The blocks are all down except one and next is filling them with concrete.
On a rainy day last weekend I leveled up the middle terrace. Now waiting for some more soil from somewhere (probably the neighbor’s garden). This used to be a steep bank, now I should be able to grow something there next season.
Last winter (2007) my power bills were really high trying to keep the lounge warm enough for Tulasi (Indian Holy Basil) to grow. She barely made it through the winter, and only with the help of a 2400W heater and a 400W grow-lamp.
Winter 2008 is rapidly approaching and I’m endeavoring to make a better arrangement for her. My aims are (1) create a smaller, less draughty space - easier to heat (2) more sun-facing windows - to make the most of whatever sun is available and (3) high thermal mass - stores heat during the day and releases it at night.
So far I’ve acquired a big pile of bricks and blocks and started digging the foundations. Here’s the pile of bricks:
And the foundations dug out:
And a picture of Tulasi herself: (Taken at Otaki in Dec 2007)
Despite my lack of attention over the last couple of months, I’ve managed to get heaps out of the garden.
This is barley. I’ve since threshed and winnowed it. Yield was a few cups of barley grains, and this was only from a small area. I didn’t grow it intentionally, it just came up from the barley straw I mulched with.
Corn is going strong, except for a couple that lodged in a strong wind. I staked the ones that got damaged, but they won’t yield as well as the others. It will be ready to harvest in a week or two. Most stalks have 2 or 3 cobs.
Peas, these grew from chook feed that the chooks didn’t eat. I shelled lots of dry peas (below) and also had lots fresh in salads. When it gets a bit colder, I’ll cook them up with the barley and make a Indian stew (the proper name being Kitcheri).
The potatoes came out great. I’m planting another crop — it’s a bit late but potatoes are great. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to eat potatoes from the store again though.
Silverbeet, Fordhook Giant, grew really big, guess that’s why it’s called Giant! I had so much of it I took two big boxes into Gaura Yoga.
I’ve also harvested lots of cabbage, beans and lettuce. Just starting to get a few apple cucumbers and the sunflowers are about to open.
Considering that I’ve only got half the planned area under cultivation and didn’t really give it due attention I think things look promising for next year. Ideally I want to be growing enough to give something to Gaura Yoga regularly.
One of the things that I heard about at the Organic River Festival was Transition Towns (NZ site here). This is a movement to create local energy descent plans in the face of Peak Oil and Global Warming. (or at least that’s my limited understanding of it so far)
Things that got my interest were (1) it takes a rational and holistic view of the many ‘issues’ that generally appear in isolation in the media, such as Peak Oil and Global Warming (2) it takes a positive approach - “so this stuff is happening, what can we do to prepare for it?”
There’s a couple of people in Johnsonville who are quite energetic about it, and it seems something might get off the ground. I’ve been to a couple of meetings and found it refreshing to meet like-minded people in the community. We’re going to have a film night at Johnsonville Community Centre for Thursday March 20th 7 to 9 pm. Come along if you can!
I got a bit caught out with changing seasons this year. Robin became available to paint the house at the beginning of December, so I had a full-on December and January helping with the painting (to keep the costs down) and organising things like scaffold and ladders.
During this time the garden got away on me. Things grow REALLY fast when the weather starts to warm up in December, especially weeds! I’m only just starting to get back on top of it, and it’s nearing the end of February.
Here’s my plan for the year, taking into account my newfound awareness of the seasons.
Sounds like a nice plan, but let’s see what happens in reality. If I’d paid more attention to the “gardening calendar” books then I might have been more prepared this year…
I just got the Macrocarpa for the vege garden retaining walls delivered. I hunted around for ages and found a really good deal from Akatarawa Saw Mills — $6.50 (+ gst) per linear meter. (They also do macrocarpa sawdust for a very good rate, but there wasn’t space on their truck to get that delivered this time.)
My order ended up being approx 250 meters, and arrived early Saturday morning. (Yes there is room for a car to get past, we didn’t totally block the road!)
It took two people (myself and Vince from SJS) three hours to carry it all down to the vege garden, and we were VERY tired at the end of it.
Perhaps you’re curious why I got macrocarpa rather than standard H4 treated pine? I’m planning to grow beans and other vines up these walls and pine is generally treated with CCA - copper, chrome and arsenic. I don’t want heavy metals with my beans thanks!
I really dislike buying soap. I only use vegetable based soaps, and avoid brands with lots of chemicals in them. Unfortunately, most supermarkets don’t have a very good selection of soap I’m willing to buy — and it usually costs $2+ per bar.
So I worked out how to make my own soap. I read The Natural Soap Book, and it all turned out to be really easy. There were only 5 ingredients (one water) and an hour’s effort to make it. Now I have more soap than I’ll need for the rest of the year.
Krsna Prasada is thinking of getting a mulcher for Gaura Haven this weekend. I thought I’d post a couple of pictures of the mulcher I hired in August to give him an idea of the scale of operations possible. My advice — get the biggest mulcher you can! The one I had was 6.5hp petrol-driven and could chip up to approx 5cm diameter branches. It took the best part of a day to mulch up the stuff in the picture below:
Here’s how things looked afterwards. You can get a better view of the mulcher here. It’s the biggest one I could manage to carry down my stairs.
This weekend just gone, I planted out many of the seedlings that I’ve been cultivating in the lounge for the past month. It’s very early in the season and the weather’s quite unfavorable. So, to give the seedlings a fair chance against the Wellington wind, I’ve made a polythene tunnel out of 2omm electrical conduit, weighed down by LOTS of bricks. I’ve kept adding bricks wherever the wind blows the polythene off — it takes approx two or three bricks every half meter to secure the polythene against the wind.
Here you can see it on the day it was erected — many more bricks needed since then!
Inside are 20 silverbeets, 6 cabbages and 4 beetroot, all seedlings grown from ecoseeds seeds. The bed was prepared by the chooks, then double-dug and covered with a thick mulch of straw and semi-composted manure and wood chips.
I pruned back some more trees last weekend to let more light in for the fruit trees. When I arrived last April there was one pear tree full of many tiny pears. I’m hoping that, with a bit of care, I’ll get a better crop from it this year. All the fruit trees have been smeared with biodynamic cow-dung, have a ring of mulch to keep the grass from competing for their nutrition, and now, much more light.
There’s a row of tall non-fruiting trees at the back of the section. I’m tempted to cut several down to let in more light (especially important for a passive solar designed house). But I’m finding they’re serving a useful purpose as a wind-break — and in Wellington a wind break is more important than copious sunlight. Even the pruning I’ve already done seems to let in more wind.
As a fringe-benefit, I made a japa-meditation seat out of one large trunk. It’s great to sit in the back yard and chant — so peaceful.
