Fight for the Future

It is easy when reading about climate change and peak oil to get into a panic.  Easy, but not useful.  So whenever I start feeling this way I try to step back and think about what positive steps I can take to mitigate the situation, remembering that I am only one person with an individual set of skills, resources and emotional energy.  Nobody can do everything.

So, here are some ideas, in no particular order.  Some are things to help my individual family, some are about my local community, and some are concerned with the wider national & world community.  Some are things I am already doing, some are ones that I am considering & others are ideas for the future.  I think these are important issues because I believe we are going to see significant effects, if not within my lifetime, certainly within that of my children.

Today in the Garden (and Raised Bed Construction)

I had a very productive 1 1/2 hours in the garden today - or at least it felt that way as I got a couple of little jobs done that have been nagging me for a while.

First I ran wire from the berry canes to the fence that is to be their support.

Raspberry - this one has 5 runners.

Thornless Blackberry

I then fertilised them with weed tea.  I did the other fruit plants last week.

I make my weed tea by fermenting all the invasive weeds and those with seeds in an old Esky that has lost its insulating ability (not surprising given that it is over 40 years old, genuine vintage!).  This is a great container for this purpose as it seals well and has a drain hole to make it easier to empty.  Look out for one  (even a more modern plastic one) at your local tip shop!

The Esky Fermenter - I grew up with this being our fridge every holidays.

The fermenting contents - newly started.  I am putting my 'suspect' fruit fly infected passionfruit in as well.

A real fermenter - for home brew!  

I use a home-brew barrel to store the fermentation liquid after the solids are inert enough to go into the compost.   I then just decant as much as I need into the watering can using the tap at the base, dilute it (10 parts water to 1 part weed tea) and pour it over the plants.

The next job I did was to set up the second compost bin ready for use again.
To reduce potential pest problems (primarily rats) it is a good idea to dig the base of your compost bin into the ground about 10cm.  This reduces the attractive (to the rats) odours escaping, and makes it harder to dig into.

Hole for the bin

Check that the base of the bin fits all the way into the hole & dig more as necessary.

 Back fill, give it a good soaking & stomp down to get rid of the air pockets and make it a little harder for the raiders to enter.

 I then put a layer of loose carboniferous material in to trap oxygen at the base of the heap.  Now we can leave the other bin to compost down & start filling this one up.

One other job I did last week is already yielding results.
I chopped down a very tall stalk of cassava.

Then I cut the main stalk into approximately 30cm long pieces and shoved them into the ground (and I do mean shoved, no finesse here).  The stump, and the partially buried pieces are all already showing new shoots just a week later.

I also stripped the leaves and deposited them inside the first of my new garden beds.  Yes, I have (partially) constructed one, with the help of the usual suspects Mr & Mrs Skivvy.

It's not finished - partly because that was the day that I came down with the 'flu, and partly because SMD thinks it looks unfinished.  For some reason he had got it into his head that it would be rounded like the commercial ones.  Don't know what made him think that.
But anyway - he didn't like the corners, so I've come up with a way to dress them up (and make them safer in the process).  I'll show you when it gets done.

But this way you can see how simple the construction is.  I just drilled three holes half the width of the supporting wood block in from the end of the corro, and set in the base of the troughs.  Then drove self tapping roofing screws in.  Each end of the long sides first, then attached the short sides.

I also have to finish putting the irrigation pipe on the top edge to make it safe.  I needed a stanley knife and hooked blades for this, which I now have, so there shouldn't be any more excuses.


I hope your gardens are all blooming & fruiting.

Pests!

I've been experiencing some pest issues lately.

First - grasshoppers are having a feast on my wee little apple trees.

I've never seen the shed skin of a grasshopper before.  Have you?

And from a different angle.

I manage to catch quite a few, then I go up to the chicken coop, call the girls, and give them a real treat!

Then there are the crows.  Not after the eggs this time, but they find the nearly ripe passionfruit before I have a chance.  Pull them off the vine and dig in.

Also damaging the passionfruit are our first FRUIT FLY!  I noticed a mark on one of the fruit in the bowl, and the fact that it was going a bit soft, cut it open and found the delightful wigglers inside.

It is important not to put infested fruit in the compost - as the maggots actually need to burrow into the earth for the next stage of their life-cycle, so you are setting yourself up for disaster.

Instead, I went around the garden picking up all the fallen fruit (some unfortunately have probably already deposited their load of larvae) and putting them in a black plastic bag.  This is now hung on the post of the steps, where it can catch the sun (not that we've seen much the last few days).  This is called solarising.

Solarising the Fruit Fly

I thought they then had to go into the bin - but according to the link above, and this book (which is in my personal library), when the maggots are properly killed off I don't have to waste all that organic matter and can add it to the compost.

Also microwaving, cooking, drowning or freezing (which is what I do to avoid weevils, pantry and clothes moths - yes I put the woollens in the freezer) are supposedly also effective.  I wonder whether fermenting like I do with the invasive weeds before composting them (and using the diluted 'tea' as fertiliser), would work as well?  I guess that would come under drowning.

