Blogging has resumed

Well here we are, 2 o’clock in the morning and I can't sleep, so I thought I would have a go at a blog update. It's windy and raining outside so it looking like another miserable inside day for us today. There has been stuff happening since my last update, it's just that I've not been able to get motivated enough to write it up. Maybe it's the weird winter we have had this year that’s having a down in the dumps effect on us. There has been plenty of rain by the standards of last few years and everything is damp, damp, damp. This is due mainly to the lack of sunshine rather than the amount of rain. It's been unusually overcast this winter and as a result the garden has just been marking time, although, the last week has seen us with a bit of sunny weather that has perked everything up, and most of the fruit trees have suddenly burst into bud.

Anyhow on with the show.
The pay it forward vids have gone to their new homes with Nevyn and Ramsey, I hope they find them enjoyable and enlightening. A great idea, so thanks to Molly for getting me on to it.
The bubble wrap has been reasonably successful and even though its hard to tell how much difference it's made to heat retention overall (the house is well insulated anyway) its definitely helped with a major condensation problem we had with our large windows. The bathroom has really benefited from the extra insulation, being completely unheated it totally relies on heat from elsewhere in the house to keep it warm. The bubble wrap has helped there for sure, all in all it has been worth the effort. I'm thinking now that because it doesn’t look to bad or effect our views to much I will leave it in place through the summer to see if it has any effect on the cooling of the house.

The shed is still without a roof, another weather problem I'm afraid. I haven't been game to put it on until the rainwater tank is in place in case I end up with a flood, and I haven't been able to get the tank in place because the ground is to wet to do the landscaping required where it will be situated. The shed has been a bit of a marathon working by myself, I've had to find ways of doing two and three man jobs solo. I have a good neighbor who's been keen to help but since he is a mobile accident area I have tried to keep him away from anything sharp, heavy or high. Still he is handy for passing stuff to me when I'm up a ladder. The roller door was I major job to get in place solo but I managed that by walking it up a couple of planks bit by bit.  The decision to put eaves on the shed meant a bit of extra work but the appearance of the building has been improved I think, so worth the effort in my book.

The rain overnight filled the swales and attracted this visitor, it's a Buff-banded Rail, although common to this area of NSW it's the first we have seen in the garden.
With all the moisture in the soil it's looking like we will have a good spring this year.  In the garden we have broad beans ready to produce and the tomato plants I nursed through the winter are ready to start giving us some early tomatoes. Silver beet, swedes, cabbage and cauliflower are all powering on and we have pea bushes in flower. Garlic, onion and leeks are doing great and I've got some new beds ready for corn and more tomato plants.

The sharp eyed  will have noticed that although its says 2 am at the top I didn't actually post until midday. That because I'm a slow writer and it takes me a while to knock stuff into shape, and I did have to have a nanny nap about halfway.;-)

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Stuff's happening but the blogger's been slack

Despite the winter chill things are moving along out here in the boonies, the gardens doing well with the bit of rain we had and the shed is nearing completion despite it. The frame is up and wind braced ready for the cladding, which should be done in the next week or so. I have made a few alterations to the standard plan so we are waiting for the extra materials to turn up. I have put a few extra roof girts in to take the weight of the solar panels I intend putting up there. I have also extended the eaves a bit rather than cut off at the wall, the standard with these sheds. I want to be sure there will be no water getting into the building.

In the garden we have broad-beans powering along, winter lettuce, cabbage, and Bok Choy. I've planted garlic, onion, peas, leek, and swede. A bug excluder has been constructed to keep the white butterfly from destroying my cauliflower and so far we're winning there.

The Laurence/Jones mansion has been bubble wrapped, we've taken a leaf out of Margo and Jerry's book and installed bubble glazing.

Simple, cheap and effective, well worth the effort, it has made a noticeable difference to the warmth retained over night. The bathroom especially has benefited, it's nice in there now and since I still wear the same PJ's I was born with (they're a bit threadbare now) the early morning dash is not such a chore (I'm happy with that). ;-)

Not totally kosher I know, we did buy a roll of the bubble wrap but will share it with any of our neighbors interested in installing it. We have used double sided tape to stick it to the glass, this allows a full seal and no problem with condensation getting between the glass and the bubble. We have covered all of the solid panes apart from one set of sliders that provide our main view and the Louvre windows in the bedrooms and office. I will make up some removable panels for the louvers as time permits, the main view window we can live with as is. More information on bubble glazing is available here

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No Shed

I had hoped to be blogging about the new shed by now but it still hasn't arrived, already three weeks overdue I got a call from the agent to say I will not be getting it until the end of the month. So there will be no shed blog for a week or two. Still that has allowed me to ease back into work around the place as I'm still feeling a bit doughy after the surgery.

