the winter garden

our new home brought with it a new garden. a lovely level block with a good few established fruit tress and plenty of shrubs and succulents (and the simply stunning Sturt Desert Peas sprouting under the Hills Hoist)
one of the first things on our 'to do' list was to get a few plants in the ground so they could get growing and producing.
we've popped 5 olives along the front fence and a grape vine to trellis along the front verandah for much needed summer shade and dappled sunshine in the cooler months.
vegie seeds are planted in a concrete sink topped with an old window.
we've fertilised, pruned and mulched the oranges, lemon, cumquot and fig.
next on the list is to build a chook shed.

what's happening in your garden?

a new home.

things have been a bit quiet here on the blog of late, but it's not been quiet in life's happenings.

we've just made the big (and exciting) leap and became first home owners. it's all gone pretty smoothly so far (thank goodness) without much trouble in our dealings with the bank, conveyancer and real estate agent. the whole house buying process was all new to us so there was a bit of stress with how to go about making an offer, building inspections, getting financial approval, the need for a conveyancer, taking out insurance.. the list goes on.

and today we got to pick up the keys and have a good look around.
the house is a simple 2 bedroom home with mostly original mint-coloured kitchen and bathroom and a quaint outdoor (part of the back verandah) laundry and second loo.
there's a mismatch of carpets, cream paint and a rather unsightly suspended ceiling but the bones are good and as I look around all I see is potential.
outside there's a pair of orange trees, a lemon, cumquat and fig tree... the startings of what I hope will become a very productive permaculture space. and chooks again... I can't wait.

I'm looking forward to updating as we go and have taken plenty of 'before' photos to share. x

pozible.

one of my hopes for 2014 is to support ethical, handmade and small business as much as I can. i've signed up for the ethical fashion pledge over at Pip's. i've also pledged my support to a couple of pozible campaigns.

have you heard of pozible before? it's a crowd funding site that aims to help ideas and aspirations happen. you can read more about the what, how, who and why of pozible here.

one campaign that I'm supporting at the moment is Pip: Australian permaculture magazine.
the magazine is described as... 'where you can learn how to retrofit your home to make it more energy efficient, get great ideas that you can implement into your own productive food gardens, find recipes that are seasonal and use simple whole foods and read about other like-minded people who are doing inspiring things.'
fundraising is currently at 83% and with 18 days to go Robyn Rosenfeldt, the editor, publisher and creator of Pip magazine can nearly call the magazine a success.

have you come across pozible before? what do you think of it?

the most powerful thing we can do to change the world is to create the world we do want rather than trying to stop the world we don’t want.

David Holmgren, co-originator of permaculture

keeping chickens

with the chicken family of 5 fitting nicely into my plans of self-sustainability and a permaculture based garden i am trying to raise and keep the chooks as healthy and free from chemicals as possible. i have listed a few of my favourite tips and tricks to keeping healthy and happy chooks.

adding apple cider vinegar and garlic to their water. i add a couple of crushed, peeled garlic cloves, and about 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to their water dishes. these additions help deter red mite, aids in digestive health, acts as an antiseptic and also keeps the water dish free from bacteria and algae. the garlic is an immune booster (as it is with us people too) and is also a natural wormer. i try to replace the water, garlic and apple cider vinegar at least twice a week.

 

allowing the girls to free range in the garden eating bugs, plants and dust bathing. now the two Wheaten Marans free range the whole yard but the young Light Sussex remain in their relocatable tractor which we move several times a day, following the autumn sunshine. they are still fairly small and we don't want to tempt the cats to a feathered toy or three.

adding herbs to their shed and nest box. i have bunches of rosemary tied with twine hanging up. plus i hope to add to this lavender and lemon balm. the herbs help in deterring pests as well as creating a nice fragrance in the shed. or coop pot pourri.

an occasional treat of plain natural yoghurt is popular. the good bacteria in the yogurt helps maintain a healthy gut. plus there's all the calcium and other goodness of yoghurt too.

feed them the kitchen scraps. silver beet stems, tomato and apple cores, banana peels all go into a 'scrap bucket'. the girls get first pick of what they want and what's left gets tipped into the worm farms.

