Garden Progress

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Posted on July 14, 2014

After our visit to the Garden Expo on Saturday, we spent Sunday afternoon out in the garden.

Our first project was to remove the old bird netting from the peach tree and to prune it. This is what it looked like before we started.

This is one of the nets which we bought at the Expo.

The nets will protect fruit trees or garden beds from birds and pests, including fruit fly. I had been looking at them online but when I saw them at the Expo I decided to go ahead and buy 2 of them. Here is the website. We bought the 2m ones.

It is recommended that you do not put the netting on until after the fruit has set otherwise it impedes pollination. Since it is likely that the time to install the netting will be while we are away, we decided to have a trial run after pruning the tree.

While this would be sufficient to keep the birds away, you need to gather the fabric up and secure it around the base of the trunk to be sure of eliminating any fruit fly infestation. We will ask the housesitters to put the netting on at the relevant time and hopefully look forward to a crop of unblemished peaches.

We also pruned the fig tree, grapefruit tree and one of the lemon trees.

Next weekend I will be planting as I have ordered some rhubarb crowns and asparagus. I had a phone call today to say that they are ready so I will pick them up on Thursday.

A Dose of Inspiration

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Posted on July 12, 2014

The Duke and I went to the Queensland Garden Expo today. It is a huge event which is held annually in Nambour which is a major town about 30 km from where we live. We do not go every year, usually about every 3 years.

We checked the program of speakers before we left home so had a definite plan for our visit. First, we wandered around some of the many exhibits to see what was on offer. There are so many stalls that it is difficult to take it all in. We bought 2 nets which are suitable for fruit trees or vegetable gardens. They are small enough mesh to eliminate fruit fly so we will be using one on the peach tree this year.

Our other purchase was 5 hibiscus plants which we will plant in the garden in front of the house. We already have 1 hibiscus and are keen to remove some of the other shrubs and make the hibiscus a feature in this bed.

I will tell you more about our purchases in future posts.

We took our drink bottles of water and some mandarins for a snack but we bought some lunch from one of the many food stalls. We had satay chicken skewers with spiced cous cous.

Then it was time to join the queue for a very popular speaker – Costa Georgiadis from Gardening Australia. The title of the presentation was, “Growing our food future. Simple ways to participate that bring us all along for the ride. So hang on!” – and hang on we did. Costa is a passionate and entertaining presenter – even more so in real-life than on television.

It was difficult to capture a photograph as standing still is clearly not one of Costa’s strong points.

He really did wear that beanie!

Warming to his theme…………

And finally, presenting the ‘evidence’ to the judges.

This was the beginning of the presentation, where Costa showed the audience pre-packed, hard-boiled and peeled eggs packaged in a hard plastic case. The one hour presentation absolutely flew and we really did have to hang on. This was not a formal, staid lecture but more like a wild ride.

Some of the messages I came away with were:

We can all make a difference
Be positive
Engage with your community
Be innovative

It can sometimes be difficult to maintain your enthusiasm and passion in the face of the negativity that so often surrounds us but a dose of Costa was just what I needed get get me inspired to continue to push to grow and share food, reduce waste and packaging and encourage others to do the same.

Simple Pleasures

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Posted on June 18, 2014

I have been absent a bit recently for no reason other than the fact that I have a life to live as well as a blog to write. I am busy at work and it is a little over 7 weeks until our overseas trip and the days are filling up fast with appointments as diverse as dentist, retirement seminar, work conference, tax accountant, haircut and so on.

I am able to work away from the office some of the time and yesterday was one of those days. After spending the best part of the day at my desk, I ventured outside in the mid-afternoon. This is the peak season for the citrus that thrive in our climate.

The netted tree in the foreground is the mandarin. The birds do not touch the oranges, lemons or grapefruit but they love the mandarins. It may be because of the thinner skin but the scrub turkeys would take them all if it were not for the protection that the netting offers.

I picked some mandarins for our lunches and then took an opportunity which was too good to pass up.

I sat one the step in the winter sunshine and savoured a sweet, juicy mandarin picked straight from the tree. Delightful!

By the way, this photo was taken yesterday and it has not been edited or altered in any way. That is really what the day was like – perfect.

Redistribution of Resources

Clean & Green

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Posted on May 21, 2014

In an online discussion group of which I am a member, the challenge this week was to make some changes in your routine to make your life a little greener. It was noted that actions that are good for the environment can also be beneficial to your purse.

When I stopped and thought about this, I realised that most of how I choose to live is a result of making the best choice I can in the prevailing circumstances. Some of these things are what I have always done and others are changes I have made but it is so long ago that I do not even consider them as particularly green.

Here are some of our household patterns.

Use locally-made, environmentally-friendly washing liquid, laundry soaker, dishwashing liquid and dishwasher powder from Kin Kin Naturals.

Make my own wool wash and cream cleanser.

Use bicarb and vinegar to clean most surfaces.

Hang clothes outdoors to dry or in front of the fire. Use clothes dryer rarely.

Run our home on tank water, grid-connected solar power and solar hot water service.

Grow some of our own fruit and vegetables. This week I have picked lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, radishes, pak choy, lemons, oranges, mandarins. grapefruit and avocadoes.

Compost all our scraps or feed them to the chickens.

Keep chickens for our own supply of eggs.

