Composting

NOW spring is here I'm ready to get my new compost heaps humming.

So far I have simply been layering green waste such as lawn clippings with food left-overs I can't feed the hens and torn newspapers, etc. Two bins are full and quietly simmering away in it's full position, while the third is about 1/6th complete.

The old garden was much bigger and its unrelenting clay soil meant seven bins were constantly on the go, but now I figure three will do for this smaller plot.

There's also a heap of sawdust left-over form the removal of two old, rotted gum trees which were removed before they fell on the hen-house. As eucalyptus oil is a growth inhibitor, I'm going to run the sawdust through the compost bins to leach it and convert it into something useful.

So this weekend I'll commence turning over the mixture and ensuring the balance is correct - hopefully encountering some worms along the way!

As usual, Gardening Australia have some useful tips - you can never know it all with composting!

SOILS ain't soils

IT seems crazy with all the rain we having down south to think about the long, hot summer ahead.

But it's coming, according to those lovable weather boffins at the BOM and Sir Peter Cundall.

So now is the time to turn over the compost that's been festering and bubbling away all winter and get ready to enrich and mulch your soil.

This weekend I'll compartment off my new veggie beds and keep the chooks in a section to have them fertilise and turn the soil over.

Last week I had two dangerously rotted gum trees removed and the workman kindly left behind the sawdust - but it's so saturated with eucalyptus oil which is a plant suppressant I'll have to dilute it through the compost bins before using in the garden.

While I'll probably have to wear gumboots and a rain-coat to do the weeding, I know come December I'll be glad I persevered.

DIGGING IN

A NEW garden is a heaven of possibilities.

Now I've moved from my established fruit and vegetable patch to a garden which consists mostly of level lawn, a few old sheds, massive eucalyptus and a rose bush in need of a good prune, it's time get out the secateurs, space and garden fork.

The first thing to do so I can sort out wat i want to grow where is to look at the soil and drainage.

Jan Juc was chock-full of clay, whereas my new abode in Geelong seems to have a really nice friable dark brown soil.

Bliss.

It took seven compost bins in high rotation to combat the clay so I reckon I'll be right with three.

But just to be sure, I've been noting during the recent rains just where the water is draining to.

As usual Peter Cundall is on top of this topic.

Comfrey

SOME of the best things in life are free - including plant food made from comfrey.

There's a good article in the latest Guardian on how to make great liquid plant food from this versatile plant.

While comfrey dies down in winter, it's very hardy and will grow in pots too.
I planted some near the compost bins so i can pull of a few leaves each time I add some material to the mixture.
These leaves seem to help break down the compost more quickly.

Seaside compost

ONE of the benefits of living on the coast is collecting seaweed for compost.

It sounds like a conundrum - adding something salty to the garden, except it isn't.

Read this great article by Peter Cundall in today's Weekly Times...

I usually run the seaweed through a compost bin before adding it the garden - it breaks down really well.

You need to check with council if you plan on taking away a heap of it.

Check your local beach after a storm or some wild weather and you'll be amazed at the variety available to help out your garden.

Video composting

COMPOSTING is a never-ending story.

Ask three gardeners about how make great compost and you'll get four or five different theories!

I came across this Gardening Australia video showing Jerry demonstrating some tried and true methods.

My Darlek-like compost bin has slowed down over winter but as long as I keep turning over the layers, it produces excellent results.

This weekend I'll be emptying most of the bins as they are just about ready to be refilled and start the whole process over.

Online gardening

THERE'S a plethora of fabulous gardening resources online.

One of the best is the monthly newsletter from the good folk at Sustainable Gardening Australia.

Plus SGA has developed four informative booklets for home gardeners: Home Harvest, Sustainable Gardening, Waterwise Gardening and Gardening Self Audit.

They have other excellent resources so you can plan your spring planting and beyond on those days it's too wet and cold to pull on the gumboots and dig.

Chooks are a great way to get greener in the garden - they love turning over the compost!

One off-line choice to get some hens.

They are less trouble than you think, provide gorgeous eggs, manure for the compost bins, eat bugs, provide an amazing way to de-stress because they are so hilarious and will happily turn over an old veggie bed to prepare for the next planting.

Now it's winter it's a great time to plan your new chook run, hutch and investigate what type of chickens to keep.

