Inner-city Chooks & Veggies

An Update & Duck Tractors

2010-02-21T14:30:00.006+10:00

The garden has gone a little mad with butternut pumpkin vines! I've been a little disappointed though - so many vines & flowers, so few pumpkins....
Over the last couple of days I've seen more pollinated flowers though, and so have the neighbours....

Some Thai eggplants...

The Avocado tree has probably only delivered about 1/4 of the produce as last year - taking a breather maybe?

Also stumbled upon this great website....
http://www.fairearthfarm.com/category/baskets-ผลผลิต

Blue & Goji Berries

2009-12-12T11:57:00.009+10:00

The permanent garden grows best... (Chilli, Lemon grass, Ginger, Galangal, Pineapple Guava, Passion fruit)

Following on from the last blog, I've planted some more permanent fruits...

A blueberry bush - it should grow to 3 metres. I can't wait to start getting blue fingers.

A Goji Berry Tree - this was only $12 at Bunnings. I don't think I've ever tried a Goji Berry before, but apparently they are great!

A Native Bush Plum - this was only $2 from the Gabba saturday markets, bargain! I've planted this underneath the avocado tree. (For no reason, other than I'm running out of room).

White Mulberry - I've moved it from under the passionfruit vine, no luck with the fruit yet, I'm suspecting possums!

The rest of the Garden's travelling well now that it's summer - even without much rain!

Kaffir Limes

Pumpkin, Eggplants, Capsicum Sweet Potato, Turmeric & Lime

Bird Chilli, Thai Eggplant & Habanero

I want more land...

2009-11-30T18:49:00.004+10:00

I want to buy a large block - put a sala home high on the hill and create a food-forest on keyline-swales below.

Our suburban garden is good fun. It's 50% perenials & 50% chicken assisted high maintenance veggies. I'm thinking of making that 75% perenials though - they self mulch, are drought hardier, require less labour & are more productive. It's the labour intensive stuff that gets to me. Lettuce, Bok Choy, Beans, Tomotoes they all taste great, but I don't think you need a lot of them - 1/2 of what I plant fails through lack of water and maintenance. I reckon the best part of gardening is picking passionfruits fresh off the vine & eating them right there & then!

While I mull over where I find this block of land (it doesn't have to be fertile), I watch a lot of these videos....

Maybe it should be in Thailand..... (Example 1 - Example 2)

A really hot day!

My Chocolae Sapote Leaves are Yellow?

2009-10-17T22:13:00.002+10:00

Can anyone tell me why my Chocolate Sapote leaves are yellow? It's growing much faster than last year...

Psychological Death

2009-10-15T16:13:00.003+10:00

Are you dying a psychological death everyday?

Early New Years Resolution

2009-10-11T18:01:00.004+10:00

After a little backyard planting, ordering new varieties of seeds and a DVD, I stumbled across this blog. It's something I've been mumbling about for a long time - buying plot of land and creating a food forest on it. The blog is fresh inspiration!

...who wants in?

...anyone know of some good land near Brisbane?

Another great food forest...

Deep Green Permaculture

2009-10-04T21:38:00.001+10:00

This blog isn't too bad...

Deep Green Permaculture

Chocolate Sapote

2009-09-12T16:08:00.006+10:00

This fruit is amazing....

It's a rainforest tree native to Mexico and is pretty hard to find in a supermarket here in Brisbane.

It literally tastes like chocolate pudding with only a hint of sweetness. There are heaps of recipes to google i.e. chocolate fruit cake, ice-cream, milkshakes...

We planted this about 2 years ago. It has probably only doubled in size - very slow growing! You should be able to buy them from Nielson's Native Nursery in Brisbane. If you have the patience, they will grow into a nice lush 8 metre high tree.

Spring Planting

2009-09-12T15:23:00.012+10:00

Nasturtium

The garden always seems to get neglected in winter - it's cold, not a lot grows and it always seems to be dark when getting home.

Without too much though we planted rows of the following;
'Lemon' Cucumber
Pumpkin
'Saladbowl Red' Lettuce
'Sugarloaf' Cabbage
Bok Choy
'Hawaiian' Sweet Corn
'Chioggia' Beetroot
Dill
Mini Onions
Spinach
and a lot of tomatoes...

