Aquaponics is Fun

New Garden Layout...

We redid the labelling of the garden  beds to help make it easier to know what bed the other is talking about...
The Raspberry barrel hasnt moved yet as we are waiting for a trolley so it can be moved without to much trauma to the plant...

 Refreshing the Beds...
  
28 bags ½ filled with Mushroom compost were delivered by Greg From Wormtec on Saturday morning along with a Brix meter & small bag of worm cast based fertiliser pellets that he is working on...  Today the fun began with the revitalising of the beds once we did a tidy up...


 Pumpkins...

A decision was made this morning to do away with the Pumpkins as we have had no luck what so ever with them even though we have been hand fertilising the Female flowers as they open each morning... Makes it a lot easier to get around the beds now...


Bed #1...

Bed #1 has been stripped ½ way along... We didnt get around to transplanting all the baby Leeks today so they will be done next week... It has had some Blood n Bone, Cracker dust & Mushroom compost dug through but will have to wait till next weekend to have the Horse compost added then be planted out...
Bed #2...


Bed #2 was completely striped then had Blood n Bone, Cracker dust, Mushroom & Horse composts added... Snow peas seeds were sown under the trellis then 4 rows of Early Wonder Beetroot were sown up the other end... The tray on the bed has seedlings in it & shall be planted out next weekend...

Bed #3...

Bed #3 had the beans stripped from it & the Eggplants had a very radical trim... Blood n Bone, Cracker dust, Mushroom compost & the old bean plants were dug through but will have to wait until next weekend to have Horse compost dug through... Cauliflower will be planted in here next week end if all goes well..


Bed #7...

Bed #7 had Blood n Bone, Cracker dust, Mushroom & Horse composts added... 6 Broccoli seedlings were planted this afternoon... There are also 8 Snow pea seedlings that should be going in next weekend...



Bed #9...

Bed #9 has been a poor performer since the start... From the picture you can see that the soil is made up with mainly sand, some pebbles & the Sugar cane mulch we dug through when the bed was made...
Today I added Blood n Bone, Cracker dust,  Mushroom & Horse composts... The bed will be planted out next weekend with Lemongrass from the a blue Wicking barrel & some Silverbeet that will be used as Chook food...


Beds 10 & 11...
The 2 small beds at the end of Bed #2 had Blood n Bone, Cracker dust, Mushroom & horse composts added... Koos strawberries were removed from Bed #11 as, sadly, they didnt survive the transplanting from last week... They will be replaced with some more when we find some at the market in the next few weeks...
Bed #10 had the Parsley from Bed #1 planted into it as well as a few Beetroot seeds to fill some gaps...

Bed #4 & Barrel #6 were top dressed with Blood n Bone, Cracker dust Mushroom & Horse composts to help them along... The Eggplant in the bed also had a trim... We are leaving a few fruit mature so we can collect the seed for the next generation then that plant will be pulled... It has lasted for 3 years & 3 transplants now so we feel its time to retire the old dear...

Barrel #1 & 2 had the Cape Gooseberries removed, the soil dug out then mixed with the Blood n Bone, Cracker dust Mushroom & Horse composts... They were replanted in the barrels with the reconditioned soil then watered in well...



This was the pile at the start of the day (left) & then at the end (right)...
3 of the remaining bags are to be used on Bed #1.. The last will be mixed with some Horse compost then used as a top dress in the Spice Barrels...
2 of the bags were put straight under the house to see if we can revive the Mushroom plant... They have been placed into a waxed Lettuce box (we got full of leaves for the Chookies) & shall be covered with some seeding mix tomorrow... Hopefully they will start to produce & we will have heaps of home grown Mushies again...


Seedlings...
To get a bit of a head start on some veg we bought a few seedlings from the "store that shall remain nameless" yesterday...We bought Coriander, Common Mint, a punnet each of Cauliflower, Zucchini & Broccoli...
On Wednesday the girls & I planted out some seeds into trays,
4 x Brussels Sprouts
4 x Red Russian Kale
8 x Sugarsnap peas
8 x Melting Mammoth Snow Peas
10 x Sugarloaf Cabbage
10 x White Kohl Rabi


Rescued Produce...
This is what we managed to save from the plants were pulled or trimmed... Will miss the beans but the new plants should start producing in the next few weeks...



Thats more than enough for now me thinks so shall call it quits & stop Waffling on...
Have a great one all...
: )»