Hi folks. 
Had a few people ask how things are going in the veggie patch & finally managed to do a "quick" clip on the hoop house section of our veggie patch. Funnily enough our Winter veggie patch here in the Subtropics looks very similar to many friends that are growing in North America, the UK & Europe at the moment.





Am looking forward to harvesting the first of our winter veg like cauliflower & broccoli. Still have a few summer crops that need to be harvested like the yacon, turmeric & ginger as they take a bit longer to mature in our climate.  Hope to post some harvest clips on them soon.
Hope everyone else is having a great season,
Rob.?

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Has been a while since I ventured over here to blog land so thought I would do a bit of a catch up post..Think we shall start with he Fish..

Aquaponics...
I did a "What is Aquaponics" style clip a few weeks ago to help a friend explain aquaponics to her family members.. Not a real in depth one but it will gives a rough idea on how the system works including the relationship between the fish, bacteria & plants.. It also shows a bit of the growth in the system if your interested on how its looking at the moment..

Not much has happened with the aquaponics of late which is a good thing on one hand but frustrating on the other... The fish are all well & happy (so they tell me) with the growth in the beds travelling along fine.. The celery is still being picked every couple of days & the strawberries have been fruiting well..

Harvested our first aquaponic pepino last weekend which was great.. There are a load on there with a few easily 50% larger than the fruit above :D
Really hoping to get the grow beds sorted out into their new positions by the start of spring.. First a wicking bed needs to be pulled down & the ground levelled to make room for them.. The new configuration should free up some space to try out a few new ways to grow plants with the system..

Hanging with the Chooks...
The chooks are at the top of their game at the moment.. Greedy decided to moult at the start of winter, which was a bit of a concern to us, but grew back back a fine set of feathers just in time for the few cool nights we have had this winter.. Have started to make up 2-3 lots of sprouted wheat a week for the girls.. I think they now recognise the sprouting jar as there is much flapping & excitement when we go wandering down to the pen with it.. Have also had a go at growing them some wheat sprouts as a fodder crop in the aquaponics but have shelved that idea for a little while :)

Hope to make a start on the modified feeder & shall do a bit of a report on that once it is done for those interested..


Wandering the patch...
Have got stuck into a few jobs around the place of late getting the patch ready for the warm season crops.. There are some tomato, eggplant & capsicum seedlings that have just started to germinate which is a great sight to see..
 

Some water chestnuts have also made it into some small 100mm pots to give them a bit of a head start before going into the sedge bathtub bed that will be set up near the aquaponics..

 The yacon are starting to throw up shoots  & I think we will have more than enough for our purposes this year.. Have quite a few earmarked for other people & have already given a fair few away.. 

Made a decent start in setting up the new front yard garden beds as well.. There are now 4 IBC wicking beds along the front retaining wall with another 4 going in over the coming weeks.. The first 2 beds have the asparagus in them with some heirloom corn planed for at least one of the other beds..  Hope to do a post on them by themselves once they are in & growing :)

Garden walk around clips..
Have a couple of clips on whats happening in the patch at the moment... The first is of the front yard last week before the new beds went in..

The pigeon pea still havent been harvested but when they have I shall post about our attempt at making humus with them...Should be interesting methinks..


The second clip is of the backyard patch with a bit of a quick look at the 2 new pineapple flowers that have just started to form :)

Hope to make a proper start to the insect house extension soon as well (looks at list of jobbies).. After last seasons success with keeping the fruit fly out I think we might finally get a chance at growing some decent tomatoes & capsicums :) 

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Well that brings us roughly up to date... Shall post some project updates over the next few days to bring the blog up to speed all proper like ;)
Hope all are well & happy out there & have been having fun in the garden..
Cheers,
Rob..

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Just a update walk through Clip....

& an update on the Bucket experiment... (lazy I know....)

Shall do a proper post soon on whats been going on in the patch later this week...

Have a great one all!!!

: )»

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Wicking Vs Global Buckets...
Have been watching a few clips on You Tube on the Earth Boxes & the DIY versions including the Global Buckets... I have decided to give the Global Buckets a shot as I can see the merits of the system... I wanted to do a comparison between the Global & Wicking buckets just to see which method will produce the best crops for us due to the limited garden space I am allowed...

Will be following the Buckets progress in the weekly Walk through the patch just to show the growth between the 3 lots of plants...

Walk through the Veggie Patch...

It has been 7 days since the seeds were planted into punnets & placed into the mini makeshift hot box but still no sign of any shoots so a bit disappointed there...
In the Box I put,
6 Purple Cauliflower
6 Sugarloaf Cabbage
3 Dwarf Kale
3 Red Russian Kale
3 Yellow Capsicum
4 Perennial Capsicum
4 Udumalapet Eggplant
We have had cooler nights so a Styrofoam Hot Box may be built to give them a kick start...
 
New Seeds...
We received some more seeds from Eden Seeds this week...
Snake Bean, Black seeded
Bean, Blue Lake climbing (organic)
Eggplant, Rosa Bianca (organic)
Eggplant Udumalapet
Cauliflower, All Year Round
Cucumber, Muncher Burpless
Cabbage Walking stick...

