Update on "The yard'

In the last few months since my last post we've planted the raspberrys (see post on raspberrys 27/7/1 )  and did lots of work in the garden, we planted some tomatoes, lettuce, watermelons, rocket, capsicum, chilli, beans, carrots, beetroot, and mangle-wurzel. We also harvested our wheat , pumpkins, onions, garlic, and some of our corn, tomatoes, and beans. In the holidays we mulched our native garden and fruit trees, then we made three pens for our sheep.

The Raspberrys

Just planted tomatoes

Watermelons

Mangle-Wurzels

Corn

Potatoes

Here are some pictures of the potatoes I just dug up. The ones on the left are from the first plant I dug ( from the end of the row). And the ones on the right are from the second plant in the same row. The family and I will be enjoying some nice hot potatoes tomorrow night.

Pontiac potatoes

 They are Pontica potatoes  and weighed in at 1.65 kg from one plant. 7 large potatoes per plant. Our largest individual potato weighed about 360 grams.

Some of the small ones that did not grow

 The next lot of photos are of  Nicola potatoes and averaged 14 medium potatoes from one plant and they weighed in at 1.026 Kg for one plant.

The Nicola

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More Potatoes

We're doing a staggered planting with our potatoes, we planted some a month and a half ago (See post on potatoes 21 July )and they are growing well so I mounded some dirt around the lower stems just leaving the top leaves out to make more roots.

Dirt mounded around potato plant

 Today I planted some Kipfler and Desiree in the same fashion as the last ones (See post on potatoes 21 July.).The rest of the garden is going well and we will be digging in the green manure on the 13th.

Before back filling

Raspberrys

While looking for more plants to expand our fruit trees a friend told me about  Raspberrys, I looked them up and found them to be good size, produce a lot of fruit and multiply by sending out suckers from there roots.
I convinced Paul they were good and we started to prepare the area.
We decided that in stead of using poison to get rid of the grass we would dig up the area and move the chooks over it for a week to get rid of the new grass sprouts and put some manure in the ground in the process.
We hope to be planting them on Saturday.

Potatoes

Our crop rotation sheet (see last post) potatoes under the month of July so we got 2 bags of seed potatoes from Bunnings and got ready to plant. Paul hoed up the patch and made two furrows 10in deep. We cut each potato in half and dropped them in the furrows 12in apart stepping on them as we went to make sure they were imbedded in the soil, then we covered them with soil and watered them in.

...It is now 3 weeks later and there sprouting.

Crop Rotation

Crop Rotation is good because it reduces disease and stops the necessary elements for each kind of plant being starved out of the soil.
We were having some trouble making a crop rotation plan till Fiona found a plan someone had made of Peter Cundall's rotation so we adapted it to suit our 8 beds instead of his 6 and it seems to be working out ok.
Garden Plan

Onions

We looked up the month of May in our crop rotation plan and found that we are supposed to plant Onions etc. So we put dolomite in the soil (because our soil is acidic and onions like lime soil) and planted Onions, Garlic, Leeks, Shallots and Chives. We also had some space left so we planted the Onion family's natural companion plants, Carrots

Garlic

Leeks

Peas and Beans

Our Bean and Pea patch

 According to our crop rotation plan we are supposed to plant Beans and Peas in May. A friend told us that beans wouldn't like the frost so we only planted a few.
The first problem we came across was frames, Jerry from Gardening Australia uses bamboo lattice frames but we found that they cost to much and thought that they probably wouldn't last very long,so we used steel mesh instead ,We also found some cheap bamboo poles so we got them and made tepees out of them with wire.
We also did an experiment by soaking half the seeds in water to boost germination and were going to see which ones come up best.

Steel mesh frames

Bamboo pole frame

NEW GARDEN!

Our "New Garden"

Here we are again, four years later with news from "One point Five". 

We have begun a new garden in a new position, implementing a lot of new things we have learnt from friends, family and DVD's .

We have watched a Gardening Australia DVD explaining crop rotation using 6 beds. Nathan , aged 13, has been very  keen and industrious in applying many of the suggestions. ( see details on each post for specifics on bed preparation and care for individual crops) 

Our current total garden area is 300 sq m , 20 m x 15 m , including paths. Each bed is  8 m x 2.5 m .

We have 8 beds and are using a 6 bed rotation as mentioned above with an additional 2 bed rotation.

(mainly because we dug the beds before watching the DVD and will probably adapt this further in the future.)

We are finding that as with previous gardens GREENS grow well - Kale , Silver Beet , Pak Choi and lettuce. 

