PermacultureMound

Summer crops

2011-02-02T19:45:00.000+11:00

After crying last year at how dry the garden was, and losing all my seedlings, in late 2010, I decided to take a more pro-active stance and finally put in some irrigation piping. This was "2nd hand" piping, just pulled out another section of garden where it had lain unused for years. This limited my ability to decide where the drippers/sprayers are located (as in, they were already in the pipe from the other garden), so I just snaked it through the garden as best was possible. I then bought a $20 battery operated timer from Bunnings, and connected it to the town water tap. The plan is to connect it to the tanks eventually, but we need to put a whole new connection on for that. This has worked pretty well- nearly all the summer seedlings survived (and thrived), and we can now go away for weeks without having to think about how to ensure the garden survives. It's currently set up to just give 'adequate' water, that is, most plants still need a good rain to have a decent growth spurt (corn shot up after a week of night rains) but at least plants aren't dying of thirst in the summer heat.

We are still mulching with leaves, and cardboarding, and I've started to build little palm leaf barriers (poking palm sticks into the soil and threading the longer palms leaves through as type of lattice) along the edges of the mounds. I found that many leaves/cardboard/seaweed was quickly breaking down and leaving exposed sandy edges that lost alot of water along the mound edges. With the palm leaf (and cardboard) barriers, the edges are more protected and the water retention excellent.

We've got butternut and golden nugget pumpkin coming on, corn soon ready for harvesting, capscuim (3 year old) producing crisp tasty fruit, passionfruit doing ok but not fantastic, a self sown tomato producing orange sized tomatoes, silverbeet, parsley, basil, and so much rocket that I am sick of eating it!. There are also in blue lake beans, soy beans, lentils, cowpea, zuchini, cucumber, eggplant & okra - though these are all a month or three away from producing fruit.

End of an era- goodbye Cocos Palms

2011-02-01T11:56:00.000+11:00

It's the end of an era...goodbye to the 10 cocos palms that were spotted around the place- the possums and bats will miss you, but we will not! Now that the Cocos palms are down, the real clean up begins as we drag cocos palms pieces into the back yard (couldn't be mulched and would cost an extra few thousands to get tree guys to remove). Looks like several weeks of dragging cocos palms into garden borders etc...

Fig tree was trimmed at the same time and we now have a fantastic huge pile of mulch blocking the driveway

Sweet Potato

2010-10-23T19:38:00.000+11:00

back in the garden after a long break and lots of pleasant surprises. Several big sweet potato (this one in the photo I discovered under the black plastic under the passionfruit vine), the perennial rocket is thriving, parsley is pulling through and the silverbeet has survived the extremely dry conditions. The miniature peach has two little peaches on it, the mango is in flower and amaranth is everywhere. Must say I think the amaranth looks like a weed, but there you go.

Worked for several hours today for before having a break and taking my hat off- found this spider hitching a lift! can't say that I was very impressed and quickly shooed it away. There is a brown snake hanging out between us and the neighbour, so I did alot of clearing and mowing there today.

Seeds

2010-02-26T13:33:00.000+11:00

Its been dry and again the garden is only just managing to survive- we managed to collect about a dozen passionfruit (which seems a pitiful number given the lushness of the vine), the remaining citrus tree looks yellow (though has a few baby fruit) and all the capscuim , Basil and rocket were wilted. The butternut pumpkin are/were doing well- I had to pull them out of the grass and move back into the garden, and so shifted the orientation of the leaves, which means now they look wilted and unhappy. The basil and bok choy I seeds I scattered in the planter box look fantastic, and really have the only things that don't look heat stressed. I've decided to fill in the ditches with cardboard, lawn clippings and horse manure...I just don't see that the ditches have captured any water as the black sandy soil just lets it run away too quickly. I think building up the organic matter in the ditches and around the mounds might help with water retention. Its been so dry that the japanese millet seed pods all dried out, as did the okra and we just crumpled them and got a fantastic amount of seed for next planting.

Short, half-set corn

2009-12-27T09:45:00.000+11:00

Tears, rain and recovery

2009-12-27T09:37:00.000+11:00

Its been a month or more since I came up to garden and after a long hot November and no rain, I came home to dead seedlings, withered and dying tomato vines, a herb garden full of black sand (dumped there) and two dead citrus trees. All I could do was cry..... have since spent a week piling up the horse manure as much as possible, spraying the stink bug on the remainig citrus (sorry, but admit I cracked out the insecticide 'confidor' as I have no idea how to deal with this bug organically), removing the heavy rocks from the base of the citrus and giving it a daily water, and generally planting, pruning, fertilising and watering.

On a positive note, there is plenty of corn and capscuim to harvest and the passionfruit has begun to fruit. The planter box was doing well, and I dug out the parsley and corinadar and replanted into the mound. The okra seedlings survived, as did two eggplant seedlings and they all got planted into the mound. We've been harvesting corn, though only half the cob set this year. I must say, that I think the organic corn seed produced bigger and more tasty corn cobs that the commercial ones.

Last night it rained lightly for about 8 hours, so I hope that garden survives the next absense better...

NewsFlash: Garden sprouts prawns!

2009-11-15T11:08:00.000+11:00

Last week I put out some beer traps (old beer in a deep bowl) to catch the slugs and snails in the Mound- and to my surprise the next morning, along with a few drowned slugs, were at least half a dozen dead prawns-cooked by the beer!

Admitably the prawns were little, finger nail clipping size....

In order to prove I'm not crazy, the next night I put out a bowl of sea water, and sure enough, the next morning I had collected three live prawns (now swimming in the fish tank)

I think that the seaweed I've been using has prawn eggs or hatchlings, and during the night they've jumped into the bowl...

I am certainly the first person in the world to sprout prawns in a permaculturemound

Dying Citrus

2009-11-13T16:19:00.000+11:00

The lime tree has died suddenly. The orange tree is on its way out by sudden death- new shoots, new buds and then all the leaves turned yellow and dropped off and dead tree.

Would like to save the orange tree.....

It has a stink bug problem (will be sprayed today) and some type of fungus growing on the bark- it has been raining, so it shouldn't be dying from thirst...

I wonder if the pruning last year let some disease into the plant?
Suggestions for salvation?

Article:PermacultureMound

2009-10-09T07:35:00.001+11:00

Feel free to forward to your friends- perhaps they too will start a mound...

http://permaculture.org.au/2009/10/04/build-it-up-permaculture-mound/

End of Pond and new herb garden

2009-10-09T00:19:00.002+11:00

As the gallery and shop now needs to have a disabled toilet, the herb had to go....
A day or two of transplanting the herbs (oregano, coriander, chives, chilli, one or two lettuce, some mint) and about 7 wheelbarrows of soil, plus two days of smashing the brick and cement wall and removing rubble. The site has the original cement slab laid in 1982. We tried to leave the twin palm, and hopefully the disabled toilet will be able to built around it.

