Around our Suburban Garden

One of the biggest adjustments we've had to make after the move back to suburbia is giving up the dream of growing the majority of our own food. Even though we are renting a great house with the perfect backyard for us, it's still not the same, you know?

Anyway, we're doing what we can. There were already not one, but three (!!!) lemon trees so that is a bonus! There is a tank so we can water when there hasn't been rain for a while and there are a few garden beds that we are planting out in between the existing ornamentals.

A capsicum seedling among the ornamentals

 

Potted carrots, hopefully growing straight!

We're planning pots, pots and more pots!

Chicken Tractor Update

I've posted before here about our chicken tractor and how fabulous it is, and it is. But there are also a couple of design flaws.

The first (and biggest in my opinion) is that the nesting box is on top of the roosts. You can see it in the picture in the above link. Now, not being all that knowledgeble in chicken husbandry even I knew that this was not the way things should be. Chickens like to roost in the highest possible place which means that all 6 of ours girls cram into the nesting box, jostling for a comfy place to sleep. This means that they generally are laying on the floor of the tractor, usually under the nesting box. This leads to design flaw #2.

Design flaw #2 is that when the girls lay on the floor they can't be reached from the top opening (over the nesting box) so the only way to get them is to crawl through the teeny tiny door, dodging the hanging water and feeder, and reaching through the roosts to get it. This is nigh-on impossible when in the last stages of pregnancy!!! Luckily I've got children to do the leg work for me, but this brings it's own problems. Elliot is good at manouvering through the cage and climbing through the roosts, but doesn't like getting the poo on him, and was completely freaked out when one egg had a really big bit of poo and muck on it. Archie on the other hand doesn't mind the poo, but is not so good at the manouvering and him going in usually ends up with him falling, tripping and doing other such clutzy things that mean he comes out covered in poo, straw, kitchen scraps and chicken food.

We certainly do things the hard way in our house!

A Pitiful Garden Update

Since we made the decision to put the house on the market and move the garden has been neglected to say the least. Actually neglected doesn't even describe what has happened to the huge area we once had planted with heaps of edibles, some successful, some not.

We planted out two gardens using the chickens to prepare the soil for us and then our moving news came. We have kept tending those two areas (one with a mixed planting, one with potatoes) and the rest of the area has been mown and is regressing back to lawn.

I can't begin to explain how sad I feel when I look out and realise that all that potential is gone. I look through the seed box and wonder if there is any point starting a new planting when we could be gone soon. But what if we're not? But what if we are? Argh!!! The unknowns are killing me, so I'm being lazy and not bothering.

In the meantime, we're trying to save the last of the tomatoes from some pesky nocturnal animal that picks them just as they are starting to ripen, then nibbles them and leaves them around the yard for the dogs to play with.

Green tomato chutney anyone?

The Downside to Homemade

One of the downsides that I've found to not buying lots of packaged and processed food is the lack of reuseable containers.

Someone (read: a boy) has misplaced the container of paddle pop sticks that I use to label seeds when I plant them. Turning the house upside down I could not find anything suitable as a substitute, all I could think of was an ice cream container cut up, but since we've been making our own ice cream for over a year, all our old containers have been used and reused (and reused again) long ago.

Then when having breaky the other day it hit me ... a yoghurt container! I still haven't got the knack of making my own yoghurt without an Easy-yo packet (any tips welcome!) so we just buy a 1kg tub of natural yoghurt every week. As it was Elliot had already decided that that particular container was going to be used as the 'egg collection container' once the chickens start laying. It took some convincing that they wouldn't actually be laying for a few more weeks so I'm sure we'll have another container by then.

Does anyone have any tips? What do you do when you need to a certain something and have nothing to hand? If like me you make a lot of your own food from scratch, how do you do it?

The Chicken Tractor

We are housing our 6 chickens in a second hand chicken tractor. Matt is in the process of building a permanent coop, but you know how things are, it's taking a while. :)

Our wonderful tractor. So glad we were able to purchase one second hand from a friend. It was less than half the price of a new one and in excellent condition.

The plan is to have the orchard area fenced off so the chooks can free range while being safe from the dogs (there has already been an incident, but we won't go into that) and the permanent coop will have a little chicken door we can open from the inside to let them out into the orchard (once we cage the trees and build the fence of course).

