Step Forward in Time

It's a wonderful thing, to have friends who remind, inspire and motivate you to rekindle things when they've gone by the wayside.
The Crone (of Wit's End fame) is one of those. She's firing up her blog again and in doing so has reminded me that I enjoyed blogging and have let it go.
And my feelings around that are an indicator of how much growing has happened inside and out over the past 2 years. Where once I would have felt guilt and berated myself for evidence of yet another thing I have failed to do, lacked discipline on etc, now I can smile and expect that my blog will have rests over the duration of its life, just as we all need to let things rest and pick them up again when our fancy and appropriate energy levels allow.
Amazing what a diagnosis or three will do. Family issues will be left alone here, as that is a topic for another blog altogether. Suffice to say, that wonderful changes have happened which are making all our lives easier and happier. This blog however, is not my journey but Cwm Goch's. And though small, the steps towards the Grand Plan are in constant motion.

So here are some things which have changed, grown or been learnt since our last chat.


POND
This is the highlight of our food forest. Home to tadpoles, frogs, various naturally occurring invertebrates and now 4 koi (a gift from my parents for my 40th).
It is the place I come to at the end of a hard day to sit on the tiny pallet deck with a glass of wine and a handful of koi food. Best thing I ever built. And it is little, 1.5 x 2.5m or thereabouts, it just always looks a lot bigger in the photos.
Here's the growth.

Summer 2014                                                                 Autumn 2016

It also has a small waterfall to aerate the water for the koi, but it keeps getting clogged. Haven't worked out a solution to this yet. It has a filter but there's so much slime it clogs within 24hours. Might need to encase the pump in a box that rests on the slime so the base isn't stirred. 

Buddha has also found a more fitting home, under the loquat tree which I hope will one day stretch out over the pond and provide shade on the pathway beneath it. This tree grew from a seed dropped by a bird, which grew into a small plant and which I subsequently transplanted here.

So for anyone wondering, yes, you can grow loquat trees from seed.

Food Forest

Slowly but surely the food forest is starting to feel like a forest.

There are spaces within it which are shaded, and the children have to come and 'find' me when I'm in it because there is no longer a clear view through the place.

 I had given up on under-storey for a while as the plants would die every summer, beaten by our 40+ degree days which fried everything that wasn't heavily shaded.
Things are getting to a point though where with a few strategically located toughies (arrowroot, pigeon pea etc) I'm considering trying this again.











(Bare ground - though well mulched now - ready for under-storey planting in the upcoming spring).

Also a video I watched on forest agronomy showed just how thick they were laying the 'chop and drop'. It was 30-40cm. I tried this on a small section beneath our jaboticaba (which has stayed at the 1.2m mark for 3 years) and it positively thrived during the hottest part of our summer - putting on new growth and growing!

Jaboticaba - 1.4m (Note thick mulch)

I've mulched before, but the difference this time was the thickness and the layering of green and brown - basically in situ compost layering. Not thick enough to get hot like compost (a good thing as this would have harmed the plant, no doubt) but thick enough to hold moisture and thrive with a good deep watering once every week/fortnight. Amazing given our hot summers.

This is the other side of the bare patch. Hoping to fill the space under and around the apple tree at some point. Chop and drop ongoing in this space in the hope that it will break down and create humous.



So that's the food forest, lots of growth and lots more shade, but just as many patches which need work.

Successes

Ice-cream Bean Tree
The ice-cream bean tree has finally produced pods!!!! We are just waiting on them to plump up a little  more before we try them. I've read that the seeds will sprout if placed immediately into soil so that's what will be happening as I'd like a few more of these. They are good shade trees and will grow tall enough to form canopy. Most of my food forest trees are mid-storey (peaches and such) so a few taller specimens will be welcome to form more layers and denser shade.

Pecan Tree

The pecan tree also has 3 nuts on it for the first time ever. When we shifted these bricks from the verandah area I repurposed them for a seat around the tree. It will be lovely to sit in the shade of a huge tree one day (and eat the nuts - yum!)