The herb bed that was down near the mound was emptied and the soil re-invigorated - 1 part soil, 1 part horse manure, some lime, blood'n'bone, dynamic lifter and watering saving crystals- soaked in the wheelbarrow and then put into the herb planter box. Herbs from the broken pond plus some seeds of coriander - the idea for summer salads. I hope this will be good for Nana- she has trouble picking herbs in the mound as she easily loses her balance, so this herb planter closer to the house should be perfect for her.

As we traveling, I had to devise a simple watering system at the last minute (though I hear that it has been raining alot, so perhaps was unneccesary) - a few old water bottles (the pop top type) hung upside down. The drips were coming out very slow (about 1 drip for 20 minutes I think)- so I was hope this pulled the seedlings through the first week.

The corn was doing well when I left, and I made a "mini mound" for the squash and rockmelon. The lettuce/english spinach/baby bok choy continues to produce 1-2 shopping bags worth of greens each fortnight. lots of salad for all us.

Dust Cloud

2009-09-23T10:17:00.004+10:00

As with much of the east coast- we woke this morning to a huge dust cloud making the sky red and glowing- the wind continues to blow and it feels like bushfire weather (only not quite hot enough)

Spring planting

2009-09-06T20:08:00.002+10:00

Spring has arrived and the mound has been undergoing some major renovations.

The ditches around the top mound have all been re-dug - the first layer of compost (that was originally cardboard and leaves and whatever else slid down the sides of the mound into the ditches) was heaped back on top of the mound- the black sand just thrown to the side. Each ditch was relined with heavy cardboard, newspaper and seaweed.

Each mound was re-fertilized (blood'n'bone and dynamic lifter dissolved in a watering can), and the back mound that didn't have much growing in it was "re-mounded" with broken-down horse manure, seaweed, newspaper and re-planted.

A bed of lettuce that been randomly planted from seed was actually growing too prolifically and thick, so a bit of lettuce thinning went on- planted into the back mound and under the mandarin tree. All the broccoli, boy choy, pak choy, lettuce, rocket and cauliflower had started to go to seed, and everything was very water stressed. We trimmed, harvested, plucked, soaked, fertilised and ate our way through a week of mound renovations.

The only pest problem seeds to be aphids (I think) on the broccoli.

The passionfruit vine is large, green and seeking new areas to climb, but unfortunately not flowering yet.... my hopes for passionfruit at christmas are diminishing.

The new 'end' mound has been planted with corn - we didn't have time to do the full job of layering soil, manure, seaweed, fertiliser, cardboard, lucerne and straw - so it was simply seeds pushed into the composted horse manure pile (had been under cardboard and plastic for 6 months).

As my home-grown seedlings aren't ready yet, we opted for some early shop bought ones - two varieties of tomato, celery and capscuim - these were the vegies that seemed to need the most time last year, and that were not quite ready by christmas.

In the seedlings we've gone organic, heritage varieties again- though from a few difference suppliers (GreenPatch, Eden Seeds and Select Organic) - okra, eggplant, zuccihini, rockmelon, coriander, capscuim, tomato (red cherry currant and grosse lisse), apple lemon cucumbers, pumpkin (seeds saved from last year)- we have lettuce seeds still and the italian spinach is still growing strong. The beetroots are starting to be ready for harvesting now, and the green leaves with the red centre stalk are colourful in a salad.

I've remembered to rotate the beds - but given that everything was so mixed in it is a bit tricky. What I will definately do this year is plant in 'groups' - I've found it much easier for harvesting when there are 3 or more of the same plant in a row or clump - still mixed in around other plants but when they are too randomly spread out it is hard to find what I want to collect- and even harder to send someone else to the mound to grab a few handfuls of this or that!

Photos to follow

Rice-cooker Yoghurt

2009-08-09T22:12:00.003+10:00

Tools of the trade for Rice Cooker Yoghurt - the Rice Cooker, woolen sock and plastic container.

Inspired by Bariah's Mums home made yoghurt recipe- I thought I would try it myself. Bariah's Mum boils a litre of full cream milk, then stirs in a large tablespoon of natural yohgurt, leaves on the stove top to cool to temperature that she can stand to dip her pinky finger into, wraps in a tea towel, then wraps in a blanket and takes to leave in a warm part of the house for 12 hours...

My version of this (1 litre UHT milk $1.10), a plastic container and a large woolen sock was not quite so successfull, after 12 hours my yoghurt mix was still pretty liquid- and I don't think the sock kept things warm enough, as at the half way point (6 hours) the container was pretty cold -

so to the rescue - the trusty Rice Cooker! Good friend of the student, the busy and the granny flat dweller- I've found yet another use

Placing the sock wrapped yoghurt containers in the top steamer tray, I filled the bottom with about 1/3 water and placed onto the "keep warm" (as opposed to "rice cooking") setting- this meant a very low heat. I couldn't fit the lid on as my containers were too tall - so I covered with a thick tea towel and balanced an upside down saucepan over this...the plan was to leave for a few hours but a little miscommunication about what "please turn off the rice cooker" meant before we went to bed resulted in the yoghurt 'keeping warm' in the rice cooker overnight

I can't complain as it is perfect set yoghurt - a slight hint of the original shop bought yoghurt flavour I used as the base (vanilla), though a little more bitter natural taste but I am so pleased.

1 litre of milk made a large container of yoghurt, next time I would use a flatter container that would actually fit safely inside the steamer tray - I saved myself about $5/week making the yoghurt at home, plus reduced the amount of waste from all the yoghurt containers.

Next I will experiment with flavours to reduce the bitterness.

Photos Avocado Leaf Tea

2009-07-27T21:08:00.002+10:00

take a big ripe leaf...

boil it till the water turns deep pink or red

Enjoy Avocado leaf tea!

Thanks to Grupo Hakfen, Manufahi. This is a women's weaving group - traditional woven cloth and baskets- all handmade. The group is supported by Fundasaun Alola - www.alolafoundation.org

Avocado Leaf Tea

2009-07-22T12:19:00.004+10:00

I've decided to start the 'international' section of PermacultureMound... as both Chief gardeners are in Timor-Leste (formally East Timor) at the moment we've had the chance to see some great urban gardening and try some different recipes.

