over the last eighteen months a really wonderful, dark, rich, friable soil.
It has worked so well that I anticipate using as much paper as possible to build this soil up further as I now have another foot or two of soil depth to add in order to "fill" the raised garden. So over time I will leave areas in fallow and add plenty of shredded newspaper and layered cardboard.
In other areas of the garden where paper has not been covered over or has been disturbed by the chooks scratching about, the slugs and snails have gravitated to it and it has made it easy to collect them and put them into the fish tank with the perch. Happy Perch!
The odd bail of hay or pea straw has been put into the back garden too, but it is newspaper that has added the very friable, moisture holding properties of the soil as I can see what the worms have done to it in areas where I know I have placed large quantities of either paper or cardboard.
The apricot tree is now dotted with bright, white flowers and is being visited by busy bees. Only just today did I notice the greenery starting to bud out also. The nectarine flowered at the same time last year as the apricot but has instead this year starting shooting leaves at the lower branches and stem and today has pushed out flower buds which perhaps will open tomorrow, or maybe appear overnight. I will see.
The banana palm is doing well, now that it has tapped into the water supply of the worm bed and is not seeking out sun between the trees. In fact, the whole garden has benefited from the removal of the mallees though it remains to be seen what impact this will have during summer when the trees also shaded the back garden bed from the sun directly above.
In expectation of this - and because I now have the space - I have planted sunflower seeds and corn to create a bit of summer shade for some of the other crops. The timing of this larger garden also coincides with my desire to plant out as many of the seeds that I can that I have this year, so as to get newer seed stock from them. Not to mention a heap of seeds from the Diggers club.
I should also mention that over the last few weeks of holidays the chooks have had the run of the garden and have stripped the silverbeet plants of leaves and raked the soil over very well. They weren't keen when I put them back into the pen but seem to have settled in more now and the new little orpington has settled in and is regularly laying eggs.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Garden Update - End of August
The last few days I have been tweaking the aquaponics system. Fixing the sagging half barrels so they sit up a little more and drain a little better. Blocking up drainage holes and making smaller ones so the beds don't drain so quickly. Supporting pipes wherever I could so that they drain or flow water a little more efficiently.
It's paid off too. I think the system is running reasonably well now and the water is doing what it is meant to do.
The plants are doing well. Though some have only been in the beds about a fortnight or so I did have to relocate them and discovered that even though they weren't looking so good after their initial transplanting, they were in fact budding up with new growth and looking a lot perkier with extended root systems. This is heartening.
The worms that were in the system are going quite well too, so I have since added more to some of the other beds. Yesterday (Sunday) was a gusty, windy, sand-hurling day where it was much more pleasant to be inside than out but I carried on while I could as the seedlings were drying out as I was fixing the piping - despite the odd spray from a water bottle.
So now I have added some of the other seedling that I had growing - spinach, parsley, chillies, lettuce and I have a bed designated to watercress also. Today I sowed some Asian greens, purple broccoli and cucumber seeds that I intend to put into the AP system when they are seedlings. I also planted some flower seeds - Californian poppies and Red marigolds.
The other incredible observation was the hydroponic lettuces that my wife bought from the farmers market. These she took the leaves off and washed but gave me the potted roots to plant into the system. These are thriving it seems. The mizuna lettuce doubled size over night. It was just a cropped little pot of green stems yesterday and today while I was checking the system over I could not believe the change. It had grown out leaves and was a bushy little miniature of its former self! How awesome. I wonder what it will be like tomorrow?! (ps. we also had a decent rainfall throughout the night which also often gives the plants a bit of help - extra hydrogen peroxide/ozone perhaps?)
So, though it is early days I am confident that the system will thrive. Figuring in that I have only one tank of goldfish at the moment and still have the other tank to fill with fish which will add further nutrients to the water. The water cycling is really only just working to its effectiveness now despite running for a fortnight, the latest tweaking means that all the beds are getting a good soaking of water. I have had seasol passing through the system in small quantities to get the plants off to a bit of a good start in the absence of the greater numbers of fish.
