Dying Citrus

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

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

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

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

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

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

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