Little bit busy

Has been a tad busy here with the realisation that a wedding is but a few weeks away... We have stairs to fix/paint, a yard to tidy & numerous little odd jobs on the go so the Blog has been suffering a bit...

Was a bit frustrating trying to paint this week...



New additions...
I finely caved & let B? get a Mulberry tree on one condition, It gets planted in an adapted Wicking style Barrel & gets espaliered on a trellis up the side of the house...
We also found a Bell Chilli (not to be confused with a Bell Pepper) at the markets on the weekend just on closing... The Lovely people that ran the stall gave it to me so I was mighty chuffed... We had grown a few at the last house but like so many seeds they were misplaced in the move... They are a mild Chilli that are great for salads & not too hot for kids...
We have had mixed results from the seeds we planted just over a week ago... The Caulis, Kohlrabi, Cabbage & I think a few Kale have shot but no sign of the Lettuce, Parsley, eggplants or Broccoli... We do now also have 3 Onion shoots in the Onion tray that was sown a few weeks ago... Think I might just bite the bullet & go buy a punnet of seedlings...
I am starting to think it may be either the seed raising mix or the seed supplier that may be faulty & not I... Have never had so many misses over such a short period...
Aquaponics...
A site has been found for the set up, where Bed#5 is... It shall be removed slowly over the next 3-5 weeks (unless a Wedding gets in the way)... Some gravel & large pavers put down as a base & some conduit dug into a trench to provide power to the set up... Would be nice to have some goldfish or Blue Eyes in there & the system cycling to start up the nitrogen cycle but I fear I may be dreaming...
The totes are still in the same place in the yard, one of which has the Strawberry Wall tied to it while the stairs get painted... I need to purchase some special security "bits" to undo some of the screws so we can start to cut them up...

Whats on our plates...
The first 3 pumpkins were picked on the weekend... We have been trying to cure them the past few days but sun doesnt want to cooperate unfortunately...

 Aside from the herbs & Shallots, we have started to harvest the Snow peas, Lettuce, Kohlrabi & the Broccoli as well as having an Eggplant for the table every other day so we are very happy... There are a few Beetroots that will be picked for a Friday roast if they are lucky... The remaining Caulis Are starting to form tiny heads & we are about a week out from our first meal of Silverbeet...


Well, the last ½ of this week has been flat out so so didnt manage to do much other than get the stairs ready for painting, doing the top coat around the Strawberry wall then host have a family get together today...
Shall hopefully be more entertaining & insightful later in the week...
Have a great one all....
: )»

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Aquaponics Jade perch a bit of a roundup

Aquaponic update…
We finally have some table fish in the Aquaponic system… We ordered 25 Jade Perch from ANFE & picked them up on Thursday the 12th of April… Just held off posting to made certain I didnt "loose" any ;)»

Aquaponic mishaps...

Spent the past few days playing around with the pipe work for the system after having a few HSMs (HOLY SHIT/SUGAR/SHIVA moments) with the FT (fish tank) overflowing due to clogged ports.. The fish are eating the algal growth & the stray bits are causing blockages in the drilled out end caps of the SLOs (Solids Lifting Overflow) that feed the GB (grow bed) & empty back into the sump.. I added an "emergency overflow" port that runs directly into the sump as an extra precaution..   I was looking at increasing the size of the holes in the end caps of the SLOs but received a comment on the clip from a most helpful viewer that recommended  making slits in the pipes instead of holes & run them vertically down the uptake pipe so did them first thing this morning.. Thanks "youronnit" 
A make shift cover was made up to help keep sunlight out so that will hopefully slow the growth of the algae..


 New grow beds & pipe work..

Have picked up the extra pipe needed for the grow beds but ran out of time this weekend.. I already have the bell siphons & enough 1" pipe to make the returns to the sump so hopefully some progress will be made this week.. Once Im happy with the set up the GBs will be lined with black plastic on the outside (to stop algae growth)  then set in place.. Would like to fill the GBs with clay balls but due to a change in state government, B will be bumped down a few pay levels **zips lips so as not to rant then kicks soap box away** so it may mean a change from clay balls to rock for one of the GBs.. Might bring them on line 1 at a time as I think there are enough clay balls leftover from the old barrelponic system for 1 GB so we shall just see how we go..

Week in the dirt patch...

On Thursday we had whole house water filter system installed.. As chlorine & chloramines (found in most town water supplies around Australia) both indiscriminately kill good & bad bacteria/fungi we are concerned about using tap water that smells like its come straight from a pool on the garden beds... The system contains 2 coconut carbon filters as well as a pre filter that will remove the larger particles giving the carbons longer life spans.. The main aim is to remove as much chlorine & chloramines from the water in case we need it for emergency top up water for the aquaponics.. It will also mean that we wont be killing off any of the beneficial mycorrhizal fungi we have been adding into the beds over the past few weeks when we have been sowing seed..

Made the decision to order some Veggie netting from Net Pro on Friday & it arrived 1st thing Monday morning (today) so will need to knock some frames up this week.. White cabbage butterfly eggs & a few small caterpillars have already been removed from some of the kale & cauliflowers in the patch.. Will also be used as a 20% shade cloth during summer which is another bonus as we have been looking for a lower % shade cloth..

Sunday saw us planting out a few seeds & 9 broccoli into the beds.. (Full list in Planting Diary)

Friday also saw this little feller finely emerge from a chrysalis...

Not sure of the variety as of yet but have set the task to our eldest as part of her studies for Monday..

 


Until next time, have a good one...
: )»

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