Compost Teas Seeds

 Compost Tea...
Finely started up a batch of Compost tea on Friday using a small aquarium pump with an air stone, stockings, compost, worm castings, molasses & some cracker dust...

It was left overnight to brew after a few adjustments but hasnt turned out like other batches I have seen on You Tube so left it brew until early Sunday evening... I have been "massaging" the bags 2 or 3 times a day to help release the goodies further into the brew...

I did a few batches of soak & pour method of compost tea, where compost was mixed in a container & left for 24 hours then applied to plants, but really didnt notice a difference between the control plants & the ones that were fed with the tea after a week... I am still going to leave some as a control & see what they look like after a week... Have also thought about adding some seaweed solution to the brew but as it is an after though I may leave it to the next batch... Dont want to over do it too much...

Seedlings & other Plantings...
The seedlings in the trays have been a bit of a mixed bag as far as germination goes... The Udumalapet Eggplants we really wanted havent germinated so have planted another batch of 16 seedlings in 2 trays... The Perennial Capsicum seed hasnt shot at all either so we might try some seed that Koo has been saving... The Purple Basil B? planted has germinated & we have Onions, Beans, Silverbeet & Kohl Rabi popping up everywhere....
** Does big HAPPY DANCE **
Seed Tape...
Moo & I have made up some seed tape with some Carrot, Onion & Lettuce seeds just to make the spacing of the seeds in the beds a lot easier...

Sunday Morning saw Koo & myself go to the Ipswich markets where we picked up another bulb of Elephant Garlic, Purple skinned Sweet Potato & a Pineapple... The Garlic will be planted this week with the other purple Seed Garlic we bought... Not to certain where the Sweet Potato is going yet but shall find somewhere & the Pineapple will go into another pot for now...





Sunday Walk...

 We went for a walk at a local "recreation Reserve" where we came across debris left over from the January floods that took so many lives & destroyed many others homes & livelihoods... The photos show some of the larger pieces we found... There was an astounding amount of plastic bottles, bits of foam, plant pots, water & fuel drums...We did come across a large blue drum cut in half length ways so collected that to use as a planter as well as some rubbish just to help clean up the place a bit... Will be a long time before places like this recover...

 Shall post a walk through update Video tomorrow... Ran out of light tonight...

Have a great one all....

: )»

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Gift of Seeds !!!!

THANK YOU !!!!!
Yesterday I got a little package From a fellow Aussie You Tube gardener & was blown away by by what it contained...
All the seeds are from Diggers...
Tomatoes...
Tommytoe Red
Powers Heirloom 30th Anniversary
Brandywine Pink
Wapsipinicon Peach
Yellow Pear
Broad Ripple Yellow Currant
Black Russian
The other seeds we received were,
Hunter Valley White Onion
Heirloom Carrot mix...
Also in the package was a "Baby Vegetable Collection" which includes,
Beetroot, Mini Gourmet
Carrots, Mini Round
Cauliflower, Mini
Cucumber, Mini White
Rockmelon,  Minnesota Midget
Corn, Baby Pop    (This was a big surprise as we were just talking about buying some Pop Corn seeds on Monday...)

She has put a lot of effort into this & has even used some little envelopes that she has made up herself when splitting the seeds up... The packets include all the info needed to plant out & must of taken quite a while to do... I am so greatful...Have got a few already picked out to go in this weekend but will need to get a few more wicking barrels ready for others...
***Does a big HAPPY DANCE**
 Thanks so much Watsamadoing.... Your small measly package is on the way & hope they grow well for you...
Her Spring Preparation 2011 Video for your enjoyment...

She lives in South Australia & has a great Channel featuring Gardening,  Hoop/Hot house & Chooks...

Sowing the seeds...
Got busy in the patch owing some seeds in trays & a couple of rows of Carrots to fill some gaps left by the last lot of seed tap that didnt germinate...

 Seeds planted into punnets were,
Zucchini, Lebanese (Mr Fothergills) x 4
Rockmelon, Hales Best (Mr Fothergills) x4
Water Melon, Sugar Baby (Mr Fothergills) x4
Eggplant, Rosa Bianca (Select Organic) x 6
Eggplant, Udumalapet (Eden Seeds) x 6
Eggplant, Large White (Saved seed from Market purchased fruit) x 6
Cumin,  (Eden Seeds) x 6
Capsicum (Bell pepper), Perennial (Eden Seeds) x 6

 Sown/planted into the ground,
Carrot, Nantes 2 (Johnsons Seeds) x HEAPS
Cucumber Marketmore (Eden Seeds) x 2
Cucumber Muncher Burpless (Eden Seeds) x 2
Pumpkin, Kent (green Harvest & Saved seeds) x 2
Turmeric (saved rhizomes) x 2
Galangal (saved rhizomes) x 2
Ginger (saved rhizomes) x 2
Sunflower, Sunbird (Green Harvest) x 12


 Aquaponics...