Other than that, there are plenty of worms, bees and flowers...

Basil

Coriander

Bok Choy

Lavander

Nasturtium

Kangaroo Paw

Aloe Vera

With all these flowers and bees I'm thinking of starting bee hive... anyone had any experience with them?

Dragon Carrots

2009-09-05T20:33:00.011+10:00

We found these heirloom carrots from Green Harvest, called 'Dragon Carrot'.
They taste great and so far have been the strongest & straightest carrots we've grown. Loose soil helps, and when thinning be ruthless (better to have fewer large carrots than thousands of carrot toothpicks).

Combine David Attenborough & Al Gore...

2009-06-28T22:12:00.002+10:00

....and you get this brilliant (free) movie : Home

The cinematography is breathtaking and the story told leaves me unable to find an adjective suitable. Please watch this.

Forgotten Avos

2009-06-24T09:25:00.003+10:00

The neighbours and I may have forgotten about the avocados that were too high to collect, but my wife didn't. A harness, rope and extendible pole saw these monsters come crashing down....

Unlucky possums!

Passionfruit

2009-04-26T12:17:00.002+10:00

Our passionfruit is booming now. After only a few months we have approx 20m of vine on the southern (most sunlit) fence line. Our chilli bushes aren't going to badly either.

You can see below; Passionfruit, Chilli, Paw Paw, Galangal, Lemon Grass, Thai Basil, Sage, Chives, Gooseberry, Mango and of course Chickens.

It's starting to cool down a little now and the garden doesn't get as much sun as it used to. Time to start planting more lettuces, strawberries (with better luck than me), potatoes, garlic....

Future of Farming

2009-03-29T17:55:00.000+10:00

A great glimpse into what farming might look like in the not too distant future...
http://permaculture.org.au/2009/03/26/a-farm-for-the-future/

(I'm so keen to do a 2 week permaculture course... anyone else interested?)

Avocados

2009-03-07T18:57:00.005+10:00

Looking forward to these!

With help from the neighbours we managed to collect 60+ (about 1/5 of the tree).

Apparently you ripen an avocado by putting them in brown paper bags, hope this works as they are rock-solid at the moment.

It's interesting to note we had virtually no mangoes this year (and no bats) but a great avocado season. It was vice versa the year before.

Anyone know if you can hedge an avocado tree? (It's too tall too reach and most of the lower branches have fallen off - no more low hanging fruit) It would be nice to lop the top half off and get a bushier tree.

Summer's here and it's spicy!

2008-12-30T11:07:00.012+10:00

Before - 12/12/08

After - 30/12/08

(How quickly Corn and Soy beans grow!)

What do you do when you've got 30+ chilli bushes and you go away for 13 days....

....you dry them for later.

Oh it looks like the Marsh Frogs have laid some eggs and tadpoles are emerging - see the bubbles! (Very Cool!)

I can't wait to get a proper pond happening, fed from a proper grey water filtration system and close enough to the house to create a cooling effect.

Current Problems:

1) If we do a couple of washing loads on the weekend it tends to overpower the wetland filter and cloud up the pond water. Not good for fish - but strangely the frogs have been ok...??

2) Plants are getting too big and falling over. Not enough soil to support their size.

3) Without fish, mossies are laying. So far I've had a small pump circulating water which stops the mossies laying. However, with the plants getting so big, it blocks the circulation.

Maybe I'll have to cull one of the plants?

Corn & Soybeans

2008-12-12T23:28:00.007+10:00

At last a patch of corn that works!

+The soybeans climb up the corn, fix nitrogen and are tasty steamed (eaten just like peas in a pod)
+There is some celery in there too
+Paw Paw growing well behind
+New fence on the southern boundary so the passionfruit can catch all the sun.

Fingers crossed we're back from the break in time for the harvest!

The corn and soybeans came from the organic "Green Harvest"

Habanero Frogs

2008-11-23T22:32:00.008+10:00

Looks like the rain brought frogs!

Brown striped marsh frogs apparently. I think I may have mistaken a few tadpoles for mosquito larvae - woops! Good to see the grey-water pond is habitable though.

