permacultured earth

2011-04-19T10:43:00.004+10:00

so toms, carrots, chives, rocket and broccoli can be seen here....peeking out the back down there on the centre left is a big flat bright green leaf..... it's a banana that lives on the grey water outlet. I'm also growing calendula and marigolds in here...maybe a daisy or two as well

these are a tomato that came up in the compost.... they should be ready in a coupla weeks

thru the kitchen window

the pathways are casurina needles......very acidic and weeds hate them.....

So here you go it's - April and I have been eating out of this small area for a couple of months now.....lettuce, green and butter beans, tomatoes, chives and spring onion, broccoli, rhubarb, carrots (yes I grew carrots! yay!) and rocket...... it's really a no brainer when you think about it...I made a compost pile on top of cardboard and grew veges and flowers in it.... it will all turn into soil and all I need do is add more to it... so going out today to rake up the slashings and collect the roo poo to try that out next! I am planting out the brassicas again, flat leaf parsley, beetroot, more carrots, greens for winter - cos lettuces and mizuna. My tomatoes are still going....Go for it!

nodig beginnings

2011-04-19T08:17:00.007+10:00

manure and compost in between straw.... like lasagne they say - vege lasagne!

looks messy now but it does work

so lucerne, rice straw and goodies go in - alpaca manure, mushroom compost B&B and dolomite

little ones waiting to go in - note potatoes in boxes

first straw goes down

make sure it goes under to stop the grass in the wire

loads (sic) of washing machine and fridge boxes went down

Su helped out - thanks darl!

Tying the wire and the netting was time consuming but very worth the effort

I used gypsum to break up the soil then two types of straw, manure and compost to plant out
the net goes on

topped pole with ceramic saucer to keep rain off the top of the pole

hole had to be over a metre and a half deep to carry the large pole

So I began the garden on the pad my shed/house lives on....it faces north east/east and is mainly a gravelly red clay typical of this area (Tanja coastal NSW). Because it was graded and mounded for the shed pad I believe it will be able to turn into useful soil very well over the years. I decided to use star pickets with plastic tops, good black netting for the top and small gauge metal netting around the base. Very finnicky to start with but it is worth it as there are a lot of free loaders in the bush. Thanks to Su, Tim and Sunny for the help to get this started.....yay!

Lyrecall nodig garden Dec2010-Feb2011

2011-04-19T07:48:00.002+10:00

been a while

2011-04-19T07:45:00.002+10:00

sorry all but I have been out of the loop computer wise, not owning one or on the net till now! Interesting space to be in let me tell you! Managed to stop watching TV but internet is too important to ignore now methinks. following is a series of pics of my latest little home project. it's on another property and its just me and the cat now.....k

Ngairin vege garden 09

2009-10-20T18:12:00.010+11:00

toms, marigolds and rhubarb top and potatoes and baby lettuce and young tamarillo below

snow peas and rainbow silverbeet

the first beds at Ngairin pumped somethin brilliant!

romano broccoli purple green type

sam is a brilliant maker of great big bits for the gardens.....

archway construction

Sam and Michele top the archway with old gates.....great use of materials and it was a bumper crop of japs

little jap pumpkin will grow up a trellis to an archway made of gates

tomatoes growing thru horizontal trellis - no need for tying up! oakleaf lettuce border

romano broccoli as big as kath's head!

This lil fella is the reason why we are building a netted garden.....cute but ruthless eating machine!
The poles for the garden between our houses go in
These are local ironbarks and are cemented in for extra stability
view of garden from driveway
looking out my back door...little building on right is the soon to be moved useless composting toilet....I'll document the new one soon....
Posts at the corner are locked in with big stones...that's Michelle helping out in the little citrus orchard...next to vege patch
Sam starts wiring in at the top
He used gripples to secure the wires
Wiring everywhere
Sam was pedantic about the wiring.....which has been very successful for the netting process
Criss cross wiring that will hold up the commercial grade netting

securing a bottom galvanised wire net to keep out the big bods
Netting goes up...sold in 20 mtr width with as long as you want length
halfway thru the netting
nearly finished
finished at last
Now beds can be made and fertiliser goes on....dolomite, manure, potash and blood & bone
first green babies....celery, leeks, mizuna, brocolie and silverbeet Mid July 09
Tanja helped plant some parsley from her garden....beetroot and potatoes
Kathleen waters them in
My big gate....two big gates at other end for trailer delivery
What to do with baling twine .....
Outside the garden from my end back to the other house
Big bench on one post...sink to go up on back one...

