Happy hens in a happy house.

I have been researching chicken coops, with the view to get some ideas and build one. On doing this, I found a great local builder who makes them and sells them on ebay. I’ve yet to purchase one, but by the looks of them, they are well detailed, very descriptive and I think damn cheap! The guy is in Bulleen but will also arrange delivery for you (for a fee – check the site for your postcode. Eltham is $70 delivery).

http://shop.ebay.com.au/merchant/nationwidetrading_W0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZQQ_mdoZ

He also has a few different designs too – suitable for guinea pigs, chickens, rabbits etc – albeit a bit posh for a rabbit/guinea pig!

Happy egg laying,

Jodie

PS – I plan to plant a fig tree (already purchased) right near the chook house and the lovely bloke at Morris and Sons (Templestowe) advised the chooks would be great for the tree. I hope for big fat juicy sweet figs in a few years.

Help for the sunburnt

My Auntie is a wealth of knowledge and knows so very much about plants.  She gave me this tip just today that I couldn’t wait to pass on. It’s a little too late for me, but might hopefully save you.

“Note to sun-burnt plant owners: DON’T cut back now, water root levels well, mulch, mulch and mulch again.  Reasoning: if you cut back it encourages new shoots which will get burnt off again by the warmer weather still yet to come.  Wait to cut back/prune till hot weather over.”

Hope you find it of help.

Jodie

Hot Potatoes

It has been so hot I rigged up this shade canopy for the vegetables but the garden is really struggling.

This morning I dug up the potatoes. We’ve been eating them from the ground but the plants finally all died back. I harvested 5kgs or Dutch Cream and Kipfler potatoes today. The kipflers are delicious but a lot of them are tiny so I think next year it will be 100% Dutch Creams which seemed to grow well in our conditions. The soil the potatoes were in is so beautiful – what should I grow there now??

One thing about the hot weather though is that we have ripe tomatoes from the Siberian Dwarf plants and the Tigerallas and a couple of Purple Russians as well. All the tomatoes are small, I wonder why?  Is it because I removed the laterals from the tomato plants?

Zucchini Cat!!!!

Our cat Basil modelling a tromboncino zucchini:

Fool!

PICK & EAT SUMMER BBQ

This looks good, doesn’t it?…Cheers, Dorian

Wednesday 4 February 2009 10.00am–1.00pm Nick Harrison, Head Gardener, Heide, and Vince Testa, apiarist, lead a hands-on tour and harvest of Heide’s gardens followed by a barbeque lunch with freshly picked produce. Tickets: Adult $45, Heide Member/Concession $40 Includes lunch and a glass of Chandon sparkling wine. BYO sun hat, sunscreen and gardening gloves.

Venue: Assemble Heide III Bookings & information: T 03 9850 1500 info@heide.com.au

Community Event – Vegie Swap Meet

I just noticed this event at Bulleen Art and Garden which looks great - I only wish I had surplus vegies.  So far this year we’ve had lots of spinach and lettuce, the peas were pretty light on but we managed to eat quite a lot before they curled up and died.  Beans are still going quite well and – finally – the tomatoes are starting to come on.  They are taking such a long time to ripen but we managed to harvest enough for dinner last night – spaghetti with sauce which was 100% from the garden – tomatoes, beans, garlic and zucchini – YUM.  And stewed rhubard with ice-cream for dessert.  OK the pasta and the ice-cream were from the shops.

In any case I will certainly make my way to Bulleen for this event, I’m sure I can rustle up some silverbeet, beans and potatoes to barter with….

Community Event – Vegie Swap Meet

Too many tomatoes? Loads of lemons? Bundles of Beans? Don’t let them go to waste. Bring along your excess home grown produce, anything from vegetables and fruit to worm juice, and swap it for someone else’s excess produce. The Vegie Swap will be held at Bulleen Art and Garden every second Saturday until ANZAC day, starting on the 17th of January. It will be held between 9am and 11am. Everyone’s welcome, just turn up on the day.

Future Vegie Swap dates are 31st January, 14th & 28th February, 14th & 28th March and 11th and 25th of April. BAAG is only providing the space for this community event and will not be gaining financially in any way from it.

Have a fruitful Christmas

and a peasful New Year.

Notes from the latest meeting

Here are Julie’s notes from the last meeting…

***

For those of you who couldn’t make it to the last meeting, we had a fantastic talk from Wendy and Ross Mather from the Food Farm at St Andrews. Very informative and very inspiring. The talk focussed on composting but Wendy also showed us slides on their wonderful garden and gave us loads of information on all kinds of food garden related topics.

Click here for a summary of the notes I took.

Wendy handed out her famous compost recipe and also provided a demonstration on how to mix things to make successful compost.

One of the things I’ve learnt this spring is that ladybirds are very useful to have in the garden – as long as they’re not the 28-spotted kind. The normal ladybird (an Australian native) loves black scale and aphids, amongst other things. You may recall I was having problems with both these pests on my peach tree. I’d noticed one or two ladybirds on the tree and so didn’t spray. Then I noticed some strange little bugs that I’d never seen before. They were black with two orange bars across their backs. They didn’t appear to be eating the leaves so I left them. Gradually they disappeared and so did the black scale and the aphids. I later found out that these are the larvae of the Australian ladybird. So if you ever see these little critters, leave them be, they are good news for your garden.

A link that has some information on a number of other garden pests is

http://www.greenharvest.com.au/pestcontrol/organic_pest_control_index.html

Hope your gardens are flourishing and that you get them through the hot days to come.

Wishing you and your families a happy and safe Christmas. See you all in the new year.

Best wishes,

Julie and David

Monster egg and other photos

This is what happen when a chicken gets too much silverbeet:

Here is some garlic I just harvested:

I hope it was time.  All the plants were lying down flat and starting to go brown.  I left a couple in which didn’t seem quite right yet.  Now they are hanging up to dry outside the back door:

My potato plants were invaded by whiteflies – exactly like these but less blurry:

One plant died back (before ladybirds showed up to eat all the whiteflies!) so we ate these:

Happy gardening!

Next meeting

Don’t miss the next exciting MFGG Meeting…

Sunday 30 November, 3pm

Monty Uniting Church, cnr Rattray Rd and Mountain View Rd, Montmorency

Guest speaker Wendy Mather, well known local food gardener and convenor of the Northern Ranges Permaculture Group will be talking on composting techniques that work, and will give a short show-and-tell on her garden and the Permaculture methods used, and anything else that may be relevant.

Thanks to Banyule Council who will be covering Wendy’s costs.

Friends and new members most welcome but please let Julie know via jd@myconnect.info if you are coming along.