Nightfall Shepherds a Frosty Dawn

Back to Basics - Week 27

Sowing seed or Planting -

Plant

• 2 Bok Choi
• 4 Silverbeet
• 4 Leaf Mustard
• 1 Sugar Loaf Cabbage
• 2 Broccoli
  
• 1 Red Ruby Brussel Sprout
• 1 Chicory
  
• 2 Scotch Kale

Harvest

• 2.3kg Tomato (last)
• 817g squash/zucchini
• 287 eggplant
  

Maintenence

• started removing old tomato bushes
  

Planning for The Future -

• Redesigning my Greenhouse/warming house annex design
  

Working for the Future -

• started getting the chooks used to tractoring duties
  

Building Community -

• Supplied plate for PDC Lunch
• Bought a heap of Fowlers lids, clips and seals from the local family run hardware
• Organising to attend an interstate family function
  

Learn a new Skill -

• How to borrow from the Mt Districts Permaculture Library
  

Participant Posts

Remote Treechanger
Sunday 26th April

Cockatoo Dreaming
Tuesday 28th April

Little Sparrow (New Participant)
Saturday April 25th

Nothing

Afternoon Delights

A Flash of Red



and Golden Browns



Remind me to Treasure the Moody Greys.

Garden Sights

A beautiful future,



A productive present,



A wish for fruition...



..is sometimes answered.

For a while I have been struggling to find my words. I don't think it is anything serious, I have just been feeling a bit overwhelmed, frustrated and blocked when it comes to expressing what I am experiencing.

Rather than not blog at all, which I have been doing more and more recently, I am going to try showing you the visions that fill my day. I hope they are able to express the world that surrounds me more fully than I am capable of right now.

Back to Basics - Week 26

Sowing seed or Planting -
Harvest

• 4.3kg tomato
  

Maintenence

• procured and spread more manure
  

Planning for The Future -

• Drooled over bareroot fruit tree catalogues

Working for the Future -

• Shuffled the pantry again to fit in all the new preserving
• Reordered the freezer to fit the now 70 kg of various flour types in the thing
  
• Made spicy Plum sauce (will have to play more with this batch as it wasn't the best result)
  
• Made Blackberry & Raspberry Jam

Building Community -

• Started PDC at Emerald Community house
• Gave Sourdough Starters talk to Mountain Districts Permaculture group
  
• Attended Herb Society Meeting
• Attended Holly Hill Community Fireguard monthly weed erradication morning
• Attended ALS get together.. Thanks Tamandco who gave me a lift

Learn a new Skill -

• How to panic silently when a talk you expected just to attract a few people ends up with around 20 eager eyes pointing in your direction
  

Participant Posts


Remote Treechanger
Friday April 17th

Cockatoo Dreaming
Tuesday April 21st

Sticks and Stones
Monday April 20th

Footprint Reduction in the 'Burbs
Monday April 20th

Garden of Plenty
Thursday April 16th

Awesome Sights

of Autumn Lights


Ummm... Where'd it Go!

Back to Basics - Organised? Yeah, Right Edition II

The organisational black hole continues but at least I am doing better at starting... which generally increases my chances of finishing by at least 95%.



Sowing seed or Planting -
Harvest

• 2.55kg tomato
  
• 200g zucchini/squash
• 286g Eggplant

Sow

• climbing peas

Maintenence

• spread manure
  
• played snail stomping
• removing climbing wire from top bed

Planning for The Future -

• Organised date for Sourdough bread workshop I am running in May
• Wrote outline for Sourdough Starters talk I am giving tomorrow at Mountain Districts Permaculture
  

Working for the Future -

• Bottled and Sauced 40kg of Tomatoes
  
• Fed and generally cared for new chickens
• Re organised the pantry to fit in all the new tomato products

Building Community -

• Bottled 20kg of Tomatoes with someone I have met locally who is interested in such things
  
• Committed to do a Soap Making workshop for Community Harvest later in the year
  

Learn a new Skill -

• Driving Open Office
  

Participant Posts


Remote Treechanger
Saturday April 11th

Cockatoo Dreaming
Tuesday April 14th

Back to Basics - Organised? Yeah, Right Edition

As the title of this one suggests right now I feel like I am in an organisational black hole.. life is getting busier and my procrastination skills are in full flight. Really I have made bulk pasta sauce for at least the last 3 years and for one reason or another this year I got soooooo close to treating the idea as if it is a bad joke.