Here is my favourite new recipe of the month

Avocado Leaf Tea: This is from a Women's Group in Manufahi (Hakfen).

Take some big ripe leaves from an avocado tree
Two leaves per 1 litre of water
wash the leaf and then boil
The water shall turn a deep pink/ red
pour into your favourite tea pot
drink

This doesn't really need sweetening - it is naturally sweet. The women said that it is good for the body, especially the heart. They also said that it is possible to make a similiar 'medicinal' tea from the seed of the avocado.

Pictures to folllow when I have better bandwidth.

Choko Chocolate Cake

2009-06-14T16:57:00.002+10:00

This is a slight variation from the original recipe

1 cup plain flour
1 cup wholemeal plain flour
1 tsp bicarb of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
100g butter, melted
2 eggs lightly beaten
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup grated choko
1 cup grated apple
4 tbsp cocoa

1. Combine dry ingredients in bowl
2. Add butter and eggs
3. Mix well
4. Stir in nuts and choko

Moderate Oven bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes

Subscribe or Follow

2009-06-14T16:53:00.002+10:00

Dear Friends,

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You can do this by going to the blogsite and there are two easy buttons. If you have any problems, let me know!

Sarina

Sacred Asparagus Patch

2009-06-14T16:30:00.005+10:00

decided to move the asparagus into the mound- the surviving three (3!) plants were transplanted twice in a month but were holding on ok- one was going a little yellow but it was time to cut the apron strings...

Its definitely been possible to grow from seed, though the long whispy stalks are very fragile, and I think growing inside the old fish tank was what allowed them to survive...

Survival rate pretty low as I went through two packets of seeds (about 8-12 seeds per packet) and only have 3 plants.

DIY Greenhouse

2009-06-14T16:24:00.002+10:00

there are certainly alot of seedlings that have sprouted, only we've noticed in the mound that plants do much better if they are transplanted and already significantly robust. Seeds don't do so well and (I may have mentioned this before) its possibly a combination of the seeds being taken by insects/ants and that some of the leaves, especially pine needles, may be releasing a chemical that prevents seeds from germinating.

these seedlings were looking a little drowned and suffering a bit of exposure- lots of rain and wind the last few weeks. I decided we do a DIY greenhouse.

This is an old bird cage with the bottom long lost, I found a roll of industrial cling-wrap (the type used in restaurants) in the pantry (not sure WHY we've got industrial cling-wrap in the first place) and then I wrapped up the cage!

I've seen similar 'solar dryers' in East Timor- a simple frame (bamboo or wood) and clear plastic sheetings to cover all sides. There are few more design considerations, for example, a floor of pebbles, some mesh to stop insects, but more or less its this simple.

Ocean and Garden fresh

2009-06-09T22:40:00.004+10:00

just to make a few people jealous...here is the delicious bream and fresh garden vegetables we ate on the long weekend....roasted in lemon and herbs. sweet potato and onions not from the mound, but will be soon!

By the way, sweet potato and spicy capsicum is delicious! There is a sweet potato/chilli sauce that I've heard of- any recipes appreciated!

Seedlings galore- any one for beetroot?

2009-05-25T09:35:00.001+10:00

On my last visit to the mound, I thought that the seed raising rack wasn't getting enough sun..obviously autumn is upon us. the location that was perfect for summer, sunny but in the shade of the palm so not too hot, just remains very shady and dark all day now.

The lettuce continue to thrive and I moved the seedlings to a tray on top of an old coffee table frame in front of the lettuce, hoping that they would receive more midday sun. I also didn't water the seedlings or seeds in the new seeds trays but instead poured a very dilute mix of dynamic lifter and water into the tray underneath...I thought some of the passion-fruit were looking a bit yellow and 'hungry' - two weeks later the seed trays are bursting with seedlings! suspiciously, many of them are very definitely red in colour, so there will be lots of beetroot around in a few months....start collecting your recipes now

We've decided to plant the beetroot seedlings into the new mound that is mostly horse manure, hopefully the nice loose manure will allow the bulbs to develop without becoming deformed

photos to follow throughout the week

Snow peas, broad beans and lemon tree suckers

2009-05-15T23:20:00.003+10:00

The broad beans have all sprouted and are about 10cm tall. A second lot of snow peas has gone in at the back of the lettuce greenhouse, and the luffa has finally dried out (though I am not convinced its at the stage to use in the bath)- and yes, looks pretty much just like the luffa in the shops! There was at least 3 dozen seeds inside one luffa, and we've decided to dry out the seeds and next year throw them 'down the back' so the vines can just grow in the yard.

The surviving asparagus has been moved from its safe haven inside the old fish tank to a deep pot in the yard. I was worried it would dry out in the fish tank (hmm, very casual watering going on and its a bit hard for me to monitor from Sydney!), and after several months I'm taking the tough love approach to the asparagus - hoping it survives as I'm still happy that I managed to get it to raise from seeds!

Thanks to Tara Steele for her advice on the lemon tree suckers

from her grandfather Frank Rayner

"Tara who is studying ecology etc at uni. She rang me in return and noted that you'd been whippersnipping. Suggested thay maybe the parent tree may have been bruised by getting tooclose.If this occurs suckers may be thrown off, Suckers should be removed."

Finally, I've noticed that seedlings do much better in the mound than seeds- there are lots of ant nests in the mound and perhaps the ants are stealing the seeds.

Suprisingly, the Okra has been infested with aphids! Treated this with a thick layer of vaseline around the base and some vinegar solution on the leaves (probably needs another spray with vinegar and chilli in a week!)

Hope everyone is getting some winter vegies in!

Guava Jam and Jelly

2009-04-25T20:19:00.005+10:00

the neighbour gave us some big ripe juicy guavas- thinking of the delicious goiabada (Pronunciation: goya-BAH-da) that I ate in Brazil, I cooked them in a similar style.

I think I probably needed to boil down a bit more to get the thick guava paste - mine are more of a jam consistency, whereas it should be thick enough to slice.

5 ripe guavas - peeled, put into blender with a cup of water then strained to remove seeds
equal amount of sugar to guava liquid (one cup to one cup)
a bit of extra water if needed to stop burning
keep on a low heat for an hour stirring constantly to form the thick paste.

I made the jelly by following the instructions on the pack of plain gelatine, and then adding the guava jam whilst it was still hot. I let it cool on the bench, then popped in the fridge to set.

