Sunday, February 27, 2005
RHS advice about growing potatoes
Although unsprouted tubers can be planted, the chitted ones benefit from their flying start. Early cultivars will crop earlier and more heavily if chitted. You can help the process by rubbing off all but the four strongest sprouts so that the tuber's energy is diverted into a few really strong shoots that form new potatoes as early as possible. Second early and maincrop potatoes also benefit from chitting but they don't need thinning of sprouts. Chitting later cultivars results in earlier foliage before blight or drought strike and they mature earlier and can be gathered before slugs damage the tubers."
Brilliant, means that we don't have to fret about planting them yet as it is still way too cold and also they only have sprouts which are about 1cm long.
We have 3 varieties we're going to try and grow:
ORLA: this is an Early kind which means they mature in 100-110 days from planting and you eat them right away as new potatoes. So if we planted at end March they'd be ready in late June or early July. Apparently we are supposed to plant these 300mm apart in rows 600cm apart. Their description from the Organic gardening catalogue site: "Has the highest blight resistance ever seen in a first early, plus resistance to scab and blackleg. The appearance and flavour are pretty good as well".
SANTE: an early maincrop, which I think means we can use it for either? Maincrop potatoes mature in 125-140 days and you plant them a little later I think. e.g., plant end April, ready mid-August. I guess if we plant it early they will be littler but we can eat them sooner, and if we plant it later and leave longer they will be bigger and better for storing. The description: "The most commonly grown variety on organic farms. A strong growing early maincrop with a reasonable yield. Resistant to white and golden eelworm and blight. Oval/round tubers with creamy yellow flesh."
CARA: a late maincrop, so I guess that means we plant early/mid May? These would be the ones that we store for winter use. "A well known household name. Stores very well and has good blight resistance. Expect a large yield of red eyed tubers with creamy flesh ideal for roasting and baking".
ZipWall
The Hardest-Working Room in the House
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Earth Garden: March-May 2005 issue
For Christmas Mum got us a subscription to two Australian magazines about eco / environmentally sustainable living. Although the tone is sometimes a bit gungho and self-righteous, there's a lot of useful information in them. For future reference, thought I'd make a note of the articles and interesting ideas from each issue which could be handy for Amherst. It saves me having to put little post-it tabs on each page!
Here's the snippets from Earth Garden issue #131 (March-May 2005):
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Scandia in Seymour - they recondition old wood-burning stoves and re-sell. They could be really helpful in getting the old Raeburn stove working, plus if we want to buy another one for the inside (Dave is eyeing off the Raeburn to have in his shed!) Tel: 03 5792 2388. Also Castworks sell all sorts of wood stoves
A UK company Centre for Alternative Technology sells a paper log maker: "Free heat from old newspapers...just thoroughly soak and squeeze the paper, place into the mold and dry. You'll have a log that will burn as well as wood". I'm going to have a look and maybe order one, Dave might like it for the little outside fire.
When it's the end of the summer season, to ripen the last tomatoes on plants rip out the whole plant (roots, soil and all) and hang upside down under north facing shelter... the fruit will continue to ripen for the next month or so even as the weather turns, although the skins will get tougher the longer you leave it. (nb: guessing that in the UK we would replace "north" with "south")
There were a few ads for Australian companies who make natural and non-toxic paints. http://www.naturalpaint.com.au and Biopaints (who stupidly didn't list a website, but phone number is 1 800 809 448)
Awfulness, an article talking about snakes getting into enclosures and eating chickens! And how snakes get into everywhere, you find them on kitchen benches, in the toilet, etc. I *so* do not want this. I didn't think snakes would come into the house; we shall just have to design it so that they simply cannot. Every window must have mesh, etc so that nothing can sneak inside.
