Off to a flying start

Ready, set,     GO!!!
Had a great weekend in the patch with a few jobbies being knocked over...

Took out the 2 "Washing Machine" Wicking beds from the garden to make room for a few chairs & a small table.. Is nice to be able to sit in the patch with B? away from the spawn for a chat over a coffee on the weekend.. Well, thats the dream anyway.. I like to dream.. **nods**


 
Sick Fish & Aquaponics...
On Saturday morning the goldfish were moved  into a small "hospital tank"  then treated with a commercial anti fungal treatment...  1/3 of the water in the system was also replaced to counter the growing Ammonia levels as I didnt want to loose any Yabbies... On Sunday morning I hopped onto the BYAP Forum  & it was suggested that we salt to 10ppt for 1 hour then do a 50% water change to reduce it to a 5ppt concentration... Thanks Freoboy & all...  The fish picked up overnight & now only have a few spots of "growth" on them... Will do another 10ppt treatment today for an hour & see how they look again tomorrow... Not to keen on using the anti fungal treatment after reading the warning on the back about it containing carcinogens...

  Update shots... Left is from the 19th of July & the Right is from 10th of  August... As you can see there is a bit of growth & will continue to get better from here with Nitrates now being present in the system...The Nitrites are still fairly high but they should settle soon as they are  converted into Nitrates..

Todays readings are pH-below 8.2, Ammonia-.25, Nitrites-5+ & Nitrates are 80-160.. Added some Broccoli seed yesterday as it seems to be a plant we just cant grow enough of...
 Yabby Bum Left & Nippers, Right. They appear to be happy in there by themselves so all is good...





 Barrels of fun...

Made up 3 new Wicking Barrels on the weekend, 2 for the Mary Washington Asparagus, Left & 1 for the Jerusalem Artichokes, Right... 2 Asparagus crowns went into each Barrel while the Artichoke corms are still in the fridge for 2 more weeks...




Spuds...

Planted out the Green harvest Potato bags just over a week ago with the Dutch cream Seed Potatoes that were purchased with them.. Decided to plant out another 2 of the black bags on Saturday with some more.. We used one of the removed Washing machine beds & a ½ Barrel for some Kipfler Potatoes..The Desiree up the side of the house are looking rather good as are the 2 bags behind the Tomato Trellis...





Spice Wicking bed... 
Started to put this together on Friday afternoon & finished it off on Monday... Was a straight forward build & means that I can now get stuck into the Aquaponic set up during the afternoons this week.. This bed acts as a retaining wall for the gravel bedding... Will be letting the Spice bed settle down for a few weeks before planting out...

Compost...
Made up what I think will be a few great blends... The first lot was made on Saturday... It has Horse manure, blood n bone, Mineral dust, & water from the Aquaponic set up... It was steaming when I used it in the soil blend for the Spice bed on Monday so I think it will cook down nicely thanks to the AP water & all the goodies in it... 2 bin loads were made up yesterday with a blend containing 2 shovel loads of Mushroom compost thrown in to see how it goes...


Happy harvesting...
**Does HUGE Happy Dance**
We got our first Capsicums off that didnt contain Grubs from a couple of feral plants that live in the Lime bed.. Can only put it down to the cooler weather... Will be making up some bags to cover the next crops of Capsicum with some bags that we will make up from an old Mozzie net the kids had over their cots.. That should keep the little buggers out this Spring & Summer.. Might have to make some for the Tomatoes as well for when the Turpentine Mangoes fruit.. A lot of people let them drop & rot which causes an explosion in the fruit fly numbers.. The pic also shows some of the first Amish Past Tomatoes we have harvested as well as some Caped Gooseberries & assorted Chillies..

We have also been getting some rather sweet Nantes & Dragon Carrots... Looking at pulling them all from the Bath tub bed soon & freezing them for use later as the I have plans for the Bath... The Mangles (Right) have been used in a few stews.. We are looking at freezing the rest of the large Kohlrabi for stews & casseroles.. The Broccoli is still producing but fear we have lost the climbing Beans due to my negligence & a rust.. 

Have a great one all....
: )»

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Finishing off the front veggie patch home made compost

& now there are 6...
As mentioned in the last blog I have been rather busy over the past few weeks trying to get the front garden beds up & running.. Added another 2 beds over the weekend just past to bring the total number of beds up to 6..

The last 2 beds will be made up in a few weeks time after we pick up a couple of ½ tanks that have been offered to us (Thank you sir).. Once they are all in Bianca & I will decide on what sort of cladding will be added to them to finish them off..
I have decided to keep using the wicking beds in the front yard after seeing how invasive the onion weed has been in the hay bale & lasagne style beds.. Not sure we will use IBC or tin style beds in the lawn as of yet & still have some tin put aside if we want to go down that road.. The compact dimensions of the IBCs would suit the slope of the land better but the tin beds wouldnt need to be clad so it will be something we think about later..

Wicking IBC beds...
Have been using the IBCs as wicking beds for a while now & have come up with a few modifications on the way they are being put together so they can store water in the reservoir..

Will be interesting to see how they go over summer once it kicks off.. I have a feeling that the corn in particular will be very appreciative of having the extra water available to it..

Harvesting the compost...
We have had 2 "slow cooking" piles of compost going in the patch now for close to 8 months.. As I ran out of horse manure on the weekend I decided to raid these piles to help add some organic matter to the new beds.. One pile was actually supposed to be a "Back to Eden" style wood mulch that just "cooked" a tad too much..

Must say that was very pleased with the way both batches had broken down & have already used over ½ of the composted timber pile.. There is a fair amount of the clipping compost left & think that most of that will be used in the last 2 IBC beds planed for the front yard..

Super fast manure mulching...

As you may have guessed by now I love using horse manure in the gardens & as an edible bedding for the compost worms.. The manure we normally get has been sitting in a pile for a few weeks before it is bagged up so is semi composted & normally very moist.. My local supplier was out of his finest pony poop when I stopped in on Saturday but I was lucky enough to get a few bags the next day from local farm gate.. Some of these pellets had been "sun baking" for a bit becoming rather hard to push through the screen so the big guns were brought out to process it : )»

Have tried the lawn mower method before with the moist manure but it just didnt want to cooperate by clumping up & stalling the mower.. Am thinking that I might be sun drying the moist manure for a few days in the future then running over it with the mower.. Will also save the gloves from extra wear & tear methinks...

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Looking at playing around with a chook feeder this week so shall do a quick post on that once its built..
There is also our Bits Out the Back Facebook page that we post mini updates on the worms, fish & veggie patch if you feel like a visit..

Have a great one all..

: )»

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