Panama Gold Passionfruit

Remember the old acacia that snapped and died? I convinced the husband to leave it as a frame for a passionfruit vine. Well, it took a couple of years but this summer/autumn we've had our first crop. They are delicious! And the high growing place means they are safe from foraging children who like to pick things before they're ripe and before I ever get a taste.

Feijoa

Semi-successful.
They've grown a bit and given us a handful of fruit, but to be honest I was expecting more from them by now. 

Maybe exponential growth will see us have more next year.

And that red-tipped plant is the Brazilian Cherry - barely budged in size or status since I planted it. Proof that I'm an optimist and useful for very little else.

Current Projects

French Bio-intensive plot

Inspired by our cousin whom we've shared our bottom paddock with so she can start up a market garden, I've made some 'market garden' style beds closer to the house for our own use.

This came about from my annoyance at buying vegies. It seems stupid given that we have so much space, yet our plantings in the past still only offer side dishes to supplement a meal or two a week at best. Our fruit supply gives us dessert most nights if we choose, but vegies have eluded us.

Hopefully, these beds will change this somewhat.

Seed raising

Past failures had me leave this for a while but the amount of seedlings we need for the bio-intensive beds far exceeds what I'm prepared to pay for so I'm having another go.

What I've learnt is that choosing the strongest seedlings, pricking them out and transplanting them to a second deeper container (which allows the roots to grow longer) means they take less time to grow once transplanted into the ground while taking up less resources and time to care for them in the interim.
Well, that's what the literature says, we'll see if it all works out, but it's looking good so far.

These spinach seedlings have been pricked out and will be moved into the beds in a couple of weeks.

Beside them are youngberries ready for a seed swap or to give to a friend, and my first try at pigeon peas which I'm hoping to grow for shelter and food.

And that's enough for one post. A pretty good catch-up on the whole methinks.

Good to be back, now to head over to Wit's End and see what's happening there...

Food Pond Part 1

We have 2 small ponds which we built over the last couple of years for fish and frogs. This week I got onto our first 'serious' pond which will be an experimental aquaculture pond.

I had dug out the hole a couple of months ago, but we had to wait for the budget to build up to get the liner. It's not cheap, but hopefully will last. Anyway, I thought I'd share what we're doing and how in case it's useful to someone else out there.

THE PLAN: Having read about 'natural pools' which are all the rave in the UK and US I wanted to reproduce something like that for fish. The idea with a natural pool is that if the ratio of plants to exposed surface water area is correct, the pool doesn't need filtration or aeration. Now, this may be different here in Oz as we have far more sun which means more potential algae growth etc, but the idea intrigues me. And I wonder if we may be able to grow some trout - not heaps, just 10 or so in a pond that exists this way. There are many times in the garden where I've broken the 'rules' so to speak, because the books said X wouldn't grow in spot Y. And they did. So I'm giving this a shot - worst case scenario, it doesn't work and I put in a pump.

THE METHOD
 I should add a disclaimer - I'm no expert at pond building. This is just the technique that has worked for us (having built a few I've had a little bit of practice) and as for the actual management of the pond and trout we're planning to put into it...... well that will be an experiment so stay tuned!

Ok so first - I dug a large hole! (Obviously!) Not just a hole though, a kidney sort of shape with a deep well in one end, and a 'shelf' that runs along the edge along a lot of the pond.
This provides different depths throughout the pond, and the ledge is where the plants will sit.

I cleared the bottom of the vegetation that had grown there over the last month or so. Apparently when it rots it can produce gases which will cause bubbles and your lining to rise down the track. If you dig your pond and line it straight away though, you won't have to worry about this step.

Next, I lined the bottom of the hole with newspaper and old bits of carpet. This is to prevent any sharp stones or sticks on the bottom making a hole in the lining. I feel pretty confident walking in the pond if I have to now, as the bottom is padded.

Then the liner goes in. I used a 0.7mm EPDM liner. This stuff is TOUGH! We have it in the other ponds and it has withstood a kelpie, a dobermann and geese with their claws. It's very rubbery and stretches. I wouldn't recommend using plain black plastic in Oz. The sun will break it down too quickly, and holes happen too easily. You don't want to be draining your pond to patch it if you can help it.

