A September update from my political garden
Gardening, it’s a political act. What bigger rebellion against the “golden straightjacket” could there be, to instead of buying food, grow your own and eat it?
It’s been some months since I posted a new batch of photos from my political garden. In the time since the June update I’ve done and learnt a LOT about backyard gardening.
Go over the fold for the full report with photos.
As you can see from the following couple of photos, the size of my would be garden has certainly grown. But a lot of things went wrong.
It rained, yay. But I found out just hard my beds set due to their high clay content.
Lawn is mighty stuff. The clumps of soil that were turned over are in places, still clumps. They’re held together like bricks, by grass that just wont seem to decompose.
I decided, bugger any attempt at winter crop, the chickens will solve this! They didn’t, there is only so much a chicken will scratch at a lump of clay held together by grass that could be used as wire.
The lesson? Lawn, poison the bloody stuff.
Oh, and remember I had some peas planted for a winter green mulch? Well, the slugs ate them. The Green stuff you can see, it’s lawn clipping, not weeds, I swear. I’ve been hoeing the stuff in, burying it, and turning it through the garden as fast as I can lay my hands on it. I’m starting to see some improvement in the soil.
Along the fence I’ve got some corn planted, and in the square bed I’ve planted a couple of rows of potatoes. So far I’m planning some carrots, sweets, parsnips, tomatoes and capsicums.
Not everything has been a failure.
I got hold of some rhubarb from someone who was cleaning out a garden bed. It was one sickly leaf and a bit of root. The plastic pots have had their bottoms cut out, it’s to keep the chooks away, but I think it’s helped in the growth.
I also layed my hands on half a dozen pains of double glazed glass. Coupled with some foam boxes I was able to grow a variety of seedlings through the winter. These are some strawberries that out grew their small foam box and have been transplanted into a strawberry pot.
My house mate (Kate, who sometimes comments on this blog, and who may be a different person to another Kate who sometimes comments on this blog) experimented with the use of plastic coke bottles. The following couple of photos are amazing, for instance, this is broccoli that was planted in the middle of winter:
And these are lettuces in the background and spring onions in the foreground:
Kate cut’s the bottoms out of a whole heap of coke bottles, then places a bottle over each seedling as protection from the frosts and to make the most of what sunlight there was.
Here you can see onions and silver beat, grown in car tires full of compost. Why? we had some car tires around, and it looks cool.
This is a bed of beetroot and raspberry. My housemate insists the beetroot will be ready and eaten before the size of the raspberry bushes poses a problem.
Well, I’ll post another update when I’ve actually got some greenery worth looking at. The season is still young, there is still time for my garden to surpass Kate’s in sheer greenery and food provision! I’ve put a lot of work into the setup, but at last one part of it is providing food on a regular basis. The chooks. They’re laying an egg a day each, and so far I’ve only spent $18 on a bag of grain.
Go chooks!
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Posted: by Kieran September 18th, 2007 under Politics, Personal.
Comments: 7
Comments
Comment from Ronald Raygun
Time: September 19, 2007, 1:28 pm
Be careful with the silverbeet in the tyres as I believe silverbeet is known to suck up heavy metals.
Comment from Kieran
Time: September 19, 2007, 3:16 pm
heh, then it isn’t just growing them in the tires I have to worry about, the whole yard is a mix of clay and builders rubble. I’m forever turning over hunks of metal, nuts, bolts, electrical wire offcuts, old nails and random bits of rubbish. And hunks of silicone for some reason.
I’ve been trying to improve the soil with serious amounts of compost, but i can never produce enough of the stuff! I’ve been looting lawn clippings from neighbours greenwaste bins and even shipping in horse and cow manure from a nearby farm.
Then there is the school yard rubbish. Over our back fence there is a park which in turn backs onto a school. Lunch wrappers, lolly wrappers, drinks contains and all sorts of stuff kids throw out gets caught up in the wind and ends up in my garden.
But I will grow veggies damn it!
Comment from fred
Time: September 19, 2007, 4:02 pm
Ah damn I’m jealous.
We had a great little garden growing all sorts of delicious stuff until our water source dried up.
Now all we have is a kaffir lime, lemon tree, mandarin tree and an old wheelbarrow with salad lettuce, all watered from grey water from the shower and laundry.
But we are accumulating compost and if ever our water source reappears we’ll be able to get back into growing.
You enjoy your produce.
When it gets onto your plate you will be amazed how superior the flavour is compared to supermarket stuff.
Comment from Kate
Time: September 19, 2007, 9:08 pm
Nice pics Kieran.
No worries with the silverbeet either, Kieran doesn’t eat it, the rabbits eat a bit, but other than that, it’s there for the snails. I can gauge the density of the snail and slug population by how chewed up the silver beet looks.
Aha surpass my garden in greenery and food production - you wish. Most of the garden is watered with low tech grey water recovery, but some does get fresh water, seedlings, pots and certain plants with critical pH requirements.
I’m happy to shower once a week and use the water on my veggies instead, dunno if other people will agree with me in the warmer weather.
I have one citrus tree, a lemon. I dearly want a manadarin, nashi pear and yellow peach, all of which will have to wait for significant rain.
I am going to check out some of the watered public gardens for opportunities to guerilla grow a few bits and pieces.
Comment from amphibious
Time: September 21, 2007, 1:39 am
Cut-off 3 litre fruit juice bottles not only help start seedlings (or spuds) early but conserve moisture if the tops are left on and provide early physical protection from slugs & snails. By the time the plant is too big for a 3lt it can spare a few leaves.
If you gather the slug etc and drop them in a bottle of water the resultant gunk, heavily diluted deters others of their kind; straight it is a valuable liquid feed, assuming the chooks aren’t given them, dusted in meal. They might object at first but once they’ve got the taste they won’t even need the meal flavouring.
Comment from Jody
Time: September 22, 2007, 2:41 am
if you are fond of tomatoes (who isn’t, picked fresh they are as sweet as lollies) you can put some in now, I know it seems early but now that the frost has passed they will get a great start for summer. Tommy toe is a fantastic variety in the cherry style ridiculously prolific and the sweetest tomato I have ever tasted. The vine gets big though so you may want to train it up something, a trelise is ideal.
The North American indians had a great innovation they called the “three sisters” basically plant in the same spot corn, beans and squash, the corn will grow nice and tall providing support fot the beans that will grow up it, the squash will trail out over the ground and benefit from the water provided for the other two, I believe they are all companion plants for one another so they are mutually symbiotic. Garden looks great though just as is though, I have garden envy, I can’t grow veggies here cos I have a dog that vandalises them.
Comment from Kieran
Time: September 22, 2007, 9:31 am
re tomatoes, I intend to grow enough to make sauce. Bugger the shop bought stuff, a good homemade tomato sauce is magic.
I set some roma seed the other day, I’ll probably transplant in October.
re the three sisters, that’s basically what I intend to do. You plant the beans (peas work just as well) and squash when the corn is about 15cm high.
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