On another note we now have an abundance of chilli! The Thai bird chilli bush is so heavy with spice it almost fell over with the rain. The habanero bushes are also booming, with enough turning orange a week to fill this bowl.

We thought the habanero was the hottest chilli around, until a trip to the Pomona markets taught us otherwise. One particular chilli merchant had almost the full range of habanero bushes either for sale or on order. The orange we have are hot, but the red habaneros we bought are hotter again (the hottest on earth until 1994). He hadn't tried his brown or white habaneros yet, but did talk a little about the Scoville scale. Looks like the Bangladeshi's have the record...

Good Seed Shop

2008-11-01T22:54:00.007+10:00

I did the obvious and googled "Seed Shop QLD" and found this.

I like it! It beats the generic Bunnings varieties, I just planted;

1) 'Sweet Purple' Asparagus - "Deep burgundy spears are large, very tender with a mild nutty flavour when cooked; it can also be enjoyed raw due to it's sweetness"

2) 'Lemon' Cucumber - Heirloom variety apple cucumber... fruits are round with a crisp sweet thin yellow skin...

3) 'Thai Pink Egg' tomato - Determinate (non-climbing). Delicious, sweet, pink grape-shaped fruit. Very heavy cropper.

I think I'll order some Snake beans next, they should compliment the corn....

Pompoodle vs Chicken...

2008-10-19T12:29:00.005+10:00

For anyone that's had something stolen, you'll know this feeling - where's the dog?

The food and water bowls gone, no dog happy to see me, feathers in the backyard.... something was amiss.

As it turns out the neighbours saw the little puffball causing havoc inside the chicken coup soon after I left for work! They took care of him for the day but said one of the chickens wasn't looking too good. There was only a little blood and it looked a little thirsty, but it wasn't until it raised it's head that I cringed.

After few quick calls I discovered all willing and sharp-knife owning friends were busy. I had advice though, do it quickly and make sure you've got a sharp knife if you're going to clean it....

To cut a semi-dramtic story short, the chicken is a metre deep and not in the fridge (my knife wasn't sharp enough).

It really did pain me to see the chicken in such a state. Strangely though, I felt better after it was dead! Killing wasn't enjoyable, but knowing it wasn't in pain made me feel much better about the situation. I know I wasn't attached to the chicken like a pet dog etc, but it does make me ponder over the realities of euthanasia...

Lessons:

1) Either train your dog very well, or have a bloody good fence!
2) Always have a sharp knife in the draw
3) Befriend your neighbours, you never know when you'll need them.

As for the garden, it's finally warming up and it looks like it's going to be a wet summer so I've just planted heaps!

Tomatoes, carrots, spinach, rocket, chives, corn, cucumber, various flowers (great for encouraging predatory bugs).

(The good old days)

Confit Garden Dark

2008-09-21T19:29:00.006+10:00

Straight from the gardenCarrots

Rocket
Coriander
Chocolate Mint

Lightly steamed vegetables with a some crunchy duck and a little chocolate mint to finish.

....

(Alright the duck wasn't from the garden, but we have chickens.....)

How easy are potatoes!

2008-08-29T19:31:00.006+10:00

So it's probably been about 6mths of absolutely no maintenance growing. Sweet potato is just a ground cover vine that occasionally grows skyward. All we did was plant one in the middle of a patch. Not a bad harvest really! (There are some struggling carrots in there as well).

We've also got normal potato growing. They're a little more work because occasionally you just have to pile a little more soil on top to create a mound.

You can see the carrots, beetroot, Italian parsley, peanuts & nasturtiums are going well. (Again no maintenance)

This is the Chinese Broccoli. Haven't gotten around to eating them yet. But even after flowering they still look quite edible. (Not to mention looking nice and attracting bees)

Those sweet potatoes again.

Almost Spring...

2008-08-02T20:52:00.014+10:00

My guess is we've just had our winter all crammed into one week - and it's finished!

So I've planted some more seeds in the nursery:
+ Sweet Corn (a different variety to last time),
+ Pak Choi,
+ Spinach,
+ Roma Tomato,
+ Cauliflower &
+ Lebanese Cucumber.

