Shredded

Christmas lunch was a relaxing affair interrupted by a few heavy showers. We spent the day in Wandin - about 20km's away from where we live. We watched the lightening and thunder rumble over and around us and after consulting the weather radar it looked like we did get a good downpour in our valley.

As we drove home we saw the increasing debris covering the roads, and driveways which had washed out their loads of gravel onto the main road. In fact we were seeing debris to a degree we had never seen before on the road. Then i thought i saw banks of foam. Then lots or leaves and twigs completely covering the road.

It soon clicked that the foam was in fact banks of hail stones, piled high. Our hearts sank as we saw the neighbour roof intersections and gutters piled with hail stones and their houses surrounded by a white blanket.

Beans are battered but will recover

The driveway was awash and my first job was to unblock drains and gutters before i assessed the damage to the garden.

Large hail caught in the netting above the Vege garden.

The netting was the saviour of the garden  it seems, as the larger hail was either intercepted or deflected, and smaller hail deflected.  

The morning after revealed that the damage was indeed much less under the netting. Still under the netting salad fared worse,

 followed by young cabbages, cucumber.

Outside the pumpkins with their large leaves were trashed and even some of the fruit has been damaged.

The fruit trees suffered the least. They had some leaf loss but there was not much fruit dropped.
My heart goes out to any primary producers who rely solely on growing things for an income. For them the impact would be devastating. Most of my crops will recover and still produce well, but this storm emphasised the usefulness of netting - other than to protect crops from birds.

 Unfortunately our council (Yarra Ranges) restricts how much of a property may be covered in netting - i assume for aesthetic reasons. Yet another restriction which clearly makes producing food a less attractive proposition in a well watered and fertile area close to Melbourne.

Spring planting, Potato dramas and bug juice

A planting frenzy happened quite many weeks ago when i  I decided that it was spring, and although we were probably going to get some more cold spells , some planting was in order. I direct sowed, carrots (All seasons), Beetroot (Early wonder), Parsnip (The Student), Swedes (German swede turnip & Gilfeather), Snopeas, Peas (tender tendrils), Lettuce, Tat tsoi, Paak Tsoi, Rocket, Coriander and probably a few other things. All of these vegies are a bit tolerant to frost and grow reasonably in cold weather.

In the hot house i sowed more Tomatoes (Mary Italian, Red pear, Black cherry, Wong Bak, Cabbages, Broccoli, Parsley, Basil, Echinacea, Fennel. I'm sure there are a few others i have forgotten.
Potatoes went in one bed about 10 weeks ago and have had their first hilling. I waited for others to sprout and eventually planted quite a few of them with minimal sprouts.  I'm not convinced that potatoes can be forced to sprout by putting them in a bit of sun. I am of the belief (based on what I read somewhere, and my observations) that they sprout when they are ready (according to their internal clock) - other opinions appreciated. Several more sowings have taken place including a good number of Dargo goldfields' purple potato.

Several weeks ago i noticed some wilting in the potatoes. "Oh no", i thought "Wilt!" However on closer observation i noticed that there was a small plague of Green vegetable bugs. I have always had some of these on the potatoes. Perhaps this time because the soil was so fertile they are really having a feast, or i suspect that they were over-wintering somewhere and have emerged in numbers to make your eyes water. Upon researching the subject i found that there were no effective organic sprays mentioned and only biological and cultural techniques recommended the manage their numbers.  Myself and the WOOFER Christine, got together with some shallow trays and proceeded to give the plants a light beating which resulted in getting hundreds of the little blighters, which were then fed to the chickens.

BUG JUICE
Later on, young lad and i decided to make a bug spray (yes made of crushed up bugs). We collected several hundred bugs in a shallow bucket of water. We blended these up and strained them through an old T shirt and made about a litre of bug juice. No other additives were included.

