Farm in the Burbs

The end of "farm in the burbs"

2009-06-07T13:51:00.005+09:30

Well PJ is doing really well at homeschooling. He is getting into a real rythym with it. He does worsheets/books and written work in the morning and more freelearning (computer games, art etc) in the afternoon. He has calmed down lots and really seems to enjoy the work.

We have finally made a decision to move to the country on a property - hoping to set up our own little farm - nothing for money more just so feed us. we have looked at a few properties around the place. So I have decided to bring this sorry little blog to an end and start a new blog You can find it here. http://dellsdell.blogspot.com/

Ready for the New Term

2009-04-27T00:23:00.006+09:30

Well the holidays are nearly over, the printer has been going all day. I have been busy getting K3's unit studies ready. Did I tell you I decided on the Solar system for Science and Egypt for History.

I think I have decided on a mixture of methods for homeschooling. Mornings are for more formal school at home - worksheets and such, and the afternoons are for more free learning - reading, unit studies, gardening, cooking etc.

I found a great website that helped with my science and history units. I am planning to try notebooking/lapbooking for these subjects. The science will still have some worksheets from http://www.learningpage.com/free_pages/home.html but k3 will also be making notebooks. I thought this would add a bit more fun to it and it can also incorperate some Art and Technology which helps with the ciriculum requirements. The new site is "Homeschool Launch", it is a place where other homeschoolers can upload and share (free) files they have made. Hee is the link to my page and then you can move to seach the site from there.
http://www.hslaunch.com/mypage/profile/7893

Well it is getting late, I will catch you all soon later

The Home Schooling Journey

2009-04-14T10:47:00.002+09:30

The past 12-18 months have been a bit busy and as you can see I haven't gotten to my blog in a long time. Needless to say my garden looks worse than the blog - very neglected.

I have decided to be better with my blog and I am now including homeschooling in it. Homeschooling was not something I considered a real option for our family. Schools are fairly good where we live. However about 2 weeks ago I was thrown for a loop when one of my special boys was having trouble at school and out of the blue became agressive. Even though this is very unlike him it is very common with Aspergers children. (I have both my boys with this). The School asked us to remove him as they can no longer cater for his special needs. As my mum always taught me if you don't have anything nice to say then say nothing. So no comment on this further.

However this did cause a bit of a predicament, what do we do with k3 (kid number 3). If he wasn't coping with a class of 20 with the special ed department there when needed, how was he possibly going to work in a state school with class sizes up around the 30 mark and no support for him. With a lot of help from his old spec ed teacher we have found a school that will take him, but there is a waiting list. So in the mean time we are looking at home schooling him.

This has been a bit of a shock to my system but I can see the upside to it for both him and me. so I delved sraight into finding out how to go about this. I rang the Dept of Ed here in South Australia to find out how to go about this to be told that I will have to apply for and exemption to attend school. I also found out that he has to be enrolled at school at all times. Ahhh! but he isn't at school at the moment what do I do. I had to go back to his previous principal and ask to keep him on the books but listed as non attending (which you can do here for 4 school weeks apparently) That gives me some time to put the application together.

Well this has been a bit long so I will leave it here for now. More on the application later

Beggining of harvest

2007-11-14T11:13:00.000+10:30

Ahh! you have to love spring!

2007-11-08T07:36:00.000+10:30

Well I thought I better write something - it's been a while. Between being on holidays again, dealing with the kids and taking every chance I can get in the garden I have been remiss in my Blogging - Sorry. I have been planting more in the garden - check my spring list. You just have to love this time of year - you can see all your hard work come to life.

Had a small problem with my lettuce and tomato seedlings - I had them in the little green house boxes I use for growing seeds they were doing really well and I took the lid off to acclimatise them to the big wide world and my delightful munchkins pulled out all the labels - so when I planted out my tomatoes and lettuce there is no organisation to them it will be all pot luck!

Also they were doing really well and then all of a sudden nothing - they just stopped growing some even died. I planted the sad little seedlings anyway, thought I would give it a go before I go and buy seedlings. Most of the tomatoes seem to have come good. One lot has gone like the clappers and has out grown the one lot of seedlings I did buy.