Unless I set myself a day a time.. then schedule and fight with myself to stick to it right now most things just ain't happening. Things are happening as the below list suggests but no where near enough considering we are right in the middle of harvest/preservation season..

One of these days


Sowing seed or Planting -
Harvest

• 1.86kg tomato
  
• 305g zucchini/squash
• 161g Eggplant

Sow

• sugarloaf cabbage
• broccoli
• cauliflower

Maintenence

• put shadecloth over planted out brassica's to reduce caterpillar attack
• weeded to the best of my ability
  

Planning for The Future -

• Put feelers out for more manure sources
  
• Found saucing tomatoes at a reasonable price
  

Working for the Future -

• Bottled pasta sauce
• Made Apple Relish
  
• Stored bulk flour
  
• 
  

Building Community -

• Attended Community harvest meeting
  
• Gave gift to local Community Harvest organiser
  
• bought new chickens from local breeder
• Sourced locally grown pesticide free tomato for sauce making

Learn a new Skill -

• Apple Relish
  

Participant Posts


Remote Treechanger
Saturday April 4th

Kylie's Crafts
Monday April 6th
(Thankyou, I really appreciate you addressing the linking issue)

Apples, Apples and More Apples

Apples Galore... overwhelmed yet, nup, great "here's your vote card."

OOOOH Lunch, permies with aquaponics, pancakes, fudge, Organic mushies and grafted apple trees. Bliss

A wonderful selection of Pettys Heritage Apples carefully layed out with lables.


Hope to see you next year.

The Little Eggplant that Could

Now all us gardeners have our holy grail plants. You know the ones. Yeah, the ones that you plant knowing that your garden is in some way deficient to it's needs but you just MUST have one or your life won't be complete. One of mine is Eggplant..

The reasons why I shouldn't bother with Eggplant in my garden are

• We don't get warm enough
• Our season is too short
• When you are growing them as annuals they are hungry plants and my soil isn't good enough yet
  

As a gardener there are three ways to approach these plants. The first is pretty obvious, simply not to try growing them in the first place. Now of course that is no fun, as a breed gardeners seem to be a determined bunch so this isn't a likely solution for most of us. The second option is to decide "this is war" and spend as much time, money and effort as your pride dictates is required to change the environment in such a way that your Grail will grow, sound familiar. The third and the one I do my best to subscribe to is give yourself permission to fail without guilt.

The third choice works best when your initial outlay was low to start with. Lucky for me a packet of Eggplant seed costs less than $3 and that will cover at least 5 years worth of growing. As long as occasionally I do get a decent crop I am ahead, or at least break even. Sure can be hard to watch a seasons hard work culminate in a dreadful looking plant that produced one fruit out of self defence but gardening on the fringes is about both learning and luck.

The luck comes when we get a hotter than normal season, like this last one. I haven't been gardening long enough to even try and pick in August what type of season we are going to have so I plant and accept that most years I am dooming myself to failure. The learning comes in by knowing what Eggplant want and making small changes to my normal gardening environment to give them the best chance. By planting them out in pots rather than the garden so the root will be warmer than usual. Choosing ceramic over plastic because it will retain the heat better overnight. Feeding the soil to the hilt to ensure that in the small chance we do get conditions that they like it can spend all of it's energy to grow rather than attempting to find food.

Without the luck the learning still produces a sad sight.. Without the learning you need a whole lot more luck to succeed.