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March 2009 |
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An unusual summer and an unusual
autumn
This growing season is a season of extremes and surprises. It started in spring already when the cold winter gave way to a very humid and relatively warm spring. Beans and tomatoes suffered and developed black spots. The plants never fully recovered afterwards. Then summer came and record high temperatures scorched the plants before temperatures plummeted to record lows. What we needed in autumn were the warm and sunny days that autumn usually brings. They would have given our plants a boost before the harvest. Winter came early instead. The days were cold and overcast. And then it rained! And rained! And rained! |
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March 15th: The pigs enjoy the mud after the big rains. But we shift the enclosure onto "dry" land! |
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March 15th: Dutch Cream potatoes. The ground is soggy and we have to dig them up. |
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Growing potatoes: Our second year of growing potatoes has come to a close. Last year we harvested about 130kg, this season's harvest is over 200kg. We now grow the potatoes in the paddock next to the vegie garden. That leaves us more room in the vegie garden for other uses. We rotary hoe the grass and fertilize once with complete organic fertilizer. The potato patch only gets temporary fencing against the many wallabies on our block. After the harvest we remove the fencing and cover the soil with hay to seed grass. Next year's potato patch will be at a different place. We have enough room around the vegie garden to plant potatoes in a four year rotation. The theory of planting potatoes is to plant the main crop late in the year, not before the second half of October, and leave them in the ground as long as possible. If they stay in the soil for as late as April or even May, then they should keep longer once harvested. For two years in a row we had to harvest early though! Heavy rain in March soaked the ground. We just had to harvest now or the potatoes would have started to rot in the ground. Our main crop were Dutch Cream potatoes. They are a perfect all round potato that grows very well in our conditions and does not rot too easily in wet ground. We tried King Edward potatoes, but were not happy with them. They are a soft potato that is used best for chips and tends to start rotting if the ground becomes too wet. We had planted Pink Eyes as an early potato in July/August in three plantings two weeks between each. Next year we will plant all our Pink Eyes in one planting around the middle of August because all of the three separate plantings matured at the same time anyway. |
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Pigs and Permaculture: |
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Our pigs are a worthwhile component of our Permaculture farm. We feed our
pigs with the scraps from the fruit and vegies. They really like the carrot
tops and apple cores and peels. Silverbeet is a delicacy for them too and we
have planted a lot of silverbeet as pig feed.
The pigs are kept in a movable pen made from eight 3 metre farm gates and have their own shelter. Pigs and the soil: top right: much of our soil is subject to flooding by the winter creek and is of poor quality. Lumps of course grass grow here but the ground is barren in between top left: the pigs love to dig. They aerate the soil and dig up the lumps of grass bottom right: once the pigs have done their job and the pen is moved, we cover the ground with a layer of hay. The Hay is full of grass seeds and adds organic matter to the soil. bottom left: the hay is breaking up and the seeds take place. The ground is covered with a layer of new grass. The dark spots are horse manure.
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Some experiences with free range chooks We are now licensed to sell eggs at Hobart's Salamanca Market. We hope that selling eggs at the market will have two benefits. We might make enough money to actually pay for the chicken feed and our egg layers would then financially support the other chooks. And we will sell our eggs as "Heritage Eggs." We hope to make people aware that it's not just about getting hens out of cages into a free range situation. That is just the first step, even though that first step is incredibly important. But it's also about the type of chicken that lays the eggs. Our Welsummers, Barnevelders, Plymouth Rocks, Salmon Faverolles, New Hampshires and Minorcas are heritage breeds. They are birds that live long and healthy lives. They are not meant to lay 300 or more eggs in the first year and then die, they will only lay around 200 eggs, but will do that for a number of years and will live healthily while doing that! If we sell egg cartons with eggs of different colours, if we distribute flyers with each carton that tell people about our heritage chooks, then we hope to raise our customers' awareness of the different types of chicken that exist. |
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Left: a chicken coop in a free range paddock. The chook house is
connected to a very small "front yard". This yard can then
be opened to a number of paddocks in rotation. The area in the front is one
of them. The area behind the chook house (including the trees) is another
one. A third area is planned at the right.
Right: our deep litter system. The floor of the coop is made up from a heavy layer of hay over natural earth. The hay is regularly turned and new hay added. Water and feed are hung above the ground out of reach of vermin. |
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Left: Bald Eagle attack! Only ninety minutes had passed after we let
the Welsummers out of their netted enclosure and onto the open paddock when
three Bald Eagles attacked the flock. The big Welsummer rooster defended his
flock to the end. But all the others survived.
Right: For the time being the Welsummers are confined to the netted enclosure again. But Bald Eagles need a lot of room to land and to take off again. We will build another fence that keeps the Welsummers closer to the treeline and away from the open paddock.
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Welsummers and a Plymouth Rock hen |
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Salmon Faverolles |
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New Hempshire pullets (young hens) |
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In the green house Left: it's late in the year for the capsicums Right: cucumbers and tomatoes |
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The vegie garden
left: lots of tomatoes, but it's almost April and many of them them are still green! right: these sunflowers are Giant Russian sunflowers that are supposed to grow to a height of three metres. Ours are not even half that size. It looks like growing sunflowers is a lot more difficult than growing potatoes! below: the empty potato patch is covered with hay and the Golden Bantam corn behind it is doing very well. But we planted it in late November and there might not be enough sun left in this wintry autumn for the cobs to mature. |
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Harvest time
Autumn is the time of year to bake cakes, make relishes and chutneys, jams and marmalades below left: one single fruit from two passion fruit plants Nelly Kelly. They had hundreds of flowers, but they dropped the flowers before fruit could form. below right: our fruit trees are such a success this year!
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| Home | Donations | Poultry info | Garden Diary |
Alphabet of Gardening |
Our Recipes |
Gardening Calender |
Orchards | Kitchen Garden | Vegie Garden | Tasmania- the dark side |
About us | Contact Resources Disclaimer |
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