selling some:

dill, thyme, oregano, coriander, joy tomato, eggplant, capsicum mix

 More up for sale, hopefully will make a few more bucks. Planted a whole heap of heirloom tomatoes and more herbs today aswel. $2.50 each, pickup in Ellenbrook 6069

hot and mild chili, italian and moss parsley, sage (lookin pretty rough),  mint cuttings and rosemary

Aquaponics..

sump tank on the left and our soon to be fish tank on the right

 We have massive plans for the greenhouse, just got a few more shelves to install and then the irrigation. Still deciding on the type of system I will use to water the plants but will mostly be using 'flood and drain' systems with a bell syphon. When we are installing all of this and making our syphons i will put up some photos and instructions. We have tried making a small scale system before and made a few mistakes, but now we have the hang of it we are ready to make something awesome.

Hurry up and grow!

the greenhouse is filling up..

 Today we planted a mixture of heirloom tomatoes, corn and baby corn, an australian heirloom pumpkin mix and Im trying my luck again this year growing the worlds biggest pumpkin seed.. its supposed to be able to grow as big as a car but last year mine died in that 3 days of 40 degree heat, heartbroken.

still not finished the shelving but enough space for now

Was 41 degrees in the greenhouse this morning, took out the rosemary cuttings we are hoping will root.. Shops are charging like $10 bucks each for these suckers at the moment and its so easy to grow your own from transplants, sure you might get a few misses but you wont be short of big rosemary bushes in Ellenbrook to have another crack. Ill post a how-to soon.

ranbo has a mate finally =]

Preserving herbs..

 We have plenty of leftover herbs this season and one way we preserve them is making our own herb oils. They dont last as long as store bought ones (about 2 months), and if you incorporate garlic into your oil you will need to refrigerate it to stop it spoiling (google botulism).

The bottles were put through the dishwasher on the sterilise setting, then I rinsed them with a bit of vinegar to make sure they were clean. 

For our oils we used a mixture of dill, thyme, bay, basil, garlic, ginger, green peppercorn, chilli, parsley, mint, coriander, sage and a good quality olive oil. You can decide which flavours you want.. mix and match, its your oil. Bruise the herbs and push into the bottle, slightly warm the oil on the stove (verrry slightly, i could still stick my finger in it) and pour into your bottles over the herbs. Store in a dark cool place or in the fridge if it contains garlic.

We will never use all this.. they make good gifts, and the parents put up with us making a mess of their backyard, so its only fair to give them some of the produce.

Aquatic Plants.. update

The lid of the CO2 reactor bottle, cut the tube on an angle to get it through the hole

 I learnt from my first try that everything has to be really, reallllly airtight. Im using iced tea bottles now with the rubber seals inside the caps which helps a whole lot. The yellow lid is the CO2 reactor lid, the airtube needs to be above the level of the yeast mixture in the bottle.

The CO2 tube needs to be deep enough in the bubble counter to be under water

The orange lid is the bubble counter, it is basically used to see how much CO2 is being created in your reaction and helps remove any yeast mixture before the final tube collects the gas and takes it into the tank. I used silicone to seal the holes.

CO2 reactor with the yellow lid, bubble counter is orange

 I used a more potent yeast mixture this time, the reaction will not last as long but it will create more CO2. The sugar, water and bi-carb remained the same and 8g yeast... (2 cups sugar, a pinch of bi-carb and 3/4 of the bottle filled with warm water)

the bubble counter produces about 3 bubbles per second and is diffused into the aquatic tank via airstone

Pallet Box Recycling

standing upright

So, im just going by a photo I had seen so im sure that , in construction, this attempt will differ from the ones I do in the future. Maybe you have some input from my mistakes...? Start with sourcing a pallet thats new and sturdy.
Step 1: I cut two sheets of chicken wire to fit on the inside of the bottom of the pallet and affixed them using cable-ties either side of the pallets center beam. Pallet designs vary but it is important to affix the chicken wire tightly. from both the top and bottom and the sides. If you are using the pallet horizontally then if the chicken wire is not attached tightly the weight from the 6-8 bags of potting mix will cause it to droop. 

use zipties to hold the wire in place

the 'bottom' of our pallet
Step 2: At one end attach a piece of chicken wire (cut to shape) along the entire length of the pallet to hold in the soil. You only have to do this on one side if you are standing it up but if your intention is to make it a lying down garden bed you will need to do this on both ends.

Step 3: Fill the pallet with potting mix (compact well if you want it to stand up), cut away and discard all of the loose chicken wire.

Step 4: Plant your seedlings. N.B. I drenched the soil before I planted to help the soil retain shape.

Busy Busy Busy..

tomatoes - remove the first cotyledon leaves (the two leaves under the first true leaves

We transplanted some tomatoes today. We have had a little bit of luck in the last few years with tomatoes, but hoping this year to get a massive crop. We will need to stake these in a few weeks.

plant deeply, to the first true leaves. The white hairs on the stem will all turn into roots when under soil.

seedlings for sale!

We have plenty of leftover seedlings again this year and trying for the first time to sell some. Having some luck selling herbs but not alot of people seem to want the veges.

the aquatic plant tank

Our aquatic plants are doing well with the addition of the CO2 reactor. I will post some pictures with a how-to when I collect some good plastic bottles ><

Spring Onion Seed Saving

spring onion flowering, some have gone to seed

The second season for our spring onion and they have begun to flower. To save the seed wait for the flower heads to almost completely dry (you may lose some seeds but there will still be plenty), we cut the heads off and leave them in a paper envelope for a week or so to dry completely. Shake out the seeds into the envelope.

If any chaff or foreign material gets left with the seed, using two bowls pour the seed from one into the other using a light breeze to separate the chaff from the seeds (this is called winnowing). I store my seeds in an airtight container in the fridge.

