The Making of a New Garden Bed

The beginning of a sheet mulch was in this bed for about 6 months, a layer of manure and pea hay. A Green Manure was then planted  to break up the soil, add some goodness to the ground and use the greens as chook food. ALOT of seed went in, I had trouble germinating it, little did I know I was feeding the Ellenbrook Pigeon population!




Seeds of Vetch, Lupin, Broad Beans, Red Mustard, Peas, Sunflowers, Wheat, Safflower, Alfalfa.
Wheat had sprouted from the chook food, there were a couple of unidentified plants, plus some winter weeds

After a little while, once it started to rain and the pigeons got some harsh words, it grew fantastic. Lush, green and about knee high. I could hear the sand give a sigh of relief.
The greens were cut regularly for the chooks.





I had a half bale of Lupin mulch, this went over the Green Manure. Then chooks then went in. Over the course of 6 days, they were put to work in an old dog play type pen. They loved it in there, even though it was a small space, those girls had the time of their lives!! I moved the pen every morning, so they had a fresh bit of ground to get at.

Thank you to Butter, Princess, Cookie and Rosie.
 I made sure it was very safe for them at night. The pen was held to the ground with pegs, and they had shade-cloth and a tarp for shade in the day,
plus a sheet of laserlite over the top at the night
time. I don't feel its safe here to let the chook free range, to close to a main road, stray dogs, foxes, upsetting the neighbors etc.

The girls quickly went to work, pooping, eating the greens and insects and scratching in the sand underneath.







Once the chooks had been over  the whole area, 30kg of Bentonite Clay got sprinkled over the top. 2-3cm of Vege Mix Concentrate went over the top of all that.

Home made compost went over the top, about 10cm thick.
Walking planks supported buy some pavers are placed in the middle

for easy assess from both sides. The bed is 2.m x 6.5m

Super happy with the results! I made a trellis as a support, and I'm 

hoping it's in the right spot (facing westish) as to also provide some

summer shade in the afternoon. This bed will be used (for now) as a kitchen 

garden bed, I look forward to planting some summer fruit and veg

Compost Thermometer 2

Day 6, 10th Aug
54 Degrees after turning

Day 7, 11th Aug
57 Degrees

Day 8, 12th Aug
Back down to 52 

I had no idea what to expect when using a thermometer. Once the pile declined in temperature the second time around I decided to leave it at that. By the 'look' of the compost it was good enough for me to use as a mulch, which at the moment I intended it to be. Although if your making 'proper' compost, ideally it could have done a couple of months to cure and rot down, let the worms and microbes do their thing. 

My thoughts are that it's going to cure anyway on the ground, so it can do it's thing there. 

Day 9, 13th Aug
Slow drop in temp, 50 Degrees

Day 10, 14th Aug
Huge jump overnight, 43 Degrees

I'm yet to  figure out the benefit of letting it cure/rot down in a  pile or let it do that at ground level. I'm sure I'll figure it out one day! For the moment I needed to make more growing space and give everything a good old mulchy compost before the hot weather, so the HUGE amount of compost I did manage to make was good enough for me!!! 

THANK YOU to a fellow Permie friend for the lending me the thermometer. Your the best!

Day 11, 15th Aug
38 Degrees

August Seed Sowings

August seems a really exciting time in the garden this year. I can feel that Winter is not quite finished, but Spring is just around the corner. 

Last summer was a bit of a disaster in the way of Spring Summer plantings, it was the second summer here that I had experienced in the garden. I had all these big ideas, seeds and seedling went in then it all fell apart. For several reasons - Soil not quite 'right', sun too hot, not enough shade, not enough of the right kind of mulch, not enough water, site to exposed.........any way I have learnt alot and have made many improvements since then, mainly on soil amending. Anyway,  I'm a year wiser, and my garden is a year older, so this coming summer I'm hoping for a bumper harvest of fruit and veg

August Seed Sowing
The potting table always look likes this!!!

