SPRING IS IN (nearly)...
Aug. 30th, 2018 09:27 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tielan posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
gardeningIt's rapidly heading for spring here in the Southern Hemisphere, and I am once again (still?) learning how my garden grows.
So since the last time I posted here, I've acquired 2 chickens - one Isa brown, one Leghorn. They're both solid layers with a 4-5 year expected laying span and 4-5 year lifespan after which they'll probably die fast and hard. Layer breeds don't tend to live long lives, just productive ones. But these two are pretty spoiled, so maybe they'll surprise me. They're fluffy, adorable, and hilarious. They're also a lot of work since they can lay waste to a garden with amazing speed when they escape their pen...
But we have eggs very regularly now, and when I put them in the orchard, they weed the ground like nobody's business.
The front "orchard" bed when the chooks were put on:
The front "orchard" bed after the chooks are gone:
Thoroughly weeded, turned over, composted (chicken poop and vegetable scraps thrown to them), and (with the addition of woodchips and oaten hay) mulched!
Amusing anecdote: my mother was advising me that I had to weed the front garden bed where I have the fruit trees; I penned the chickens in there every weekend for a month, and my mum came around and was all "well, I see that you weeded the garden like I suggested." Me: "Nope. The chickens did it." And they had a lot more fun doing it, eating insects, worms, and greens besides, while we got eggs and a weeded orchard space. BARGAIN.
I have realised that the only thing that really grows in my backyard over the winter with any success is green mulches, which don't need much sunlight, or silverbeet/spinaches. So next year, the backyard will basically be chooks and green mulch and silverbeet, waiting for spring to arrive.
Backyard, 9th June 2018:
Depressing, isn't it? There's no point in trying to make things grow when there's just not enough sun for them. And previous years a) I just let the grass grow (and that'll grow anywhere), and b) didn't have chickens scratching up the green things. Instead, in the coming year, I might try to grow things in the front 'orchard' bed through the winter. It faces north (which is the sunwards side for us down here) and is right next to the driveway so the heat absorbed by the concrete during the day will probably continue radiating for at least a little while after the sun goes down.
My orchard trees are doing really well - at least, all the stone fruit is going great guns! However, the citrus? The avocadoes? The fig? Not so much. I have also come to realise that I'm not naturally good at stone fruit, it's just that my land is primed for stone fruit. In this case, it's less about this current gardener, and more about the people who gardened here before me 100 years ago.
Because my backyard doesn't get good sun until at least October, in preparation for spring I've started seedlings early on heater pads and in polystyrene container boxes. It would be nice to have some early harvests this year...
Right now, though we're still getting occasional frost in Sydney (eg. yesterday morning and this morning), so it's not quite safe to plant out - part of the heat/cold extremes that we're seeing more often thanks to climate change. However, I can get the seedlings to a reasonable size and state before planting them out, which should give them a better hope of survival in the coming weeks when I'm planting them out...
Last summer's 'pumpkin patch':
It was WAY too small for the vines, and so they tried to take over the backyard. They completely screwed up my planting options for everything else, and getting the chooks didn't help. So the pumpkins are going out in the front yard this year My sister will have to deal with losing sections of lawn, and I'll deal with people trying to steal them or whatever. Basically, they need space for growing and I need space for planting, and the two don't mix.
I'd also like to try putting up some reinforcing mesh to make a pumpkin tunnel, but that might be a 2019 option - I have to find some mesh first and then work out where to run the tunnel! (Along the front pathway up to the door would probably be extremely cool...)
Just one more day to (Australian calendar) spring!
So since the last time I posted here, I've acquired 2 chickens - one Isa brown, one Leghorn. They're both solid layers with a 4-5 year expected laying span and 4-5 year lifespan after which they'll probably die fast and hard. Layer breeds don't tend to live long lives, just productive ones. But these two are pretty spoiled, so maybe they'll surprise me. They're fluffy, adorable, and hilarious. They're also a lot of work since they can lay waste to a garden with amazing speed when they escape their pen...
But we have eggs very regularly now, and when I put them in the orchard, they weed the ground like nobody's business.
The front "orchard" bed when the chooks were put on:
The front "orchard" bed after the chooks are gone:
Thoroughly weeded, turned over, composted (chicken poop and vegetable scraps thrown to them), and (with the addition of woodchips and oaten hay) mulched!
Amusing anecdote: my mother was advising me that I had to weed the front garden bed where I have the fruit trees; I penned the chickens in there every weekend for a month, and my mum came around and was all "well, I see that you weeded the garden like I suggested." Me: "Nope. The chickens did it." And they had a lot more fun doing it, eating insects, worms, and greens besides, while we got eggs and a weeded orchard space. BARGAIN.
I have realised that the only thing that really grows in my backyard over the winter with any success is green mulches, which don't need much sunlight, or silverbeet/spinaches. So next year, the backyard will basically be chooks and green mulch and silverbeet, waiting for spring to arrive.
Backyard, 9th June 2018:
Depressing, isn't it? There's no point in trying to make things grow when there's just not enough sun for them. And previous years a) I just let the grass grow (and that'll grow anywhere), and b) didn't have chickens scratching up the green things. Instead, in the coming year, I might try to grow things in the front 'orchard' bed through the winter. It faces north (which is the sunwards side for us down here) and is right next to the driveway so the heat absorbed by the concrete during the day will probably continue radiating for at least a little while after the sun goes down.
My orchard trees are doing really well - at least, all the stone fruit is going great guns! However, the citrus? The avocadoes? The fig? Not so much. I have also come to realise that I'm not naturally good at stone fruit, it's just that my land is primed for stone fruit. In this case, it's less about this current gardener, and more about the people who gardened here before me 100 years ago.
Because my backyard doesn't get good sun until at least October, in preparation for spring I've started seedlings early on heater pads and in polystyrene container boxes. It would be nice to have some early harvests this year...
Right now, though we're still getting occasional frost in Sydney (eg. yesterday morning and this morning), so it's not quite safe to plant out - part of the heat/cold extremes that we're seeing more often thanks to climate change. However, I can get the seedlings to a reasonable size and state before planting them out, which should give them a better hope of survival in the coming weeks when I'm planting them out...
Last summer's 'pumpkin patch':
It was WAY too small for the vines, and so they tried to take over the backyard. They completely screwed up my planting options for everything else, and getting the chooks didn't help. So the pumpkins are going out in the front yard this year My sister will have to deal with losing sections of lawn, and I'll deal with people trying to steal them or whatever. Basically, they need space for growing and I need space for planting, and the two don't mix.
I'd also like to try putting up some reinforcing mesh to make a pumpkin tunnel, but that might be a 2019 option - I have to find some mesh first and then work out where to run the tunnel! (Along the front pathway up to the door would probably be extremely cool...)
Just one more day to (Australian calendar) spring!
(no subject)
Date: 2018-10-02 02:56 pm (UTC)Your place looks a lot like our old one except the town ordinance didn't allow for Poultry(someone abused the previous one. There's always someone to screw things up for everyone else...).
We have 2 Growing seasons; Hot and Cool(to Cold). Traditional Western Veg is cultivated from Oct to May. Tropical Veg the rest of the yr. Veg like Tomatoes have to be started Indoors due to Summer's Heat; you need to start them early enough to get at least one crop before the plants shut down over 80F. In the 17 yrs here I learn a new "hack" every season.
Cheers,
Pat
(no subject)
Date: 2018-10-05 12:16 am (UTC)And yeah, the learning and refining and adjusting is important - particularly for one's own specific situation and not just sticking with general advice.