By the time the corn has sprouted we will have a circle of soil enriched with months of chicken, coffee grinds and food scraps. Perfect for planting the classic triad of corn, squash/cucumber & beans in the coming warmer months. Everything else we can plant around the edges.

We bought some more chooks, 1 black & 1 white, $14.95 each. They're already laying.

They are a little shy & not used to devouring scraps just yet. We'll see how they like leftover curry in the morning...

Harvesting hasn't been fantastic during winter. Although, I was happy with our solo broccoli after the slug invasion. There have been some midget carrots (although tasty), rocket, baby potatoes and the obligatory keffir lime leaves, basil, ginger, thyme etc.

...and for anyone with a hint of patience....

Chicken Dinner

2008-07-22T18:24:00.012+10:00

Strong Imagery Below- BE WARNED

It has been cold (for Brisbane) and our chickens had stopped laying. So I invited the 'butcher' around among other open minded friends to dinner....

The images following might not be what everyone wants to see. So please, if you're squeamish and want to remain an omnivore, stop reading!
(but consider watching Jamie Oliver this Wed 23rd July 2008 on Channel 10 at 9:30pm)

For those who wish to understand what happens before most of the world sits down to a meal of chicken keep reading.....

I have had many people squirm at the mention of killing your own food. I think many liken a chicken to their cat or dog - a pet. A chicken has and always will be a source of food and part of a natural farming system. Most importantly, our chickens have had better lives than most and died humanely at the hands of people who truly appreciate the process.

The list of photos below is not an exercise in horror but an 'education' or 'demonstration of technique':-
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Unsuspecting - we had fed them only a little grass in the morning. In hindsight, it's easier to fast them for 2 days before.

I dug quite a deep hole to bury all feather etc so no animals would ever dig them up. There is also a frame there for us to hang the chickens from to completely drain.

A sharp knife, chopping block and bowl to drain the blood into. (You of course only need the bowl if you wish to use the blood in cooking or feed to your dog etc)

It's easier with 2 people. One person holds the legs and the wings at their base. There are all sorts of techniques I've seen i.e. knocking the chicken out first, plucking feathers from the neck first, twisting & snapping the neck first.... I tried to pluck a few feathers first only to see the chicken in pain. The fastest and therefore most humane is a clean chop!

Nerves will make the chicken convulse for a good minute after death. Just hold on and drain the blood. (The plastic bag is only to protect a cast)

We tied the chicken up to drain while we moved onto the second chook.

In a large bucket of boiling water, dunk the chook for no more than 5-10 seconds (any more and it will start to cook). Plucking is easy! But as my Dad said "the smell is distinctive" not bad, just distinctive....

I only watched, but you want to cut open the cavity without cutting any organs etc. Start from the anus (on the stomach side). Cut away the skin...

Then cut in below the ribcage so you can then scoop out everything (hopefully) in one movement.

...

The chicken very quickly looks like what you might find in a supermarket.

We rescued a few 'golden' eggs. These are pre-laid eggs without a shell. Many consider them as a delicacy.... (I didn't taste one, can anyone describe the taste?)

The small balls on top are eggs in early formation. Looks like our chickens were ramping up production again...

The meat of two chickens.

We'll freeze these bones and use for stock and dog food later.

Dinner! I found the chicken to be very rich - almost like duck.

We used ginger and lemongrass from the garden in this dish.

Post-Chicken. With all the coffee grinds and chicken poo we might get some great corn, zucchini and beans in this patch as we come in to spring.

If you can't eat liver, neck, or chicken feet your dog will!

Carrots are crunchy...

2008-07-06T17:33:00.016+10:00

Not too much happening in the garden:-

I have sampled some of our carrots, although a little small they taste great!

The trick here is to make sure you thin the carrots shortly after they sprout. Too close and you get the two baby carrots in the middle.

After 3 weeks under a light covering of mulch, two of the six potatoes have sprouted. I have covered them with more soil (I did say there wasn't too much happening...)

I have also just finished reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma. I highly recommend!

It's a book in three parts;
1) the industry of corn
2) a permaculture farm
3) hunting and gathering

It's an easy and engrossing read. A book that changes the way you think. A book you immediately want all your friends to read because there's no way I can sum it up here...