The goldfish appear happy too. The three larger fish are quite robust and next to the smaller fish from last summer - they look like sharks as they rise up through the still murky water to feed.
Also today the first little blossom appeared on the apricot tree with more looking like they will be out tomorrow. Very exciting and I am hoping the blossoms miss any hail storms this year.
It's paid off too. I think the system is running reasonably well now and the water is doing what it is meant to do.
The plants are doing well. Though some have only been in the beds about a fortnight or so I did have to relocate them and discovered that even though they weren't looking so good after their initial transplanting, they were in fact budding up with new growth and looking a lot perkier with extended root systems. This is heartening.
The worms that were in the system are going quite well too, so I have since added more to some of the other beds. Yesterday (Sunday) was a gusty, windy, sand-hurling day where it was much more pleasant to be inside than out but I carried on while I could as the seedlings were drying out as I was fixing the piping - despite the odd spray from a water bottle.
So now I have added some of the other seedling that I had growing - spinach, parsley, chillies, lettuce and I have a bed designated to watercress also. Today I sowed some Asian greens, purple broccoli and cucumber seeds that I intend to put into the AP system when they are seedlings. I also planted some flower seeds - Californian poppies and Red marigolds.
The other incredible observation was the hydroponic lettuces that my wife bought from the farmers market. These she took the leaves off and washed but gave me the potted roots to plant into the system. These are thriving it seems. The mizuna lettuce doubled size over night. It was just a cropped little pot of green stems yesterday and today while I was checking the system over I could not believe the change. It had grown out leaves and was a bushy little miniature of its former self! How awesome. I wonder what it will be like tomorrow?! (ps. we also had a decent rainfall throughout the night which also often gives the plants a bit of help - extra hydrogen peroxide/ozone perhaps?)
So, though it is early days I am confident that the system will thrive. Figuring in that I have only one tank of goldfish at the moment and still have the other tank to fill with fish which will add further nutrients to the water. The water cycling is really only just working to its effectiveness now despite running for a fortnight, the latest tweaking means that all the beds are getting a good soaking of water. I have had seasol passing through the system in small quantities to get the plants off to a bit of a good start in the absence of the greater numbers of fish.
The goldfish appear happy too. The three larger fish are quite robust and next to the smaller fish from last summer - they look like sharks as they rise up through the still murky water to feed.
Also today the first little blossom appeared on the apricot tree with more looking like they will be out tomorrow. Very exciting and I am hoping the blossoms miss any hail storms this year.
Friday, August 5, 2011
Early August Update
Not much happening recently however, the aquaponics system is cycling nicely and the seedlings of lettuce, parsley and watercress are doing well and the fish doing fine.
I have not obtained any perch yet. Perhaps next week.
Small lemons forming on the lemon tree. Blossoms on the lime.
I put a heap of shredded paper in the chook pen to let them scratch it into the soil so that I can dig it out over the next few weeks to dress the garden.
Still getting a regular gift of two eggs a day which is keeping us from supplementing with market eggs.
The guinea pigs have returned from a few days away where they ate grass and were looked after indoors by my in-laws. Just as well as the weather has been windy, lots of frequent showers and even hail showers at the beginning of the week.
That is it for now.
I have not obtained any perch yet. Perhaps next week.
Small lemons forming on the lemon tree. Blossoms on the lime.
I put a heap of shredded paper in the chook pen to let them scratch it into the soil so that I can dig it out over the next few weeks to dress the garden.
Still getting a regular gift of two eggs a day which is keeping us from supplementing with market eggs.
The guinea pigs have returned from a few days away where they ate grass and were looked after indoors by my in-laws. Just as well as the weather has been windy, lots of frequent showers and even hail showers at the beginning of the week.
That is it for now.
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