This guava jam/jelly is eaten with a white cheese in Brazil -I'm thinking philadelphia or a boccicini in Australia would be good- something slightly salty to compliment the sweetness of the guava. Sometimes the cheese and guava paste is deep fried together in a pastry and called 'Romeo and Juliet' because the tastes go together so perfectly- hmmmm

next lot I am going to experiment with guava cheesecake

2009-04-23T20:09:00.001+10:00

winter planting

2009-04-23T19:33:00.004+10:00

another day in the beautiful autumn sunshine, gypsy snuck out and hung around the garden all day whilst we planted, made herself very comfortable inside a bag used for horse manure

From seedling, broccoli and cauliflower, beetroot, silverbeet, capsicum, papapya in side gardens, sweet potato in the chook pen and passionfruit on the chook pen wire and back fence... the passionfruit never really came up from seed, and perhaps I recycled the soil into the back mound, or perhaps we threw a passionfruit down there but either way there are at least 10 big healthy passionfruit vines coming up. Will take some to sydney and newcastle- if any one wants one let us know!

From seed caneldela, marigold, spinach, broad bean, lettuce, carrot, beetroot, perennial rocket, squash...

the perennial rocket is doing well in the mound and side garden- lots of little yellow flowers and enough to cut it off in bunches for lunch, the thai basil is also vigorous enough to also cut in bunches and we had basil sauce on pasta last night

the pumpkin has a few small fruits, but in the past these have just dropped off, and none of the rockmelon or watermelon has really given decent fruit, only one watermelon from several vines, I wonder if there is something lacking for vines - why are they dropping the fruit or not producing any at all?

we also put up wire on all the areas that are growing vines- bit worried this might get too hot in summer, but plan to let the winter vines die and leave them on there and then grow the summer vines over the top. the luffa is good, picked four fruit and have them drying underneath the pot belly

dug out the ditch on the 2nd mound again and down the back a bit, put lots of lucerne round the new seedlings and built up the edges .

a satisfying day

New tracks

2009-04-21T20:41:00.003+10:00

I've finally got back into the garden after several months away. We've been eating alot of salad (lettuce, rocket, basil, coriander, parsley) and eggplant over the past few weeks. The capsicum and small bell chillis continue on - though the supposedly 'sweet' long capsicum is quite spicy- I think they look like the fresh version of pickled jalapenos.

last time i was up I got sick of walking the whole way around the mound to do things on the other side, so this time I've dug out a section of the mound and made a new track. The soil I dug out was moved to the far end over where the corn used to grow.I tried to be nice the watermelon still growing inthis section, but they've never produced much (only one melon from several vines) so I wasn't too worried. Now the mound is split into two easy to manage sections.

Transplanted things that were growing in the seciton I dug out- mainly cabbage, parsley, one okra plant, few self-sown tomatoes and a capsicum. Planted out spinach and have the carrots and articoke for planting out tomorrow.

The eggplant bushes are huge and heavy and have been lying on the ground, so started to re-stake all of them. The passionfruit vines have gone crazy, and the green manure self-sowed and came up again underneath though not nearly as thick or green as the first sown lot. Cut this down again with the whipper snipper, cleared the grass round the edges and moved the pumpkin to grow underneath the passionfruit.

One of the small citrus trees is sending up suckers, though I am not sure why and neither is Mum or Tiny. The suckers are quite distinct from the tree- its a grafted tree and the suckers are from the root stock, so they don't even look the same as whats growing. Very interesting. If anyone knows why citrus sends up suckers it would be great to hear from you

Tomorrow I'll put some photos up

Eggplant and Okra Recipes

2009-04-06T20:37:00.008+10:00

March saw fruit galore -feijoas, strawberry guavas, pomegranates ---as well as okra and eggplant. The strawberry guavas I made into a jam, the pomegranates went into fruit drinks and fruit salad, and the feijoas were like a fruity custard, spooned out of their shell.

Some recipes:

Eggplant Dip: (Thanks to SMH 4-4-09)

3 eggplants

100ml olive oil + 40 ml (2 tbsp)extra

3 garlic cloves

20 ml (1 tbsp) lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 180deg C.

Put the eggplants in half and score the flesh. Place flesh-down on a tray covered with 100ml olive oil until the oil is absorbed (about 5 mins).

Press 1/2 garlic clove into the flesh of each one.

Roast for 1 hour.

Once cooked scoop out the fleshand garlic and blend with the extra olive oil and lemon juice.

Serve with crusty bread.

Okra and Capsicum Stew: (SMH 21-3-09)

Cook 1 onion, 1 red and 1 green capsicum (cut into strips) and 400g okra gently in 3 tbsp olove oil until soft.

Add 400g canned or fresh chopped tomatoes, 2 crushed garlic cloves, 1 tbsp tomato paste,1 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp ground corinder, 1 tsp sugar, salt-pepper-chilli to taste, and 350ml light stock or water. Simmer uncovered for 15 mins till thickened.

Add 8 halved cherry tomatoes and cook for further 5 mins.

Add 1 tbsp lemon juice and fresh coriander before serving.

Heat, Rain --and the 3rd Plague will be Mosquitoes!!

2009-02-22T22:21:00.005+11:00

It rained for a full week!! I was glad to have held my nerve and kept watering from the tank --the tank filled in less than an hour (nearly 10,000 litres!!) ----but the mound took several days before it became wet inside. But everything became too wet ------the new zucchinis became water-logged and developed a soggy spot at the end then collapsed -sounds like 'blossom rot'. I picked all the rotten ones and new flowers are already developing.

The capsicums are thriving -the long yellow ones and the little green bells are very tasty.

The citrus trees that were pruned in October have sent up shoots from the rootstock! Will remove them and hope the trees get the message!

2009-02-13T10:00:00.002+11:00

Here's the base for the new mound- a thick (knee deep) layer of horse poo, covered with dynamic lifter and blood'n'bone raked through, cowpea and japanese millet planted into it and covered with the old corn stalks to protect it.

Its right behind the mini-green house. The asparagus bed will eventually go in at the far end.

Left a wide gap for wheel barrow to go through between the two mounds.

This is where I transplanted the Luffa seedlings. Its been so hot, despite watering 2-3 times each day during the first few days, I thought the seedlings needed some extra protection

I've started building up the 2nd mound again.
It had really settled and was quite low, as I've pulled out the tomatoes and sweet potato from one end, and everything was just so dry, I built up with more lucerne and Mum was collecting leaves to cover all this.

In the back ground of this photo you can see where I cut down the cowpea and millet under the passionfruit, and the banana trees coming up in the back of the 3rd mound.

Here was the cherry tomato bush- so vigorous they were smothering the lemon tree behind. A favourite with the local birds, we hardly got any cherry tomatoes after Christmas. Local birds also decimated the grapes. Bird nets for sure next year.