Inspiration

2008-06-30T18:12:00.004+10:00

I came across a great permaculture video that I had forgotten about.

...there's more!

The Omnivore's Dilemma

2008-06-09T20:26:00.019+10:00

Rain while camping was the perfect time to dive into "The Omnivore's Dilemma". After reading this I couldn't wait to get stuck back into our mostly oil-free-garden.

The corn is bland and small - possibly a result of colder weather. Either way, still good chook food. (A far cry from the yields described here; "The Omnivore's Dilemma")

The carrots and leeks are coming along nicely with the frequent rain. Time to start thinning I think.

After reading that most Australian garlic is shipped from China fumigated with some toxic chemicals, I thought a mostly oil-free-garden should have plenty on the go. I planted plenty of cloves (pointy side up) near our rose bush. 1 clove yields 1 bulb.

The garlic went in where the Turmeric came out. I re-planted a few smaller pieces again in a sunnier position in front of our pond. (Not bad for 8 months from a couple of fronds)

The cauliflower has been overrun with slugs. So I blended up some garlic, onion and chili in water and sprayed it on - it worked for the rose bush... (I left a some of the blend to concentrate in the storeroom for next time).

Potatoes are my next experiment. I dug 2 troughs and placed a few potatoes in them covered with mulch. The idea is as the leaves keep sprouting you keep adding more soil from the piles either side. 80% of potatoes grow above 'ground'.

(The soil was feeling pretty good after a long spell with the chickens, plenty of scraps and coffee grinds from 'Urban Grind')

The Way We Water

2008-05-04T15:57:00.013+10:00

It all starts from this grey water tank/pump:

It's from a group call H2O Pure Plus, they do all sorts of treatment systems. This is the 50L version costing about $550 (much cheaper than a water tank).

Basically it's bucket with a pump. The pump activates like a toilet in reverse. There is an overflow into sewerage if anything goes wrong.

I have also attached a diverter to our bath/shower. So if we decide to go all out on the bath salts or need to use Napisan etc we can divert it straight to the sewer.

I've hooked up only our laundry and bath/shower to this system. We use Earth Choice detergents (low sodium and phosphate) and regular shower products. All kitchen water still goes to the sewer, I was worried about the high level of solids and fat (no toilet - that's black water).

From the pump it goes to two valves:

The valve at the bottom, when open, goes through a lint filter and then through a holey pipe that circuits under the mulch in the garden.

The valve at the top, when open, goes to the wetland & pond. (I only open one at a time).

It's not a perfect system, the water ideally should slowly trickle through a wetland for several days before reaching the pond. In this system the water enters at the bottom of the top barrel which then overflows equally into both lower barrels. There are two pipes from the bottom of the lower barrels that lead into the pond.

I used river sand mixed with activated charcoal to fill the barrels. We planted some wetland reeds (can't remember the names...) to help filter the water. It's looking a little messy at the moment, I will need to add some more.

The pond was a $30 bath tub bought form the local demolition guys. It has a layer of activated charcoal and pebbles on the bottom. Don't ask me about the plants. The duck weed however, is a small floating plant that is used in some sewerage treatment plants as a natural filter and doubles as great compost.

To keep the mosquitoes away we have goldfish (I recommend Australian native Blue Eyes however as they are just as hardy, will eat mosquito larvae but not frog eggs). To keep the fish alive and the water clean I installed this little pump. It has a rating of 1200L per hour. Basically I pump water from the pond back through one of the lower wine barrels overnight. This keeps the water aerated and takes advantage of our huge biological filter.

So as an excuse for not having a water tank, we recycle and clean most of our greywater. The pond doubles as a water tank where we can fill our watering-can to wet what the holey pipes miss.

(It might take a little while for the right bacteria to build up in the wetland and pond to have clean non-smelling water)

.... and to say goodbye - Buddy!

Buddy & The Chickens

2008-04-28T18:33:00.002+10:00

So we have this puppy (say 5mths old) and a couple of chooks.....

Sometimes they don't get along....

Sometimes they do....

Corn Aftermath - any advice?

2008-04-26T13:51:00.023+10:00

After 9 weeks we were able to harvest our corn from circle #1 - No Good!

