Veggie garden walk through worm barrels saving a few Okra seeds 12th

Has been a tad warm here over the past week but nowhere near as bad as some of the southern states.. The garden worms chooks & fish have pulled through just fine with only one casualty (daughters pennyroyal) so happy about that..



Now the weather has cooled off a bit I will be planting out some seedlings & tackling some odd jobs to get the patch ready for Autumn.. Will be pruning the rest of the Chinese elm & some of the mango them running it through the mulcher... This will be mixed with some horse manure & left to compost a bit.. It will eventually become Autumns top up mulch for the beds...
For more regular updates about the patch come visit us at https://www.facebook.com/Bitsouttheback

Have a great one All...

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Wicking Beds Barrels for a water wise garden

As it is getting nearer to spring I thought I would post some Wicking clips for anyone interested in making up some new beds.. There will be more posted in the future as I havent filmed a complete clip while making a full size bed, only the barrels..

The whole idea behind the wicking system comes from a gentleman by the name of  Colin Austin...
http://waterright.com.au/wicking-bed-history.html
I came across it while we were in the tail end of a drought here in South East Queensland here in Australia & though it was one of the best ways to go to save water in a fairly large back yard veggie patch..
Wicking Barrels MK II..

The above clip is how we now make the Wicking barrels... They are a big improvement on the original design as the water holding capacity of the reservoir has doubled... As the existing barrels finish their crops they are slowly being swapped over to this design...

Wicking Beds...

I have ever only made clips after the fact with the beds so made up a bit of a sideshow clip to show how we made one of the earlier Wicking beds...

Wicking Bathtub...

This was a relative easy build with a free bath we collected from a member of a  local Free Cycle Group..  I must say the plants we had in there were probably a bit too large for the small reservoir in the bath...I think plants like small cropping herbs, leafy greens would probably do better than 5 foot tall lemongrass... Lesson learnt..

Wicking up IBCs (Intermediate bulk containers)...
These guys are a really easy build that could easily be done in a few hours if you were more organised than I...

Thats about it for now...
Have a great one all...
: )»

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More Barrels !!!

Yep...
Not afraid to say it...
Im Addicted...
**Sigh**
But in my defence 1 is to be turned into a worm farm...

½ of the other will be used to make a Wicking Barrel for some Strawberries I saved from being overrun by Cabbages last year & a stunning Pink Flowered Strawberry was bought yesterday at the local markets... I did go looking for some Celery but all stalls were out or didnt stock as they think it to warm to plant it at the moment... Might have to venture to The Chain Store that shall remain nameless to see if they have any as most local nurseries are not stocking as many veggie seedlings as they once did...
Planting out the Babies...

Saturday we planted out the Cabbage (Red Dutch) into Bed #1(left) & Kohlrabi (White Vienna) in Bed #5 (right) after harvesting the Beetroot & some Lettuce...
The Kent Pumpkin you can see growing between the 2 beds in the Picture to the left is going to be left in with the Tomatoes & Capsicums... It can grow down the path & onto the "lawn" between us & the neighbours...  I dont hold out much hope for anything planted in the "Pumpkin Bed"... It was filled with the same "Premium Soil mix" as the Spice Barrels & none of the plants look like they are doing as well as they could.... The plants have been feed worm juice & Seasol this week so we can only wait & see...
 We also put in a few rows of  Darwin & Red Mignonette lettuces into Bed #4  as well as some Pak Choi into Bed #3 to fill in some space between failed Beetroot & the slow growing Eggplant seedlings...
The Ginger & Galangal Barrels didnt have the soil changed in them.... We had a bit of look at them & they appear to be draining alright as they were ½ filled with the Soil mix we made & only had the last 10-15cm of dodgy  "Premium Mix" ... Will just need to keep an eye on them...
The plot as a whole is starting to come along nicely... The Lemon tree is covered with fruit at the moment.. This is only the second year it has fruited in the 6 or so years we have had it.... We have Eggplants fruiting, Tomatoes starting to ripen, the "Rainbow" Silverbeet have bounced back, the Beans are producing a meal worth every day or so & there will be a few salads made with thinned Beetroot & Silverbeet seedlings this week....The Carrots are still being thinned out & being used in a few dishes... Made a really great Golden curry with some Carrots &  our stored Sweet Potato...

Our young friend has been hanging around a lot & is getting quite used to us being in the garden with him in his tree...
Have tried to find some curl grubs to feed him but they appear to be hiding to well...






This weeks harvest....
Beetroot, Lettuce,  Zucchini, Shallots, Baby Dragon/All Seasons Carrots,  Strawberries, Beans, Eggplant, Bay leaf, Basil, 3 eggs a day & some Lemongrass to make Tea with...
Rain....
5.5 mm this week....



Have a great one all.....
: )»

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Barrels of fun !!!!

WOO HOO !!!!!

Finally got to put the new barrels in....

4 were set up; 2 x Black Jack Zucchini, 1 for some bee attracting flowers & 1 for the Native Raspberry... Another 6 random flowering plants, including Marigolds, were among the beds....