My sad little seedling

Turned into this in under two weeks!

My kids have also been nagging me to put corn in. I wasn't going to this year because they seem to take up a fair bit of room for not much produce but well lots of Pleeeeeeeese mums and I did have 1/2 a bed I hadn't used yet so I succumbed and bought some seedlings yesterday.

The rock melon seeds didn't sprout anything - I'm wondering if the seed was too old (last years packet) but my water melon has come up with a couple of little seeds. I also planted some potatoes that had started sprouting in my pantry and surprise, surprise they have come up as plants!
My baby watermelon

My first ever potato plant

Today I planted some more tomato seeds in my little mini green house and I also planted the next batch of lettuce (we are already nearly through the first bed full and the seedlings for the second lot are in this will be the third) we eat so much lettuce its ridiculous.

I also bought my passion fruit seedlings to try in the hanging baskets (nothing came of the seeds). I'll probably do that on the weekend.

I was also just wandering around the garden this morning and my beans had some beans already and check out my baby cucumbers, it makes you hungry just looking at them!

Well that's it for now, I'll keep you posted!

Holidays A good thing?

2007-10-23T23:16:00.000+09:30

I've just come back from a few weeks holidays at the beach with the family - and as relaxed as I'm feeling, I looked at my garden when I got back and am now wondering if it was worth it?

My lettuces and herbs have gone nuts which is wonderful, but so have the weeds. Someone needs to explain to me why with so little water and watering restrictions still in place that I have a very sad and sorry backyard grass that I am struggling to keep nice for the kids, but where I don't want any lawn, I turn my back for two seconds I have the same couch grass growing like there is no tomorrow?

Time to do some research on killing off grass organically without harming the veggies - will update you when I know more.

On a side note my watering pins ( see previous post) worked wonderfully whilst I was away, my lovely father-in-law who was watering my garden for me while I was away only had to fill them up 2 times a week and that was enough for the plants - they are all starting to bud up - even some of the trees that I thought I might loose after the cold snap we had after I planted them.

Well I'm pretty sure the holiday was a good thing but my back may disagree tomorrow after I do some weeding (ha ha).

Watering System

2007-09-23T23:00:00.000+09:30

With water restrictions here in Adelaide the only watering we are allowed to do is by hand with a watering can – as you can see from my plot layout this is a very time consuming job and a bit of work on my back and wrists. Luckily as at the 1st of the October we can water either on a Saturday or Sunday (depending on your house number) for up to 3 hours at specified times, with drip lines. So with great excitement this morning I decided to put my dripper system from my old garden back into my new vegie patch.

Well it took me hours to separate all the old clamps, joiners, ag pipe and dripper hose. I relayed it out and joined it up and it only does about half of the vegie beds. Off to the shop to get more to do the rest. A friend came around and I put her to work as well. I’ve done about quarter of it, I’m still thinking about the best way to handle all my fruit trees in pots, but I did find this nifty little device at my local bunnings

You fill the stem with soil or sand and then stake it into the soil and up end a bottle (2 liter seems to be the biggest that will fit) full of water into it. It slowly leaks into the soil, watering the plants. I think the theory behind them is for use for when your on holidays but unless you have some one coming into fill them up every couple of days I dno’t think they would work because they drain in about 1 hour or less. However it is quicker to fill them up and plonk them in if you do have some one watering your garden while your away. Also It’s a lot eaiser on my wrists than the watering can until I come up with how to attach them to the dripper system.
I will upload some pictures of the layout of the dripper system when I finish put it all together but before I bury it under the mulch layer. Stay Tuned!

Garden Layout

2007-09-18T23:51:00.000+09:30

To enlarge this image click on it and it should open in a larger format.