 

Rain on me

OK, it's been raining long and hard and I'm ready for some serious sunshine now so I can get outside and weed, turn compost and chase chooks.

Tomatoes are still popping up and I'm pulling them out as fast as I can.

The tank is overflowing and the lemon trees are looking fantastic considering they are in such clay-like soil. This is probably due to all the composting I've dug in over the past few years, because they struggled when first planted ans spent a couple of years sulking.

Looks like there's a break in the rain so I'll pull on the wellingtons and do what i can before the next cloudburst.

Winter gardening

TOMORROW is the first day of winter and I am keeping my fingers crossed for a sunny start to the season.

Here are the Organic Gardening magazine tips for June gardening.

When its cold, digging, weeding, planting and pruning are a great way to keep warm. As this coming week is when we put out the green waste bin full of everything I can't compost - mostly fruit tree pruning - I'll get to sharpening the secateurs too.

And there's always the fun of turning over the compost with the chooks helping out!
 

Winter gardening the go

NEXT week it's winter as Peter Cundall notes in his latest Weekly Times column.

He notes that in the southern states it's a good time to plant broccoli and garlic.

So as along as it's not raining, I'll be out there in my gumboots and hand-knitted cable pure wool fluro orange jumper ($3 at the local op shop courtesy of someone whose grandma or aunty's fabulous knitting skills), turning over the compost and sowing some spring crops.

I'll also be harvesting some pumpkin to make soup and pumpkin risotto - yum.

Not to mention chasing the moulting chooks about and encouraging them to eat any caterpillar or aphids still handing about.

This pumpkin is now even bigger and about to turned into soup!

Compost catch-up

YOU would think running seven compost bins on the go would mean I have constant supply of the good stuff.

Hilda, Gidget and Ledgergirl help turn over the compost

Well despite filling the mini-food rubbish bin - after the good scraps go to the chooks - and emptying it twice a week into the 'going' bin, my compost seems to be taking way too long to break down.

This is because I have been a bit lazy and not been tuning over the compost enough or adding the right balance of comfrey. In my defecne your honour, I will say work does get in the way of gardening.

Anyway.

So after some newspaper shredding todays plan is to get out the garden fork and release the feather riot and encourage them to get down into the bins and help them them over.

There's bound to be some worm casualties but the three bins which need their help are so full of gorgeous worms I am happy to sacrifices a few dozen to those cheeky chooks to help turn over the organic and carbon matter.

Of course if they drop a bit of fertilizer into the mix, that would be a bonus.

Dancing in the rain

IT'S raining and the hens are doing the chook victory dance.

Dashing about under the raindrops, wings spread out and acting like chorus girls in a Busby Berkley musical, in unison they are chasing crickets and other unwary insects as the rain washes away all the grime off the trees and vegetables.

Hilda, the leader of the pack also makes a dive for any compost bin where the lid has been blown off in last night's robust winds.

Hilda checking for worms and crickets...

After a couple of hot and dusty days, seeing the feather posse trundle about with their delightful gait, is a as much a tonic as the rain.

Hearing more water pour don the roof and into the tank makes me feel like a squirrel storing nuts for winter. It's very satisfying to think off all that life-replenishing element ready to come out and revive the garden when the next inevitable dry spell hits.

There's a stormy weather warning for today so I'll need to ensure the broad beans along the back fence are securely tied up and the chooks are behind the wire so they don't get blown away - this has happened before and it resulted in one very exultant and optimistic hen and a worried owner who had to climb few fences to retrieve her.

But for now the rain is light, the garden is green and my chooks are dancing.

Chooks in Compost

YESTERDAY I emptied out the sixth compost bin and was happily surprised to find the contents were really great about 30cm down into the mix.

Hilda on worm patrol while Gidget and Ledger scratch about

While the worm population was not up to the standard of the other bins, there were enough of those wonderful creatures in the bin to have converted the grass clippings, straw, food scraps not fit for the gals, shredded newspapers and other green waste into glorious compost.

The compost then went int a couple of beds to fill them up and prepare for plantings - the clay base here really eats up good soil so I need all seven bins working hard to keep up. 

Hilda, the chooks evidently agreed as when i turned my back to get the garden fork she dived in head first to enjoy the worms and hhopefully she also added some fertiliser of her own.
After emptying the bin I then moved it under the fig tree and the chooks had a good old scracth in the bin footprint, digging up insects.