 When we sprayed it on there was no major reaction from the bugs (i was expecting them to writhe in disgust and fall off the plants). However a couple of days later i went to check a few plants and i could not find any bugs! Finding bugs was previously a very easy task. I checked again and i kept checking. There has been a total evacuation of Green vegetable bugs due to the bug juice. So my potato crop has gone from heavily infested to totally free of green vegetable bugs in the space of a few days. Miraculous but true.

To my surprise some of my spring plantings (planted around September 1) bolted to seed because it was too cold at the time of sowing. These were Wong Bak, Paak tsoi, Mizuma, Celery and most surprising of all Rocket. I'm told silver beet will also do this o i have learned my lesson there.
I have already put my tomatoes in and now we are having a bit of a cold spell. Looking at them yesterday they appeared to look quite healthy, and much better than the plants still in pots in the hot house.

Broad beans, planted in May

The strawberries are doing very well, as are the cabbages. The Strawberries were planted last spring and summer and are currently providing an amazing bounty.

Strawberries planted last summer



Savoy cabbages booming away



Savoy cabbages last month.

RIP Buttercup

Much loved 7 year old - plus Buttercup passed away not long ago.
She had a lot of kid cuddles in her time, and probably ran many kilometers in her life trying to escape the attentions of children.

She travelled many miles to move with us, and was one of the constants for the children during their big move.

She now rests beneath a lemon tree, where the yellow lemons will remind us of her.

Green manure and garlic replaces tiger snakes and blackberry

There are things living everywhere. For every modification something benefits and something loses out.

Even a clear looking patch of pasture can be home to quite a few critters as I discovered while digging up a new vegie patch in the orchard. When the Wwofers and I had finished the patch, four baby tiger snakes had been dug out and relocated to another part of the farm. Luckily the day was cold and they were not at all active.

Garlic and green manure crops

The garlic went in the ground in mid march and came out of the ground very quickly. I obtained a variety called “Italian hardneck” from a local grower who has been growing it very well for many years. I have already done several rounds of hoeing  to kill off germinating weed seeds. Experienced growers around here recommend growing 1 or even 2 green manure groups before you plant your garlic. Part of the reason for doing this may be to reduce the weed problems in your crop. However I know other people who have grown very admirable garlic using compost.  These garlic will be due for harvest in Nov – Dec and will hopefully supply our family and animals with a year’s supply of yummy garlic.

My green manure crops are also thriving. I sowed an autumn mixture from Eden Seeds because that’s what I had on hand. I am still tossing up what to plant in the beds after I dig the crop in late winter. The first crop was dug in about 3 weeks ago and today i put in the first lot of potatoes.

Mixed green manure crop

I have also planted some Oats a month or 2 ago and i also hear that Rye established well in cold weather - much better than other grain crops.

Picking from the garden - Cauliflowers, Fennel, Carrots and parsnip, Broccoli and the occasional cabbage as well as green like Kale.

Cauliflowers have been supplying us with veg for many weeks.

The Caulis were an unexpected mid winter treat as i thought i had planted Paleface  - instead i had planted snoball or something similar. Although in the past i have regarded them as a waste of space - these ones are a welcome addition to our winter diet and the kids love them.

Florence Fennel

I always grow Fennel. It seems to love winter and bulb up beautifully. This crop is no exception. I have noticed that up here at 400m, some of the leaves get burned off by cold weather. Generally they are frost resistant so it would not have been frost alone that caused the leaves to yellow. The bulbs are still brilliant despite this minor damage.

Winter swap-meet: A colourful collection

We met on a cold rainy day last weekend to swap some vegies, cuttings, canes and bulbs. Some things turned up that i had wanted to get my hands on for a while. David from Olinda supplied some Oca, a wild variety of Quince, R2D2 potatoes, Tamarillo fruit (grow new plants from seed) and some Yakon, while Graeme George generously supplied a box full of Jerusalem Artichokes (2 varieties). Graeme mentioned that there were also a purple and a light yellow variety of Oca, with the purple one being most similar to potatoes.

