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Category: Garden

Tardissing the Space Part 2 – Working with Space Time

I have 30 square metres of raised vegie garden beds. It’s not enough! I could make good use of double that without running into soil building or harvest distribution problems, but it’s all the space I can really spare for annuals on this little 500m2 suburban block. But by halving the amount of time a plant spends in the garden, I effectively double the garden space.

Soil Building Part 3 – Worm Farm

This is the third, and last of my three major soil building factories – the worm farm. The hardest part was getting the cast iron bathtub. It was on Gumtree as a giveaway, come and get it, bring a trailer. Beauty. What they didn’t say was that it down over the edge of the drive on a slippery muddy slope at the top of a very steep driveway with no…

Soil Building Part 2 – Seaweed brew

Chooks and worms do the bulk of my soil building, but compost can only contain the micronutrients of the ingredients that go into it. Using some ingredients from trees that deep mine subsoil, and some weeds that are dynamic accumulators helps, but the hero for micronutrients is seaweed, and the best way I’ve (yet) discovered to process it is by fermenting.

Madagascar beans

First pick (of many to come) of Madagascar beans for storage. In my subtropical climate, I’m looking at bananas (including plantain), cassava, taro, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, yams and beans as storable calories, and these Madagascar beans look like becoming a mainstay of the system.

A double handful of little bits of plastic, including bread tag, soy sauch pouch, packaging, and stickers.

Plastic in the Soil

One day, our grandchildren will be cursing us for the microplastic s in their eggs and vegetables, in the same way way and just as vehemently as we curse our grandparents for the lead. And just like them, we, know, but we don’t want to know.