Catch public transport to work.

Complete multiple errands when making a trip in the car.

Re-use as many resources as possible.

Avoid processed foods.

Make choices when shopping to avoid packaging – buy bulk/loose goods.

Use my own bags/containers when shopping.

Heating from a slow-combustion heater fuelled by wood collected from our property.

Give away items no longer needed via Freecycle or op shop.

Buy only what we need.

Repair things that we already own.

This is not a complete list but is an indication of what we do every day to lighten our footprint on the planet.

What choices have you made that could be viewed as ‘green’?

Fruit and Flowers

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Posted on May 6, 2014

We planted the new blueberry bushes on Sunday.

We bought 3 each of 4 different varieties that seemed appropriate for our climate. I collected enough rocks to create a border around the new patch. At the moment there is residual grass but we are planning to mulch the entire area. We will order a load of pine mulch which is acidic and suitable for the blueberries. Underneath the mulch we will place several layers of newspaper to suppress the grass.

The passionfruit vince which we bought at the same time as the blueberries has been planted next to the chicken run so that it can grow on the fence..

Finally, I wanted to show you one of the ornamental plants in our garden. It is a gorgeous apricot hibiscus which was here when we came. The shrub is nothing to look at but the flowers are stunning. Here is one that managed to escape under the old sleeper which is placed to stop the chickens escaping under the fence. There are lots more buds on the plant and soon it will be covered with beauties like this.

We are considering planting the garden bed infront of the verandah with a selection of hibiscus shrubs. There is a display at Woombye (Sunshine Coast) on Saturday so we are hoping to go and get a few ideas.

The New Arrivals

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Posted on May 3, 2014

On Thursday evening there was a card in our mailbox advising that there was a large parcel at the Post Office for us to collect. We collected the box early on Friday morning before we went to work. It was our fruit trees that we ordered online from Daley’s Nursery. We ordered 12 blueberry bushes and a passionfruit vine.

Here is the box after I had slit one side open (as suggested in the attached instructions). The plants were well-packed and in excellent condition. Once again, we followed the directions and removed all of the wrapping and put them out in full sun.

We watered them well and have placed them in the area where they will be planted – hopefully tomorrow. It may be a bit difficult to see in the photo but I had already placed rocks to mark where we are going to plant them so it will be a relatively simple matter of digging the holes. The ground is quite soft as we have had some rain. Blueberries thrive in a slightly acidic soil. I have never actually tested the pH of our soil but the other indicator is that azaleas and camellias grow really well in our area and they like very similar conditions.

We have four other blueberry shrubs which are in the area which is now the chicken run. You can read about them in this previous post. We did not give them as much care as they probably needed but we still managed to harvest about 1.5kg of berries this summer. That was predominantly from 2 shrubs. We have now pruned them quite hard and mulched them thoroughly.

The other exciting news is that we have completely finished fencing the vegetable garden area.

As well as the completed fencing you may also be able to see the black hoops over the garden bed in the distance. This is some large poly pipe which I am planning to use as a frame for some exclusion netting to keep the white cabbage moth off the broccoli, kale, cabbages and cauliflower. I am looking at buying the vege netting from Green Harvest. We are fortunate that this business is located in Maleny so we are able to place our order online and then pick it up in person.

The chickens are rather unhappy that they are now permanently excluded from the garden area and all of the freshly dug soil and earthworms.

Weekend Work & Chicken Wings

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Posted on April 30, 2014

It is Wednesday already and it is nearly a week since my last post. I have been busy doing things instead of writing and unfortunately have not always had the camera handy. However, here are a few photos of some of the things we did on the weekend.

The existing blueberry bushes have been pruned, enclosed with wire surrounds and mulched thoroughly. These bushes have been in for several years but are now in the wrong place as they are located within the new chicken run. I previously had the entire area enclosed to prevent the chickens from digging around them and exposing the roots but I decided that individual enclosures were a better idea.

The fencing around the perimeter of the vegetable gardens is almost complete. I the meantime I have temporarily closed off the last bit to exclude the chickens. This meant that I was able to prepare a new garden bed and be safe in the knowledge that it would not be dug up immediately by the marauding feathered army. The rock edging is made from some of the hundreds of rocks that litter our property. The bed is inside the fence nearest to the house so I plan to make this into a herb garden.

Finally, I clipped the wings of the chickens in order to make sure that they could not fly over the 1200mm fence into the vegie garden. I had wanted to do this for ages but never felt quite brave enough. With some advice from an online forum, a Youtube video and The Duke to hold the chicken I was able to clip the flight feathers on one wing of each chicken. The exercise seems to have been successful as there has been no more instances of flying over fences.

Finally – A Fence

Birthday Business

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Posted on April 20, 2014

Today is my birthday. No particular milestone but time to reflect on the year that has passed and look forward to the year ahead. I have been blessed with lots of lovely messages from family and friends.

Our wedding anniversary was a couple of weeks ago and we did not have a particular celebration for either event. However, in the past fortnight we have had a picnic with family, been to the movies twice and eaten out at our local Italian restaurant.

Today we spent the time together working in the garden – re-arranging, planting and naturally planning the next project. My brain works faster than my hands!

I did stop and make lunch which was as good as any cafe offering and the view from the deck is pretty special, too.