Earwigs

Bloody earwigs. They ate all my marigold seedlings, and most of the leaves on my new passionfruit plant. I've out out traps of soy sauce in buried tins, upside down pots filled with newspaper and rolled up damp rolls of paper so so dfar have only managed to catch one. One! And it's definitely earwigs because I went out after dark and caught them munching away. Any other ideas?!

What's happening in the garden

What a weird month it's been; from 30C a couple of weekends ago, to hail and 10C today! The rain is fantastic though - the garden has gone mad. In between showers this weekend, I planted out some lettuce seedlings with Little FB, hilled up the potatoes, did some weeding and fixed the wonky garden edging.

Tiny broad beans are starting to appear, the carrots have germinated (yay!) and the climbing beans that I sowed a couple of weeks ago are starting to pop up. I may have put them in a bit too early but hopefully they will be OK.

Radishes

I'm never sure what to do with radishes, but I found this salad recipe in Madhar Jeffrey's World Vegetarian (the radishes are from MMSTL's garden, not mine!) and it was yum.

Asian-style radish salad

Bunch radishes, sliced
2 onion tops or 1 spring onion, sliced

Dressing

1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tsp soy sauce
Squeeze lemon juice

Mix the dressing ingredients together and pour over the radish and spring onions. Leave for 10 mins to let the flavours develop.

Potting on and pottering about

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It was another spring day lovely day today so I spent a few hours tidying, turning compost and planting a few rows of beets and radishes before potting on my tomato seedlings. I planted them deep, as per the advice that I have seen on a few blogs. I also read somewhere that a sprinkle of potash round the seedling (but not touching it) helps it grow strong so I might try this.

The girls are happy with their new home - Dora and Marlin have been laying an egg per day since they moved in I found a huge slug when I was tidying up today which they ate with relish! Organic pest control at its best!

Rain!

Melbourne Current Conditions

• Current temp: 12.5°C
• Recorded min: 16°C
• Recorded max: 19°C
• Feels like: 10.0°C

• Humidity: 88%
• Rainfall since 9am: 12.6mm
• Wind: SSW 32km/h
• Wind gusts: 37km/h
• Pressure: 1016.9hPa

It's bout time we had some decent rainfall. Still need a lot more though...

Hottest early September day on record

Well, it wasn't 25C. It was 30C. In mid September!! crazy weather. It was a glorious day and I started work early on my list.

• Paint chicken coop door Not done, but I did buy the paint
  
• Construct bean supports for climbing beans Done
• Clear patch and move some silverbeet to make space for soy beans Done (and beans planted)
• Pull up broccoli and prepare bed for carrots and beets Decided to wait until next week
  
• Move compost to new position near fence (hopefully some will be ready and I can put it on the empty beds) Done (this was hard work!)
  
• Plant melon seeds (too early?) and one pumpkin Done - 2 watermelon seeds have gone in near the compost. Planted 3 pumpkin seedlings
  
• Measure up for garden edging Done

And because I was on a roll, I also:

• Planted a row of purple carrots
• Made some wooden plant labels
• Bought a Meyer lemon and potted it
• Bought a passionfuit(to go against the sunny fence)
  

And I did manage to find time to that glass of sav blanc (needed it after all that work!)

Purple

Saturday list of things to do

Probably ambitious but with a 25C day forecast I'm hoping to get a lot done.

• Paint chicken coop door
• Construct bean supports for climbing beans
• Clear patch and move some silverbeet to make space for soy beans
• Pull up broccoli and prepare bed for carrots and beets
• Move compost to new position near fence (hopefully some will be ready and I can put it on the empty beds)
• Plant melon seeds (too early?) and one pumpkin
• Measure up for garden edging

I also need to get some more chicken feed and straw from Andrew's stockfeed and find time for a glass of sav blanc in the sun :)

New improved chicken coop

Nice, but too small

Much better!

MMSTL and I spent most of the weekend extending and improving the girls' coop. I've not been letting them out in their garden run as much as I should, and they just tear up the veggie beds if I let them totally free range, so I wanted to give them more space in the run attched to the coop. We used the wood from the fence that my neighbour insisted that I replace (whole other story) and added some nifty design features such as a wipe-clean floor which matches my kitchen, and a hinged central section for easier cleaning. It's also now much easier for little FB to collect the eggs by himself thanks to a door that actually works. I've still got to go a bit of painting: I loved the barn design, but I think the natural wood that we've used calls for something a bit more muted.

The girls were excited to be in their new home and have already laid a couple of eggs.

Voluntary simplicity

MMSTL wrote a book! It's a collection of writings on voluntary simplicity - something close to my heart. It features chapters from 14 prominent authors in the field including Clive Hamilton, Juliet Schor and Henry Thoreau.


Find out more about the book and how to order it here. It has been published on a not-for-profit basis.