Magic In The Garden

What I love most about this photo is that Sarah actually disappeared into her bedroom to get dressed for gardening, and this is what she came out in. Click to embiggen.

Add comment September 7th, 2008

Growing Mushrooms From Mushroom Compost

In July I took my trailer up to the mushroom farm to get a load of mushroom compost. It was $2.60/bag, and I got 16 bags for $40. I was really just thinking of using it on the garden as a mulch layer at that stage.

When I got home, though, I realised there were actually a lot of mushrooms on top of the bags. I picked them off and put them in the fridge. I wasn’t really ready to use the bags just yet, so I thought I’d put them under the house and see if any more mushrooms might sprout.

And sprout they did!

I kept a tally of how much mushrooms I got from the bags. All weights are after trimming stems for use:

  • 25-07-2008: picked approx 750g of mushrooms off the top of the compost bags after picking them up in the trailer
  • 28-07-2008: picked 150 g (total 900 g)
  • 30-07-2008: picked 235 g (total 1.135 kg)
  • 31-07-2008: picked 348 g (total 1.483 kg)
  • 02-08-2008: picked 482 g (total 1.965 kg)
  • 03-08-2008: picked 649 g (total 2.614 kg)
  • 04-08-2008: picked 1703 g (total 4.317 kg)
  • 05-08-2008: picked 699 g (total 5.016 kg)
  • 06-08-2008: picked 841 g (total 5.857 kg)
  • 07-08-2008: picked 442 g (total 6.299 kg)
  • 08-08-2008: picked 177 g (total 6.476 kg)
  • 09-08-2008: picked 660 g (total 7.136 kg)
  • 10-08-2008: picked 326 g (total 7.462 kg)
  • 14-08-2008: picked 348 g (total 7.810 kg)
  • 16-08-2008: picked 407 g (total 8.217 kg)
  • 17-08-2008: picked 369 g (total 8.586 kg)
  • 20-08-2008: picked 510 g (total 9.096 kg)
  • 21-08-2008: picked 540 g (total 9.636 kg)
  • 23-08-2008: picked 415 g (total 10.051 kg)
  • 24-08-2008: picked 275 g (total 10.326 kg)
  • 30-08-2008: picked 206 g (total 10.532 kg)

The mushroom compost bags are now starting to be overrun by some kind of fluffy white fungus. It’s killing the mushrooms, so I think that’s pretty much the end of the harvest. Time to get the bags out from under the house and into the compost heap.

So, 10.5 kg of mushrooms plus 16 bags of compost for the garden. Not bad for $40!

Add comment September 6th, 2008

Soil Blockers

Soil blocker toolI recently bought a soil blocker from Peddler’s Wagon with some birthday money. It was way cheaper to get it sent from the US than to buy it in Australia - like 40% cheaper. Aussie sellers need to learn to be less of a rip-off now that we have access to a world-wide market.

By the way, the Peddler’s Wagon people are great to deal with. Highly recommended. You can read more about their Little Homestead In The City, where they’re growing 6000+ lbs of foor per year on 1/10th of an acre of land. Incredible!

It’s been a few weeks, but today I finally got around to making up some blocks.

But first, some resources for using making soil blocks:

Using the above recipes as guidance, I made up a mix from what I had lying around in the garage and yard. I used:

  • 2 compressed coir bricks, expanded in 10 L water
  • 5 L worm castings from the worm farm
  • 10 L seived compost from my compost heap
  • 5 L clean sharp sand
  • 2 handfuls of garden lime
  • 2 handfuls of rock dust

I mixed it all up thoroughly in the wheelbarrow, adding water to keep the mix nice and moist. It really needs to be fairly wet to form nice blocks.

I laid the blocks out on wooden boards in potting trays.

From these quantities I got 88 blocks, and I only used slightly more than half of the soil mix. I’ve put the rest in a container to make up some more blocks next week.

Later tonight I’ll plant out some seeds into the blocks. I’m not sure yet what will go in!

Add comment September 4th, 2008

The Chicken Ark

When thinking about a coop for our chickens to live in, we wanted something practical, non-permanent, and space-efficient. Looking around the net, the ‘chicken ark’ or ‘chicken tractor’ concept seemed the best for our needs.

To get some idea of the number of variations on the basic chicken tractor, check out this chicken tractor gallery.

There are heaps of resources for building chicken arks:

There are commercial options, too:

Of course, none of these were exactly what we wanted :-). There were lots of good ideas, though, and we got a good sense of the features we wanted in our own ark. After a few nights spent researching and sketching, measuring and planning, we came up with our final design.

I’ll post it later in the week :-).

3 comments August 3rd, 2008

The Good Podcast

It might sound daggy, but lately I’ve been watching the old BBC series The Good Life (a friend at work lent me the DVDs). Megan thinks I’m getting old.

