Friday, August 29, 2008

How good's this

DARLING DOWNS AND GRANITE BELT DISTRICT
Early light rain. Isolated showers and thunderstorms developing during the
afternoon and evening. Light to moderate E to NE winds.
Outlook for Saturday ... Isolated afternoon showers in the east. Fine
remainder.
Outlook for Sunday ... Rain areas developing from the west.

Hope they get it rightish.

Tatties are go!!!

Site prep and bed history.
This is the third time I've used this bed. First was last summer for Sweet Corn (umm sweet corn) then I followed them from mid summer with Cabbage, Cauliflower, and Broccoli. Each time I add in at least 2 bags of horse stable manure, as much compost as I could spare and blood and bone. While I had veggies in the bed is mulched and watered with charlie carp and seasol.
For the tatties I have done the same. The bed has been ready for 3 weeks and I'll add the blood and bone when rain is due.

Planting.
This is the easy bit all the hard work has been done by now.
I trenched out to a depth of 200mm, placed tatties 30 odd cm apart and back filled about 100mm. This should give me in the end about a 400mm mound over the seed and hopefully a bumper crop.


















In go the King Edwards
















In go the Pink Eye.

















A little water, mulching, hilling, fertilizing, weeding and in 4/5 months ta da tatties.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Tatties from Tassie, at last.

My seed tatties finally arrived from Tassie. I ordered them from Tasmanian Gourmet Potatoes
Sounds posh Huh. I waited a little longer than I'd have liked, but in their defense they responded quickly to my e-mails and had a pretty good reason for taking the time it did. Having said that I like the look of their tatties and can't wait to get them in the ground(er. these ones are being planted out in a dedicated bed the ones in the post below are just a fun experiment.
The second photo is of 'Pink Eyes', the other variety are 'King Edwards', and they will have to be cut up into halves and the biggest maybe quarters.
Guess what I'm doing tomorrow.






Spuds in a tyre


This is my attempt at growing spuds in a Tyre. I have tried this before but was unhappy with the results due to the side walls of the tyres stopping even watering of the compost and soil I us inside the tyres. This time I have cut out the side walls with a Stanley knife and so far I'm a lot more satisfied with the results, but time will tell.
I planted 3 Kipfler tubers and have another set of tyres ready for 3 more.
The two tyres you see in the background will be stacked on top of each other as the potatoes grow and filled with more compost. I'm not sure if I'll need a fourth but i will decide when the time arrives. I'll post progress photo's as they grow.

No rain

My Granddad told me years ago that if there is a heavy dew on the ground in the morning you wont get rain that day(only once in the last 20 yrs has this been wrong). So as there was a heavy dew on the ground yesterday I should'a know better than get my hopes up.
Having said that there has been no dew this morning(hang I'll check BoM(TOOWOOMBA A shower or two and a possible thunderstorm, chiefly afternoon and evening.

Light to moderate E to NE winds.
MAX 16 )) so maybe I can get my hopes for rain up today!

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Tiny Tom

I found these yesterday an have decided to give them a try. They are bush Toms growing only 40cm high and therefore don't need staking.I have planted 6 in a punnet and might even stagger planting every 6 weeks and see if I can have a continuous supply.



















If you click on the photo you should be able to read all the packet info.

BoM

TOOWOOMBA
Mostly fine. A shower or two with a possible thunderstorm during the afternoon
and evening. Light to moderate NE to NW winds shifting SW to SE during the
afternoon and evening.
MAX 20
UV Alert - 9:10 am to 2:40 pm, UV Index predicted to reach 7 [High]
Outlook for Thursday ... A shower or two and a possible afternoon storm

Carrots have been planted.

Carrots have been planted.

I know I said I was going to plant on Monday, but on Monday the BoM were predicting showers and the chance of a storm for Wednesday.

I usually like to plant seeds when the weather is unstable and there is some humidity about because I find the soil stays moist longer and gives the newly planted seed a better chance. Also if we do get rain then there is nothing better to get things growing. I’m lead to believe there is dissolved Nitrogen in rain and this is why things grow so well after rain and even more so storm rain. Correct me if I’m misleading myself.

Monday, August 25, 2008

This mans best friend


This mans best friend. I hate buying things. I always worry it wont last long or wont do as good a job as I like, but when I do buy something and it works really well then it's a big relief. Then after a while I really get to enjoy using something that works well.
So by now your guessing that I'm pretty happy with the mulcher in the photos and you'd be right. Around a small yard like mine it has been perfect.











Below is a photo of the end result. It (the mulcher) cuts it down pretty fine and when added to the garden the worms just love it.













The reason for all this mulcher talk is because I need a new, extra rain water tank. With all the extra garden going in this spring summer the tank is not going to last long if we have a dry spell of more than six weeks.
So the site chosen for the tank is out the front of the house where there was a rather mature night scented jasmine growing. So out with the secateurs and out with mulcher and the end result you see below.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Carrots

My carrot seeds I planted about 3 weeks ago have just started sprouting through the soil.
My plan for carrots is to plant a 2 foot (60cm) row of carrots every 2 to 3 weeks. What I'm hoping to achieve is a continuous supply of carrots during there growing season, which means I'll be planting another row of carrots tomorrow.

From what I've read about carrots they don't like a very fertile soil or else it burns the lead tap root which leads to forking, therefore my carrots are being planted in the bed that had my winter cauliflowers and cabbages.

Friday, August 22, 2008

3.8

3.8 mm of rain. All gone now.

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Thursday, August 21, 2008

My first post



My first post.
Today I turned my compost. It's about half ready.
It is overcast here, but no rain as of yet.


.............The Yankee Years.................