They were small, many half formed and tasted bland and powdery ---> chicken food!

Garden after corn (we still have some beans and marigolds left) You can see the next crop in the circle behind.

You know the corn is ready when the 'fluffy bits' on top turn brown. (written for the layman by the layman)

I still don't know why this crop was so average. Our first crop in this circle (pre-blog) was perfect - the sweetest corn we've tasted.

The Theories:

1) Soil quality was lowered from the first crop. Although we did co-plant with beans for nitrogen and had had chickens on to fertilize before hand

2) Dodgy seeds. Unfortunately I didn't write down what we used the first time, so we can't be sure. This time we used 'Golden Bantem' from Organic Green Patch.

Most other veggies seem to be coming along nicely...

Carrot

Broccoli

Cherry Tomatoes

Potato

Roma Tomatoes

Soybeans

We have had some concerns though...
Our long beans - very tasty, unfortunately the leaves have started looking 'rusty' and the vine dying. I'm not sure if this is just them dying normally or from some deficiency or disease....

Our tomatoes are yellowing.... Some are looking worse than others. They are all bearing green tomatoes, but the yellowing is worrying me. The soil is moist... is this normal?

These little critters smothered one of our bean vines!

As you can see they weren't letting any beans grow and the ones that had already grown were swamped.

There were lots of little bugs hanging around these 'mites', flies, lady beetles, ants....

I pulled the vines out of the ground and fed them to the chooks.

If anyone has any advice......

I said I was going to talk about the pond and watering system next time....

But I think watching chooks and a puppy sort out their pecking order is much more pressing....

The Rest of the Garden

2008-03-30T11:42:00.027+10:00

Time to show you the rest of the garden...

Avocado Tree
It actually took us a little while to work out what this tree was. Unfortunately it's only the possums that enjoy the fruit. The few fruits we've been able to grab off this very tall tree have gone off as they went soft.

Mango Tree
It's a very large tree. This year we got beautiful sweet and green mangoes. (Green mangoes are great to snack on with a little chili paste). The bats and possums have their fair share as well. The tree has once been cut right back, and it's probably due for another major pruning to keep it accessible. The mango and umbrella tree work well at reducing the western sun on the house as well. (I'd love to replace the umbrella tree one day with another fruiting tree).

Taro
This is taro! It's growing up the umbrella tree in the previous photo.

Tahitian Lime
One on either side of the front door. They need plenty of sun and an occasional urination.

Pawpaw
We have three pawpaw tree at the moment. None have borne fruit yet, but this one will be the first to provide us with a green pawpaw salad "Somtum".

Pawpaw & Mulberry
Working back from the mango tree on the southern boundary (plenty of sun)... No fruit from either yet. The iron grill is for beans to grow up.

Star Gooseberry
I haven't tried the fruit yet, but you can munch on the leaves while you eat some spicy curries.

Pineapple Guava
Apparently the fruit tastes like pineapple and strawberries. It can be hedged (all hedges should be edible!). It hasn't grown to well so far - it had been crowded out a little by the lemongrass and an existing hedge.

Kaffir Lime
Likes lots of sun and water. The older the leaves the more flavour - great in Thai dishes. The limes have a unique and strong flavour as well.

Side Garden (looking from both directions)
This part of the garden gets plenty of sun and water (greywater). Along here we have chili, lemongrass, turmeric, ginger, galangal, edible rape (green choy sum), marigolds and basil.

Chocolate Sapote
I'm really looking forward to this one! I've tried the fruit but they say it is like eating a passionfruit full of chocolate custard. It's not a fast grower, but then again it's not getting a lot of sun...

Northern Wall
This is the northern wall i.e. the one the gets the least sun as it shades itself. Ideally the passionfruit and turmeric would be best in a sunnier spot. I'm still not sure on the best spot for this chocolate sapote...

I think I might talk about the watering system next time...

The Garden Today

2008-03-24T09:22:00.051+10:00

About time I show what's in our garden today....

There are 6 outer circles, 1 inner. Everything else is down the sides of the yard.