The cooler weather and a little bit of rain have been a great pick me up for the garden and everything is starting to fire up again. I've turned a bit of ground for the winter veg and planted swedes, turnip and parsnip seed. I've also started some cauliflower and cabbage in pots that I will plant out as seedlings when they are ready. I've also been making a bit more biochar.

I started playing around with this stuff about five years ago after watching a documentary on Amazonian black earth ("Terra Preta de Indio") and doing a bit of internet research on the work of Johannes Lehmann. While I did start out being all scientific and working with little test plots I soon got sick of that and now just use it everywhere as I make it. Whether it makes that much difference it's hard to tell, although my veg always do a bit better than my neighbours and the ground does seem to hold the moisture better where I have used it.

I make this char out of all the fruit tree prunings that are too big to compost. I just let them dry for a while and burn them in a big wood gas burner I made out of some old paint cans. The residue is charcoal that is broken up and spread on the garden. While doing the burn I can do a stir-fry, cook up a bit of rice or even a BBQ, saves wasting the heat that is generated with this stove.

There is a fair bit of research going on into the sequestration and land improvement benefits of biochar at the moment and also a bit of amateur interest as well. Who knows, it may have a lot of benefits in the future but in the meantime it's a way of getting rid of my prunings and seems to help my veg grow a bit better.

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Back in harness

I'm back! Blue-eyed and bushy tailed. The last few weeks have been full-on for sure. First off, I spent a couple of weeks digging footings and prepping the slab for my workshop, finishing up with a twelve cubic meter concrete pour. Turns out that that was just a bit to much for an old bloke who's way over weight. I blew a gasket and ended up with a 3 hour ambulance ride and a week checking out the hospitals and the ICU unit in Albury and Wodonga.

Anyway things are looking up again and I'm back in harness, but on light duties for a few weeks. Still we have a sewing room floor and the shed should be on site and under way in the next few weeks.

While I have been out of circulation the garden has managed wonderfully well by itself and is producing an abundance of fresh veg. The second lot of corn produced well and we got a few meals off that. We have beans by the truck load, capsicum and pumpkin on the vine. The rain that held things up on the shed worked wonders for the garden.

Broad-beans are leaping out of the ground and the mixed seeds I threw out on a bare patch have fired up. I have now got a heap of curly leaf spinach and beetroot seedlings ready to go. The spring onions are ready for thinning and lettuce will need the same in a week or so. Right now things are getting back to normal and it's all good out here in the long paddock.

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The raised bed is dead.

When I started our veggie garden about 2005 I built a raised bed system and although initially it worked well and was reasonably productive, I have since demolished it in favour of a more traditional on the ground system. The problem with the raised bed was that it was too water intensive and a pain in the butt to garden. Being at an odd height it meant I was always having to bend and reach, putting a stain on my back. Sitting on the side was no better as it meant twisting to reach any plants that where not near the edge. The only way it really worked was to climb on the bed and work from there, which sort of defeated the idea of having a raised bed in the first place. As I also wanted to extend the garden a bit I decided to rip it all out and start again. The new layout is two beds about a meter wide that I can work from both sides, with a narrower bed across the back . A narrow path splits the two beds and is paved with old bricks. The whole area takes up about 20sq meters and will be gardened in a variation of the French intensive gardening technique.

With this method the soil is worked quite deep and enriched with compost and humus to produce a light, fluffy soil. This encourages healthy plant growth and the production of deep roots.

An astounding array of crops can be produced in quite a small space when the garden is well laid out, and when space is limited it's an extremely efficient way of gardening. With this system plants are typically grown very close together, with the leaves of the plants creating a cover which reduces weeds and helps keep the soil moist, acting almost like mulch.

As well as the dedicated veggie patch, I have, mixed with the native plants in the more formal parts of the garden a number of fruit trees and vines. We grow rhubarb, thorn-less blackberry, grape and strawberries. There are a number of fruit trees scattered around the place as well, these include tamarillo, pear, plumcot, fig and gooseberry trees. We don't as yet have any of Adam's apples.

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