Ian's microfarm.

[kingofnobbys]

We have loads of raspberries !!!
Mostly still green , give them a week or 2 and if the birds and flying foxes don't spot and knick them , we'll be enjoying home grown raspberries come Easter .

My wife has been picking and eating the ready to eat ( nice and ripe and plump strawberries every day when she's giving the pots a drink with the hose , getting 6 to 8 per day , doing this and bringing in the plump by still not ripe strawberries to ripen in a sealed tub on the kitchen table to make sure she gets them before the birds , mice , possums and flying foxes steal them or spoil them by nibbling on them ).

 

[kingofnobbys]

My first home grown off the stick raspberries

More coming

Progress on Italian Parley & Roma Tomato ( one plant survived )

 

[kingofnobbys]

Been so much rain here lately the tomato has started splitting, so it's been rescued and brought inside to finish ripening up ( nearly there ) and to stop it from being attacked by insects, birds, flying foxes. possums, mice and to prevent it's flesh being invaded by mould.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Birds have decimated my raspberry crop .... gave the berries a few more days ( which were dismal, windy and rainy) ripen up , sunny & summery today and all the ripe raspberries have been stolen ( by the birds ).

Gonna have to invest in some bird netting ....

 

[kingofnobbys]

Finally a break in the wet weather , gardening lady here today and informs me my dozen of so spare bags of citrus and veg garden soil are probably no long "live" , so we've decided to put these on the 3 fallow beds , then to cover with thick black plastic for a few months to
1) kill off the couch grass and weeds
2) allow worms to get busy and spread the nutients through the soil under the plastic .

Reckons it wont be so hot under the black plastic over winter that it'll cook the biotics s in the soil. And can probably get away without needing to apply "SLASHER" to kill off the weeds and couchgrass if we leave thick black plastic down for at least 3 months.

Will leave the black plastic sheet in place ( held down by 1/2 thickness concrete bressor blocks ( each about 7.5kg , these look like

plenty heavy enough to stop the plastic sheet being blown off over winter ( we get Tasman Cyclones over winter with gale force winds ) , will make it very quick and easy to lift the plastic sheet to inspect how things are progressing wrt killing off weeds and couchgrass too , much simpler than pinning the sheet down with SHADECLOTH FASTENERS SHADEFIX STRIPs ( fixed to the vertical surfaces on the top sleepers ) or 7X215MM S/S HIGH STRENGTH TENT PEG WIRES.

The bressor blocks can later be repurposed to subdivide the three beds.

I'll use the shadecloth fasteners that came with the plastic sheeting to fix some bird mesh to a removeable light weight frame to protect my berry plants from bats and birds for next season.

Come end of winter ( August ) , we'll remove the plastic sheet, add fertilizer and lime as required to get pH right , remove any dormant couchgrass ryzones and runners, bomb with earth worms , remulch ( sugarcane mulch ) , subdivide to suit herbs and vegs , add dripper and weeper irrigation to suit , and by then should have herb and greens and tomato seedlings ready to transplant into the 3 beds and get them producing over spring and summer.

 

[kingofnobbys]

The beds being "thermally sterilized of couchgrass" :
trying 2 methods ,
A) black plastic cover with airgap ( 2 beds )

top bed's plastic sheet was "interferred with" or something sat on it ? so dropped it's plastic thermal sheet ontop grass / soil w/out airgap.
B) black plastic cover ontop of the grass / soil - to exclude O2 , get hotter soil surface ( 1 bed )
I suspect this will be much more effective than (A).

Plastic sheets will stay in place til August or early September.

 

[kingofnobbys]

Ended up dropping all the black plastic sheets down to right ontop the soil in the other 2 small bed after attacking the dying grass with a whippersnipper and running a spiked garden rake over to pull out any remaining runners. Just in the nick of time because we had another intense Tasman Cyclone hit the area a few days later ( and it came w/ extreme gales and torrential rain ==> more flooding ).

The wattle, grevilleas, native hibiscus, and billybuttons are starting to prepare their winter bloomings , buds all over them.
Gonna be very pretty when they've all burst into flower.

I guess all the rain we've had this winter ( and there's LOTS & LOTS - wettest winter in NSW in living memory ) has helped .

Too bad most the bees in my area are gone - there's been a bee pandemic

Emergency orders in place across NSW to protect bee industry from deadly varroa mite parasite

The movement of bees within New South Wales is halted following the discovery of a deadly parasite at the Port of Newcastle with the potential to decimate the industry.

www.abc.net.au

 

[kingofnobbys]

18 October 2022
Here is how my native plant gardens look

Front 6m x 3m two level feature bed





















Yep , a few weeds popping up and the couchgrass is back too.

 

[kingofnobbys]

18 October 2022 patio bed and pots




Pomegranate coming out of dormancy, blueberry happy



Mulberry is giving some fruit

 

[kingofnobbys]

18 October 2022
L Shaped Feature Bed

 

[kingofnobbys]

18 October 2022
Herb tower , some are still alive

 

[kingofnobbys]

18 October 2022
6m x 1.5m back fence feature bed w/ lattice screen ( native hybiscus has gone bazzerk )




S End ( irrigation not as effective this far from the globe valve , also dry microclimate ) , the grevilla has died . Ground covs and creeker/climbers are hanging in there as is the postrate banksia.



N End ( going great )

 

[kingofnobbys]

18 October 2022
Strawberries , top gutter bed plants came out of dormancy in August and bearing lots of berries now ( but small and green ) .
Bottom gutter bed is now starting to come out dormancy ( no berries yet )
Think we need to
1) top up with fresh berry potting mix
2) add fresh mulch
3) give them a boost with some seaweed solution
4) put a frame covered with bird-mesh over these to keep the bats and birds at bay.





The raspberries in the pots are out of dormancy . (forgot to take photos)
Need to weed these to check their condition .... not holding out much hope.
The blueberries in the pots ?
The two finger limes in pots ?
The two natal plums in pots ?