The a few seeds of the Walking Stick Cabbage, 2 beans, Cauliflower & the Rosa Bianca Eggplant will be planted out into punnets today... Will be a tight squeeze in the patch but not too worried as there are 4 Wicking barrels that can be made up if need be + the old Sweet Potato bed can be cleaned out...


I have been told no more gardening until some chairs get fixed & a chair rail goes up in the dining room... Must get to it me thinks...

Have a great one all...

: )»

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Update Video... 
Another walk through the yard...

Compost Tea...
Oops....Forgot include the Tea into the Video... I did up a smaller, more concentrate batch using the air stone & molasses... I didnt really notice a difference between the control plants & the watered ones this week but will give it 3 more weeks/batches of the tea & then report back...

Other bits...
 There are a few jobbies I need to finish off that were not done on the weekend like potting out the Pineapple & removing some shade cloth but should have them knocked off by the weekend...

Harvested to first of this batch of Zucchini yesterday along with a Cucumber & 2 smallish Eggplants... The Zucchini & Eggplant are going into a sauce in about 10 min... : )»
We had some soil & sand delivered to make up some more Wicking barrels & accidentally got too much sand so it looks like we might just have to build another bed in the next few weeks... Such a shame... Hope B? doesnt mind...                 **very cheeky GRIN**
We put the batch of manure we had into the barrels last weekend so got 8 more bags on Friday... B? hasnt seen them as of yet..  Have also thought up another stage in the compost screening process, shall be built later this week, that should make the job of breaking it down faster...
We are also putting the finishing touches on our first pond in the garden which should be stocked with some Pacific Blue Eye fish & some plants later today....
**Does BIG HAPPY DANCE**

Thats about it for now...
Have a great one all....

: )»

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A bit slack with the updates so shall post the clips as I do them here now..



Hope everyone had a great Christmas with their loved ones..

:)»

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Update Video...
 The Monday morning update video might become a regular occurrence to help us keep track on the gardens progress as a whole me thinks... If Im too boring let me know & I shall try to incorporate a jig or square dance in the middle to liven it up...

Have a great week all....

: )»

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Has been a tad warm here over the past week but nowhere near as bad as some of the southern states.. The garden worms chooks & fish have pulled through just fine with only one casualty (daughters pennyroyal) so happy about that..



Now the weather has cooled off a bit I will be planting out some seedlings & tackling some odd jobs to get the patch ready for Autumn.. Will be pruning the rest of the Chinese elm & some of the mango them running it through the mulcher... This will be mixed with some horse manure & left to compost a bit.. It will eventually become Autumns top up mulch for the beds...
For more regular updates about the patch come visit us at https://www.facebook.com/Bitsouttheback

Have a great one All...

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Have been meaning to do a clip for the past week but just havent gotten around to it... Today was a sick day for the girls (dreaded cold/flu has set in here) so I went for a wander with an umbrella..

Root Knot Nematodes..

Here is a bit of a look at what root knot nematodes did to the beetroot that were grown in the barrel before the okra was planted out in there.. These nematodes set up home in the roots of your plants reducing plant vigour & in some extreme cases, suck that much nutriment out of the plant that they can die.. We have had a bit of a problem  in a few beds but think that we have them on the run with the molasses mix..
Molasses mix for root knot nematode..
1L/1quart of molasses
4L/4quart of water
Mix well together & water into 2m²/2yrd² of infected garden bed.. Once this mix was applied to the barrel the warrigal greens bounced back surprisingly quickly.. I was extremely impressed to say the least..
Hope that helps anyone else trying to battle these tiny pests..

Hopefully there will be more in the next walk through clip in the way of winter plant starts
For more regular updates about the patch come visit on the Bits out the Back Face Book page..
Have a great one All...

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Hi there folks..
Has been a few months since a post was made on this poor neglected blog, so here you go..
Took the camera for a walk around the yard yesterday to do a bit of an update on the various gardens in the patch..  Didnt show much of the aquaponics as that would of turned it into an epic ;-)



Am looking forward to the upcoming changes & sorting out some more fruit trees for both the front & back yards.. Once the PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate course) has been completed I hope to have time to sort out a workable plan with Bianca so we can get cracking..

Hope to have a few more updates posted here in coming weeks..
Cheers all..

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Walkthrough...
Just a quick one as not a lot has happened this week due to the holidays which meant Visitors & Visiting...

On a sad note...
I think we may be pulling out Bed #5...
On a happier note, Wit is going to be replaced with an Aquaponics set up...

**Does happy dance**

Have been reading up on a lot of information on fish farming & Aquaponics as well as watching the multitude of videos available on the net... It will be good to grow some of our own protein... Due to local regulations meat Chickens are out of the questions... We are hoping to include the worms in the system as food as well as active participants within the grow beds... We purchased 3 IBC (Intermediate Bulk Container) tanks to turn into Fish tanks & Grow beds... I wont be rushing the project due to upcoming nuptials but will be spending most of the honeymoon building the system... Maybe... If Im allowed... 
I could Rabbit on about it for ages but shant due to the fear of loosing my hairy noggin...

Have a great one all...
: )»

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