 

using food grade diatomaceous earth (DE) both applied directly onto the chooks and sprinkled in their straw bedding. DE is fossilised algae. it kills hard-shelled insects. and very effectively i might add. we noticed the chooks had some lice and after one application the lice were gone. a week later we applied more to be sure and the chooks are happy and lice-free. a sprinkling of DE into their layer pellets also ensures internal parasites are kept under control. i sourced this online and can highly recommend it. it has plenty of other uses too.

and a favourite resource is this book- Free range chicken gardens: how to create a beautiful, chicken-friendly yard, by Jessi Bloom. this was a gift to my other half at easter and it is full of practical information and beautiful photos. the lists of chicken friendly plants is especially useful.

do you have chooks? or dream of one day having a couple clucking in the garden and collecting fresh eggs for breakfast?

i'd love to hear your chicken keeping tips too.

my love of gardening & books

my love of gardening started as a young child. i had a little garden of my own nestled under the huge birds nest fern at my grandparents house and one at home beneath the lemon tree. there i grew violets, busy lizzie's and sprinkled ‘cottage garden mix’ seeds.

now i have much more space to construct a garden bed or three and my attention has turned to productive plants. lemon grass, nasturtiums, rosemary, thyme & lavender are dotted amongst the existing shrubs in the front garden. the mushroom compost filled beds out the back are filled with vegies. green beans climb a wire trellis with lettuce seedlings in front. rows of beetroot, spring onions and silver beet are interplanted with marigolds and more nasturtiums in the other recycled timber-edged beds.

growing a plant. nurturing it from a seed as those first green leaves appear. it grows taller and later its small limbs hold produce: beans, tomatoes, pumpkins or peas. such a rewarding experience it is being able to pick, prepare and then eat.  

 

alongside my love of gardening is that of reading and studying the images in gardening books. over the years my collection has grown; consisting mostly of thrifted books along with gifted titles from my wish list.

my top gardening books are-

 

'introduction to permaculture' by Bill Mollison. my go-to book. packed full of info on designing a productive and practical garden (and home) using permaculture principles- from a small backyard to commercial farm size. there are plenty of helpful hand drawn diagrams throughout too. i’ve been lucky enough to find 3 copies over the years from op-shops.

'Esther Deans’ gardening book: growing without digging'. an oldie but still very relevant. all about constructing a no-dig garden using layering methods, composting and pest control.

'the permaculture home garden' by Linda Woodrow (who also has a lovely little blog). another thrifted book. easy reading based again around the permaculture principles. topics of this book include choosing a site for your vegie beds and introducing chickens into the garden system.
 

'one magic square': grow your own food on one square metre' by Lolo Houbein. great for the small area gardener and those new to growing their own food.  it has instructions on plant spacing and garden bed layout to make the most of limited space. also featured are themed plantings- the curry plot, the pizza plot and the soup plot.

the latest addition, my easter gift this year is 'seasons in my kitchen garden: a journey from paddock to potager' by Marcelle Nankervis. this book is written season by season about Marcelle’s experience on moving to her family’s farm and starting a beautiful garden from scratch. plenty of beautiful photography too.

do you have a favourite gardening book? maybe one you always seem to turn to when you have a gardening query?

the new chooks and their home

 

the remodeling of the shed into a chook house saw plenty of repurposing and make-do:
an old metal trunk as a nest box.
ladder turned roost.
garden stakes became chicken tractor framework.
timber from our first chicken tractor transformed into a door.
& an old silver spoon has a new life as a handle.


do you often upcycle objects?
do you have a favourite repurposed project?

stills: around the garden

 

the week in stills.

this past 7 days has seen a bit of book reading and note taking followed by construction. the conversion of one of the sheds into a chicken house and the building of a chicken run/tractor. and i'm happy to say that it only cost under $50 all up. and that was for a new roll of chicken wire and a couple of bales of hay. for the rest of the materials we used what we already had. repurposing where necessary.

my hands are showing signs of all the work though: timber selection, hand sawing and chicken wire measuring & cutting.

& today we picked up the girls from a heritage poultry breeder just out of town. all the chickens, turkeys, guinea fowl and peacocks looked very happy in their old tennis court yard.

the 3 we selected are Wheaten Marans. a docile breed. tolerating heat and cold (the latter of which we're already getting a bit of here). lay dark, chocolate coloured eggs. and have cute little feathers on their feet.

they have their work set out for them: digging in the vegie garden, eating bugs, turning the soil ready for planting & fertilising as they go. i am so very happy to have chooks once again. since moving from the coast i have missed their antics so.    wishing you all a wonderful week ahead.

 

x

joining in yet again with Em at the beetle shack

The List

After having read so many wonderful lists for 2012 and for the future in general, I decided I better put pen to paper and actually write down some of the many ideas I have stored in my head.
This list is in no particular order, some I would love to be able to tick off come the end of 2012, others seem a while off for now, but that's ok.