 

The girls working over our horribly grassy and overgrown veg patch. The a-frame to the left is the half-built permanent coop with the orchard area behind waiting to be fenced.

Until then they are in the tractor being let out to roam around for a couple of hours in the afternoons once the dogs have been put away. We've moved the tractor onto the veg patch so they can get rid of all the grass and plant remnants and get it ready for more planting. Once they've done their bit we'll move them onto another section of overgrown veg patch and plant out where they were. We'll keep moving them around, following their progress through the garden with seedlings and directly sown seeds. Hopefully this will prove more successful than our last lot of vegie gardening which was an abysmal failure!

 The area where the tractor was for about 2 weeks. Grass is gone and the soil has been turned over and full of valuable chook poo. We've now sheet mulched and are waiting for seedlings to be ready to transplant.

Over The Weekend We ...

made a start on the chicken coop

continued edging the herb garden with recycled bricks

decided it was time to try out making a sourdough starter

watched new life springing up in the veg garden

played on the verandah

planted two more fruit trees in the orchard

A lovely quiet weekend pottering around the house.

A Neglected Harvest

Over the weekend we went back to the old house to collect the (second) last trailer load of stuff from the garden and shed, swing set, old mower, compost bins and the like. While we were there I thought I'd better check out the dregs of our Autumn garden and see what was going on. We really neglected the gardens once we'd signed the contract on the new house, we simply spent all of our spare time packing and planning the new garden!

The broad bean bushes were doing really well, though not too many pods. There was one big one that El and I ate raw (yum!) and a couple of others and that was about it. We got three purple (Dragon) carrots and three orange ones, but they're a bit corkscrew like. Still edible and not bad considering we watered sporadically and didn't bother thinning them as they grew. Two pumpkins were just sitting in the garden after the vines had died back! And then there were the potatoes!

Holy smokes! They are amazing! We dug up over 8kg of Desiree potatoes! Again, they were very neglected so we were surprised at the yeild. I hilled them up once and then couldn't be bothered and like the rest of the garden to say they were watered every now and then is being kind. They basically survived on the rain we've had over winter. The plants never actually flowered, but they had all died back. Who knows how much we'd have dug up if we'd actually looked after them?

 Some of the potatoes were enormous!

Turning the Plan into Reality Part Two

or as otherwise called:

Getting rid of the Grass!

Matt getting rid of the grass to make way for the 14m long herb garden

Our new house has very little landscaping at all. Apart from one established garden bed there is really just 2.5 acres of grass. Lovely to look out over in the mornings, great for the boys to run and play on but not very productive and a lot of work to maintain. Matt mowed for the first time this weekend and it took him an age. That was partly to do with it being the first time we'd mown and have yet to figure out a good and efficient route around the yard and all it's obstacles. The other part was probably a teensy bit due to me doing the bottom half of the front yard (about 1/4 of the block) with the blades going but not lowered fully. Oops! I thought I was doing such a good job and Matt had to go and re-do it all!

On Thursday at the markets I started to put the wheels in motion of the plan and bought some plants from the "herb man" as Elliot and I call him. I bought him out of french lavender and rosemary and also bought punnets of parsley, sage, oregano and chives for the herb garden. I also told the "herb man" that I'd be buying all his lavender and rosemary for the next couple of weeks, he seemed suitably impressed! His herbs are really cheap ($1 for small pots of smaller herbs, $2 a small pot of bigger woodier herbs.) and are great quality. He also has an extensive knowledge of all the herbs he sells and he has a really wide selection too.

Before we could plant though we had to prepare the beds and after a while of digging up the grass by hand we called Matt's brother to see if we could borrow his rotary hoe! Incredibley lazy of us, but we had such a big area to do it was going to take us all weekend just to get the herb garden bed done! Shane and Shelley were around with the hoe in a flash and it took about an hour to do all of the herb garden and about half the area for the vegetable garden. While the (big) boys were still playing with their machinery I got stuck into planting out the herbs and the boys amused themselves playing in the back of the ute. Who needs toys?