Code:

P = pots, V= Veggie Patch, Straight numbers Actual trees
P1 = Custard Apple (Annona atemoya) African Pride
P2 = Coffee (Coffea arabica)
P3 = Panama Berry, Strawberry Tree, Capulin, or Malay Cherry (Muntingia calabura)
P4 = Hawaiian or Tropical Guava (Psidium guajava)
P5 = Fig Black Genoa (Ficus carica)
P6 = Kiwi Fruit or Chinese Gooseberry (Actinidia deliciosa (male))
P7 = Camellia Sinensis (Tea Plant)
1 = Kiwi Fruit or Chinese Gooseberry (Actinidia deliciosa (Female))
2 = Apricot Moorpark
T1 = GoldMine Nectarine
T2 = Elberta Peach
T3 = Charlotte Columnar Ballerina Apple
T4 = Mandarin Imperial
T5 = Williams European Pear
T6 = Sensation Pear (Pyrus communis Sensation or Red Sensation)
T7 = Polka Columnar Ballerina Apple
T8 = Lots A' Lemons Dwarf
H1 = Veronica Oxford Blue
H2 =
H3 =
A = Apple Mint
B = Chamomile
C = Comphrey
D = Greek Oregano
E = Mint Julep
F = Parsley
G = Peppermint
H = Thyme Pink
I = Thyme White
J = Sage
K = Yarrow
L = Curry Plant
M = Choc Mint
N = French Lavender
O = Bay Leaf

Z = Empty

Check out Spring/Summer plantings to see what is actually in the vegie patches

Spring/Summer 2007 Plantings

2007-09-18T22:58:00.000+09:30

Garden Beds

Bed 1

4 rows seeds - greenfeast peas (full length of bed x 4)

Bed 2

Green Harvest Perennial Rocket Seed 1 row Planted 27/09/2007
Green Harvest Rocket Seed 1 row Planted 27/09/2007
Green Harvest Warrigal Greens Seed 2 rows Planted 27/09/2007, 1 row Planted 14/11/07
Salad Shaker Cheap as Chips Planted 30/08/2007
Top Taste Gourmet Mix 8 Seedlings Planted 30/08/2007
Top Taste Dwarf French Beans Golden Grove Nursery 11 Seedlings Planted 10/09/2007
Green Harvest Bush Beans Seeds Planted 27/09/2007 1/2
Green Harvest Purple King Climbing Beans Seeds Planted 27/09/2007

Bed 3

Living Colour Continental Burpless Cucumber - 4 plants
2 rows length of bed Cucumbers - grown from seed 23 plants Planted 16/10/07 13 plants died
Zuccinni from Neighbour - 6 Plants - died
Living Colour Zucchini Gold Rush 4 plants Planted 13/11/07
Bumper Harvest Egg Plant surpreme 18 Plants Planted 13/11/07

Bed 4

6 red cherry tomatoes - grown from seed Planted 16/10/07
8 Grosse Lisse - grown from seed Planted 16/10/07
4 Mighty Red Tomatoes seedlings Planted 24/10/07
5 Black Russian Tomatoes - grown from seed Planted 14/10/07
5 Green Zebra Tomates - Grown from seed Planted 14/10/07
4 Yellow Cherries - Grown from Seed Planted 14/10/07
5 Roma Tomatoes - Grown from Seed Planted 14/10/07

Bed 5

Top Taste Tioga Strawberry - 1 Plant Planted 30/08/2007
Top Taste Red Gauntlet Strawberry - 1 Plant Planted 30/08/2007
Nellie Kelly Sweetie Strawberry 1 Plant Planted 10/09/2007
Top Taste Tioga Strawberry - 1 Plant Planted 24/10/07
3 rows of strawberry seed Planted 16/10/07
Top Taste Strawberry Sweetheart 8 Plants Planted 14/11/07
Top Taste Strawberry alinta Planted 08/11/07
4 Top Taste Butternut Pumpkin seedlings Planted 24/10/07

Bed 6

Living Colour Red Hot Cayenne Capsicum (Pepper) - 8 Plants
17 Top Taste Sweetcorn Seedlings 3 rows Planted 08/11/2007