There was a good article about how to pickle your own olives... maybe we can start doing that sooner than we thought considering that there are already olives on our little trees! Also, in a sidebar they mentioned the problem of "feral olives", where birds eating the olives and then dropping seeds in native forest lead to olive trees growing wild and taking over from other trees. I don't quite know how we're supposed to stop the birds eating some of the olives, I'm not going to net all the trees, and besides there are other olive plantations nearby. But it's something we'll have to think about if the birds prove to be too greedy.
In the regular section about poultry, they mentioned that there is a homeopathic way to worm chooks. Apparently you crush up one clove of garlic per bird and put in in their water for a few days. You do it on a regular basis, traditionally at every full moon! This may be a good thing to try with the C's. Also there are some herbs like wormwood that if you finely chop in the tips into wet mashes can help, but I don't like this approach as if you do it too much it can be toxic, and how much is too much? However, maybe in Amherst we might be able to grow some as according to this it "succeeds in any soil but it is best in a poor dry one with a warm aspect. Established plants are very drought tolerant. Plants are longer lived, more hardy and more aromatic when they are grown in a poor dry soil... Wormwood is occasionally grown in the herb garden (although) the growing plant is said to inhibit the growth of fennel, sage, caraway, anise and most young plants, especially in wet years. But wormwood is a good companion for carrots, however, helping to protect them from root fly. This herb was at one time the principal flavouring in the liqueur 'Absinthe' but its use has now been banned in most countries since prolonged consumption can lead to chronic poisoning, epileptiform convulsions and degeneration of the central nervous system"
Oasis Windmills (again unfortunately no web address) make windmills that they say are very affordable. Best of all they look like the old-fashioned kind of metal windmills on stilts! They say they are simple to install, able to pump to 80m head, low maintenance, no expensive rebuilds, able to pump up to 4 gallons (18 litres) per minute, and with auto-turnoff in high winds. They come in towers that are 3m or 4.5m tall. They're based in Dookie Victoria tel: 03 5828 6452. Another wind generator that is not as nice looking is from Precision wind technologies
First of a two-part article about how to make a cheap dry composting toilet, like the ones that sell for several thousand dollars. Unfortunately not accredited yet but who knows in a few years... worth remembering about anyway if we want to ever add in an extra toilet to a shed or something.
Weekend hippy person mentioned tree onions... Onions that grow at the top on stems, and when they get fat fall over to the ground and start growing a new bunch. Sounds interesting, like a cross between a normal onion and a spring onion. Apparently they are good especially because they're not fussy to look after, can cope with not being watered except at weekends. I just found a herb nursery in the UK - on Ebay no less - that sells them, so have ordered a few to try them out along with some Angelica that have been meaning to get for ages, and Comfrey for the compost.
Schnitzer sell very nice looking mills for making your own flour, grinding grain etc. I think the idea is that if you ever need flour you can just make it on the spot from the raw grain, as much as you need for cooking. It is really nicely finished in timber too.
After that, we went up to the allotment since it had stopped raining. Our seed potatoes are sprouting in their boxes so we wanted to get them into the ground. Unfortunately, the beds where they're due to go aren't ready yet so we had to do some digging, although that amazing new upside-down spade thing makes it a lot easier. It was so cold though that I got frozen even through my thermal gloves, so we gave up after we got just one bed ready. Tomorrow we have to hope the weather is better. For the potato beds we're just doing a rough job... not attempting to get out all the stones, weeds, etc like we have for the others. Partly this is because of sheer lack of time, but also it's a test to see what a difference it makes in terms of the weed volume. Potatoes are meant to be pretty resilient though so hopefully they'll not have a problem, and at least I know what potatoes look like! We did go stupidly overboard on seed potatoes though, suspect we will end up with 4 beds worth by the time they're all planted. But that's OK, potatoes are good for the soil and it's not like we won't use them.
I got so cold at the alloment on my hands, but so hot with the two scarves I had tightly tied round my neck and head that I started to feel really sick, so when we finally got home I went to bed! Of course, that meant I was asleep by 6pm which is why now at 11pm I'm wide awake. *sigh* Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be a little kinder and we can do some more up there, at least get one lot of them in.
