Berry Bounty

I've been wanting to try growing berries for years, but never made the commitment as the plants weren't cheap, and I was nervous of not caring for them properly and killing them.

I purchased some half price berry bushes a few weeks ago as they were old stock. A thornless blackberry, a raspberry and a blueberry. I began planting them into the gardens on Thursday. Home nurtured compost was dug into the soil, plants will be watered in with seaweed fertiliser and mulched with matured horse manure and straw. The pH in that garden usually averages 5.5 along the fence line so all the requirements for healthy growth should be met.

Bed piled up and reinforced by wood beam.

Teasing out the roots was a challenge

Blueberry planted. Trench in front of bed was filled with aged horse manure.

Watered in and mulched. Remaining bushes will be planted in the next few days as now I am "bushed"!

They may need a shelter erected above them which will prevent any potential sun burn in Summer and frost burn in Winter. Now we need to keep a watch for ambitious finches and other winged pests in case a more intensive screening is required so I can harvest fruit before it is stolen.

Looking forward to possibly harvesting some fruit this season.

Cheers,
Robyn Louise xo

Gardening in Winter

It’s been a strange Winter so far.

There have been some quite warm days, at 20 deg Celsius, but also cold nights down to minus 3 Celsius a few times. No wonder the plants are confused!

In the few weeks I’ve been pruning roses a couple of them have put out new shoots, even though there has been heavy overnight frost.  

The bed of stinging nettles hasn’t died off. The bed is on the north side of the yard and, due to the fencing, they are in a warm micro-climate but I am surprised the nettles have remained alive let alone continued to grow.  

The garlic in the front row is an experiment and, if it succeeds, I'll have around 30 heads.

Due to the warmer weather I am still able to grow some loose leaf lettuce and radishes. I have planted some broccoli and roquette(arugula) seedlings that will feature a photo when not so tiny! The leafy vegetables are sheltered by suspended shade cloth to prevent the frost from being in direct contact with them. 

Even the Tahitian lime tree hasn’t suffered this Winter, though that may change.  

Now is the time of year I feed the cherry tree in preparation for flowering/fruiting in October/November. I’ve forked the ground to loosen it, mulched/fed it with horse and matured chicken manure, added a sprinkle of lime, then watered it thoroughly. Mulch straw needs to be purchased to form the final layer. We’ve been doing some burning of dead wood so wood ash will be collected and stored to use on any cherry slugs that appear when the leaves have grown. 

The apricot tree will need a chainsaw pruning this year. This photo was taken last year. I've posted it, rather than a one of a bare tree, as the apricot branches are difficult to see against the plethora of eucalypt trees in the background. The branches were so heavy with fruit last year that a few broke.

What grows in your garden in Winter?

Cheers,

Robyn Louise xo

Timber recycle

Yesterday the tree removal contractors  that the council uses, came out and cleaned up the fallen tree and other fallout where it had crashed through the surrounding flora.

They started at about 8 am and finished around 11.30 am. I was amazed at the size of the branches the industrial wood chipper could consume.

There was expected damage to the fence that we will insist the council repair.

The manager asked if we would like to keep the remaining large logs and woodchip or have them remove it. We have friends with woodfires, and apparently this is a Blakely's Redgum, so has good burning qualities, low sparks and excellent coals. It will need to be split soon, though, as it has a reputation of being difficult to split. Considering the drought in progress and the cost of buying mulch I decided to keep that too! There wasn't as much as I thought from so much tree but it will be useful.

Being impressed by the way they worked I also asked for the company's card as there are a few trees that can be a problem, at the front of the house, that we will need to remove in the future.

Stay safe everyone, and always keep an eye on trees that creak as it may not be branches rubbing against each other!

Cheers,

Robyn Louise. 

Something new

I haven't grown Sweet potatoes (kumera) before, and I'd just about given up, as each time I checked under the lush vine there were only scrawny little roots.

When I was watering them this morning, after not doing any checking for almost a month, I saw that the soil was raised in heaps. I dug into the soil and unearthed this (my size 7 boot is for comparison)

which was a huge surprise as I thought the whole project had failed. On quick investigation I discovered there are quite a few other tubers around this size available.

Maybe it just needed a cool change to the weather to encourage the vine to store more energy in it's roots, making them larger!

I'll harvest as required as I don't need the garden space they are growing in. Considering the current price of these at the shops I think it's worth it to have these home grown.

Cheers,
Robyn Louise

Hot, hot, hot.......

That's not an advertisement for a new product but a comment on the weather over here, in the Central West Plains of NSW, Australia, the last fortnight.

Temperature has broken local records at 45.8 deg Celcius. Thankfully the newly installed solar power system has saved us a small fortune as the air-conditioners have been in operation 24 hours a day, unlike previous years, as even the lowest night temperatures have been 24C or more. We had a hen die last week from heat stress. Ice containers cooling the water, wet patches on the ground where they can sit under the trees, and even shallow dishes to stand in didn't help on the day when the winds were hot and brisk. Two days before that one of our hens hatched 6 chickens in 44C heat! One died the next day, but it had a difficult hatch and was possibly blind so it may have been kinder that it did die, even though we took over the care and did our best for it.

Even the outside dog has been encouraged to come inside. She's 14 now so she feels the temperature changes more keenly.

 

Of course the cat is mostly inside as he "owns" the place....hahahaha....

The temperature dropped to 38C over the weekend but the humidity rose so the weather was still difficult to endure. I will definitely be glad when Autumn weather arrives with cooling breezes and the possibility of rain.

