The Garden of Woz...

[Whwoz]

Pulled the last of the beetroot today, gave it a wash up and let it dry before placing in the big fridge, no root cellar here, just to warm. Will need to do the same with the carrots as they are starting to run up to seed.

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Have just returned from visiting my parents, cannot remember seeing the amount of fallen trees or branches along the roadside before. Been travelling that road for 50 years, a lot more timber down due to wind direction.

[bower]

Oz has really taken a beating this winter, eh. I hope the conditions coming up this spring are perfect for renewal, especially the establishment of new trees to replace the fallen.

[JayneR13]

I love beets! Unfortunately, so do my rabbits. LOL

[Whwoz]

Decided to make sure that if we lost power again we would not have to worry about a generator, went out and purchased two 2500w units, one of which can run the freezers and fridges in the shed, the other the washing machine. These two are able to be joined in parallel to function as a 5kw unit

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Here they are in the old fridge box located on the front of the camper trailer, with room for at least one 20 liter/ 5 US gallon jerry can.

We also picked up a larger 7.5kw unit that will be able to plug into the meter box it power the house once we get a plug put in.

Hopefully we will get more use out of them with the camper than needing for the house.

[JayneR13]

No kidding! These sound like one of those better to have and not need than to need and not have items. Hopefully your neighbors also have gennies! When the power goes out, everyone wants to plug into the one gennie on the block!

[Whwoz]

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Yesterday was another trip down to Port Phillip Bay, but a couple of other things were done first, with the main one being a visit to one of our beekeeping supply shops. On the list for acquisition was a half suit and hood, as hood gifted to me by the fellow who owns the bees on our block is more perished than he thought. Also a pair of gloves and a net that fits over a broad brimmed hat. This will go with suit from friend and should work out fine if the kids want a look. Also grabbed a book on native bees and a couple of bottles of honey.

[Whwoz]

Put that beekeeping gear to good use today. Beekeeper was here today and went through the hives, overall assessment is generally in good health but low on honey stocks, so we had to kill the 4 or 5 queen larvae (still in cells) we found in one hive, not enough honey to split hive. Only moderate levels of brood cells in the hives also. Hopefully this situation will change in 3 or 4 weeks when we next look in the hives.

[Whwoz]

Picked up some more plants today,

3 different finger limes, never tried these so will be interesting to see what they are like. One is in bud, and lots of them.

One sea parsley, nibbled a little bit of this and definitely a parsley flavour

A White Genoa fig

Two muntries, Kunzea pomifera, a native berry with some similarities to cranberries apparently. Have not tried these before.

And seven different grapes
White Muscat
Dawn Seedless (white)
Menindee Seedless (white)
Autumn Royal (black)
Red Globe
Blush Seedless (red)
Flame seedless (red)

Got the Sea parsley, fig and Muntries in the ground. Rotary hoed about 1/3 of the big bed. Will setup two trellis for the grapes

[Whwoz]

4 cubic meters of sandy soil ordered and paid for, delivery about 10 am here that will be used to level out where the lands used to be in the veggie garden, much easier to use the walking tractor in there if level. Some will also be used to build up a couple of rows for the grapes.

[Whwoz]

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The load of soil delivered, the small rotary hoe made short work of the truck tracks

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Where we got to before the forecast rain started

[Whwoz]

Up until last year I was using a small aluminium greenhouse for germinating my seeds in. The polycarbonate on this has died and at this stage I have not been able to source some for replacement. Last year I used a drop over greenhouse for germinating seed which worked ok, but not as good as the aluminium one. The drop over ones work great for me for growing on the seedlings.

I had one of the drop over ones setup with the pepper seed on a heat mat in it, then we got the wind. The drop over greenhouse was initially flipped in spot, with plastic underneath frame and I thought that that's where it would stay, and it did for about a week before taking wing. I believe it was smashed into a Cypress 4x4 that was supporting some mesh trellis, breaking it before being blown roughly 100 metres and into a barb wire fence where it stopped. Suffice to say it is not useable anymore.

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So with seed sowing season upon me and nothing suitable locally, I built my own

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A little bit different to what I initially planned, but hopefully it will work as well as the aluminium one did
Would have preferred a slope on the top, but that will wait until seed sowing season is over

[svalli]

It is nice to see some spring time work done in the garden. It gives me hope that after 6-7 months, I will be doing the same.

[Whwoz]

With the completion of the greenhouse, the hunt is on for varieties to grow this season.

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I think that my storage system is breaking down and needs a revamp, I can't seem to find some seed that should be here and I saw not that long ago

[JayneR13]

That looks a great deal like my storage system! I have mine in metal tins that seal well and they're marked such as greens/herbs, vining things, and root crops. Where else would one look for carrots or squashes? LOL

[MissS]

I think that we all have a storage problem. We just are too busy to fix it.

[JayneR13]

It's not a problem if we know where stuff is, mostly.

[Whwoz]

It's not a problem if we know where stuff is, mostly.

It just becomes a problem when you can't find what you want

[JayneR13]

Yup. Done this, been there. Recently too lol

[Whwoz]

Yup. Done this, been there. Recently too lol

I knew that there were more tomato seeds about, including a group of orange - yellow tomatoes that have moderate to high levels of tetra-cis-lycopene that I wanted to plant this year. So I just kept dragging more and more of the seed collection over from where I store it in the shed until I found them

Most of the collection is now in strawberry clamshells labelled a-z for the tomatoes, aside from those that I will select from to plant this year and some that are in bags too large for the clamshells, or in what we call take-away food containers labelled with what is in them.

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[JayneR13]

Good for you! It is easier to find stuff this way.