Cowpea- the pods were mostly nice and crispy which meant it was easy to pod them!

One month no blog!

2009-02-13T09:42:00.002+11:00

OMG-Its been over a month since I blogged on the mound - though I have some excellent excuses and the main two meaning that (a) I moved to Sydney and (b)I handed over blogging duties to a less-than-diligent blogger (you know who you are!)

Just the same, the mound goes on and there's been quite a bit of work done this past month as I've been travelling back at least 3 or 4 times in last 7 weeks to plant, water, rip down, rack, shovel, harvest, cut and whatever else needed doing.

It hardly needs to be said in light of the recent bushfires how hot its been- and the local Fire Chief was right- the ground has been really dry this year. leaving the mound for week without hand watering meant everything dried out- cucumber practically died, tomatoes shrivelled up, the mound was crispy on the inside several layers down!

The lorrikeets had been enjoying the cherry tomatoes and we weren't managing to harvest any because as soon as they were evenly slightly ripe, several birds could be found sitting inside the tomato bush feasting. We decided they'd had their run and cut them down and planted beans in the mound where the cherry tomatoes had been. This hopefully will also give the eggplant that was planted in the front a chance to grow- it was a bit overshadowed and competiting with the tomatoes.

I cut back the other tomato bushes, but didn't cut them down- Mum thinks that the tomatoes will give us a second crop and we decided there was no harm in testing this theory. I pulled out some of the scrubby bushes that were in the 2nd mound, along with the sweet potato which was starting to smother capscuim, carrots etc. I shifted the sweet potato to the very back mound and to under the passionfruit.

If you remember, the cowpea and millet had been planted under the passionfruit as a green manure and had actually dried out lovely in the heat. We harvested lots of dried cowpea seed pods and then I just whipper-snippered down the remaining plants. The Japanese millet had also gone to seed, though we didn't harvest this, just let it fall. Cowpea and Japanese millet are 'green manure' because they are nitrogen-fixing plants- but they have to be left to break down in the soil for the nitrogen to become available to other plants.

We enjoyed eating some the cowpea (a lovely little brown bean about lentil size) but decided to save the rest for replanting. We plan to start a new mound- leaving a gap between the end of the corn bed wide enough for a wheel barrow, the new mound will almost be a continuation, though much shorter in length.

A pile of horse poo has been dumped there in preparation, and instead of going with more summer crops, we thought to prepare this for winter crops. So- more cowpea and japanese millet have been planted into the horse poo, with the idea that hopefully this will grow and be cut down in time for planting winter crops into this mound. Dynamic lifter, lime and blood and bone were also used, though no lucerne or cardboard this time.

I've started a new seedling area- especially being away from the house, no-one else was remembering where I had all the seedlings scattered about, and a few were suffering in the heat. I've now got the seedling rack down near the mound and next to tap so its easy for a neighbour to water. I've got beetroot, carrot, lettuce, spinach, rocket, artichoke and I'm not sure what else coming up-(hopefully the other unreliable blogger will let us know!)

The aspargus I planted from seed sent up three shoots from 8 seeds- all the information I could find on the internet said -do not try and grow asparagus from seed- so I'm very chuffed with 3 out of 8. The asparagus has its own 'special' place (inside an old glass fishtank)- its got water in the bottom with a raised plastic shelf which the asparagus sits on- it means its protected, warm and has plenty of water. When the seedlings look a bit stronger I will plant out into an asparagus bed. I did transplant them once already from the tiny seed raising trays (re-used from the seedling we bought from bunnings) to a deeper pot. I didn't want them to become root bound or suffer lack of nutrients in a tight little pot as I plan to keep them sheltered for a while yet.

Ok- well you're probably due for some photos.

Hassler the other relucant blogger to keep us up to date! : )

When a watermelon is a squash

2009-01-12T09:01:00.002+11:00

Having decided that the 'watermelon' was definately not going to grow any further, yesterday I cut off the fruit and cut it open. The stalk was fairly tough (a good strong squeeze needed on the cutters) and this is what it looked like on the inside. As you can see, the flesh is a pale yellow and the seeds almost white. It didn't look like a stunted watermelon on the inside, so I dug out a seed, ruffled through the seed packets and discovered that it looked very much like a squash seed.

Then I read the squash seed packet " ...attractive cream coloured skin with dark green stripes....fruit is 18-22cm long by 10cm wide"- hmmm - pretty much exactly the fruit on the left!

This morning I microwaved it, and yes, it is a lovely squash. Slightly drier than a pumpkin, sweet but not overly so and quite nice eating. Reminds me of sweet potato in Timor.

So, the "watermelon" mystery is solved. There are two vines growing under the corn and the second one hasn't fruited yet, perhaps that is the watermelon? Will keep you posted and enjoy the squash in the mean time.

Squash 'Delicata'

Vinegar and Cabbage Moth

2009-01-11T21:55:00.003+11:00

About two weeks ago I discovered that my lovely Bok Choy and Pok Choy was being eaten by a very tiny caterpillar- this little bugger was about 0.5 cm long, green and thin. It looked suspiciously like the caterpillar on the cabbages, which I have ignored to date as I'm not a cabbage fan and the caterpillars didn't appear to be eating anything else!

Bok Choy is more than I am willing to sacrifice and I had read about using vinegar as a pesticide- I mixed 50:50 vinegar and water in this hand sprayer and sprayed all over the leaves in a fine mist- undersides, top, near stem etc. As I had some left over, I decided to use it on the cabbages as well.

Its been about ten days since the spraying, and whilst the bok choy and pak choy continues to suffer, the cabbages have done very well!

Here is a cabbage- the outer leaves clearly destroyed and usually the newer leaves are quickly eaten, but these ones are almost untouched.

I'm very pleased and today I added chilli to the vinegar and water mix to try and save the bok/pak choy. Unfortunately, it was still chunky and blocked the sprayer, so tomorrow I'll sieve it and go again.

Watermelon, pumpkin & Zuchini

2009-01-05T06:31:00.003+11:00

Here is a photo of the watermelon - its definately got powdery mildew and I've started treating it with a milk solution, but it also looks obviously yellow and I'm not sure why.

The pumpkin has well and truly kicked and has two tendrils of about 2-3 metres long each.