Have made a bit of headway on the Aquaponic system...The sump has been dug in & the plastic has been painted... The Tin that was riveted to the cage has had the sharp edges covered with pipe to keep the resident OHS inspector happy..
; )»
Looks like I may get to plumb up the grow bed by the end of the weekend... Might even get some gravel & water into the system... Hoping  the Yabbies will be moving in sometime next week...
I hope...
Maybe...
Will be running the system with just the sump & grow bed for a week or so until the fish tank is made up in a few weeks time...
 The Barrel system has stalled on the nutriment side as I just dont think the Yabbies Poop enough  to keep the nutriment load up for the bacteria to process... Have been supplementing the system with water that had been removed due to the high Ammonia & Nitrites in the hope of keeping the bacteria going until the Yabbies get moved & some other Fish can be put in there...

 

Have a great one all...
: )»

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Veggie garden walk through saving a few snake bean seeds 25th December

A bit slack with the updates so shall post the clips as I do them here now..



Hope everyone had a great Christmas with their loved ones..

:)»

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Seeds Vlogs

Seeds...

To the left is what is left of the collection after any seed dated to expire before June last year was taken out... They wont be wasted, just donated to people with larger gardens than us that can afford a dud seed or 2... Over the past 12 months we have been purchased from a large chain Hardware outlet on & off rather than placing orders for 1 or 2 packs of seed... We will not be doing that any longer as a lot of whats available from there comes imported from the UK, which shocked us, or is from a formerly Kiwi then Aussie owned company that has been gobbled up by Monsanto but thats another story not for here...I will admit to buying a few punnets of seedlings through there as we needed to get a jump on the plantings & unfortunately, the local nurseries were found to be lacking with the quality of their seedlings...

Seed Orders...

3 orders of seeds arrived yesterday !!!!!  **Does Happy Dance**

I ordered from our old favourite, Eden Seeds, another trusted Queensland Supplier, Green Harvest & from a store on eBay, Boondie Seeds... This is the first time I have purchased from Boondie Seeds so shall see how they go...

Eden Seeds...

 From these guys we got,

Capsicum, Perennial

Onion, Lockyer Early White

Pea, Sugarsnap climbing

Beetroot, Early Wonder

Cabbage, Sugarloaf

Kale, Dwarf Green

Broccoli, Albert

Kohl Rabi, Purple Vienna

We have been using these guys fairly exclusively for the past few years as they have a great selection "old Australian varieties and organically or bio-dynamically grown where possible" seed varieties...

Green Harvest...

From Green Harvest we purchased,

2 x 48 cell seeding trays

Bean, climbing Madagascar

Onion, Lockyer Gold

Onion, Mini Purplette

Pumpkin, Kent/Jap

Sunflower, Sunbird

I bought from these guys at a Permaculture fair some years back & found the seeds to be great... The Turmeric & Galangal sets we are growing come from these guys & have never had a problem... We will be keeping an eye on their website for when their Strawberries & Asparagus sets are available... These guys have heaps of good books & other gardening bits & pieces available for sale... The Madagascar Bean is an old favourite here as it has a great nutty flavour & goes well tossed into salads raw... Unfortunately, the seed we saved years ago was too old when we planted it & did nothing but grow single runners that produced no flowers... It has a suggested sowing time of Spring for us here in "sunny" Subtropical Queensland so we will need to wait a few months before sowing...

Boondie Seeds...

Silverbeet, Bright Lights

Cauliflower, Purple Sicilian

Carrot, Purple Dragon

Mangelwurzel

I came across this eBay store when I was searching for Mangelwurzel... I have wanted to try this plant after seeing it on the Gardening Australia Website ...It is an old variety of veggie that will provide a leaf crop for us & the Chooks as well as a root that we will be able to utilise in stir fries & stews...

A few other stores that I have only browsed through after recommendations are Cornucopia Seeds & Diggers Garden club... I havent used either of these suppliers but have heard good things about both so thought I would mention them to be fair...

Saved Seed/bulbs...

We bought 4 bulbs of garlic grown by a local market gardener before New years & have had them hiding up the back of a cupboard until planting time in mid April...

Oh !!!!