Seedsavers swap meet

Seedsavers Yarra Valley is having a get together this Sunday to swap bit and pieces of edible food plants such as bulbs corms, canes and tubers - all those things that are dormant over winter.  Joining Seedsavers Yarra Valley is free. See seedsavers.net for details.

Mixed poultry flock - how is it going?

I do like novelty. As i child i kept aviary birds and sat and watched them for hours. I'm sure i learned a lot about bird behaviour in those many hours  perched on a chair. New birds were always extremely interesting. You could see how they interacted with the current birds and what their habits were. What they liked to eat?

Feeding time

So when i started up my poultry flock i was determined to have a few things. I kept Turkeys in Alice Springs and noticed how much greens they consumed compared to chickens. I thought they would be a great free range bird to have if you had a lot of grass. The more grass they eat the better their meat would be. We have plenty of grass, and when they hatch out new babes in the spring we'll have a meat supply that will be delicious and healthy.

Turkey hen in her youth

Turkey male in his almost constant display mode

back to the collection:
Chickens of 4 varieties, Indian runner ducks and Guinea fowl.
Amongst the chickens i have a pair of White Orpingtons'. The plan is to breed a few more Orpingtons' as well as cross them with the Rhode Island Reds. The offspring will be fast growing and probably very suitable for meat birds. The Hamburgs' were a very welcome gift and were our first layers.

This mixed flock are all Hamburg's

The ducks were a bit impulsive but i knew we had a major snail problem - one which the ducks have largely solved especially around the house garden. Now they are laying an egg each a day in the middle of winter which is great.
The Guinea fowl were sought out to be hunters of grasshoppers. We have a lot of little grasshoppers in the paddocks and they get in very high numbers. I figure that i can get rid of a lot of them around the garden as well as turn grasshoppers into eggs and meat. The plan was for these birds to free range and roam in the paddocks but they tend to hand around the house and out buildings. They keep to themselves and have a loud cackle to warm of intruders. It is extremely loud and surprising if you have not heard it before.
The guinea fowl perch in the orchard, but fly out every morning with no trouble.

Guinea fowl at the feeding station

So how do they go together? The ducks, Turkeys and chickens roost together. That works OK but the Turkeys are a bit harder to train to roost in the chook house. They still need to be chased in at the end of the day on most days.
The Ducks were raised with the Turkeys and they often stick with them but lately they go with whoever seems to be foraging more widely. The ducks muck up the water for the chickens but we have got around this a bit by placing the water containers on bricks which makes it a bit harder for the ducks to put dirt in the bowls. Any more than 2 or 3 ducks might be a bit too mucky. However the ducks get along well with the other poultry and certainly forage on stuff that the other birds don't. I think they are a useful addition and they lay great eggs.

As for free ranging; I thought the Turkeys would be big free rangers, then i thought the Guinea fowl would be. I wanted them to venture out into the paddocks and use the pasture. Instead they tend to hang around the house where they might see some people who give them food. They don't hang around all the time but enough to be annoying sometimes.  Surprisingly it is the ISA browns that seems to be taking the flock into new areas they have never been. Maybe because they are so hungry (egg laying machines that they area).

We lock up the birds in a secure pen at night and let them out daily to free range. In winter this amounts to most of the day while in summer we tend to let them out for half of the day. The free ranging , as well as providing the birds with freedom to move and think, provides them with green grass as well as bugs, slugs and snails. It also think that the birds are able to self-medicate when they are sick by eating different plants which provide them with different nutrients. So far we have had no adult birds die due to sickness, but we have a few more months of winter to go!
On the health front, we do provide them with chopped up beach kelp in their mash for general health and garlic mash once a month to control worms.

At the current size, this strange mix of poultry works well together. I didn't buy all the poultry at once. That happened slowly so i could learn about their habits and where and how they might fit into the farm. After i though we had worked out one species, we added something else to the flock.
I have learnt a lot about poultry in the last 9 months and still continue to learn. However we are near capacity with our current housing so any new additions may have to wait a while.