A trip to the Capital

We've just had a long weekend. A time which tradition has long dictated that all able bodied persons from inland locations should flock to the seaside to spend goodly sums of money supporting regional economies.  Well, we decided to return the favour and spend a part of our weekend in our nation's capital, Canberra.  There were two main reasons - the Australian National Botanic Gardens and the annual flower festival known as Floriade (billed as the biggest flower festival in Australia).

Floriade:
I'm not usually a big fan of flowers.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-flowers.  I like them, but I've never gardened with flowers in mind - other than for their bird and insect attracting features.  Even so, I could still appreciate the beauty of the displays. I had lots of photos from the trip - I've imposed a quota to keep the post small(ish).

Tulip beds

Another tulip bed

A tulip

Botanic Gardens:
The Botanic Gardens are a little more my taste.  They're a place you can always find a little pocket of tranquility - even though you're quite close to the city.  Again, I've imposed a photo quota - only three allowed.

Brittle Gums in the Proteaceae section

Rainforest walk

Rock garden

We weren't the only ones enjoying the sun

Watering solution: Capillary beds

Spending a lot of time working away from home as I do I needed a simple and cheap solution to one of last year's problems - how to water my seedlings.  I decided to make capillary beds as it seemed the least complicated solution to the problem.

I tried a couple of different designs.  The first was simply a dish-towel draped into a bucket of water, however, I couldn't get consistent distribution of water across the seedling area which was next to the bucket - I think the breeze dried the cloth faster than the capillary action could replenish the water.

The second design again used a dish-towel, but this time I draped it over a flat piece of plastic and sat it in a tray just above the water level.  This worked somewhat better than the first design, particularly when I added a little extra cloth to provide greater thickness to the capillary mat.  However, evaporation again made the watering inconsistent, drying the mat out faster than it could be replenished.

Thankfully, it was third time lucky.  The latest design works a treat, plus it was simple and cheap to make.

I used:

•  a 35 litre under-bed storage container with a lid (on special for $8 at the hardware store)
• an old towel (few dollars from a second hand store)
• a Stanley knife (a sharp hobby knife)
• a blow-torch (if needed)

The lid of the storage container proved to be quite brittle and was prone to shattering and/or cracking when I tried to cut it where the towel was to be placed.  This is where careful use of the blow-torch came in.  I used the torch to heat the area to be cut until it was soft and pliable and then cut the now soft plastic material, making an inch-wide slot at both ends of the lid.  Take care not to burn the plastic - you want it just warm enough to cut.  Heat the plastic in stages if necessary.  The finished result is pictured below (hopefully you can see the slot running the width of the lid):

Inch-wide slot (highlighted) with towel ready for insertion

I then fed each end of the towel into the appropriate slot in the lid, put the now towel-covered lid in place, filled the storage container with water (the hose easily fits through the one inch slot) and then placed the newly-filled seed trays on top.

Finished capillary bed

The beds have worked marvelously.  I made three of them and they've all got little seedlings sprouting up through the propagation mix.  I've had no problems with them drying out while I've been away at work.

With hindsight - if I had been able to find them on special I'd have used different storage containers - the much lower 20 litre ones would've worked just as well and have about the same surface area for the seed trays.  I'd also have looked for a container with a more pliable lid - it'd have made cutting the slots a lot easier and I'd have been able to avoid using the blow-torch. 

Before and After - magic of organic material

Well, winter is finally over and spring has brought me out of hibernation.  What better way to open up a new posting season with a little piece on the joy of Bokashi :)  Well, it's really just a demonstration of what organic matter can do for your soil so you can stop rolling your eyes and muttering "Not again!".

Back in April I posted a rather dull documentary post on the first stage of improving a few of my garden beds with a combination of green manures and organic material (click link here if you want to refresh your memory).

Well, it's now six months later and time for an update.  Rather than post yet another long and rambling wall of text I've decided to say it with before and after pictures (well, pictures and mime - you'll not be able to see the mime of course, but trust me, I'm doing it :)

Soil before: April 2010

Soil after: September 2010

You can see why I am so looking forward to this growing season.

For those interested, my original post on bokashi composting is here.


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Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's...