Here is a good photo to show how out of control the zucchini plants have become- they've grown down the side of the mound, across the ditch and are taking over the lawn

Design Considerations

2009-01-04T18:04:00.006+11:00

I've been chatting with friends and neighbours who often pop over to see how the mound is going and a couple of people plan to build their own - here's some things I've learnt through ours

- Tomatoes and cucumbers need very high stakes!
- The mound should not be too wide as its not a good idea to stand on it. The top mound is too wide for me to comfortabley reach the front side of the tomatoes. The width should be so that you can comfortably reach into middle and any height (eg stakes) on far side.
- zucchini go wild and are spiky! our plants have taken over the front of the mound and I can't get into the front section of the mound without either standing on or scratching myself on the plant. I think zucchini better at a back section where you won't regularly have to gain access
- there is hardly any weeding, but lots of picking, harvesting, training, staking to be done- I think our mound is a little long as I have to right around from top of citrus garden down to corn bed - I would prefer a short cut through to other side
- when planting, think in physical dimensions what the full grown plants will be like- the mound has little 'sub-climates' due to shading and access to water, lettuce will do well in the shade of other plants whereas things like capscium need more direct sun
-careful of planting delicate plants near the ditch- my lettuce and parsley often gets a bit trampled by myself or the hose
- don't be shy on layering on the cardboard. I've done practically no weeding in past three months and I am thankful to Tiny for insisting on thick, thick layers of cardboard that overlap

Thats all I can think of now-

2009-01-04T17:42:00.002+11:00

Summer has been hot here and the mound is needing quite alot of water.

After a good rain I don't have to water for about 2-3 days, but there has been some real scorcher and the local Fire Brigade Chief was mentioning that we've received overall little rain this year so the ground is quite dry.

We burnt of the two big piles of yard rubbish (palm fronds, old branches etc) that we had- it was fun burning the pile at the front of the house as the kids all came out and roasted marshmallows and helped with hosing down the ground around the fire.

The tanks have run low on water again- probably cause there are 14-16 people staying in the house at the moment, so no matter how conservative we try to be with water- the showers, washing up and washing machine just go through it. I've had to top up the pool a bit too- I guess its heat and all the splashing and the pump makes an awful noise if the water level gets too low.

The eggplants are fruiting and its these lovely little eggplants. I prefer this size and we use several whole eggplants per meal and don't have any half cut ones on the fridge.

Last night we made a huge seafood stir-fry- all the fish and squid caught by us and nearly everything from the garden!

The only vegetable we've bought this year has been carrots, potatoes and an extra lettuce. Definately planting more of these next year.

Watermelon-paused

2008-12-27T11:45:00.003+11:00

The watermelon seems to have paused- this is the biggest fruit but its been this size for at least three weeks and just not growing- its about 20cm long x 4 cm wide. I've watered heavily for a week as its been very dry here but to no avail.

There are also many smaller fruits on the vines but nothing is growing.

Hints?

Banana Trees

2008-12-23T11:55:00.002+11:00

I've planted the suckers into the downside of the last mound- I had four suckers that I spaced about 2 metres apart.

The two smallest suckers survived the best, whereas one of the largest was brown, dry and dead after I returned from 10 days away. I simply cut off this dead plant near the base with a machete (my favourite garden tool) and within 24 hours it had sent out its own sucker, that is healthy and green.

Celery Experiment

2008-12-23T11:23:00.002+11:00

Half of our celery is grown in this small green house whilst half is in the mound- celery eaters tell me that the stalks should be kept white and crisp and that the very green stalks are 'woody' and not good eating.

I'm trying out this experiment of keeping the sun off the stalks and encouraging the plants to grow up- rather than sprawl out which seems to be the natural formation of the plants.

In this greenhouse- I wrapped newspaper and tied with twine around the celery, whereas in the garden I used cardboard tubes which allow more air and light down around the stalks.

10 days away

2008-12-23T11:05:00.003+11:00

I've been away for ten days and the zuccihini didn't get picked....each plant (there are 4 or 5) pumped all its growing energy into one vegetable, producing these giant marrow. According to my Poppy, a zucchini is called zucchini until its 4 inchs (about 10cm) long and then its called a marrow. I couldn't do anything with these huge vegetable, so off to a relatives cows they went!

After picking the marrow, the plants took about 10 days to start producing other fruit- I managed to get the first small zucchini today and there are now alot of flowers on the plants.

These are two examples of the different cucumber growing in the garden- the longer cucumber is from a seedling purchased from Bunnings, whereas the smaller is a "Mid-East Prolific" grown from seeds purchased from GreenHarvest (there's a link to their website on the front of this blog). Both taste good and I think the ten days break from picking encourage the vines to produce. Cucumber is great hydration food- sprinkle a little salt or pepper and enjoy!

The corn is growing vigourously- you can see here that its at least a meter above my head and there are several cobs starting to appear.

The garden got no water during the ten days away but seemed to survive quite well- the main work when I returned was re-training and tying up plants- the tomatoes had grown and some had drooped- blocking the sun for plants underneath and damaging their stalks when the fruit was too heavy- the cucumbers, snowpeas, capscuim and even lettuce all needed support (stakes or twine) to keep fruit and leaves off the ground

Zucchini and Apple Cake

2008-12-03T13:38:00.004+11:00

I'm being swamped by zucchini! I've given at least 2 dozen away to various neighbours and I'm picking them earlier and smaller- I still have loads of zucchini. Here is a recipe I experimented with yesterday -

1 cup wholemeal Self-raising flour
1 cup wholemeal plain flour
1 tpsn baking powder
1 tpsn bicarb
1 cup oil (I used olive)
2 tpsn vanilla essence
3 eggs
1/3 cup of sugar
3 cups of grated zucchini (approx.)
1 grated apple
sultanas (optional)

I sifted all the dry ingredients together, beat the wet ingredients and then mix all together, adding the zucchini and apple last. I baked in a loaf tin at 180 degrees celcuis for about 50 minutes.

This is not a sweet cake due to the low sugar content. I only used a little sugar simply because I ran out! However, I made an icing with icing sugar, cream cheese and lemon juice which I laid on thick after the cake had cooled and then popped it all the fridge for the icing to set. Perfect! A rich sweet icing over a moist cake- lovely with a cup of coffee.

These could also be made into savoury muffins.

Update

2008-12-01T18:00:00.003+11:00

The herb garden is going well, though it had settled and everything had sunk into the old pond frame, this meant a few hours of digging out the herbs that survived the possum/insect attack and adding more soil, lucerne and mulch. The mint, thai mint and oregano love it here, the capscuim were just adjusting when they were attacked and are making a slow recovery, and the tomatoes didn't recover at all. The coriander is a bit slow, though I can't say its performing any worse or better in any other part of the garden.

