It just seems to be that every month or so, there is a
HUGE tidy up in the garden. It normally starts on a Sunday morning, really early, on a weekend that hubby is home. I'm out there all day.
This weekend just gone was no exception. It was 7am, trying to make the most of the cooler mornings.
Started first by making a 'Nursery' for the AP system. The theory is to keep the Perch contained for when the Barra go in soon. Perch, now I know, are really slow growing. I don't want them to be a lovely live bait feast for the Barramundi. These Perch will be moved into a new system as soon as its built, which will hopefully be soon. So the idea for now now is to keep them contained, that they can't get out and nothing can get in.
A laundry basket was used, with one of those swimming pool floatie things which was cable tied to the top. 5 8mm holes were drilled in the base of the basket. The hardest part was catching the Perch. I managed to catch 8 out of 10, so there are two more in there. I'm thinking now that I will get some more Perch to put in the nursery, so when I move them into their new tank, it will be fully stocked.
Compost making is still high on the agenda. Finding the best way to make it has been about 4 years worth of practice, and I'm still never 100% happy with all the methods I've tried.
This pile above is the newest one. It's always dry, doesn't matter how much I wet it with the hose and cover it up, it's like the soil beneath it sucks every moisture drop out of it. (Oh, and its home to a mouse. Great.)
The worm farms also got re-established...again. Will see how we go this time around. I've just got the round tiered ones, two of them. The only fault I have is that I fill them up way too fast with scraps. It makes lots of liquid, which is great. I'm still on the hunt for a free bath tub, to make a proper big one!!
The pond was also looking pretty disastrous. 5cm thick later of Azolla, water mucky and plants root bound. Rotting Taro roots are rank!
It all got cleaned up, and plants re-potted. Looks much better. There's a fine line between leaving it alone and it will deteriorate, and leaving it alone and it make its self all better. I was getting to much sediment, all that potting mix that the plants were in I think. The Taro and the Kang Kong got re-potted in to left over gravel. The mints, parsley, cress, celery, bhrami got put in to a slightly bigger pot with no growing medium. All the soil got washed off, then just plonked back into a pot. The idea with not using any growing medium, is to keep the plants contained in the pot, with out all the stink that goes with using a pot mix. Water will flow in through the drainage holes in the bottom.
The next day (Monday) I noticed a school of fish in the pond. I thought then that maybe I should have left it the way that is was!!!! There are lots of them in there. I am presuming that they are Western Pygmy Perch, I put 4 in there about 6 months ago........ have never seen them since. I presumed that they all died, obviously not! Is going to be great so see how they all turn out!
Nothing like at the end of the day harvesting some goodies! Looking forward to the 2nd productive summer in the garden. See how it all works out with the much soil improvement that's been going on. Still little over head shade from the treed. I think a project for next winter is to build some man-made structures!