down comes a tree at Ngairin

2009-07-14T15:38:00.007+10:00

Using a tractor and pallet and ladder to scale the tree...note power lines...but they were far out of reach really! Loz is holding Sam up on a safety rope...she's a bloody 'ledge'
Loz is a team worker extraordinaire - handing Sam the gear to attach a cable to the tree
Sam up the bloody tree attaching a big loop of cable to help bring the tree down in the right place..ie not in the dam!
Andrew hands the cable to Sam to attach to the back of the tractor
Charlie starts the wedge cut at the front of the tree
cutting the wedge at the front attentively watched by budding sawguy Andrew. Charlie is down the dam embankment....stupid place for a tree really.
Charlie slices through the back of it
Andrew gives Sam the signal to move the tractor and cable a little....
I moved away and shot this....I was a bit scared....

The tree is down...sad but now we have light and no roots in the vege garden...and it will be apart of a house one day...

me and bubbles

2009-06-18T20:21:00.002+10:00

Me and the dog bubbles just before we left the tathra house

2009-06-15T19:09:00.022+10:00

milo Loves the fact that he has to stay inside!

What we do on the lagoon a lot

Bubbles loves my new bed.....

Big roo handprint at the beach

big boy roo

a wallaby this is the main culprit for eating our gardens

Looking out my back door through vege patch to other cottage

corner posts stumped on large rocks.....very very stable

the net is on

lifting it over the top

masking the wire at top to make it easier to lift wire

sam wiring the big top....well thats what it looked like anyway

big turpentine gum posts are cemented in

the lagoon at dusk

outside the dairy

inside the dairy -kitchen and backdoor

Moving on....to paradise

2009-06-07T16:50:00.003+10:00

Heya...

Well I've been off for a while...sorry about that....life love and the universe got in the way a bit....but on track now. I have had to leave that little house and little paradise in the backyard at Tathra and am now situated about 20ks north on about a 100 acres of pastures and national park, lagoon and beach in a tiny weeny little (its small ok!) house. I love it...having to peel back and really look at what is necessary and what is a space filler! The animals all came with me but not the garden :(
Because there has yet to be built a place for a garden to survive the biodiversity out here....ie: roos, wallabies, possums & birds galore...not to mention a rat or two but thats right up the cats alley....
The vege cage is being constructed and the plants will soon go in...Yay! I have been hanging to get in there! I will put some progression pics up soon , promise...go well. Kx

More pics of my place April 08

2008-04-13T13:33:00.007+10:00

The bananas are doing well at the bottom of the slope in this yard. I swaled the vege garden so all water eventually stops at the banana garden. I also grew sweet potatoes, silverbeet, parsley and tomatoes under the them.
The chook yard is almost invisible under the pumpkin vines.
It doesn't take long for healthy plants to take over.
This is the begining of the summer crop of tomatoes and pumpkins in the chook yard extension.
Before I added the extension of the chook yard

Well I've been flat out getting the permie business(http://www.lusciouslandscapes.com/) off the ground and have had little time to get on the blog. But I realised that I need to show you how the garden is growing....Amazing how time flies when your having fun.

The Chook yard was over run with tomatoes and pumpkins during the summer months and I now have the chooks back in there for the Autumn breakdown. Some sad news about the cute and fluffy one (Remy). Lost him to a tick in October...very sad and the garden is so quiet without him.

Just entering a new phase of my permie business with bigger better paying work coming in with the influx of city escapees buying into our little farming community and wanting to do the 'right thing' by applying sustainable principles to the land.