Fill the pond slowly. The ledge, I filled with fine gravel to anchor plants like water cress etc. Some gravel will be put in the bottom to do the same for bigger plants. NO soil goes in the water. This means the plants will clean the water because they will have to obtain ALL their nutrients from it alone.

Keep filling, levelling as you go if you're like me and didn't use a spirit level. There are some good diagrams which show cross sections of a pond if you look up 'frog pond' in Google images.

Just a tip: When you place your rocks around the pond, either choose large ones whose weight will ensure they don't shift, or make a small depression under the rear half of them so they don't go sliding into the pond when kids, dogs or anything else steps or leans on them. They need to be solid and well locked in. It's worth taking the time to do this bit right, for safety and also to stop rocks falling in and potentially damaging your lining.

Once the water reaches the bottom of the rocks, I fold up the lining behind them to make a higher lip, and fill some more so the rocks are partly submerged. I learnt from the other ponds that if you don't do this, then a bit of evaporation will have your rocks sitting proud of the water and your liner showing. Better to have them deeper to begin with so the pond always looks nice!

Heap dirt up behind the liner fold to hold the lip in place, then cover with rocks, dirt etc. Landscape the edge as desired.

I have made an entrance point to the pond which is shallower, and the double ledge acts as shallow stairs. This is for me to get in if I have to, as well as being helpful to the ducks and frogs.

There is also a runoff point on one side of the pond, which will drain excess water in the case of a downpour and direct it to the garden below.

Part 2 in a few days when the rest is done!

Swale in Action!

I was at work today while it poured, but Hubby thought of me and send me pics of the swale!

 

It's deeper at one end, which I actually don't feel is a real problem but I might try to even it out a little more.

 You don't appreciate the amount of water that runs off until you catch it. Seriously stoked about this!

A few weeks time and this place should start looking quite different.

Bio-Char Experiment

I've been reading a lot about Terra Pretta and I have to say it's fascinating. I remember as a kid 'playing' at gardens and 'fertilising' our little crops with ash because that's what we had. I remember the peas doing pretty well.
In any case, I'm giving this a go again. Spent the morning collecting the bounties left from our Spring Equinox bonfire - plenty of ash, bits of clay, and lots of charcoal. Have mushed it up and mixed it with Green Life Soil company's veggie mix (manure, compost, minerals etc), then dug it in with a trowel in pockets through the beds. If it's all it's cracked up to be, the fertility of our soil should show marked improvement over the next few years. Which would be nice, as despite the amendments we made last season, a hot, dry season has seen it all disappear. Looking forward to seeing this through. :)

Lesotho Keyhole Garden

Recently I turned our round raised bed into a Lesotho style keyhole garden (minus the wedge) as an experiment in 'arid' gardening, because let's face it with multiple days in a row of 40+ heat here in summer, temperate gardening techniques aren't really adequate.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the concept, Lesotho (in Africa) has a temperature range of 40+ during the day, down to -15 degrees at night. Some years ago the people were in dire straits, as their crops weren't producing and a large proportion of the population was malnourished. That was until they developed the idea of a keyhole bed.

The keyhole bed is a raised circular bed (made of stones, bricks etc) with a wedge cut out for access to it's centre. There, in the middle is a basket which sits through the core of the bed. The bed is built up in layers (like no dig gardens) but the inside is raised so the dirt/straw etc slopes down to the outer edge of the circle. Food scraps, manure, straw, compost etc is placed into the central basket, and grey water is poured into the basket which ensures the bed is gravity fed and moist right to outside, whilst fertilising as the baskets contents break down.

There are a number of great sites on this method. Here a link to one which shows you how a group of school children did it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I-_6Bog-rM

I planted some seeds and a few plants in mine, and it's the most exposed garden bed I have - yet seems to be doing really well so far. I'm still top watering though as I haven't managed to fill the basket (chook wire in my case) to the top yet so the gravity fed aspect isn't functional yet.

Just a tip though to any of you thinking of giving it a go....cover each layer of food scraps with sand, clippings or something...as the smell from mine wasn't terrific after a week or so in the sun until I sorted it!

Photos to come in a future post.