Some of the seedlings are going great.... The Red Dutch Cabbage, Kohl Rabi & Tomatoes have all shot... 2 of the Eggplant are up.... No sign of the Passion fruit or Cape Gooseberries as of yet...
The Pumpkin in the background is being trained to go over the top of Bed #1 & out onto the lawn just in front of the bed if it survives...  The Tomatoes are going into this bed with a mix of basil & other plants in front of them...
The little cucumber at the front of the pic was self sown & doesnt look like it will be worthwhile saving so out it comes tomorrow... : ( »     .

We removed 1 Zucchini from Bed #1 then topped it & Bed # 4 up ready to plant out the new seedlings... Might need to hang some shade to shield the babies when they go into Bed #1 though... 

Left : We have another large Zucchini ready to be picked & stuffed.... Was going to do one this week but ended up making a huge batch of Tomato & Veggie sauce...
Right : We also found our first Eggplant, WOOO HOOO !!!!   

The Mutant Zuccumpkin hasnt  grown much this week....The vine has been attacked severely by powdery mildew but has been treated, so I am just hoping it can hang on until it is ready to be picked...
The Sugarloaf experiment ended this week.... 2 heads were harvested yesterday & are in the fridge ready for dinner tomorrow night....




I can now see the virtue of thinning out the Carrots while they are small.... They are starting to get powdery mildew in the centre, which I sprayed as soon as finding out... These little Dragon Carrots got steamed & went very well with the Roast Oink last night....

This weeks harvest....
Beetroot leaves,  Lettuce,  Zucchini, Shallots, Lemongrass, Baby Dragon Carrots, Kaffir Lime leaves, Strawberries, Beans, 3 eggs a day & Our 1 & only Wombok !!!
Rain....
18 mm this week.... Only had to fill up Bed # 5 this week... I think that is due to the vast amount of Carrots, Lettuce & Beetroot.... Bed # 1 also got a top up but it didnt take as much as it normally would...

Thats about it for now....
Have a great one all !!!!!

: )»

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Snakes Barrels

Had a bit of fun in the garden this week....
We had a visit from a 1.4M brown snake in the Chooks Mango yard that decided to go up & down the boundary line for ½ an hour before disappearing into either the neighbours Chinese Elm clump or our failing compost bin... A decision was made to pull the compost bin down & let the Chooks have at it once we determined that Mr/Miss snake had moved on...

I cut up 2 blue barrels so they can be turned into wicking barrels for the spice plants.... The Lemongrass barrel was made on Tuesday...... We pulled a clump of Lemongrass, took 3 good looking sections off to plant in the barrel & got just over a Kg to freeze & use while these guys mature.... The Galangal & Turmeric are going into Barrels & placed between the 2 lime trees in the middle of the yard..... I think the blueness will stand out but we dont really mind... They can have a makeover later if they look real bad.... The Ginger plant will be planted into a barrel & placed between the Lemon tree & Chook pen as we have read that Ginger requires a bit more shade than the others...

Some dust bath holes the Chooks made were filled in as you can see from the soil on the ground in the picture above....The decision has been made to pull down the Chook fencing as well now that they have their own smaller yards.... Thats on the cards for tomorrow as well as removing the soil from the Galangal bed so it can be relocated on the weekend....

Lemongrass & other Bits picked on Tuesday....

Thats about it until Sunday/Monday me thinks.....
Have a great one all......

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Spice Barrels

Its a tad wet to do much out the back so shall blog instead....
Spent most of Saturday getting some Wicking Barrels ready for the Zingiberaceaes....
 

We kept a few sets from our Galangal that got harvested on Saturday, bought some sets of Giant Ginger & Turmeric from Green Harvest plus had 2 sets of Turmeric we kept from our last crop...

2 barrels were cut in ½ & turned into "Wicking" Barrels... They also had some additional drainage holes about 17cm from the base to prevent water logging from heavy downpours.. We reclaimed about ½ a meter from the Chooks Mango yard for the barrels so they will get moderate shade from the soon to be covered framework....
                                                             (A home for them at last !!!)

Under each rhizome we put a good handful of composting worms & their castings as we do with all seeds & seedlings.... Makes for a happy start in life me thinks...

With the Galangal out of the old Spice bed it was emptied to get ready for moving into a better position...
It was the first Wicking bed we made & I was never really happy with it... There was no overflow pipe to show when it was full, the liner was cut off far to low which allowed easy access for the roots of the Chinese Elm next door to gain access to the reservoir & only had about 7cm of sand in the reservoir..... I am glad we learnt from the mistakes of this & the Ginger bed.. The Mistakes became evident quickly and future beds were constructed with higher liners, deeper reservoirs, drainage pipes & larger diameter slotted Agg pipe which was covered with weed mat to stop the the pipe from clogging up....
  That is about it for actual work in the garden......

Just a few update pictures.......

Bed #2 has come along well... Should have Snow Peas & Beans by the end of the week & the Broccoli has small heads forming now......  
: )»

The Golden Nugget Pumpkins have made an appearance & it looks like we should get a few healthy plants....
Moos Wombok is coming along well but I dont think she has checked on them for a few weeks so I may just have to officially adopt them....

The Carrots are doing great but we have a slight concern that we may have over fertilised the bed.. Will just have to wait & see....
The Lemon tree bursting with new buds & baby fruits....Will be a better crop than the last me thinks....

Thats about it for now.....
Have a great one all...
: )»

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