I have a confession to make. It's not something I'm proud of and it may shock some readers, but it's something I feel I must share.

I'm unfaithful to my garden.  I have a roving eye. I've tried to fight it, but I'm too soon undone by a flash of bright colour caught out of the corner of my eye, or the silken curves of a soft petal, or the subtle scent of one of nature's beauties.

Only this morning I found myself gazing quite enviously at the roses of my neighbour.

Exhibit A: the Rose of my neighbour

But, I couldn't just stop there.  No.  Another soon caught my eye.

And then another.

To make matters worse, I don't even know their names. I have a passing familiarity with the rose, but the others are just beautiful strangers.

I spiralled ever downward, down into the dark pit of unbridled envy.  Each click of the shutter another slap in the face of human decency.

Thankfully, the clattering of a neighbour soon sent me scurrying back to my own patch of earth.  Red-faced and ashamed.

Until next time.

Oh, and I've now read the manual for my camera :)

Nature deserves a great artist

It's autumn here in Australia.  A time of brilliant colour as the leaves change.  A time of still, clear mornings and beautiful sunrises.  A time when you walk around muttering under your breath that you wish you'd brought along a camera to snap that National Geographic moment.

This morning's dawn was one of those picture-perfect starts to the day.  A pinkish-orange sunrise added a lovely extra red hue to the leaves of the oak trees right out side my window.  It was perfectly calm and only the sound of the birds punctuated the crisp morning air.  One of those days you stare in awe, muttering madly about a missing camera.

Well, my friends, today it all came together - I had the camera close at hand.  My quite new, pocket friendly marvel  which rated quite well in the reviews I pored over before parting with my hard earned cash.  Unfortunately, this morning was also a time for another brilliant discovery.  I can't take a photograph with this new camera to save myself.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words - and it's probably even true in this case, IF you count all the expletives.  Compare the word picture I presented earlier with the blurry, colourless travesty of imagery of that perfect moment in nature.

Exhibit A: Failure to capture a perfect moment in nature

Maybe there's a lesson here for me.  Maybe this is the driver I need to push me to read the manual.  A chance to discover all the wonder this little device has to offer.  But who am I kidding - I can't fight evolution.  I'm a male and no man will read the manual.  I might as well go and line the kitty litter tray with it now.

Top bed: Come back little worms

Apologies to anyone reading, but this is really just a record of what I've done to a garden bed to try to improve the soil.  It's my second bed, but I failed to record anything about what I did to the first so I want to have a reference for the others as they start coming online incase I need/can adjust what I've added.

Warning - the following will be very documentary in nature so you're encouraged to read in your best monotone voice.

After completing the scorched earth approach to Kikuyu removal (described here) approximately 15 litres of Bokashi vegetable scraps (all that was available at the time) was added to a portion of the bed. The soil had little depth, contained large, solid lumps of clay and was extremely difficult to cultivate - not a fun few hours really.

Dried soil: After solarisation, but before improvement.

A green manure crop of rye and lucerne was planted in the bed to initiate some root growth to break up the soil a little and eventually provide some organic matter.  This crop was left to grow for approximately six to eight weeks (I so need to take better notes) while additional organic matter was accumulated.

Green manure crop - midpoint.

After the green manure crop was considered sufficiently developed the bed was split into quarter sections and dug so that additional organic material could be added.  A heavy soil barrier was met at an approximate depth of 10cms.  A takeaway container and a bit of Gypsum was spread across the base of the bed, although I've not yet actually tested the soil to see if it's sufficiently sodic to make a difference.  I had it on hand so in it went. I must test before I do the other beds.

Into each of the upper and lower quarters of the bed (upper and lower sections in the above photo) was placed approximately thirty leaves of Comfrey and a quarter bag of cow manure.  The middle sections of the bed received approximately 20 litres (one full bucket) each of Bokashi kitchen scraps and the remaining half bag of cow manure.  The green manure crop was incorporated into the soil during this phase.

Little earthworm activity was noted (come back, please come back).

Another green manure crop was sown, although this time solely of lucerne, and both a generic, insect-attracting flower mix and a random sprinkling of some spinach seed I just happened to be carrying was added just as a bit of a flutter.  I remembered to water and didn't bother with mulch at this stage as I wanted to encourage a slightly higher soil temperature.