Bed Under Fruit Trees

Green Harvest Moon and Stars Watermelon - 2 rows x 3 seeds

5 seedlingsNastursiums grown from seeds

8 coliban potatoes - grown from sprouted shop potatoes

Fruit Trees - Pots

Custard Apple (Annona atemoya) African Pride
Coffee (Coffea arabica)
***Panama Berry, Strawberry Tree, Capulin, or Malay Cherry (Muntingia calabura) Died***
Hawaiian or Tropical Guava (Psidium guajava)
Fig Black Genoa (Ficus carica)
Kiwi Fruit or Chinese Gooseberry (Actinidia deliciosa (male))
Camellia Sinensis (Tea Plant)

Fruit Trees - In Ground
Lots A' Lemons Dwarf
Polka Columnar Ballerina Apple
Charlotte Columnar Ballerina Apple
Mandarin Imperial
Williams European Pear
Sensation Pear (Pyrus communis Sensation or Red Sensation)
Elberta Peach
GoldMine Nectarine

Herbs/Spices

Apple Mint
Chamomile
Comphrey
Greek Oregano

Oregano(from Neighbour)
Mint Julep
Parsley
Peppermint
Thyme Pink
Thyme White
Sage
Yarrow
Curry Plant
Choc Mint
French Lavender
Bay Leaf

Seedlings Died/no grownth Planted

Rock Melon

Cucumber

Beans

Strawberries

Basil

cherry tomatoes

Grosse Lisse Tomatoes

Green Zebra Tomato

Roma San Marzano Tomato

Black Russian Tomato

California wonder Capsicum

Golden Calwonder Capsicum

Purple Tomatillo

Cherry Yellow Pear Tomato

Passion Fruit Black

Marvel of 4 seasons Lettuce

Saladbowl Red Lettuce

Saladbowl Green Lettuce

Gwenda White Lettuce

Lollo Rossa Lettuce

Marvel of 4 seasons Lettuce
Saladbowl Red Lettuce
Saladbowl Green Lettuce
Gwenda White Lettuce
Lollo Rossa Lettuce

Green Zebra Tomato
Roma San Marzano Tomato
Black Russian Tomato
California wonder Capsicum
Golden Calwonder Capsicum
Purple Tomatillo
Cherry Yellow Pear Tomato

Newspaper Pots

2007-09-18T22:19:00.000+09:30

In anticipation of my seeds (mentioned in post "The Beginning" I have been thinking about how to plant all of them - I have already used up pretty much every container, seedling tray and anything else suitable I have laying around. I figured there must be a easy cheap way to do it, so surfing the net I went. I came across the following web site:

http://www.geocities.com/newspaperpots/

Newspaper pots - what a great idea - easy, recycling so that's good and it cost me nothing but time. So I've been making lots of them in anticipation. Whats really good about them is when the plant is big enough then no fiddling around getting the plant out of the seedling tray in one piece just plonk the whole thing in the ground and the paper breaks down and the plant is on its way. Less stress on the plant so in theory this should yield a higher success rate.

Some things I did think of however were:
1. You will need to be careful not to over water because this will cause the paper to breakdown prematurely.
2. With seeds that may take a while to take off it may be worth while doubling up buy making up the pot out of 2 sheets or placing one pot inside another.

I think the second option may be better because the double sheeted may be to thick to breakdown quick enough where as the pot inside a pot, the outside pot can be removed when its time for planting if need be.

First thing this morning as I'm sending the munchkins off to school the posty arrives with my package - so I know what I'm doing over the next few days. For a list of what I'm growing this spring/summer see my post labelled Spring/Summer 2007. There is a list there of all the vegetables I'm planting and as the season goes on I will rate the success of these.

Growing Pineapples

2007-09-15T23:53:00.000+09:30

A friend and I were mucking around on the net looking at garden information and we came across how to grow pineapples at home from the top of store bought ones so we thought we'd give it a go - It's now a competition to see who grows the best one - I will post here with the information I find and the progress we make.