Also on the weekend we went on the hunt for cheap garden edging. I really wanted to use recycled bricks for the edges and paths. The have so much character and charm, much more interesting than modern, uniform pavers! We visited the recycling shop at the local dump and found two pallets of bricks from the old Maryborough Sugar Factory! Yahoo! They are lovely, solid bricks with MSF imprinted on one side. What a find! Little pieces of local history in our backyard! We got the lot for just over $100 which is a bit of a bargain! I also found two moccona coffee jars and a Tupperware kids drink bottle that they threw in because we were spending so much money! Score! I wanted to take some pics of them yesterday but it rained all day so it'll have to wait for another time as will the pics of the planted herbs. The rain has been wonderful though, we had over 40ml Sunday night and the tanks are overflowing!

And finally, my favourite photo of the weekend! All of us looking at the camera! Hurrah!

Turning the Plan into Reality Part One!

We have been mulling over the planning of the garden ever since we first inspected the house. We want to make sure we do it right and don't have to re-do anything. But towards the end of last week I had a brainwave with it all and all the elements fell into place. Matt took Friday off so we've had a lovely weekend starting to put all the planning into action!

We're planning to have as much of the veg and fruit garden behind the house as possible, leaving the front as it is (oodles of grass) for now. Down the track we'd love to get some grazing animals to help keep the grass down but we're unsure of what. That is a while away anyway! Also, speaking of the front, we're lining the driveway with a hedge of lavender on either side. It should smell divine!

So below is a photo of my little mud map that came to me quite out of nowhere! I'll do my best to explain it to give you an idea of what we're thinking we'll do with our little piece of Eden.

Firstly, the narrow rectangle running along the bottom of the card is the house, with the back stairs going down to the garden. The squiggly lines coming from the bottom of the steps is a path going off to the clothes line to the right and the parking area and shed to the left. The big blank area to the right of the shed will be edged with bricks and re-gravelled. There will also be a rosemary hedge around this area at the top and along the right-hand side. The little dots to the right of the parking area will be a herb garden with culinary and medicinal herbs. The rosemary hedge will be on the left-hand side of the garden bed and a brick path on the right-hand side. That path will continue past the herb garden, up around the parking area to the left where we'll have the chook house which will open onto the orchard. The line going across the top of the card is going to be a fence to separate the orchard from the rest of the garden so the chooks will have a safe, contained place to free range (away from dogs!). Heading left from the chook house is the bore pump surrounded by a little stand of trees and then beyond that will be the compost bins. We're also thinking about placing a bed of asparagus here because it will be shaded by the shed and should be nice and cool through summer. To the right of all of this will be the veg beds, the eight small rectangles on the card. The veg beds will actually be right up next to the path, but my drawing is not to scale! We're planning to fill up all the remaining space with lots more edible and medicinal plants so that there are lots of windy paths and no grass out the back at all! I'm sure that is a long way off though so we're just taking baby steps for now.

To give it some scale, the shed is a four bay shed. The herb garden is approximately 14m long and 1.5m wide. The fence for the orchard will be about 16m from the back boundary fence of the property. The area we've got organised for vegetable beds initially is 8m x 14m.

Now that I've given a bit of background about what the plan is, tomorrow I'll post more about what we actually achieved over the weekend!

Breaking Ground

Now that we are in our own place we can start getting serious about our food production. The rental we were in was good because it had a big weed-infested garden bed that we turned into our veg patch but now that we've got 2.5 acres of our own space the feeling is completely different. Overwhelming, exciting and daunting all at the same time. We want to plan things properly, taking our time and really thinking about where the chickens will go, what is the best site for the compost etc etc. Luckily for us the site for the orchard was pretty obvious.

The previous owners told us that they had great plans for the gardens and yard but simply did not have the time to devote to it (they are running their own small business). Luckily for us they spent some time (and money) on some pretty good garden infrastructure. There is a bore (that pumps up ground water) connected with underground pipes to many sprinklers (think big farm sprinklers) all over the grounds. This means that we'll be able to water gardens without using our precious rain water (We aren't connected to mains/town water) Two of these sprinklers are behind the house towards the back fenceline. Confusing I know. Sorry. Anyway, we're planning the orchard to be along the back fenceline, two rows 7 metres apart with the trees in each row 3 metres apart, then another row in between with trees 3 metres apart staggered to the outside rows. Even more confusing? It makes sense in my head!