Here's hoping this'll bring about some positive change in the soil quality.

My Science Project

Sorry, I'm afraid it's yet another post about Bokashi, but this time it contains some colour.

For some reason, probably due to that feline-life-sapping trait, curiosity, I pondered the possibilities of creating my very own micro-organism starter to be used in my Bokashi.  It seemed a natural step on from the DIY grain mix and again was again driven by an eagerness not to pay for anything I could do, albeit poorly, on my own.  I'd heard of people creating their own yoghurt and sour dough starters and, because I knew nothing about either, felt that was a firm foundation for my own attempt at a Bokashi starter.

With a bit of searching courtesy of zuula.com I came across an interesting forum post entitled "Extreme Bokashi" which outlined the experience of someone who had already tried this at home.  As a bonus, the post also suggested that newspaper could be used in place of grains in the mix - yet another sockful of pennies saved as newspapers fall free from the sky (well, you have to dive into the neighbours' recycle bins).

Anyway, back to the starter, which required a two part process.  The first part required a mix of one part rice grains and two water, shaken well and the liquid drained into a jar and covered loosely with some kitchen paper.  This is left in a ventilated, cool, dark spot for about five days, over which time it develops the bacteria used in the next phase.

Cue dramatic imagery....

The wonder of science

The wonder of the mildly curious

The next part of the process requires great courage and a very, very understanding partner. 

The rice water is added to about ten parts milk and the container covered lightly and left to ferment for fourteen days - yes, that's right - Milk + ferment + 14 days.  Ventilation and/or isolation is clearly the key here.  Admittedly our pioneer poster didn't disguise the truth stating "Most of the solids should float to the top, leaving a yellowish liquid".  I'm sure most would shudder just thinking about the sort of smell that would accompany such a picture.  Clearly not a project for the faint hearted.

That yellowish liquid, however, is the lactobacillus starter and can be used in place of the EM liquid in the DIY recipe.

Now I need to find a post about purging a house of bad odours.

Edible garden reading essentials

I've been a practicing novice gardener for about a year now and will remain one for some time yet.  However, prior to purchasing my very own patch of real soil, I'd spent a considerable amount of time as a theoretical gardener (i.e. "dreamer") - reading book after book about all sorts of garden & self-sufficiency related subjects.  These books are my vice.  I have amassed a small library of publications, some absolutely brilliant for beginners (i.e. me), others I'm sure I'll find fascinating once I develop the skills and knowledge to fully appreciate them.

Having seen some excellent recent Blotanical posts about the essential tools, such as this one by karly_winkler, and about planning for your garden, such as this one by kitchen_55, I thought I'd jump on board and add my own five cents (lowest denomination coin in Australia).  My contribution is simply a list of those books I personally consider to be a "must read before you start".  They're the books I find myself reading and referring to again and again and wish I'd found before spending a small fortune :)  They're slanted more towards edible gardens and they're not general introduction to gardening books - there's probably way too many good ones of them to count and they'll be more hemisphere specific.

It's supposed to be a top five, but I hope I'll be forgiven for stretching it just one to six.  I've not included links to any particular book seller because: a) I'm Australian so probably use different online sites; and b) so noone thinks this is a massive spam post attracting people to the wiley services of the good Mr/Miss Amazon.com (enter that domain at your own risk.

My top six are:

• Gaia's Garden: A guide to home-scale permaculture (Toby Hemenway)
• Edible Forest Gardens Volume I & II (Dave Jacke & Eric Toensmeier)
• Composting: A down-to-earth, water-wise guide (Penguin Books)
• No-Dig Gardening (Esther Deans)
• Gardening Down-Under: A guide to healthier soils and plants (Kevin Handreck)
• Fabulous Food from every small garden (Mary Horsfall)

The last two are published by "CSIRO Publishing" (Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) and are excellent books.  If, like me, you'd not considered CSIRO books as you'd expected them to be weighty technical tomes, I can strongly recommend that you at least have a browse of these two and probably buy or borrow "Gardening Down-Under".