You’ve got to admit, though, that there’s something about Barbara Good (Felicity Kendal). It never sat right with me that that Tom guy wound up with her!

Watch a few clips at the BBC site to refresh your memory, and then listen to Emma over at The Alternative Kitchen Garden podcast. Is that awesome or what?! Same subject, same voice, same accent, same vocal mannerisms - I could listen to her all day. And there are seventy-odd back issues for me to work through! I wish I lived further from work so I had a longer commute.

Add comment July 31st, 2008

Sarah’s Birthday Party 2008

For Sarah’s fifth birthday, she had a “princesses and pirates” theme.

Add comment July 5th, 2008

The Chinese Silky Chicks Arrive!

After a lot of searching, emailing and ringing local breeders looking for silky pullets, I finally found a lady up in Marulan with some chicks for sale. I originally didn’t want to get chicks because of the mucking around with heat lamps etc, but since it was the only way to get some silkies for the girls we decided to go for it.

We bought nine chicks, 4 for us and 5 for my mate Danny. Ours have been named Seraphina, Ro, Luciana and Molly (yes, Barbie movies are big in our house!). Turns out they’re not really that much hassle to look after.

First thing Hannah and Sarah wanted to do was draw pictures of the chicks, so they could show their grandparents and friends what they look like.

Sarah with the new chicks. The chicks settling in. Hannah and Sarah drawing chicken pictures.

Rather than give them out to people, Sarah decided to turn her pictures into a book about chickens:

Portrait of a chicken. Chickens like the sunshine. Chickens don\'t like rain. Chickens like to be outside in the sunshine and clear blue sky. Chickens like it when the sun is shining. Another chicken. Another chicken outside. The chickens are very fluffy. The chickens like playing with each other. The chickens are black. When our chickens get bigger they will have chicks of their own. The chickens like flowers in the garden. Chickens again. Photo of the chickens.

Add comment July 3rd, 2008

How To Speed Up Microsoft Outlook

Repair your .pst file!

Rather than copy the instructions here, refer to How To Fix Your Broken PST File.

It’s not just for use when Outlook stops working - it’s a useful preventative action you should run occasionally to repair little problems before they become big problems. Anytime Outlook starts running slower than normal, give this a try.

Add comment March 11th, 2008

How To Disable Yellow Print Confirmation Popups In Windows

The Problem: When I send anything to my networked printer, Windows XP pops up a yellow confirmation bubble telling me the item printed. How can I turn that annoying option off?

The Solution: In Control Panel, choose Printers and Faxes. Click File, Server Properties, and select the Advanced tab. Near the bottom, uncheck the box for “Notify when remote documents are printed” and also uncheck the box for “Show informational notifications for network printers”.

In Vista, follow the same steps, but uncheck “Show informational notifications for network printers”.

2 comments March 9th, 2008

Video: How To Make Compost (Milkwood)

Another great video series from Milkwood, this one explaining how to make compost without too much effort.

Don’t these videos have great music? I also really like the way they use the “Benny Hill effect” of speeding up the video, so you get a good idea of what they’re doing without needing to sit around and watch someone turn a whole pile of compost. Nice opening and closing credits too.

The web pages for each of these videos are worth visiting, as they have a lot of useful info:

How To Make Compost Part I

How To Make Compost Part II

How To Make Compost Part III

The Videos

Notes

Making Compost - Part I

  • analyse your compost components using the Milkwood Compost Calculator to make sure you have the C:N ratio right
  • if you get the C:N ratio wrong, your pile will either fester and go rank (too much nitrogen) or take too long to break down (too much carbon)
  • need at least a cubic metre of stuff for the compost pile to work properly
  • water the site of your pile before starting
  • layer your ingredients like a lasagne to make sure things are nicely mixed
  • water each layer as you go: the bacteria and fungi need water to do their thing
  • cover with a tarp - stops it drying out, getting too wet, blowing away, etc

Making Compost - Part II

  • turning the compost pile
  • squeeze a handful of your compost - you should get one drop out of it - water it if it’s too dry
  • peel the outside of the compost pile to make the beginnings of the new pile, then dump the inside of the old pile onto the outside of the new pile
  • mental note - next time, shred paper rather than leaving it whole!
  • white powdery stuff is anaerobic bacteria, which is not really desirable - just keep turning and watering and it’ll sort itself out
  • the pile should reach about 60 degrees Celcius around the 4th day, then cool down a bit more with each turning until it’s just warm by the time the compost is ready
  • urine is a good compost activator if your pile is slow to heat up!

Making Compost - Part III

  • this compost method is called the Berkley Method - it’s fast and easy
  • ended up with nice dark compost - a little more sticks and lumpy bits than she’d like, but still pretty good
  • wow, in January Kirsten was planning to starting a new compost pile every week!

Add comment March 8th, 2008

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