Today I have lodged a request for the inspection of the neighbours cats with the RSPCA. I am not going into further details, but needless to say I saw further evidence of maltreatment of the brood. I hope they come soon and remove the distress of both ourselves and the neighbourhood.
Archive for December, 2007
I thought that I would compose an article on what I have learnt about gardening to date. Of course this focuses on my experiences in my little urban patch. Here is the list and my thoughts behind each principle learnt.
Expect Failures
No matter how good and diligent you are, some plants will fail. For example I have a thriving Zucchini seedling out the back, yet two out the front planted in the same base material and receiving similar sun are struggling like the billy-o. I expect that they will soon be fed to the worms for reprocessing.
Expect Success Beyond Expectation
At the same time of expecting failures you also need to expect success beyond your wildest expectation. I am for example trying to work out what I will be doing with the plethora of chillis that are either here, or en route. For me I will be distributing that amongst family members and preserving the remaining crop.
Premium Potting Mix is Worth the Extra Coin
Premium potting mix is indeed worth the coin. Plants that are in the premium potting mixes such as the RichGro Pro Mix that is enriched with Seasol, Osmocote, and Ezi Wet are thriving. Those in the cheaper standard potting mix, such as that available from Coles, although for the most part are alive are not exactly thriving. Definately fork out the extra few dollars and get a premium mix.
Worm Farming is a Must
If you have the room a definate requirement is a worm farm. The farm produces a magnificent liquid fertiliser and a supreme compost. Both of which provide established plants a great boost or a kickstart for new arrivals. Also, it helps keep the costs down, as you can appreciate liquid fertiliser and rich compost purchased from the garden centre is expensive, and when you are worm farming is a completely unnecessary cost. Also as a real advantage your rubbish bin will not be as full or smelly.
I Need More Worms
Currently in my Can’O'Worms I have 1000 worms. I though now believe I require a considerable amount more. As a rough idea I have read that you should have 1000 worms per household member. Given Christmas is days away, and we are again hosting the family dinner, we will no doubt have stacks of peels, fruit and vegetable waste. As a direct result I will be adding at least 500 more, am considering perhaps adding 1000. I am also considering a second Can’O'Worms and utilising the stacks of cardboard that I currently have.
Recycling Rocks
Recycling our own waste is both good for us and the planet. Gardening offers a wealth of opportunities for reuse. For example, worms will eat our food scraps, paper waste, and cardboard. Also whilst on cardboard it is great as a pot liner to prevent water simply seeping straight out, further in the pot it provides a barrier for insects and other bugs climbing in. Finally, on paper I am about to embark on making my own jiffy pots using wet newspaper and the many seedling pots as a mould. Essentially its a paper mache jiffy pot.
Planning
Gardening, in particular gardening for cultivation, requires planning. It is silly to pick plant varieties that require deep roots or a need to achieve a tree size for growing in the urban environment within pots and tubs. Also, need to ensure that the chosen varieties needs are going to be met.
Dedication
Dedication is a must for any gardening project. Although many plants will survive a few days of neglect, few will sustain that for very long. Especially when contained to pots and tubs. The urban gardener needs to keep the water, nutrients, and defences up.
Keeping Felines Away is a Pain
For me I have learnt that keeping near wild cats away from the garden is a real pain in the keister meister. Cats like those currently next door are once removed from being feral. I do not want them anywhere near my garden, especially the producing plants. However, keepng them away is a real pain and requires its own commitment. I am looking forward to obtaining my CATWatch in the new year. Hopefully that will reduce the burden.
For now that is the end of my current learnings. No doubt this will expand over the coming days, weeks and months to come. As I have said before, I am a novice, but learning fast.
During recent posts I advised that I had used some of the composted materials in recent plantings. All of those plants are taking off. However, the rich compost is only part of the benefits of worm farming. The second benefit is the natural liquid fertiliser that is produced. This morning I decided that I would bottle that rich source of nutrients into some empty soft drink bottles.
So I went to the worm farm with two 2 litre Coca Cola bottles and one 600 mill Lipton Red Tea bottle. The idea was to drain the worm farm tank into the smaller bottle then fill the Coke bottles. Quickly I filled the 2 Coke bottles and had to get another 1.25 litre Coke bottle. That too was promptly filled, however the drain rate from the farm was greatly reduced. I then drained the remaining worm juice and half filled the Lipton bottle.
So I now have just under 5 litres of rich and natural liquid fertiliser. That will last for some time as I will be diluting it in the watering can. In fact, by the time I get through the current stocks I should be able to perform a new harvest.
Addendum
Tonight I have used some of the worm juice on the plants. It stinks to high heaven until diluted. I shall let you know the outcomes, especially around my struggling zucchini seedlings. With luck the burst of nutrients will see those plants turn around and become strong once more.
I am quite proud of the convergance of my gardening and blog life. Both are bearing fruit, pardon the pun. Clearly the new life direction has lead to the reinvoration of both me and this site. That is clear with the blog counts for December being at the highest level since the conversion to WordPress back in February 2007. I also have a number of additional blogs at least planned for the next few days.
I am still a stress monkey but I can feel that tension release a little bit each day. I expect that to be largely released by Christmas and I am looking forward to consuming my 5 litres of Heineken, or if I am lucky one or two of the 1.5 litres bottles of Grolsch. The Grolsch is coming courtesy of a rewards scheme at work, one of the advantages of working for a large company. Also coming courtesy of that same scheme is a Ryobi garden shredder, expect a blog on that once it arrives. Also, back to the beer, I intend on tasting several Western Australian brewed beers from Little Creatures and Matilda Bay. I feel a trip to BWS coming on.
I am really enjoying my time in the outdoors, somewhere that until recently that I spent a sparse amount of time. The only thing I am not enjoying is spending that time putting up with the neighbours semi-wild cats. I did get some cat deterrent chemicals from Bunnings on the weekend that will be spread soon. I have also decided that I will be purchasing 1 x CATWatch unit from fauNature. I will be purchasing that soon, perhaps a little after the Christmas break.
Apparently 2 of the felines were playing on our porch this morning. As such I sprinkled the Multicrop Skedaddle Dog and Cat Deterrent Granules around both the front and back yards. The granules are filled with natural oramatic oils that cats find offensive. I dare say it is a mix of those oils that the RSPCA advised me to spray around the yard. Anyway 500g of the granules is now distributed in the main areas of the infestation. Hopefully I will see less of the pests in our yard in the coming days. I will keep you posted on the success or otherwise of this product. My yard certainly is a great test bed for these products.
Finally, and as promised here are some photos of My Blooming Lot.
OK, that is it for now.
Addendum
My 2 x 1.5 litre Grolsch beer magnums arrived today (19/12). Very impressed with that. I was effectively 2.5 business days from order to goods being received.
Yesterday both Socko and my Mum mentioned there was a baby chilli forming on the “mystery” chilli. On closer inspection today I counted 5 chillis at various stages of development, none a ready to harvest. At this stage they appear to be a slender green variety. I also noted a good dozen buds that are turning into fruit.
I also harvested about a dozen Ebony Fire chillis. They are a squat black variety. There are though a couple of fruit turning red. I have left those fruit to continue. I will be trying this variety out a bit later today, it is a little early in the day to be eating a chilli that is supposedly a absolute ring burner.
I will try and get some photos of the garden over the next week or so depending on the flukey Sydney weather.
Addendum
Photos are coming. The first is as per above. The remaining will be posted shortly.