If you are thinking of entering into business with your own permaculture ideas I urge all of you to do your homework, market research and business plan before launching yourself out there. It really pays off to know where and how you stand when entering into a small business activity. There are small business workshops and support networks in most regional towns and cities. And if you can apply for a NEIS grant, go for it. Every little bit helps.

http://www.workplace.gov.au/workplace/Programmes/NEIS/

Kathleen's Tassie trip

2007-09-25T21:01:00.000+10:00

I've scored some work here at this place for a little while. Tasmania is stunningly beautiful to me...so many green, green fields and water overflowing in the dams. It is a bit cold though...really their spring was like our winter! It is very anglicised with most gardens being full of european things...but the wild bits are just fantastic. I urge you all to get over here for a holiday...Feb/March is the nicest weather....K

View from the balcony at Mulannah Morning on the Mersey River Devonport
Kathleen composting with Jay jay
The woofers bit within the barn
The nursery
Mulannah House

frosty bits are here

2007-05-26T10:15:00.000+10:00

This is 1 yr old Remy....way too cute and fluffy.

One of my old sculptures...I accidently hit it with a shovel so her arm and leg are damaged...but she still looks good in there

cucumber ready for seed saving

gerry, fluffy and red are getting stuck into the old corn bed in their extension

The new chook yard extension and the yurt got a new door at last.....

So.....Winter and frosty bits are here!

It’s coming on winter now and you’ll be preparing for the coming frosts and thinking of how to keep those frost tender plants going. If you do a google search of frost protection techniques you’ll come across a dozen sites trying to sell you the latest doofangle from fog sprays to heaters to fans. All these are said to be the best protection for crops when frost threatens, but siting the crop on a north facing slope where frost can drain away is ideal. What if you only have a flat space to work with or the site is facing every other way but north? Here are a few tips on how to beat the odds with frost.

Observation of your site is the key to understanding the intricacies of how the weather affects that site. Keeping frost records each year helps with frost prediction. Frost is caused by rapid cooling of the earth on crisp clear nights in still air. Some people can smell a frost coming. It’s those crisp cold nights with brightly shining stars that also indicate it may be frosty. Frost flows like a slow moving river, banking up in places where there is an obstacle and draining away where there is a tunnel or slope. You can design your site so that there are heatbanks of rocks, walls or a body of water that can keep the heat radiating through the night. You can use trees and shrubs as buffers for frost against your crops, a gradation planting of different sized shrubs and trees that allows in winter light and keeps out the cold. In Bill Mollison’s permaculture design manual he suggests crown cover by large trees works for small clearings if you follow the rule of one half as wide as high, keeping the sides trimmed to vertical. Clearings should not exceed 30ms across. Clear away anything that is blocking the drainage path of the frost. Are your fence lines clear of grass and weeds? If you have a hedge growing, blocking the flow, you may need to prune drainage tunnels at the base of the hedge. If your garden has been mulched you may need to loosen it with a fork as compacted mulch attracts frost. This is where deciduous trees and shrubs work well, as leaf mulch is quite loose and is a bonus cover over the winter months.

Remember to keep up the water levels over the frosty months as dehydration is also part of losing plants in this type of weather.
Raised beds can also beat the frost, but you will have to experiment with what height works best for your site. I have friends who are growing vegetables in netted half water tanks as this helps to keep out the rats and mice (they can’t climb the sides), but it has an added bonus of being above the frost line.
Thawing out rapidly causes most of the damage to plants in a frost. Frozen cells within the plant expand and burst, so if your hose is not frozen up as well, you can help plants recover by watering them before the sun hits them. There are plenty of gadgets to help set up a system of micro jets and sprays on a timer for your garden if you don’t need to take on a commercial system for your crops.
Covering plants with shadecloth, blankets or bags can help lengthen the thawing time. In Japan they prune back their favourite trees and completely wrap them in hessian over the winter months to keep them warm, but they are dealing with snow more than frost.
Growing the right crop that actually likes a frost is also one way of dealing with the problem. Working with what you’ve got instead of battling against it helps. What grows best in your area? Obtaining seeds, cuttings or plants provincial to your area is ideal.
Frost often sweetens a fruit and in some vineyards frost damaged grapes are used to make a special type of wine. But I have seen an Italian movie where a vineyard was kept from freezing by burning anything, including the furniture, so the crop could be saved. That’s a bit extreme,
but it was a usual practice in the ‘old days’ to have a small series of braziers burning throughout the garden at night to save plants from a frost.
Keeping up the nutrient levels on your crops also helps plants to become robust and frost hardy.
Compost teas, seaweed, comfrey and nettle sprays used weekly work well to promote
strength in plants.