1. Get in the kitchen more- I'd love to make all my own bread, yogurt and butter.
2. Make a timber bed base
3. Build or renovate my own environmentally friendly home, preferably one in the middle of a hundred acres or so, with a huge vegie patch, orchard, and animals, using permaculture principles

4. Grow nearly all my own vegetables, herbs and fruit; and buy what I can't from local sources

5. Get out and exercise more. The fiancé is a regular gym goer, I've never been so a gym membership is on the cards for Orange. And if there's good tracks around the area then a spot of bike riding may be in order
6. Read more
7. Make some of my Pinterest pins
8. Visit the local farmers markets every time they're on, and support the locals producers
9. Buy Australian Made/Grown products from the shops where I can
10. Sew some of my own clothes
11. Make a recycled timber desk/sewing table; and garden potting bench with sink
12. Sew my own curtains
13. Go camping. I've never been.
14. Get chickens again. How I miss the chooks antics and the fresh eggs
15. Spend a whole day on an op-shopping adventure
16. Design labels for my handmade pieces
17. Finish my patchwork quilt
18. Make bunting for every room of the house
19. Get a worm farm

20. Compost all the house scraps

21. Do a permaculture design course with the fiancé

22. Make my own pottery

23. Try macarons. First eating then making my own

24. Volunteer at an op-shop
25. Send more mail, and hopefully receive more too
26. Get involved in more swaps
27. Keep the house more organised and tidier
28. Visit new op-shops
29. Make some pocket money from the things I make (to feed my op-shopping habit)
30. Display more of my thrifted treasures and collections around the house
31. Put together a scrap book of all my ideas for my dream home
32. Make my own shampoo, soap, washing-up liquid and washing powder
33. Make new friends
34. Take more photos
35. Keep bees
36. Comment more often on the blog posts I read
37. Save more money
38. Spend the afternoon snoozing in a hammock
39. Hand rear a calf
40. Plant a window box full of herbs
41. Preserve excess produce- through drying and bottling
42. Make my own Christmas tree
43. Build nesting boxes for native birds and animals
44. Create a habitat pond in the garden
45. Organise my fabric and tea towel collection
46. Make all my own greeting cards for the year
47. Gain as much experience as I can in my New Graduate year
48. Holiday to Tasmania
49. Have fresh flowers in the house
50. Be grateful for all that I have, and for the people in my life

 As a little one. How I would love to still have this old tricycle

Thrifting Roundup

These 2 Fowlers jars for 50c each. Perfect for storing my growing collection of thread spools and paper stamp cutters.

With the weather warming the vegie patch is calling, so I've been rereading a few of these..all thrifted over the past year or so. I can highly recommend all of these books for those wanting to get into vegie growing and permaculture.

And last night Lassagne was one the menu and I got to put this Corningware dish into action, definitely worth the $4 I paid for it.

And made all the more delicious served on thrifted Johnson plates.

From Day 1


These are the progress photos of one side of our vegie garden. What began with a new shovel and fork and a whole lot of hard work has resulted in a beautiful and productive area.

July, 2010

This is how the area looked, over run with seaside daisies, onion weed, wandering dew, fern and invasive succulents.



 Two days of hard work later, we discovered hidden stone garden-bed edging and concrete paths. The first piece of construction was the compost bin, with recycled timber and old oyster growing trays allowing air circulation. The front timber slats lift out to remove the composted compost.

August, 2010

We then made a couple of new garden beds, and added well rotted cow poo from the dairy, planted the first lot of seeds and mulched heavily with newspaper and hay to stop the persistent onion weed. Now just to let the garden grow. 

September, 2010

The vegies are starting to grow. Lettuces at the back. Spinach, capsicum, chilli, parsley and rosemary in the next bed. More chillies and beans in the next, then beetroot, spring onion and parsnip, closest.

October, 2010



December, 2010

The pumpkins grew self-seeded from the compost bin, and produced several tasty meals.



January, 2011



May, 2011

Our chook tractor rotation is improving the soil, and preparing the beds for this seasons plantings.
Since the establishment of the garden we have harvested watermelon, yacon, corn, Lebanese and apple cucumbers, zucchini, snow peas, bush and climbing beans, cherry and Roma tomatoes, rocket, butternut and jap pumpkin, vegetable spaghetti, lemon grass, eggplant, capsicum, chilli, lettuce, strawberries, shallots, parsnip, beetroot, spinach and herbs including parsley, rosemary, basil, chocolate mint, coriander, garlic chives and lemon thyme.

Permaculture principles have been incorporated through planting of flowers, including nasturtiums and marigolds to attract pollinators and deter pests; and companion planting. The bird bath is a popular place with the wrens and williwag tails.

Now to get back in the garden, watering the newly planted seeds waiting for them to poke their heads above the soil; and sit for a while and enjoy listening to the chooks clucking away and delighting in a dust bath.