& I must mention this up & coming seed supplier.... (Teee he he he he he)  

Koo (Dear Daughter #2) has been saving Bush been seed from plants in the patch & have been asked to show her effort... She has named them "Nira Beans".... : )»

 They are Brown Beauty Bush Beans we purchased as seedlings last    August...The last of them were pulled at the end of  February... Hope fully they will produce something for Koo..

The first is what we think is a cross between the Orange Mild Chilli & a yellow Banana Pepper... It has the shape of the Banana Pepper but the heat & flavour of the Orange Chillies... The plant is still growing & producing but I thought I would grab some seed to see if they grow true to type later this year...

Other saved seed include,

Shallots

Basil, Sacred

Basil, Sweet 

Bean, Blue Lake climbing

Silverbeet/Chard, Red stemmed

An unknown variety of Flat seeded Bush bean

Snowpea, Roi De Carouby

Pumpkin, Kent/Jap..(We have the seed but all 4 plants from it that have grown in the back yard from last years seed have not been holding onto fruit after fertilisation so I bought the seeds listed above...) 

Tomato, Yellow pear

Tomato, Cherry

The seed tin will get a good clean out today so we will be ready for tomorrows seeding frenzy... Anything 2010 or previous will be tossed unless we cant source that variety any more...

Vlogs...

I have started to look through You Tube for helpful information on gardening from everyday people who are out there getting their hands covered in dirt... I was searching for information on Composting & came across a channel put out by a Happy Chappy called Ray (Praxxus) in Minnesota, U.S.A... Although our growing regions are quite different he has a straight forward approach to gardening that I like... I have learnt a few things about propagation & Feral Turkey wrangling (teee he he he he) that I have missed looking through dozen of sites while gleaning for helpful tips...

He also Has some great Recipes which I shall be trying out once I am done with "Asian" March...

 I have been working through his videos from start to finish & am really enjoying them... Am up to July 2010 at the moment...

I will be adding links to other helpful Channels/sites as I come across them... 

Thats about it for now...

Have a great one all...

: )»

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Veggie garden walk through worm barrels saving a few Okra seeds 12th

Has been a tad warm here over the past week but nowhere near as bad as some of the southern states.. The garden worms chooks & fish have pulled through just fine with only one casualty (daughters pennyroyal) so happy about that..



Now the weather has cooled off a bit I will be planting out some seedlings & tackling some odd jobs to get the patch ready for Autumn.. Will be pruning the rest of the Chinese elm & some of the mango them running it through the mulcher... This will be mixed with some horse manure & left to compost a bit.. It will eventually become Autumns top up mulch for the beds...
For more regular updates about the patch come visit us at https://www.facebook.com/Bitsouttheback

Have a great one All...

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Sowing the Seeds

The amount of feral Tomatoes that pop up everywhere (due to the worm castings that we use to fertilise new plants & seeds)  has forced me to sow out a few small trays just to make certain that what pops up are plants we want... 2 indeterminate varieties, "Amish Paste" & "Mortgage Lifter", will be going in Bed #2 once they shoot they will trained on a single wire that is connected to the brace on the shade frame... The other tray is "Panama Red" Passion Fruit... The vine on the back stairs needs to come down so we can paint it so these shall be planted on a frame next to the new shed when it goes in & next to the chook shed....

I also re-sowed the Carrot bed (Bed #6)  after a very poor showing from the last lot of "All Season" Carrots.... We only had 4 shoot from the lot planted about a month ago.... I went with a different variety this time, "Nantes 2"....
Yesterday I ordered 2 more lots of Carrots along with heaps of others from Eden Seeds.... Would post what I bought but have lost my list amongst the Girls school work.....


When mowing beside the garden on Sunday I came across these 2 self sown Pumpkins.... No idea how they got there ??!??!?!?!?
All the Kent seeds I planted last week have sprouted so hopefully we will get some this year.. They were planted at the sides of the beds so they can grow over the edge & not take up to much room in the beds themselves....

This Sugarloaf is a bit of an experiment.... We were leaving the stalks of harvested plants in the beds & picking the leaves for the Chooks.... It has now got about 6 little heads on it with 2 being big enough for a meal.... Took about as long as the main Cabbage for them to come on so not to certain if it is worth doing with every crop...

Last night the Chooks decided that they would throw a tanty over a mouse that had been caught in a "Humane" trap in their Pen... Its little feet on the tin was disturbing their slumber apparently.... When Moo went down to remove the cage she stumbled upon this little fella..... He was promptly removed away from the ever ravenous  Cooks & moved to B?s  Comfrey.... Its next to one of the filling pipes where a lot of frogs like to hang out....   

Have a Great one All !!!!

: )»

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