autumn is here

2007-03-12T10:50:00.000+11:00

Well it's finally getting chilly in the mornings here. I've just blitzed the garden of all the new weeds and spent growth after the huge amount of rainfall over the last few weeks. (200ml +!) Didn't do my extension of the tomatoe glut any good because it meant the fruit flies had a field day. But I have saved two tomplants that have yet to fruit and they should last for a few months yet. They're in a warm part of the garden and close to the house so I'll be able to keep an eye on them. The pic is of me with the dog Remy, the compost bin and some great carrots. Finally grew large carrots by planting them with lettuce and beetroot seeds....confusing the insects about what to eat first! So that is one to add to the list of plant trivia. I'm in the process of extending the chook run as I want my girls to be able to get some winter sun. The Yurt excludes the afternoon winter sun on the swing run. If your girls are cold they spend most of their time trying to keep warm instead of making eggs. If you look hard at the pic you'll see that I have a clothesline in the middle of the garden. I use this as extra shade in summer and also hang plants gone to seed to dry out. This means that under the line I have now got a million seedlings which I've just transplanted, given away, or fed to the girls.

What I'm doing in the garden now: I'm now planting out mizuna, lettuce, brocs, cabs, carrots, beets, garlic and rocket.

What I'm harvesting still: tomatoes, basil, rocket, mizuna, carrots, lettuce, squash and corn. My pumkins came in late so waiting patiently for them. They're a jap butternut x and are quite pretty as well as tastey.

Jobs still to do: tell people I love I appreciate them, pick the basil and make pesto, pickle the squash (which I promise never to grow again!) mulch the newly cleaned up vege beds. Process the seeds from the dryed plants and save.

Kathleen's pesto - couple handfuls of basil, 1/2cup of almonds, 2 cloves garlic, 1lemon, olive oil and parmesan cheese to taste. Blend and add a lttle water if needed to help in the processing. Do the nuts first to make it easier. The mix may be a bit sloppy at first but will thicken over time with the nuts absorbing the excess liquid. Cashews or maccas work just as well. Serve with rice or pasta, great on toast with tomatoes.

part of the backyard Jan07

2007-02-06T14:58:00.000+11:00

1. henhouse and yurt

Part of the backyard with a henhouse made from a childs swingset and a handbuilt wooden yurt. - The cable is power to the yurt. I'd much rather have garden than grass, but as I rent, I've been limited on space to turn to food production. I grow flowers amongst my veges as they are great predetor attractors as well as for bees for pollination. The corn you can see up the back is a Hawaiin variety and has reached 7 foot already! I look forward to seeing what the cobs will be like.

2. back door, laundry, bathroom & toilet

The back door, filled with potted plants and sitting space. Made some extra shade with a spare post and rails with shadecloth attached. It's high enough to let in light for winter. The outside dunny is a tad cold in winter.