Gnomes should be Illigal

Like gardening, I thought collecting garden gnomes would be addictive so have held back buying one every time I see them.. We got given our first gnome as a gift and I think he looks a little lonely... 

The Greenhouse

The greenhouse is almost complete! Lights and electrics all in place, just waiting on some shelves.. We will be mostly focusing on having an aquaponic setup in there but there is plenty of space to start our seedlings for planting in the patch.

Making Money?

Alongside our new garden maintenance business garden4you we wanted to have a go at selling some herbs from home to the local community. The coriander and dill we transplanted already are looking very healthy at the moment and we have plenty more to go! Really looking forward to seeing how they sell.

We grow a lot of marigold as its pretty rotten smell keeps away plenty of pests and attracts predatory insects

Transplanted some more seedlings today, we now have leftover thyme, chilli (hellfire, mild, and hot cayenne), tomato, garlic chives, oregano, capsicum, lebanese mini eggplant,  parsley (Italian flat leaf and afro), basil (cinnamon, thai and sweet genovese), strawberries and sage for sale.

More dill and coriander

Aquatic Plants

The Aquarium

We love our fish tank, we have a mixture of guppies, bristle-nose (peppermint and albino), cherry shrimp and ......... Unfortunately the fish also destroy all the plants we put in there, not that we mind.. thats what they're there for, but they don't come cheap. The breeding tanks floating on either side are also full of baby guppies and pregnant cherry shrimp (another hundred mouths to feed) so instead of buying new plants every few weeks we're going to have a go at growing our own.

For the growing medium in the tank we have decided to use an equal part mixture of aquarium gravel, vermiculite (which we have soaked and squeezed the air from) and aquarium sand. We wanted something nice and loose to allow us to easily push the roots into place.. if that fails we will change change over to expanded clay and root the cuttings in rockwool.

With the exception of some parasite plants (that feed on others sugars/starches) all plants need CO2 to survive. Besides water, plants are mostly made up of carbon compounds. They feed on the CO2 in the air in a process called photosynthesis to produce energy for themselves and oxygen as a waste product. The amount of CO2 found naturally in our water is very low, and to speed up the growing process we made a cheap homemade CO2 injector. 

Using a 2L airtight container (it really does need to be airtight) as our CO2 reactor we drilled a hole through the lid and inserted some air-tube. Use silicone to reseal around the tubing. The tube then goes into our 'bubble counter' submerged in water... This helps us keep track of how much CO2 is being produced and  helps remove any yeast that might get out of the reactor. The next tube stays above the water level in the bubble counter and heads into our tank to be dispersed by an airstone.

To create the CO2 put 2 cups of sugar and about 1/2 tsp of yeast in the reactor then fill to about 3" from the top with luke warm water (too hot and you will kill the yeast).. put your hand over the top and give it a good shake then put on your lid with the air-tube (remember this is producing CO2 and with nowhere to go you will have yourself a pretty big mess, let alone its probably pretty dangerous). The CO2 is created as a byproduct when the yeast eats the sugar and will take a few hours to start producing some decent bubbles!!

If you are going to try this please research a little more.. plants do not photosynthesize without the sun, therefor will not be removing the CO2 from the water during the night, if you are keeping fish in your tank you will need to swap the reactor for an air pump at night.

October Plans

almost ready to start harvesting!

We had some sun this morning so decided to get into the garden and remove all of last seasons crops and make some room for our next batch of seedlings. Whilst the greenhouse is nearing completion we have been using a few cheepo mini-greenhouses to get an early start on some of our families most eaten veges though since its been pretty warm lately we have been hardening them off and they are surviving the weather well.

this side is a bit bare.. on the other hand at least the compost bin is full

Over the next few days we will be transplanting our broccoli, chilli (a few different heirloom varieties we have been collecting seed from for years), eggplant, leeks, tomatoes (another one we like to grow heaps of heirloom varieties) and we tried our luck with a few turnip... though I doubt anyone will convince me to eat it.

Planting Guide for October

Plant straight into garden; asparagus, beetroot, borage, broccoli, gooseberry, carrot, beans, cucumber, daikon (japanese radish), artichokes, lettuce, kohlrabi, yacon (sunroot), oca, corn, sunflower, spring onion, silverbeet, salsify (swiss chard), rocket, rhubarb, radish, pumpkin, potato and parsnips. 

Start in greenhouse; sweet majoram, rock melon, ladyfinger (okra), NZ spinach, marrow, celery and celeriac.

Underlined is what we are planning to plant, italics is what we have in the patch ready to harvest. 

Yay.. Some Sun!

Spring is finally here and we cant wait to get planting! We still have some of last seasons crops in the beds but have decided to get the soil prepared for the weeks to come. First things first though, we wanted to save some seed from our lettuce that has begun to flower.

After years of wasting money on overpriced seedlings and seeds (and wracking up a pretty hefty collection of empty pots) we decided to start collecting our own seed. The idea for our garden in the beginning was to become a little bit more self sustainable but now its more of an addiction we need to save all the money we can! Collecting seed can sometimes be a bit of a hassle and most people will probably not bother, but for us it feels pretty rewarding.

Our process for collecting lettuce seeds:

1. wait until at least half of the flowers have gone to seed
2. cut the entire top of plant off and place upside down in a paper envelope to dry
3. when dry we will shake the seeds from the plant into the envelope and hopefully save ourself a few extra bucks on seeds!

It Starts...

We have halfheartedly kept a garden diary now for several years, mostly scribbles and plant notes. Now with all that is going on and all our plans for the vege patch we have decided to keep a proper garden diary, and we thought at least as a blog anyone interested will be able to help us or maybe hopefully learn a little something through our agricultural success or failures (We really are not enjoying the white cabbage butterfly this year!).