There was one citrus tree already there so we're taking our spacings off that one. Saturday we planted a new mandarin (Emperor variety) and Sunday we planted a very sick Eureka lemon that we've had in a pot. My parents gave it to us for Christmas last year and unfortunately it hasn't been the same since it got decimated by grasshoppers a while ago. Hopefully now it's in the ground it will recover!

I've decided that I'm going to try and stretch my grocery/market/housekeeping money a little further and buy one fruit tree every fortnight, maybe two if they're a good price or need a friend for cross-pollination. After looking around the markets and a few smaller nurseries in town I found that the only place I could get a mandarin tree (it was Elliot's request) was Bunnings. Good for the budget because it was only $20, not so good for the ethics of supporting local businesses.

Oh well, you can't win them all.

Into The Secret Garden

We're back from another long weekend with my parents in Brisbane. It was a wonderful weekend full of time with family and friends. I even had dinner out by myself with my wonderful girlfriends from our old neighbourhood in Brisbane! What a treat!

We were quite busy all weekend and we even spent a whole day at a shopping centre! I can't remember the last time I did that, especially with 2 boys, a husband and grandparents in tow! I'm not normally a massive shopper, but it was nice to wander around aimlessly and we did a bit of thinking about things that we'd like to get for the new house. A new dining suite, an outdoor table and chairs. I bought something extra special for myself that deserves it's own post, so I'll write about that tomorrow.

Today was a home day before we got packed up for the drive back and the boys spent most of the morning playing outside. My parents have the most wonderful backyard for kids, full of secret gardens and different places to explore and discover. They built their home over 24 years ago and designed and did all the garden work themselves. It was a magical yard to grow up in and I love that the boys are enjoying it as much as my brother and I did. Unfortunately some of the built features are not what they once were, the cubby/fort that Dad built is quite dilapidated and unsafe now, luckily it is not designed for little kids and they don't even know it's there! Elliot discovered the tyre climbing frame for the first time this morning and while it is still a bit big for him it will only be a matter of time before he's at the top! Archie, the climbing monkey that he is, just stood at the bottom reaching up for the lowest tyre! He definitely keeps us on our toes!



For now they are quite happy doing laps of the garden, in and out of the secret garden and looking at all the different plants, insects, flowers, birds and trees. What a childhood!

Our Autumn Garden

We spent both yesterday afternoon and this afternoon out in the garden getting beds cleared and seeds sewn for our Autumn plantings. As usual with the garden we're not as organised as we'd like. I've completely forgotten about peas and have no seeds so on Thursday when we go to our local Farmer's Market I'll see what the 'Seed Lady' has got. She sells Eden Seeds at the same price as from the website so we save the postage and get to have a chat at the same time!

The main job yesterday was clearing the old corn stalks out of the bed and in it's place we sewed onions, shallots and two types of carrots. One variety of carrot is called Dragon and it's purple skinned with bright yellow/orange flesh! I can't wait for them to be ready. We're hoping the corn will have opened our clay-ey soil up a bit, the last time we attempted carrots they tasted yummy but looked a bit worse for wear.

Along with the carrots, onions and shallots I also sewed broccoli, cauliflower, kale, ruby chard and pak choy seeds in trays to be planted out in the garden when they're bigger.

The other big job yesterday was getting our seeds potatoes in. We are going to plant two varieties, Coliban and Desiree but only the Desiree had shooted so the Coliban are still on the window sill in the kitchen. Luckily I had the boys to help get things ready!




Also in our Autumn garden this year is some garlic that I planted around a standard rose that is planted in a half barrel out the front. I just broke up a couple of bulbs of organic garlic from the Farmer's Markets in town. A few weeks ago they started to send up the first green shoots!

And lastly we met another one of our neighbours this afternoon and got talking about gardening. She took us out the back and started pulling all sorts of things for us to take as cuttings. She gave us Singapore Spinach which is apparently similar to the Ceylon Spinach we've already got, but with red stems, sweet basil and lime basil plus a lovely looking eggplant which was ripe. I think I may grill the eggplant for our pizzas later in the week.


And now we water and wait. Oh, and pick the cabbage white butterfly caterpillars off the brassicas ;)