After the capscuim/tomato episode, which I attributed to the possum, whatever it was gave the chilli bush a good munch too! Here is the de-foliaged chill plant- survived, but worse for wear.

I've been planting up the second mound, here's a photo taken showing the back of the 1st mound, and the 2nd mound....as you can see, the 2nd one is much smaller and all the seedlings are still getting established. I've noticed that a few seedlings on the right hand side (the low side) have died, and I think that is from lack of water as I haven't ever really watered that far-side ditch except when the green manure was getting established.

The passionfruit continues slowly on, but I guess it will next year that we enjoy its fruits, not this year. I've had no luck with the passionfruit seeds- maybe there is a trick to it.

The corn continues to power- check out this photo compared to the one I took a few weeks ago! There are small watermelon on all the vines- hope they are ready for christmas. Lots of green tomatoes on the vine, though nothing ripened.

Have planted (from seed) Pak Choy, Bak Choy and Dill- mostly inside the planter house as the lettuce there were struggling, so I dug out the old dirt, added mulch/soil/water saving crystals/blood and bone and then planted in the seed, which has some small shoots after just 3 days.

Where to plant Banana trees?

2008-11-30T23:21:00.003+11:00

Hi Tiny and Mum,

I have some banana suckers that need to go in straight away- so do I plant them (A) in the back mound (b) in the ditch in front of the back mound (c)behind the back mound or (d) somewhere else completely.

Will update with photos tomorrow.

Garden Layout

2008-11-20T14:14:00.004+11:00

Its a bit tricky to capture the layout in a photo, so I've hand-drawn some garden maps to show whats where. The plan was to plant the back mound with papaya and banana- but I haven't been able to get any seedlings yet and my papaya seeds didn't take. I've planted some okra seeds straight into the mound, so hopefully they will come up. Its rained straight for 2 days, but still the snow peas are wilting a bit in todays heat. The green manure is coming along very nicely and once it gets more vigorous I'll let the ducks into it. The ducklings are still covered only in down, no real feathers yet but today I decided to let them live in just the big cage- the small cage was becoming smelly and wet too fast as they are eating and growing quickly.I'm a bit concerned about snakes getting them, but its a risk to take.

The pumpkin is definately doing better with the duck poo lucerne around it. The oregano and mint in the herb garden is fine, but the capscuim attracted a possum or other very hungry animal that ate all the leaves plus the coriandor (grrrr)- doesn't look like bugs- looks more like big bites taking off all the nicest leaves.

The bats are going mad in the coco palm- which was fine the first few weeks but now there is a big sloppy pile of bat manure underneath that is sticky and difficult to clean.I'm trying to see if I can lay newspaper underneath to catch the sloppy manure and get rid of it nicely!

Corn and Cucumbers

2008-11-12T10:58:00.002+11:00

Rained all last night, which was great as I had spent the day planting a green manure under the passionfruit vine. The green manure is cowpea and japanese millet. I've also planted this near the pumpkin plant. The pumpkin is growing very slowly and was looking a bit yellow. I exposed some of the feeder roots and covered them with lucerne from the duck cage (covered in moist duck droppings) and then re-covered with mulch. Will see if the pumpkin improves at all.

The two mounds at the back of the main mound are not completed, but getting there. Have one completely covered will all the layers and the back mound 1/2 completed. None of the papaya seeds came up, but will try planting some more.

Have seedlings going at the side of house but no luck with the asparagus- I wonder if its not warm enough or if there is a trick to asparagus?

Corn and watermelon- had to pose in here so that you can see how tall the corn is! Only planted out in early October...

Cucumber

Sweet potato in the duck pen

Magnificent Colour

2008-11-07T13:42:00.002+11:00

Yes, this is an Aloe plant in flower

Where's gypsy

2008-11-07T13:39:00.003+11:00

Feeling at one with the garden, and letting the possum side of her come out, gypsy grabs some shut eye in a pot plant.

2008-11-07T13:37:00.000+11:00

Quack for Barack

2008-11-05T21:09:00.002+11:00

Here are the latest 4 additions for the mound. They are currently in a cage perched on top of the new mound- I plan to move it along a bit each day so they can fertilise as they go- Quack for Barack!

Growing Update

2008-11-05T12:12:00.002+11:00

Here's a few pictures to show how things are growing. I've watered with liquid seasol and everthing seems to have enjoyed that- especially the tomatoes which grew literally 15-20cm in 24 hours- amazing.

Its been a bit drizzly and cold the last few days, hoping for some more sunshine

Grey Water Bath

2008-11-04T15:30:00.007+11:00

Being water conservative we try to scoop out the used bath water into lined up buckets which are used to water the plants. This creates alot of drips and is hard work.

Now that we have the mound, which needs quiet a bit of water at the moment, Zoe and decided to come up with an easier method- it still requires some labour (e.g scooping out the bath water) but this will keep our arms toned and is cheaper than the gym.

Using an old bath, we first built a frame that the bath could rest on. We guestimated by measuring the height of the bath, plus the attachment and then added 20cm for ground clearance.

The attachment was bought at a local plumbing supplies and cost AUD$25 - it is in reality 2 reducers and then a brass spout that the hose can clip into. This screwed onto the end of the existing plug (that had a little bit of pipe and thread).

The building process was fairly ad hoc- the saw was blunt (we ended up using the pruning saw), the wood we chose was hard wood and I broke the rechargeable hand drill about 1/2 way through. The electric drill was way too powerful to control comfortably, we resorted to hammer and nails to hold it all together.

Its well camofloughed and at a comfortable height for an adult to scoop and pour

The theory is- after a bath, open the bathroom window and bucket out into the greywater bath, which has the hose attached to the plug and runs all the way down to the mound. Genius!

I know that there needs to be some kind of grey water filtration- but that will be next...

Nitrogen deficiency

2008-10-28T12:19:00.002+11:00

Hi Tiny,
Thanks- I'm so pleased for your quick response. I will follow the advice and let you know how it goes...it's a beautiful sunny day and the garden is looking very happy. I planted out some 'good bug mix' today- marigolds, coriander, self-sowing rocket, thyme...

Take care Sarina

2008-10-27T20:51:00.000+11:00

Hello Sarina ,
could be a nitrogen deficiency in the zucchinis,as they are shallow rooted and the only available N would be from the lucerne ,so maybe put some dynamic liffter in water ,disove as much as posssible and pour on th e top side of the plant ,slowly ,we dont want to have the wrong osmatic affect ,so keep about 20cm away from plant centre and drip feed.
the problem on the leaves is called pawdery mildew,very common in zuccs and qucerbets ,I have always believed it is seed born ,although the so called xperts dont agree.although when i was farming I believed the seed and chemical companies ,had there heads together .
to find an organic cure would be amazing as the chemical cure is very xpensive and sometimes doesnt work .
good luck Tiny

Disease? Deficiency?