This has been great as I have been able to develop and enjoy GREEN SMOOTHIES. ( check the topic on GOOGLE and start enjoying Green smoothies yourself ) :)

The "New Garden" looking to the House

New Gardens

Hello!
We have been having a lot of success with our Garden (see Success! First Season's Fruits)and have even finished our first season! About a week ago we dug up the gardens again after the chooks being on the top one for about a week. They had previously been on the bottom garden for about a month. Improvements include wider paths and more evenly spaced veggie rows. Here are some photos of the gardens:

Success! First Season's Fruits

Hello all!
We have had a lot of success with our gardens. Here is a photo of some of our garlic. It was enjoyed along with the onions and other veggies harvested.


The chook pen shown here was over the top garden for about a week and over the bottom for a month. We hope that the chook droppings and the turned up dirt will help the overall production for our second season.

Little Plotters

The Children have really taken to gardening as well and most of them have there own little plots of land, an example of which is shown here


They all love watching there little seedlings pop up and grow. The above garden has Capsicum seedlings (courtesy of David Grubb), lettuce, Pak Choi and Rocket

New Chook - Tractor/pen

We recently acquired a new chook-pen/tractor to house our 3 chooks. It is 2/3 fenced with the other 1/3 colourbond. If anyone has any idea whether there are any cheap ones in Queensland, could you please leave a comment on this post. Any feedback will be appreciated. (To leave a comment, click on the "(#) comments" words at the bottom of any post). Here is a photo of it:

"Top" Garden update

An update on our "top" garden: Everything is going well and we just had our first harvest, Radishes. Here are some Pictures of our flourishing "top" garden:

The yellow flowers in the photo below are Pak Choi, an Asian vegetable that can be found at most supermarkets. There are 2 types of Pak Choi, Green and White. The green tends to grow tightly where as the white variety grow more loose leaf and go to seed easier. The variety we have in the "top" garden is white but we have the both green and white in the bottom garden (see "Hi! I'm back!"). A similar vegetable is Bak Choi, but don't get them mixed up!

Radishes are a good plant because they take up a very small amount of space and are good for children with little patience as they sprout and grow quickly. Here is a photo of one of our first Radishes:

Hi! I'm Back!

Hello, Hello! Sorry I have been so taken up with my Gardening I forgot about letting all you know! As a result I now have heaps of things to tell.
OK. Firstly We started a new garden, the "bottom" garden, with more Pak Choi, Onion, Garlic, Peas and even (something new...) Capsicum. Here are the photos of this garden:

Sourdough Culture and Bread

A friend of mine asked for the culture and bread Recipes for sourdough so I thought I could put it up on the web to make it easier to access for others.We have found many different variations but this is one that we have used and it has worked.

SOURDOUGH CULTURE

1 cup flour, wheat or rye
2 cups warm water
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Mix together and put in a earthenware or glass container. A lid that has some holes in it is good as this allows the mixture to pick up spores from the air. keep in a warm place for 20 - 30 hours -- it varies with the weather. (It works faster in warm weather). The mixture should form a sponge and smell yeasty or sour. If it smells bad, throw it out. This may happen if the mixture is left to long or is allowed to get too hot. Keep the prepared culture in the fridge. I may be kept in a sterilized glass jar with a lid. The jar must be cleaned about once a month.

SOURDOUGH BREAD

400 ml warm water
4 cups flour
2-3 tablespoons gluten (optional; use if flour is low quality)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup culture

In a large bowl (not aluminum) mix the above ingredients, using enough flour to make a soft, kneadable dough. mix all together till kneadable stage is reached and then shape into loaves and place in well-oiled (not aluminum) trays. Cut several slits across the bread, brush with Liquid Lethicin for best result -- this keeps the crust soft and gives a golden colour.
Cover (you can use a disposable shower cap pulled up in the middle to allow the bread to rise).
Leave between 3-5 hours (less on hot and more on cold days).
Bake at 170-190 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit) for 1 1/2 hours. After about 20 minutes baking, when the bread has a nice light brown crust, cover with brown paper, then alfoil. When cooked, remove from tins.
ENJOY!

Other Blogs: David's Nature Photography Gallery, The Big Byte

Cheesecake

This Recipe is a delicious all raw cheesecake.It is available at Liam's Recipes

Other Blogs: David's Nature Photography Gallery, The Big Byte

Garden plan

This is a plan of our Garden drawn up by my son Liam. I will put it with my future photos of Garden development if we have planted any more vegies. for more info on what is in our garden see "Current Vegies in our Garden" panel on your Right


Other Blogs: David's Nature Photography Gallery, The Big Byte

Oatmeal Breakfast

A good Idea for a breakfast on a cold winter morning is Irish Oatmeal with Honey or Sugar. Click here to go to the Recipe. For more great Recipes visit Liam's Recipe Blog.

Other Blogs: David's Nature Photography Gallery, The Big Byte

The benefits of high cholesterol

I have been reading about Cholesterol and other health related issues. It is always interesting and sometimes frustrating to hear opposing sides to the "one" story". Click here for information on the benefits of HIGH cholesterol.