Wednesday, February 23, 2005
yabbies and olives!
Ebay win: picture stained glass windows
The first window: Size of glass (not including frame) - H850mm x W430mm (10 different glass colours). Pane missing where pointing in picture and a crack in small clear glass pane by handle is the only damage
The second window: Size of glass (not including frame) - H1170mm x W460mm (7 different glass colours). Undamaged.
The third window: Size of glass (not including frame) Top vent- H430 x W430mm Bottom window-H700 x W460mm (10 different glass colours). Undamaged.
Monday, February 21, 2005
Ebay win: amazing victorian stained glass door
"This is an original victorian stained glass door with raised mouldings on the front. The two stained glass panels have painted landscape scenes. As far as I can see none of the glass is damaged however some of the the lead work in places is perished and needs to be addressed. Some of the coloured glass in the panels doesn't seem to match but in my opinion it is original to the door and appears as though they have used what glass they had available to them. There are a few bumps and bruises throughout the door, nothing major but consistent with more than 100 years of use. Measurements: Width 28 inches, height 74.5 inches. Glass panels: 7.5 inches width, 35.5 inches tall. Landscape paintings: 6 inches in diameter"
Update
Here are some more pictures of the door taken at Aunt Marion's (where we'd had it stored). You can get a better idea of the details in this. I like it because it is beautiful but retains an amateurish, down-to-earth feel.
Sunday, February 20, 2005
More ideas
Friday, February 18, 2005
hobbit house update
"The pile of usable timber offcuts and leftovers from work I will pile on the trailer and take to Amherst for working into the building of the hobbithole. I took a large load up this week, and while up there went to Maryborough to the quarry and brought a tandem load of concrete making sand and a tandem of screenings. I also brought a tandem load of broken concrete patio from Tex's place for building up the sides of the hole to about chest height. I am still considering how to achieve the excavation. I have some options, but none involve spending much money. That doesn't need to be achieve urgently, so I may use the time-honoured pick and shovel method".
first plantings at allotment
Also, we did the first of our sowings at home. We made little pots out of newspaper using this wooden roller thing we bought. Then planted 3 trays... each tray holds 24 pots. One tray is full of broadbeans, one is full of tomatoes, and the third is full of various kinds of peppers. Dave did the seed sowing as he has much more like than I at getting things to sprout. I made the pots and helped fill with dirt.
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
update on house planning
One of the most important things we discussed was the utilities. Here are Eric's comments from an email:
"Two things jumped out as issues to consider early on. One is the idea of
using solar power instead of mains. (We lived for five years out in the
bush with solar power.) Some of the things on the wish list look a bit
ambitious with solar power system unless it is a very big one. Big loads
like air conditioning and dryers are difficult, and small continuous
loads like recharging batteries are surprisingly troublesome. We can
discuss it more later.
Also, dry composting toilets need to be treated very kindly. They like
to be on the north side to get sun to heat the chambers. This starts to
set the location of the bath area. Also, whereas with flush toilet
systems, a second toilet is simply the cost of the toilet and some
plumbing, two composting toilets generally requires the set up of two
full systems. I really like the aerated treatment plant systems because
the water id reused, and there is very little tearing up the ground for
absorption trenches"
After our phone conversation we decided we'd look into wind power as well as solar, and also reconsider whether to connect to the mains or not. Apparently if you can connect to mains for less than about A$20-25,000 it will be cheaper than solar in the long run, once you take into account cost of replacing batteries in 10 years, etc. And of course, you can still have some things solar, eg solar hot water system. We also changed our mind on the toilets and are going to go with Eric's recommendation of an aerated treatment plant system. It means we use water to flush the toilet but it is all recycled so we'll be able to have the cleaned water to go on the garden (onto anything but vegetables apparently). Also it means that we can have more than one toilet... the problem with the dry composting toilet is that if you want to add another one it is the same cost as for the first; whereas with normal plumbing the incremental cost is a lot lower.