Yesterday at the AngleseaTip, sorry, Landfill, I pulled out of the plastic recyling pile a perfeclt good cone green compost bin. No lid that i could find but who cares? I filled it up with grass clippings, staw, weeds, shredded paper and some already created compost with a few worms to get it started and its now under the plum tree.
  
Other booty from the tip included some green wire to grow the sweet peas along and some canarie wire I'll strech across the beds when i plant some seeds.

Now the new compost bin, code named 'fig bin' will get all the coffee groundsw, etc. If only it wouild keep the parrots off the figs, but that's another post.

Autumn bliss and community radio

NOW the Indian summer appears to have melted away, it's finally a proper autumn - cool evenings, crisp mornings and sunny days. Perfect for turning over the compost and digging it in to some garden beds in preparation for planting while I listen to the wireless.

Five of my six bins are doing well, so I shall empty out the recalcitrant bin and distribute the contents amongst the others and start again.

This always puts the feather riot in seventh heaven - they cawk and sqawk their way through the decomposed material, pulling out worms and beetles with gay abandon. (It makes a nice change form them escaping into the potato bed and trying to dig up all the kipflers!)

This week I'll also pull out the last of my tomato plants and do some much needed weeding - and show my support for community radio.

BTW, today is a great day to show your support for community radio -

3RRR, and community radio in general, is facing a tough time and needs your help.

3RRR  is not asking for your financial support this time around, just 30 seconds of your time to sign up to the campaign at committocommunityradio.org.au

The Community Broadcasting Association of Australia requires funding of $3.6 million per year to maintain digital radio infrastructure for the 37 metropolitan community radio stations that hold digital licenses. Having previously committed to the full amount of funding, in the May 2012 federal budget, the Government committed to only $2.2 million per year, for four years, leaving a $1.4 million per year shortfall.

The Commit to Community Radio campaign has been established to get this $1.4 million shortfall addressed. At only about $40,000 per station per year, it’s really not a lot of money in the scheme of things, but other stations aren’t as well supported as Triple R and the transmission infrastructure is shared, so we’re committed to a “one in, all in” approach.  Unaddressed, this shortfall is likely to see community digital radio services switched off.

So make like the feather riot! If Layne, Ledger, Philly, Gidget and Hilda can show their support, you can too.

Chook chat

EVERY time one of the gals lay an egg she lets out a cawk-like cackle to tell her friends and they all enthusiastically cawk back and forwards in delight.

Today they are flapping about their run, chasing foolish crickets in between laying.

For the last oh, say two years, the little devils have been laying under their excellent hutch in he far right hand corner which entails getting a steel rake to cover their largess.

So yesterday i crawled under the chok shack and firmly wired off their cellar.

This morning i was rewarded by an egg in the hutch nest.

How long this will last it any one's guess as they pace the run like POWs.

I'm sure they will have figured out a way around the birdwire - after all, they managed to almost lock me in the run the other day when in their rush to get out into the garden when he was feeding them, one knocked the door shut.
Tricked by a chook, is not a good admission.

Gidget on cricket patrol

Happy henhouse

This weekend I'll be cleaning out Gidget's chook shack, which means bundling the little darlings out into the run while I don disposable gloves.

After removing all the soiled straw and newspaper, I give the floor a brush and a wipe, line it with fresh newspapers and straw. If I have any garlic skins or lavender flowers then I'll toss them in to help repel insects.

Then all the hen house sweepings of manure and hay go into an old salvaged steel rubbish bin and i cover it in water, leave it for a few weeks and hey presto! Great fertiliser which goes straight into the compost.

Plus the hens have a sweet smelling hutch.

There was also a good article in the Weekly Times on the hen health, including hutch design and cleanliness.

Hilda inspecting her spring-cleaned hutch

Comfrey and Joy

Rich in nitrogen and potassium, comfrey is a great herb to grow as it's a proven compost activator.

Not only will it enrich your compost heap by breaking down the ingredients, it’s also a great mulch as containing so much nitrogen, when decomposing it will not leach it from the soil as does high-carbon mulches like straw and leaves.