EXTENDING THE SUMMER GLUT in cool - temperate areas – jan/feb 07

2007-01-30T15:36:00.000+11:00

If you live in a cool temperate climate in the southern hemisphere then this is for you!
It’s coming up to that time of year where you should be getting the best out of your summer crops (water availability permitting!)
Hopefully you have mulched the whole garden to keep the moisture levels up and kept an eye
on the ever present weeds that just love the fact you’ve made a great home for them. Weeds
are a great soil type indicator. In my suburban garden I have sandy acidic soil, so the culprits invading the garden are usually dock, sorrel, milk thistles and spurge. I do get lots of chickweed and fat hen which means the soil is very fertile (where the compost bin and chicken house live especially) but the chooks get to eat them, so I don’t mind. The rest go into
the compost. So, back to the task of extending those summer crops. I’ve found that with our uncertain
temperatures down here on the south coast at the moment, I’ve had to take some extra care
with the vege garden as we have had very high temperatures early on in the growing season
and I’m preparing for the heat of last few weeks of summer. I’ve built a trellis over my back
verandah to keep that part cool with a passionfruit vine and some shade cloth to keep the
temperatures down on my potted plants. I’ve designed it so that the northern winter sun will still
be able to get through. I had the clothesline placed in the centre of the garden as I have a
small back yard where trees for shade would be more of a hindrance than help. I placed shade
cloth over this when I knew we were going to have extreme temperatures and where I had
vulnerable seedlings I made small shade cloth umbrellas with a series of small stakes. Living
on the coast I have a high dew content and I found that the shade cloth captured quite of bit of
water for the plants.
Hopefully you have placed your vege garden on a northerly aspect with the higher plants such
as corn, beans and tomatoes towards the south and west. Beans are incredibly hardy and can
cope with a bit of westerly heat. I use my corn patch as a living trellis by growing beans there.
But it’s the hot dry winds of summer that make gardening a challenge. Hardy trellises of
passionfruit vine or a windbreak hedge of lillypilly or strawberry guava would help alleviate this
situation. Companion planting of herbs and flowers also provide extra shade for vulnerable
plants. Most of the soft bodied veges, such as lettuce and spinach, can tolerate quite a bit of
shade.
To extend the life of most plants you have to remember to keep up the care of those plants.
Watering at the right times is still essential, especially with the heat, so that means early
morning or better still the evening before. Drip irrigation of the vege garden works well if you
can spread the water well enough. It may take a bit of experimenting to get it just right for your
needs.
Sometimes we often fall into the trap of letting the fully grown vegetable plants go,
thinking that they’ve reached their full potential when the fruit is ripe.
This is true to an extent, but we can help the fruiting content along by picking
regularly, feeding regularly, pinching back leggy tendrils or tip cutting. Picking tomatoes with
the first blush of colour allows the plant to keep on flowering thinking it needs to keep on
fruiting. It’s wonderful to watch those tomatoes fully ripen on the kitchen window sill. This isn’t
viable, of course, if you planted a huge amount of fruiting vegetables, so this means being
efficient with collection and preserving, making sure you’re doing something everyday while the
fruit is coming on.
Beans can get really out of hand if you don’t pick regularly and this season
I’ve already got my seeds for next summer after leaving them alone for 4 days!
Another way of extending the life of your food output is to keep on planting through the
summer months, providing you can shade the young seedlings well with either larger plants or
shade cloth. Young zucchini and tomatoes plants are less susceptible to frost and mildew
problems as the weather cools down. Plant out extra veges when the older plants have started
flowering.
Seaweed fertilizer – either sprayed directly onto plants or at the base. I made mine in a big
bucket with some weed off the beach. I let it sit for a month in the sun with a lid to keep the dog
and mozzies out. Watered down 20 to 1and applied weekly will give veges a real boost.
Urine – watered down 20 to 1 and used once a month keeps the nitrogen levels up. Never
store urine as the ammonia levels and some pathogens may get out of hand. I use it
regularly on my compost heap to help in the breaking down process.
Compost – keep up the compost making process and keep on adding it to the garden. You
can make a compost tea out of it as well to spread the goodness evenly over your garden. A
couple of handfuls in a bucket of water stirred and let sit for a couple of days will do the trick.
Worm Juice – I can’t say enough about worm juice. It’s a wonder drug for your plants. They
will produce massive amounts of fruit with regular applications of watered down juice. This can
be a foliage spray or applied at the base of plants, 20 to 1 again.
Remember to spray only at dusk in our hot weather or you’ll scorch your plants. Water acts like
a lens on a plant when the sun hits it directly. Good luck with the glut and happy gardening.