This is circle #1 (the most forefront in the above photo) planted 9th Feb '08.
Here you can see beans, pawpaw & corn. Ideally I would have planted some sort of vine like cucumber or squash as well. The idea is beans, corn and a vine provide each other with shade as they grow. Too much sun and a plant stops growing and wilts. The beans will climb up the corn as well as fix nitrogen in the soil. Corn is a heavy nitrogen feeder - a great partnership. The corn has just started to form as well as the beans.

(Tip. Don't plant anything from the onion family near any sort of bean or legume. The nitrogen is fixed by bacteria that live near the beans roots. Onions are anti-bacterial).

#2 (clockwise from #1) planted 2nd March '08.
Straight after the chooks had been moved from this circle I spread some horse manure and more mulch before planting the corn. The corn is a bit sickly here - our puppy got into the seed tray before I planted them. In the corner there is a cucumber vine and I have beans in a seed tray ready to plant in a week or so. Behind this there are some soy beans.

A lot of this is our first time planting. Please don't take all this as gospel but a chance to check out our ongoing experiments.

#3 planted 15th March '08.
Again more corn. Unfortunately there's not enough. I used half the seedlings in #2 to top our puppy's mess. It takes about 2 weeks to get healthy seedlings, so it will be interesting to see how this patch goes when I top it up with younger seedlings. Again, this is all planted straight after the chickens have left. There is more cucumber in the top right (it should creep east through the corn) and a few potatoes in the mound behind.

#4 chickens since 15th March '08.
She's laying an egg back there.

#5 planted 2nd Feb '08
A lone rosella at the front with a strip of alfalfa behind it. They say rosella makes a great tea - good for the blood. Apparently alfalfa (lucerne) is good for the soil.... At the very least it gives the chooks some food when they move onto it. At the back is our 'compost' pile - just sticks, leaves etc that we had no where else to put. Again, lots of juicy critters underneath for the chickens. The rosella flower only lasted a day!

#6 planted 3rd Feb '08
There were no chooks before this planting. At the back there is sweet potato - it creeps everywhere and needs to be trained away from everything else. Just in from the potato is a row of carrots - they can't be transplanted so were directly sowed. In front of these are a row of tiny tom and roma tomatoes with green snake beans to either side. At the front of all this is a mixture of lettuce, rocket, cabbage & pak choi. Leek, basil, parsley, eggplant and celery didn't make it.

#7 planted 3rd Feb & 23rd March '08
This was sort of an extras circle. There were some extra cabbage, rocket and lettuce seedlings so we planted them here. They've actually done better than circle #6! I have just yesterday sowed directly a few different types of beans and peas - hence the stakes. (No chooks, just horse manure).

I think I will leave a description of our plants outside the circles to next time...

The Chicken Tractor

2008-03-17T18:34:00.019+10:00

Some call it a chicken tractor others a hovel, I call it the cheaper version of a $600 shop bought movable chicken coup.

I can claim no credit for the idea, it comes virtually direct from Linda's book. But hopefully, checking out a few photos will help the next person improve on the design.

There are many examples of box-like tractors, we needed ours to be round to fit the shape of our garden. The idea being, every two weeks we just hop inside to lift it to the next spot without even having to let the chooks out. (They devoured all our carrot tops last time I let them range free)

The materials:

* PVC piping (there's got to be a better environmental alternative out there....)
* Bird netting (lightweight and much easier to handle than traditional wire mesh)
* A few t-junction and straight joiners
* Twine
* Wire
* Zip ties
* Shade cloth
* Tarp
* Some sort of clip for the door
* Pot for water (chickens love to knock them over and scratch mulch into them. Look for wide bases or tie them down somehow)
* Boxes
* Fake egg or golf ball (encourages laying in a desired spot)
* Bamboo / doweling for the perch
* Drill

Pointers:

I think a few tips here are more important than instructions - the pics should be mostly self-explanatory.

1) Measure 3x cut 1x! Something to watch out for is the cross-over at the top - some poles will need to be ever so slightly longer to keep it round.

2) I suggest you don't do it alone. PVC doesn't always shape the way you want it too.

4) We attached the t-junction joiners to the PVC by drilling a small hole and threading wire through both PVC and joiner. This also works for joining PVC cross over points as well.