Sunday 16th September
Ok Time for research - I have brought the pinapples - not as easy as you think - 3 stores before we found one that didn't chop the tops off the fruit - now to find out how to go about doing this. One of my favourite sites Tropical Permiculture has some great pages on pineapple growing -
http://www.growing-tropical-permaculture.com/growing-pineapples.html#growing-pineapples-overview

and here is another site

http://wierdling.longboys.net/images/pineapples/pineapples.html

They both have instructions on how to grow from the tops of pineapples but one has you soaking in water one does not - What to do what to do - Try both of course!

19 Sept 2007

I have eaten 2 of my pineapples now and have them soaking in a glass - they went in on sunday the 16 Sept - check out the picies - for some reason the smaller one of the two has started turning brown - oh well I will keep going and see what happens.

This is the larger one

This is the smaller one

Manure Tea

2007-09-15T12:33:00.000+09:30

I have just had my first attempt at manure tea on my garden. Lots of research I did on organic gardening all seems to talk about manure tea and compost tea and the huge benefits to the soil. Putting something back for getting something out of soil - keeping everything in balance, so I decided to have a go. My first thing was to find out the difference between compost tea and manure tea. Well the obvious is one uses manure one compost. Some of the information I looked at seemed to say that if you don't use aerators for compost tea not only would the good bacteria die off but you will increase the bad bacteria. None of the information I found on manure tea even talked about aerating beyond just agitating the manure tea a couple of times a day - so this made my decision for me, plus the fact that my compost heap is yet to yield compost yet. I used the following

1 part Compost or Manure to 10 Parts water
Brew for a week
agitate daily
Dilute the concentrate at 1 part Tea to 4 parts water

I got this from the Gardening Australia website:
http://www.abc.net.au/gardening/stories/s2002063.htm

I love this website because not only can you watch the show but it is one of the few websites I have found that even if you miss the show all the information including transcripts are on the website for free.

Here is the summary of my first attempt

Wednesday 4/9/07 20 litres of water left open to evaporate off chlorine
Thursday 5/9/07 2 litres Cow Manure in Hessian bag added
Wednesday 12/09/2007 1.5 Ltr Tea topped up to 9Ltrs with water on all Fruit/vegetables/herbs
left over poured straight onto empty bed 1
NB To much in total - reduce to 10 litres starting water

1.5ltrs of tea to 9 ltrs of water isn't exactly 1:4 but it was easier to measure out than 1.8 ltrs ( I must get some measuring cups and jugs for the garden) but I decided to err on the side of caution for my first go. As you can see the 20lts was also to much and I can't seem to find out how long you can keep the stuff for - I am planning to do this once a week on a Wednesdays - ( The day I am down to only one helpful munchkin, cause the top three are at school and number four is at kindy, much easier to deal with yucky manure with only one!!) so I will just do 10 litres and see how that goes. - Will keep updating

The Beginning

2007-09-14T22:31:00.000+09:30

Well as I said in my description here I am stuck in the burbs and I have decided to massacre our front yard and turn it into a mini farm. I will try and add photos as my garden progresses. I have also started some seeds off in old seedling boxes, trays and anything else I can get my hands on, covered them in plastic. I've done tomatoes - cherry and full size, basil, peas, beans, strawberries, rock melon. I was also a bit naughty and went nuts on line and bought $100 dollars worth of seeds - oops hubby will not be happy when he sees the credit card!

I have also planted 2 kiwi fruits (male and Female), Black Genoa Fig, Tropical Guava, Panama Berry, Arabica Coffee, Custard Apple, 2 x Camellia Sinensis ( The tree used to make Tea), all in pots and 2 apples - Ballerina Polka & Charlotte, 2 Pears - Sensation and Williams, an Imperial Mandarin, a Lots-o-Lemon's, a Elberta Peach, a Goldmine Nectarine, a Bay Leaf Tree, and we had an existing Moorpark Apricot tree.

I have used some old pavers around the beds (raised with some old sleepers we had in our back garden before we built onto the house). Instead of laying them on the straight I have laid them on the diagonal which leaves little triangles of soil up against the beds with I am going to use for herbs and things.