Of course, this post is also to attract some pointers towards great books I might have missed or those essential books I'm just about to grow into.  So, tell me, what are your top three books?

What else must I add to my library?

No need for the jury to retire: Going solar - the outcome

It probably seems like a very early finish to what was expected to be a long running battle between the teams plastic (clear and black) to prove once and for all which one could dominate the reigning champion of weeds - Kikuyu grass.  I too was expecting a close fight between these two behemoths, but sadly, as is all too often the case, I've had to step in to end the contest prematurely, declaring black plastic the winner by a long margin.

The clear plastic was clearly not generating the high temperatures I'd been expecting, only getting warm enough to act as a nice little green house for the grass.  In fact, as you can see in the photograph below, the only damage done to the Kikuyu was caused by the bricks I had used to keep the plastic down.

Clear plastic after two weeks.  Dead area caused by the brick not the plastic.

In the other camp, black plastic, with its amazing powers of light suppression, was making clear inroads into the Kikuyu.  As can be seen in the photograph below, after the same two week period the damage to the grass is obvious.

Black plastic after two weeks.

With such dramatic differences between the two and needing the area for a new garden bed it seemed a sensible decision to end the competition and use the winner.

Clear plastic has its supporters so it obviously must work, but not in my situation. It's probably a combination of climate (temperatures don't often get above 30 degrees Celsius), the location of the bed (it's not 100 percent full sun) and the hardiness of the grass (it's hard to get the plastic tight to the earth).

It's not all bad news though - I've now got about five metres of cloche material :)

And just to prove it's not just me on an anti-Kikuyu crusade.  Below is a poster for a local landcare event scheduled for this Easter - note the competition categories: "Longest Kikuyu runner".

Hello, stranger

I thought I owed a low-word count post after the previous Great Walls of Text and as I recently got a new camera, I thought I'd introduce some of the strangers I inherited when we moved into our little piece of paradise.  Of course I do hope I might get a few clues as to what they actually are, but even if I don't it'll be nice to look back on the flowers in the depths of winter.

I believe these three are hibiscus of some sort (I'd never been big on flowers, but I do like these)

I'm not sure what these two below might be and while I took a number of photos, they only demonstrated that I should go back and read the manual, particularly the bit about getting the autofocus to focus on the bit I'm focussing on rather than whatever it happens to have taken a liking to in the background.

I'll leave them up as some miracle worker might be able to give me a clue as to what they might be - or at least point me in the general direction.

  Updated - the one on the right is most probably a gardenia (thanks to gippslandgardener for the pointer).

Now where did I put that camera manual.

How do you solve a problem like Kikuyu? Going solar.

Probably the first post in what's likely to be a long running series – think Rocky, but with less talent and lower budget.

Let me say upfront: Kikuyu has its uses. It's a good pasture and is quite a good lawn – the sort of lawn you can enjoy walking over barefoot. In our climate, it's set and forget. But, this grass is not a homebody. It likes the jet setting lifestyle and is keen to explore every nook and cranny of your garden, sending out rhizomes like a demented octopus. And once it finds a place it likes, such as my nice new garden bed, it moves in, suppressing all around it (well, all I've tried to grow so far).  So, my challenge is to create safe vegetable enclaves in the semi-hostile territory currently controlled by Kikuyu - all without resorting to extreme chemical measures.

Talking tactics

As far as I can determine there are three main strategies to successfully conquer this persistent little plant – digging, sheet mulching and solarising. I'm currently some way into trials of all three approaches, but unfortunately this commenced before my epiphany that record keeping is a gardener's friend – i.e. I don't have any really good before photos. But, it's still very early days, so better late than never.

Going solar

I started with solarising as I didn't have all the ingredients for sheet mulching and as a new earth gardener is seem a little beyond me. Solarising on the other hand was pretty easy to grasp – get plastic, wet grass, cover grass with plastic, wait. That I felt I could do. And it required much less digging than, well, digging.

There seems to be two trains of thought when it comes to solarising Kikuyu – clear plastic vs. black plastic. Clear plastic will apparently generate higher temperatures than black plastic, whilst black plastic claims light suppression as a key advantage. I started with black plastic as I could get it in greater widths and it was cheaper than clear plastic.