Seed sowing happens at the beginning of EVERY month. Usually in the first week, it is easy for me to remember that way! I've lately been using half half of potting mix and reconstituted coir block, and I'm finding it really good.  I've tried seed raising in 100% home made compost, but  find it goes moldy, so I'm working on that one!!!  Pots I mostly use are just the herb size ones, re-used and well washed out. I pack alot of seed in this size pot and it doesn't dry out no where near as much punnet size cells.
This month I have planted a heap of seed. I cannot expect to have any harvests if I don't sow any seed. Here is just some of them I have sown at the beginning of this August.

Tomato -  Beams Yellow Pear, Hillbilly, Black Krim, Sweetie, Lemon Drop. Green Zebra, Snow White, Roma, and Black Russian
ALSO

Sunflower - Perennial and Giant Russian
Fat Hen, Rosella, Chilacyote, Spring Onion, Leeks, Mizuna, Chilli, Tomatillo, Albizia, Lablab, Red Celery, Borage
ALSO
Cucumber - Diva, Lebanese, Apple
Eggplant - Snowy White, Rosa Bianca, Japanese Long, Udumalapet
Capsicum - Yellow Wax, Perennial, Cherry Time, Mini Sweet

Whatever seeds I find that haven't germinated very well, will get re-sown at the beginning of September, along with all the Watermelon, Rockmelon, Pumpkins Squashes etc

Compost........With a Thermometer

               

Compost Pile, Sat 4th Aug

DAY 1, Sun 5th Aug
A full 24 hrs later, sitting on 34 Degrees

DAY 2, Mon 6th Aug
On 42 Degrees

DAY 3, Tues 7th Aug
50 Degrees!!

DAY 4, Wed 8th Aug
 At 53

 Composting ingredients are layered up. Sprinkling each layer with Critical Elements, and giving it a light water with a watering can which has Molasses dissolved in it.
Covering it with old empty chaff bags an a Tarp to keep off the rain.

DAY 5, Thurs 9th Aug (MORNING)
Temp dropped overnight 48 Degrees

DAY 5 Thurs, 9th Aug (AFTERNOON)
Dropped right down 38 Degrees

DAY 5 Thurs, 9thy Aug
Time to turn the pile, hopefully
to get it back up to a decent temp.
35 Degrees on turning

Turning the pile





Stay tuned for the next installment .....dah dah da da.....

All The Purples

Purple Podded Pea

Silverbeet

Spring Onions

Red Stem Malabar Spinach

Red Tatsoi

Thai Basil

Red Leaf Mustard

Perennial Basil

Lablab/Hyacinth Bean

Purple Podded Pea Flower

Crimson Broad Beans

Barrels of Fun!

(L) Fig  (R) Winesap Apple

            

 Most wine barrels are about 100L when cut in half. I buy mine locally and are pre-cut. When I get them home, they are filled with water if I'm not planting out straight away. This helps to prevent the wood warping and to help leach out any winey residue. I love that wine barrel smell!

When I'm ready to pot up, the water gets tipped into the garden. 4-5 drainage holes are then drilled into the base, put the barrel in place (hopefully I've put it in right place first go, but it's unlikely!!)They are heavy to move once filled, but can be done with the help of a sack trolley and a friend. The barrel gets lifted off the ground by using some of those fancy terracotta pot feet (about 6 to hold the weight), but they are expensive. I've use underneath few of mine some old paving off-cuts. Cover the drainage holes with a scrap bit of shade cloth, so the soil stays in the barrel and not sieve through to the floor.

I use a mix of REALLY good potting mix about 2-3 bags, a bag of Vege Concentrate, and a couple of shovels of my own compost. Or, I do half-half of potting mix and compost. These two potted up in the pic have had some a couple of handfuls of Bentonite Clay added. The fruit trees seem happy enough in this mix I've been using. Oh,and water often and mulch well. 

All the fruit trees in my barrels are full size trees - no dwarfs here! 

Others I have in barrels are

Mandarin - Imperial. 

 Orange - Washington Navel

 Fig -   White Adriatic
 Apple - Winesap  

 Lemon - Meyer