Mulching and deep watering infrequently has kept the  few vegetables and fruit trees alive, though my little Emperor mandarin has dropped all it's fruit. The lemon and the lime tree haven't flowered this year, but as they too are small, I'd rather the energy go into strengthening the tree than into fruit. The worms are still producing their type of fertiliser and I'm grateful for it as the compost isn't breaking down very quickly in this dry hot weather. Photo is about 2 litres of worm juice that I gather once a week.

I participated in a Christmas card swap last year, in a forum I am a member of, and received cards from 2 members in England. I should have posted these earlier, but it doesn't alter the fact that they are beautiful cards, and much work has gone into the making of them. Thanks again, Sarah and Josey.

Sarah's card

Josey's card

My card to Josey

Cheers,

Robyn Louise XO

Winter Work_outside

It has been busy here the last month. The BIL visited for 3 weeks and helped PC move, clear and repair.

The before photos of the garden were taken on a visit I made mid June 2016 but the start of the clearing and reorganising didn't begin till about December 2016. Moving the rocks is an ongoing project and is time and energy consuming.

The Peach Tree Garden just needs some stepping stones, of which we have plenty, and then it can be planted with more herbs and veges.

Before

At present

The South-East Garden is finally rock, carpet and weed free and I'm planning beans along the south fence, where the cherry tomatoes were last Summer, and the tomatoes will go along the East fence. I'm about to decide which seeds I will germinate now to plant in front of the beans and tomatoes. With just the two of us, and some things that PC doesn't eat, it will be an interesting procedure.

A bit wild and wandering!

Rocking the rock to roll it out of the garden.

Ripping out old nylon carpet that previous owners placed in ALL the gardens for weed prevention.

Ready for composting, mulching and then planting in Spring

The Central garden area is still a work in progress because the rocks, and old carpet, need to be moved across the path and we don't wish to damage the path. At the moment all we have to move them is the diesel forklift and, at a weight of 3 tons, it will make the path rubble. We'll keep chipping at the rocks till we have another solution.

 

In the meantime Maddy is the main supervisor (as usual!) and Kevin and Co have full run of the front yard.....as that is on the future list.

Cheers,

Robyn Louise XO

Freedom!

We often let the hens out in the front yard, particularly on a weekend. They love it.

Weeding and fertilising

Watch dog so adventurous hens don't trespass in back yard where the veges are growing.

 Mumma hen also had a residential relocation.....and we supplied a bodyguard for her and her offspring. She keeps him a wingspan away at the moment but I think he'll be more than a bodyguard soon. After playing second in charge to Figjam since he was a "teenager" he's very pleased to be allowed to flap his wings and crow without receiving a physical chastisement! I'm considering which breed of hens to add to his flock as I'd like some meat producers without purchasing commercial meat hens.
He also needs renaming as "Junior" doesn't sound dignified enough now he has a missus and kids!

The perfect end to a lovely Winter's day.

Cheers,

Robyn Louise XO

Wet Worms

I checked the worm farm a few days ago and discovered that very cold nights make for morning condensation and strange things grew in my worm bed.

On the other side though the worms seemed fine and there was no offensive smell. 

The top tray and the middle tray were quite soggy, though the inhabitants weren't affected. 

I added oat straw troughs in the bedding to soak up moisture. Also, spreading the bedding more evenly through the 3 layers, as well, will assist in evening out the moisture.

After I emptied out the worm fluid, into a container, the bottom tray was layered with dry straw/grass and then the worm farm remained open in the sun for a couple of hours for the moisture to reduce.

 

As I won't require worm castings until Spring I'm trying to breed my little workers over Winter and I'm thinking that the longer, shallower bathtub (the one underneath) will make a nice new home for some of my worms in the near future.

Any advice on increasing worm populations and creating a worm habitat in a bathtub, from those who have done this before, would be most appreciated 😊.

Cheers,

Robyn Louise XO

Autumn Activities

The last couple of weeks have been a mix of relaxation, warming winter food and either planting cold season crops or feeding and mulching areas for the Winter so they will be ready for planting in Spring.

Sunday 23 April we met with my daughter, her partner and her friend at Iandra Castle, Greenethorpe - which is about 45 minutes from home - for an open day and took our picnic lunch. A fitting place for PC and I to go :). The property has a few open days a year and we will probably attend the next few to see the changes in the season in the gardens.
Here are some outdoor views and the sale sign when the property was subdivided in 1916. The property was huge and I want to locate the history as the owner was revered by the locals due to the services etc he implemented for the area.

 

 It would take too long to decide which of the inside views to post as there were so many interesting things, so, if you ever visit Young, NSW,  Australia then type this into your computer search engine -http://www.iandracastle.com.au/open-days -  and reserve a whole day to look at it. It's definitely worth it!

Mmmmm...... A couple of Winter warmer recipes I've recently discovered online. Both meet the approval of PC....I'm having a run of success there!

The one above is Teriyaki Chicken and the one below is Chick Pea and Vegetable Curry.
Both can be frozen and reheated but the curry goes a tad mushy due to the vegetable content.

There's been some more rain this week. Only a few millimetres but the seedlings virtually jumped out of their trays. PC dug out the old grape vine and softened the soil for the pea seedlings to go along the east fence in the next few days. I've been researching and I can grow a fig tree in the conditions here, so when the stump of the other tree is removed, it will be replaced with a brown turkey as that is what I have had success with before in extreme summer heat and frosty Winters.

Right -This is a close up of the white patches in the above garden. We had our first frost today! No wonder I felt half frozen when I climbed out of bed this morning...brrrr.

The moss on the rocks appreciates the recent moisture as well. I thought frost may hamper it's growth but it seems to thrive on it.



I'm looking forward to much observation and note taking during my first Winter here :).

Cheers,
RobynLouise XO