 Solarising: Phase I

I started with an area that I had decided to convert to raised beds and steps after a less agile member of the family tumbled down the grassy slope that dropped away from the house (hmmm, I seem to recall that conversion bit required quite a lot of digging). Anyway, as you can see above, the slope is well covered with black plastic and remained so for about 10 weeks over summer.  I spent my time doing summery things - frolicking in the sea, having picnics and so on.

Until the day of the great unveiling...

Well, to tell the truth I unveiled the top bed about two weeks prior to the photograph and planted out a cover crop to take advantage of some rain we'd had.  But so far there's not a hint that Kikuyu plans a comeback tour.

I'd keep score, but mother nature will always win and claiming a victory will only incite some form of retribution (toads probably).  We'll call it a compromise arrangement currently in my favour.

Thinking of a Master Plan

It's early autumn and my year ahead calendar has a lot of blank space on it. In fact, if it wasn't for the three little notes: “Peas ready”; “Potatoes ready” and “Rye ready”, it'd be completely empty (and looking at early growth I think my “Rye ready” is a little optimistic). While last year I just put some random items in the ground based purely on what was available from a lovely catalogue, this year I want to develop the garden into something productive. Productive and balanced. I want a range of fresh, delicious, home grown produce. “My year with garlic” might sound like a neat idea for a book, but it's not really a basis for a great diet (or for maintaining friendships for that matter). This year I need a plan – even if it is just a rough map to start with.

So what am I looking for in a garden? Ideally, I'd a garden that supports our vegetable needs entirely, and our fruit needs to some extent (I'm yet to learn what's possible fruit-wise here). I want diversity and am happy to try all sorts of plants as I've already found some surprise treats. Who'd have guessed nasturtiums tasted so good (I've so much to learn) and I tried kale as an “alternative” to cabbage – in my opinion, cabbage is a poor alternative to kale.

I'm pretty sure I have the space to create such a garden. I don't need to accommodate the needs of pets (indoor cat) nor children (indoor fur child). I do have that Australian icon, the “Hills hoist” (it's a washing line) in pride of place in the back lawn, but the sloping ground means I can encroach upon its radius for valuable vegetable space. I removed the red cedar from the back yard when I first moved in (why such a tree was planted in such a small space I do not know) as well as a very, very old flowering plan which really was on its last legs (roots?). I'm starting with a clean slate. I should have more than enough space in the backyard alone to feed a family of four, and as we're only a family of two it should work out quite nicely.

So why aren't I out there now planting row upon row of seeds/seedlings/trees/shrubs etc? Well, two challenges I need to deal with – probably the major tasks for this year.

Firstly, my aforementioned clean slate is more a green slate – kikuyu is the grass of choice here and I can only say it thrives in the area (it had run so wild on the national park island off the coast that it was choking off the penguin breeding grounds). It's super grass - able to leap tall fences in a single season, grow under concrete drive ways, invade vegetable beds faster than a speeding bullet. Judging from the actions of a neighbour, who I will call “Chemical Kathy”, the usual manner for dealing with such an invasion is a scorched earth approach utilising all the aids modern chemistry has to offer. I personally would rather leave the chemicals where they seem to belong, in the supermarket vegetable aisle, so am exploring what appears to be the only other available, low labour options of solarisation and/or sheet mulching. I'll make these the subject of a future post as the jury is still out on the results.

My second challenge is one I'm happy to have to deal with – I have a clay soil. Now while I'm not yet sure what sort of clay mix the soil it is, I can say I need a mattock and crow bar to make a dent in it. Needless to say I've some work to do before those common vegetables stand a chance. But, using a combination of gypsum, green manures and my secret ingredient, Bokashi (did I mention I love it – and did I mention it'll take meat and dairy scraps), I've been making some inroads into a more vegetable friendly soil (I received a wonderful compliment from a long term resident and neighbour on the soil in my first bed). But, there's only so many food scraps a two person household can reasonably produce, so I'm having to do it in stages – whilst trying to find solutions to challenge number one.