The chickens haven't been exempt either - or at least their food hasn't.  During the day the crows (yes, them again) have a go mainly at the scraps (though they do wait until the chickens have finished), and the spotted turtle doves go into the coop for the seed.  They are going through it at a rate of knots!

And last night there was a RAT in the coop when I put the chickens to bed!  Too fast for me to tell if it was a native or a feral species.  It was pale to mid grey, not black, obviously larger than a mouse, but only about  1/2 to 2/3 the size of the rats you see in the pet shops.  It ran rather than hopped.  But like I said, it was too fast to see the tail properly (i.e. whether it was scaly or furred).  Either way, it's still eating the chicken's food, and potentially spreading other, even more annoying pests.

The sooner I move the chicken coop into the (old) vege patch, with a rat proof wire mesh underneath, and a bird proof net above, the better.

An ounce of prevention, as they say.

Ravs

A Tidy Desk

Or rather - Shed

Day 3 Friday 18th March

A bit of a slow start to the Garden project today - L6 got a Star of the Week award at school, so as a proud mother  I took J4 along to assembly (our first time) to see it awarded before the trip to childcare (car this time), and the bike shop for spare tubes.
By the time I got home from all the errands it was afternoon, and by rights sewing time.  But the garden is the main task, and I was really in the mood so.....

Garden
For the past little while, whenever I have needed something from the shed, I have risked life & limb climbing over all the stuff spread over the floor.
The shed is only new and we don't have any storage or benches in it yet, so things have just been dumped, basically.

I felt that I would be able to work more efficiently, and safely, if I tidied it up.  The camping gear was to move down to shelves in the garage, and the bikes up to the shed (which will also make the garage safer).
I used the wheelbarrow to transport things, trying to make sure it was full in both directions to minimise trips.
I am much happier with the outcome (below), than with my starting point (above).

While I was at it, I also started on pulling up the pavers underneath the front stairs.  This is where one of the tanks is going, and there is no point wasting them.  These filled the wheelbarrow on some of the upwards trips.  Though I could only manage 4 at a time.  Heavy!
You can see what it looked like before in the photo below.  This is looking from the side fence into our front garden - which is all natives, and mostly ones indigenous to Brisbane.  A tank of 3 to 4 thousand litres is going in under the deck here, and a 5 thousand litre one in the garden bed you can just see on the left lower corner.

With the tanks behind the shed we'll have at least 12 thousand litres to play with!  I am looking forward to that.

This is what it looked like afterwards.  I still have to rake the gravel over to cover the gaps.  The pavers weren't concreted in so were easy to lift.  Thankfully.

The Esky in the corner of the photo is over 40 years old.  It no longer keeps things cold for very long, so I asked my parents if I could have it - it is still watertight & airtight, and has its original bung.  So, much to Dad's disgust, it is now used to ferment weeds.
You see, you can't put weeds with seeds, or with tuberous or suckering roots, directly in the compost, as they will just grow again when you put the compost on the garden (unless you are hot composting, but few back-yard gardeners do this).  But you can put them in after they have fermented, because this process makes the seeds etc non-viable.

You just need a large watertight container with a well fitting lid, and preferably a tap at the base, but this is not essential.  Chuck your weeds in and cover them with water.  Close the lid & leave for 6 or so weeks.
After 6 weeks or thereabouts, the weeds will be sufficiently fermented to add to the compost heap, and the liquid, when diluted, is a great fertiliser.

You can keep adding weeds and water to this, I suggest wearing rubber gloves & putting a peg on your nose (or just breathing through your mouth might be more comfortable) - you know what silage smells like?  Well you will after you have stirred this brew up!

As the fluid is added you can drain some off to fertilise your garden.  Just make sure that there is still enough inside to cover the weeds.  Then just empty all the weeds into the compost when the container is full, making sure the last lot have been in at least the 6 weeks to kill the seeds.

I learnt about this from one of the free seminars on Sustainable Living that Brisbane City Council ran last year.  I went to about 4 of them, and all were fantastic!  I hope they run another series this year.
But in the book 'Fabulous Food from Every Small Garden' by Mary Horsfall (CSIRO publishing) she says, when talking about Green Weed Tea that you can use it after 2 -3 weeks.  She doesn't mention when you can add the weeds to the compost though, so I am going to stick to the 6 weeks for that.  Another site says not to leave the liquid too long, or it will be too decomposed to use as a high-powered fertiliser.

I borrow this book from the library after seeing it at one of the seminars mentioned.  I renewed it a couple of times, read it from cover to cover, and then bought my own copy to keep.  I highly recommend it.  Although it doesn't make it obvious it only talks about organic gardening. Suits me.

Back to the task - I did manage one more job before pick-up time for J4. Laying some of those pavers out in a path from the top of the grass ramp to the shed side door.  They haven't been properly bedded in yet - wanted to contemplate placement for a while.
What do you think?

Planning a challenge for Monday - time to get on to those no-dig beds!
Bye for now
Ravs.