2008-10-27T17:36:00.003+11:00

Right- the zucchini definately have something going on- there are white 'veins' standing out on the leaves and its starting on the watermelons too

The citrus tree- especially the one closest to the mound is turning yellow- I am thinking deficiency of something but not sure what.

Advice on resolving this would be most appreciated.

Rain and Zucchini Flowers

2008-10-26T12:30:00.005+11:00

It rained for 3 or 4 days straight last week- thank goodness the tanks are full again and the garden loved it. We had the first zucchini flowers and this week the first mini zucchinis. We've started picking the lettuce & rocket to encourage new growth.

The corn and watermelon are growing well, but the tomatoes in the mound are all differnt sizes- some thriving and others struggling. The lower leaves/growth of the tomatoes have been pruned to encourage growth further up and also so the fruit doesn't sit on the ground.

The pumpkin finally went in at the far side of the citrus garden- looks much happier even on 24 hours out of the pot.

We haven't progressed on the papaya mound yet- partly for lack of manure and partly for lack of labourers...the passionfruit behind this hasn't grown much in the past two weeks, but it could just be adjusting.

The mound is still pretty hot inside and often there are lots of mushrooms appearing all over it.

New herb garden

2008-10-20T21:42:00.004+11:00

We've had a bit of a water crisis here the last few days. I've managed now to forget to turn off the hose (twice) whilst watering the mound, and have managed to run the tanks pretty low- and to add to the fun, the pump brought up air - all discovered late on a saturday night.

We attempted to prime the pump a few times in the dark- sunday was spent carrying water in from the spare tank and eventually we decided to drain the spare tank into the two main tanks. Every one took bucket baths Sunday night and today we seem to have managed to get the air pocket through (fingers crossed).

Mum has sprayed the stink bugs with something awful- nothing organic was effective...if anyone has any tested and proven solutions we'll be happy to try. The stink bugs have also invaded the avocado tree this year. Saw two bats (fruit bats I think) tonight eating the fruit of our Cocos Palm- these receive lots of criticism from the neighbours but provide much joy to the bats and possums
Saturday we cut down the umbrella tree and posieta(spelling?) to turn the old fishpond into a herb garden. It hasn't held water in a long time and we'll use the two bathtubs that were occupying the pond for our new worm farms.

There is alot of shade in that courtyard, we are trialling the new gardenbed- it seems to be getting direct sun from around 7am-12pm, but this may shorten during winter. Mum still has her doubts, thinking it looks bare and ugly, but I think once the herbs are up it will great. We just need to figure what to go along the thin, poor soil section that can block the view from the galleries toilets right into our house.

Layering 2

2008-10-17T21:28:00.004+11:00

After the first primary garden mound, we started work on the next extensions.

This included:

Citrus Garden: trimming the citrus trees and proping up heavy branches with poles. We also dug a ditch around the citrus garden, removed the stone border and repositioned the stones around the citrus to protect the trunks. We layered here but just horse manure, dynamic lifter mix, cardboard and leaves. A tomato mound was placed at the front of the citrus garden and a small ditch dug around the back of the tomato mound. Found a baby brown snake under one the rocks- 3rd or 4th snake we've seen whilst making this garden. Glad I was wearing shoes!

Corn and Watermelon: this small bed is an extension off the mound and has only horse manure and dynamic lifter mix. We planted the corn and watermelon together, with the idea that the corn will grow up and the melon will run down the backyard.

Papaya row: this mound is behind the main garden mound. Its uncompleted as we wait for more horse manure!

Passionfruit: at the very back is a trellis for the passionfruit

You'll notice the funny bit of pipe poking out the back of the mound- this is to make watering easier on the other side! We plan to run our grey water down to the ditch...but until this happens it will be rainwater.

Layering

2008-10-17T20:56:00.011+11:00

The mound has to be layered- we opted for local materials as much as possible, whatever we could find around our property or the neighbours. Our mound layering went like this:

Dirt: from the ditches we'd dug around the garden bed and thrown on the middle

Horse manure: mix of broken down and fresh
Seaweed: from a local lake. We didn't wash the salt off it though have head of people doing this

Dynamic lifter with blood and bone: mixed in bucket and sprinkled over whole bed

Cardboard: wet down and then layered on thick- at least 5-10cm thickness. We collected ours from Bunnings Hardware over a couple of days- all sticky tape and staples need to be removed as they are not biodegradable!

Lucerne: layered on around 10cm thick- needed to pull apart the bales and biscuits

Leaves: We have lots of leaves and decomposed wood chips that we used as the final layer

Each layer was thoroughly soaked. The layers should go down the mound edges so that the sides can be used for planting. This meant 'rounding off' the mound so there were no sharp drops to the ditch.

Chopping out gumtree roots

2008-10-17T19:40:00.001+11:00

These gumtree roots are all across our back yard. They are Flooded Gums and seem to get a disease every summer. No koalas in our area since around 1980.

Digging the ditch

2008-10-17T19:34:00.000+11:00

The ditch should be about 20cm deep- we dug with mattocks and spades (sharpened as they were very blunt!).

The black sandy soil had lots of gum tree roots throughout which we chopped out with an axe.

All the dirt from the ditch is thrown onto the mound- at this point, the centre of the mound becomes sacred and there is no walking on it! Walking would compress and compact the soil- we want to keep the soil aerated, so all walking now is through the ditch! The mound to side in these photos is the horse manure waiting to go on as layer 2.

Creating the mound

2008-10-17T19:24:00.000+11:00

Here is day one where we created the mound-

Firstly, plotted out the bed onto the lawn and staked it with twine.

We chose the bed site because it receives good sunlight (vegies like at least 6 hours per day), has little wind and receives the run-off from the rest of the yard. It was also a natural extension of the existing garden bed that has citrus trees (orange, mandarin & lemon).

The bed is about 1.2m wide and 4-5 metre long.

The ditch runs the full length on both sides and all the dirt dug from the ditch was thrown into the centre to make the first layer of the mound.

The ditch has to be level so that the water sits evenly along the edge and doesn't all run to one end of the garden.

As we have sloping land, this meant one end had to be slightly deeper than the other. We checked the level by laying a long plank in the ditch using level meter on top of it.

The ditch should be about 30cm wide- enough so that you can walk comfortably inside it.