So, for those of you who are still with me and wish I'd just get to the point, this year's plan is to:

• continue with the lawn to garden conversion, focusing primarily on the 9m x 7m space I have available in the backyard (me vs. Kikuyu + soil preparation).
• Prepare for and plant some stonefruit trees in the thin strip I have near the neighbours fence. Peaches are a must.
• Convert the two newly converted raised beds into productive vegetable contributors – fix the clay.
• Create a centre for herb excellence somewhere convenient for harvesting as I cook.
• Explore water harvesting options – water restrictions and vegetable gardens aren't a happy marriage.
• Learn about the birds and bees.  Judging from last year's results, I need more guardians of the harvest.
• Learn to be succinct.

For those of you who persisted all the way to the end – I promise my next post will have photos.

I love bokashi

As I wasn't really in a position to create and maintain a standard compost bin/heap and as I had access to a reasonable quanity of food scraps, including material not suited to standard compost, I thought I'd have a look at bokashi (I already had a worm farm).

Admitedly, I balked at the cost of the commercially available starter bin+mix packs and wondered whether it'd really be that much better than just digging a hole and burying the scraps in the ground. But, in the end I thought it'd only be in use if it worked, so parted with what I felt was a large sum of money for what was a small plastic container with a tap and a small bag of the mix. It was a start.

Getting to the point, fast forwarding twelve month - it's brilliant. It's helped turn my wormless garden bed of clay (which required a crowbar and mattock to start) into a thriving worm metropolis which is a joy to plant. Material decomposes into the soil much, much faster than buried material without bokashi. Corn husks have broken down to nearly nothing in as little as three weeks with bokashi, whereas they're still almost whole some two months later if simply buried.

I was hooked on the result, but still couldn't face the expense of the packs of bokashi mix and I needed more bins. I filled the bin in four days and then had to wait two weeks until I could empty it. I thought I'd DIY both the additional buckets I needed as well as the grain mix.

DIY Bokashi Bin
Materials used

• A 20 litre handy pail - basically a 20 litre bucket with a tight fitting lid
• A tap (optional). I set the tap as close to the bottom of the pail as possible. Cut off any extra piping from the tap to aid with the flow of the juice.  If you don't intend to syphon off the juice as it ferments then the tap is entirely optional - my latest bucket doesn't have the tap
  
• A plastic microwave dish with several holes drilled into it - it should fit snuggly just off the bottom of the pail.  This separates the solids from the liquid - the microwave lids I use provide about a 2->3cm gap between the bottom of the bucket and bottom of the food scraps..
• A garbage bag to cover the scraps as you add them.
  

Total cost was about $20 per bucket with tap. The water filter tap I used was a significant portion of the cost so a cheaper tap would decrease the cost.  Of course if you don't plan to use the juice then you don't need the tap at all.


Bokashi Mix
Ingredients (I remember the ratio 1:1:100:150)

• 30 ml of molasses
• 30 ml of EM (Commercial product of Effective Microorganisms - primarily lactobacillus bacteria)
• 3 litres of quite warm water
• 4.5kg of wheat bran

Equipment

• a jug/bucket which'll hold 3+ litres
• a plastic ladle/spoon for stiring the liquid mix
• a large air-tight container, such as a plastic storage container with a lid
• a tarp for drying resultant bokashi grain mix

Steps

• Mix the quite warm water, molasses and EM in the plastic jug
• Pour the liquid mixture over the bran
• Mix the bran and the liquid until the bran is moistened evenly (break apart any large lumps of bran).
• Put the mixture in the air-tight container. Squash it down to remove as much air as possible. I usually fill the remaining space with some lengths of scrap plastic - it also helps with the air-tight seal as the container I use has a clip on lid.
  
• Leave it for about a month in a warm place. (normal room temperature). The surface of the mixture should become covered with a white mold.
• When it's done, spread the mixture out on a tarp, away from direct sunlight and moisture and leave until it's completely dry. Break up any lumps. I'd also recommend drying it out of reach of the cat. I left my very first mix for a minute and the cat snuck in to add its own special ingredient, clearly thinking I'd created the largest cat litter tray in all of history.
  
• Pack into large ziplock bags and store until needed.

Useful links:
My bokashi efforts were guided heavily by information presented in the two links below:

• http://www.cityfarmer.org/bokashi.html
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96fSXccQx9Q