5) After the structure is in place it will be quite flimsy - it needs cross-bracing. I found this frustrating. Every square I tensioned upset the tensioning on the previous square grrr...... The solution I found was to tension all the bottom squares with twine in one continuous zigzag. After a little fiddling, I then re-braced with wire (twine would never last). You should only need to brace the bottom squares.

6) The netting should be pretty straight forward - all fixed to the base with twine. If you live in an area with rats/snakes you can leave an overhang of net on the ground to confuse burrowers.

7) The perch is just bamboo. Chickens love sleeping off the ground, a survival instinct from predators.

8) The tarp - need I say more? If you're worried about wind carrying the tractor away use tent pegs.

9) I'm sure there are variations on doors. Ours is just fixed with zip ties at the top with clips at the bottom. A benefit of shade cloth is it provides a little more shade for the chooks without smothering them in tarp. In reality the door can be much much smaller. We only use it for putting scraps in. Retrieving eggs and getting inside is just lifting the tractor up itself.

Our only issue to date has been aesthetics. I think one day we'll try to make a Thai style 100% bamboo model.

By the way - chooks are cool!

The Nursery

2008-03-12T19:46:00.009+10:00

What we've learnt to date.....

As you can see it's nothing too complicated. Constructed from thin bamboo and branches from trees in the yard.

(I can't stand to take green waste away from the land. There will always be a pile somewhere for broken branches etc that will either be re-used, decompose or deter termites from the house).

We used 70% UV shade cloth because it gets the afternoon sun. There is a flap that falls down to cover the front.

(All sorts of flowers)

We buy/swap seeds (organic where possible) - it's obviously much cheaper than seedlings and not much more work.

We started by planting straight into the soil (as above). This is fine until you transplant when all the roots are tangled amongst themselves and break.

(Corn, Cucumber & Spring Onion)

We now use individual square holders (as above). Square, as B4C explained, because the roots take better when transplanted (as opposed to round where they tie themselves up). If you still buy eggs, egg cartons seem to work just as well and after a few rounds can be dropped straight in the soil to decompose.

Why not plant straight in the soil?
Too much mulch! Mulch is fantastic and you can almost never have enough - it makes the soil crawl with life, retain water etc etc etc (see "humus")

What soil do you use?
We've started using soil conditioner. Partly because it's the best of a limited range at the hardware store. We tried all sorts of combinations of aerators, additives, soil types... the most important for us was a relatively fine and consistent soil without getting boggy/clay like. (not standard potting mix) I'm sure in time we'll try and do away with buying soil and taking straight from a nice pile of compost....

The Belated Beginnings

2008-03-09T20:30:00.027+10:00

This blog should really have started July '07 when this garden begun. July was when we finally moved onto land (albeit 353sqm including the house) in inner-city Brisbane. I remember researching vegetable gardens, discovering permaculture and then stumbling upon Linda Woodrow's "The Permaculture Home Garden". It's this book that forms the basis of our garden.

First things first, I should describe briefly how we built this garden (I'll let Linda tell you why).

(This is how it looked when we moved in)

(This is what it looks like today)

1) The Edging : Next time I'm at the hardware store I'll write down the name of the product and edit this post. Basically it's a recycled plastic that is held in place with pegs

2) The Rocks : Sandstone! We laid weed matting then broke our backs shoveling 1 cubic metre's worth of rocks. (I recommend more than one layer of matting - grass still manages to poke through - No herbicide, It's an organic garden)

3) The Soil : We didn't turn anything. Basically a layer of wet newspaper, horse poo (pre-composted - no smell) and heaps of sugar cane mulch.

4) The Chicken Tractor : A whole new post to follow.

5) The Fence : Bamboo and bird netting to keep our cheeky little poodle out.

6) The Pond : Barely visible in the above image. Basically wine barrels, a bath tub and a grey water pump under the house. It's our new experiment in re-using water. There'll be a dedicated post for this one.

7) Irrigation : Invisible because it's under the mulch. I will explain the grey water system later, but basically there's a giant loop of holy pipe that runs around the garden.

8) Design : Read Linda's book. Basically a series of circles allows greater surface area for picking veggies without getting your feet dirty and also allows you to move the chickens around in a circuit.