Comfrey’s high potassium content helps to increase flower and fruit production making it especially beneficial for flowers (attracting those fabulous bees), fruiting vegetables (such as beans, peas, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and cucumbers), berries, and fruit trees. 

I’ve heard anecdotally from other greenthumbs using comfrey to mulch root crops such as parsnips and carrots or leafy greens like lettuce, tatsoi and spinach may encourage them to go to seed prematurely.

Hens like it too! I also pick fresh bunches for my chooks who enjoy the occasional peck.

It does die back in winter but will zip back into life come spring.

Beware, it can take over so I try to keep it in the areas when I ave my compost bins. Everytime I add some vegies, paper or green waste to one of my seven compost bins, a few comfrey leaves are added. 

Share the love…

Community gardens are a great melting-pot of your neighbourhood. Residents of all ages, professions and backgrounds come together to grow food, share ideas, seeds and conversation as they plant, weed and harvest.

When I rocked up to the Danawa Community Garden in Torquay, I was delighted to find a like-mined group of people who are some of the nicest gardeners I’ve ever met.

Some of the great people who keep Torquay's Danawa Community Garden growing.

Community gardens are places where people don’t give a toss about the car you drive, the size of your house, the brand of your jeans or which footy team you follow.

OK, they do care if you follow the Cats or the Bombers. But they are also places where the ability to grow really good corn, a sweet tomato or a fantastic heritage pumpkin far outweighs the size of your plama TV or which school your kids attend. As it should be.

If you can make a good, hot compost heap, advise on permaculture, chooks, bees or how to build a worm farm - or want to learn - you’ll be welcomed with open arms.

And while not everyone at the community garden may qualify as your new best friend, you’ll meet a fantastic array of people who really care about the important things in life; growing delicious and nutritious food, bees, worms, chooks and enjoying a cuppa while talking about compost.So pull on your workboots, pick up your gloves and prepare for a great gardening adventure!
Find out where your local community garden is here or if there's not one listed, contact your local council.

Crop Rotation

Now we are finally removing he last of the late-ripening veggies, it’s a good time to get your head around the crop rotation system so that you can be sure of a great crop of winter and spring veggies.

Check out the excellent SGA info on spinning sround your crops.

Preparing a vegetable bed for the next crop.

It’s obvious that different vegetables require different soil conditions. So when rotating the vegetables, the soil needs to be treated to suit the new vegetable. For example tomatoes like their soil to be acidic whereas onions prefer it more alkaline. So you need to lime a garden bed where you grew tomatoes before planting your onions.  Then after harvesting onions you plant beans and peas (legumes) because they also love sweet soil. Legumes are fantastic because they capture nitrogen from the atmosphere and pump it into the soil, so they can be followed by leaf vegies such as broccoli, cabbages, cauliflower, spinach, bok choy,  lettuces and silver beet. After these guys you can sow the yummy root crops suh as beetroot, carrots and parsnips as they don’t need much manure to flourish.

 Crop Rotation Tips
• Rest your beds for a few days (a week is even better) if adding manures to allow the soil to absorb the goodness
• Put your chooks in the old bed as they will delight in turning over the soil and eating any leftover bugs such as caterpillars
• Use a garden fork to turn over the soil and mix in your compost as this will aerate the soil and you are less likely to damage the worms.

Broad Bean Bonanza

Yesterday I harvested the last of my broad beans. I say ‘harvested’ rather than picked, because I reckon there was a good 10 kilos in the box by the time I’d finished. Not a bad result from around 45 plants. We have been eating and giving away the delish little green things for a couple of months now and I really cannot eat enough of them. After picking the broadbeans I then stripped all the leaves from the stalks and added them to the compost bin underthe fig tree. Now I just have to chop up the stalks and add them to the other six bins. Their garden bed will be gently turned over to ensure the barow-load of chock-full-of-worms compost I added to it is mixed well in the soil – it’s a bit like folding in flour when you bake a sponge cake. Then I will look at planting more basil, lettuce, silverbeet and Asian greens.

Meanwhile, we are enjoying eating broadbean pesto – simply substitute the beans where it says basil in your recipe. Last night my husband made a yummy risotto and used the broad beans instead of celery (I had given the last of it to the chooks, ooops) and it was fantastic! Braodbeans are also wonderful mashed with a little garlic, black pepper and olive oil and spread on hot toasted sourdough.