October

Care for this Earth and all her creatures: Sacred Fruit - Sacred food

Food is sacred.
Why have we forgotten?
That it is our body's way of connecting with this earth.

I do not understand how people have become so blind to this life, so disconnected from this earth.
Not understanding why processed food causes disease, taking the media as some form of truth, eating from McDonald's, accepting product marketing, thinking the products sold at supermarkets have any thing to do with food.

I have been making a living as a gardener for the last twenty five years.
I understand what it is like to tend a garden.
To take a ripe natural peach from a tree and eat it.
It is the most connected spiritual experiences apart from good sex and meditation that I Know.

Maybe most people have never experienced eating with a friend or a stranger from a common tree, or experienced offering the fruit to the universe before eating it.
Maybe most people aren't sensitive enough to experience the light stream from the fruit as they hold it high offering it.

Maybe our deep conditioning has broken our connections.
To offer a fruit then eat it yourself surly has undertones of taboo!
Why have we forgotten how sacred our food is, our connection with this earth?

For this reason alone it is important to grow and engage in this cycle of life.
To practice in some way in developing local community.

ABC Encounter - Rosemary Morrow
Vandana Shiva:Women, Bioengineering, and Corporations Pt.1
Vandana Shiva:Women, Bioengineering, and Corporations Pt.2

August

August
Promise of joys and disappointments

Spring - The return of life from mineral to plant is starting to quicken.
The greens are changing hue. We spend more time outdoors.

Soil temp - It be better to weight a bit, till the soil warms to plant out
to sit comfortably with a bare bum on the soil , time for beans tomato corn.

The Ornamental Garden

Magnolia - Their shallow root system dislikes being planted over, roots need protection from summer sun, mulch.

Gladiolus corms - Treat with fungicide before planting, tiny bulbs will not flower this season.
Clematis - propagate by pushing stems just beneath ground to cover new shoot, mulch.
Snow in summer, Shaster Daisies, Stokesia,(perenial aster), Gazanias, gerbera, catmint, thyme etc.. divided and replanted or potted for Christmas gifts.

Delphinium - A sorry looking bunch of dead twigs, replant mulch water.
Foxglove - in the garden encourage plant growth and disease resistance.

Check for snails - they can climb and damage the stems and trunks of shrubs and small trees. Invest in some ducks.
Pest predator relationship - is complex. The pest population will rise before the predator population. if you let nature take its course you will notice a brief flush then a diminishing. Pest are food leave them alone if possible.
Cloches - sowing begins in the open or under cloches, placed out two weeks before planting will help soil warm.

Prune

Roses - prune in colder areas.
Climbing plants - trimmed of wayward growth, especially near paths and entrances.
Grape and Passion Fruit vines - will bear fruit on new growth, cut back to two or three buds.
Lemons Gardenia - remove dead wood, .
Rosemary - reliable plant for low hedges , shape before flowering.
flowering Shrubs - shaped when flowering finishes.
lemon trees - remove dead diseased crossed wood, burn galls.

The kitchen Garden

Broad beans, Fava bean - Plant in garden, Harvest from December.
Cabbage - Start undercover in seed trays and plant out in 4-6 weeks, Harvest from November.
Kohlrabi - Plant in garden, Harvest from November.
Mustard green, gai choy - Plant in garden, Harvest from October.
Onion - Start undercover in seed trays and plant out in 4-6 weeks, Harvest from March.
Peas - Plant in garden, Harvest from November.
Radish - Plant in garden, Harvest from October.
Shallots, Eschalots - Plant in garden, Harvest from December.
Snow Peas, Sugar Peas, Mangetout, Chinese Peas - Plant in garden, Harvest from December.
Spinach, English spinach - Plant in garden, Harvest from October.
Swedes, Rutabagas - Plant in garden. Harvest from November.
Peppers, tomatoes -Start in trays, indoors.

Intergrating Water Weeding Feeding in the kitchen Garden

Weed & Feed

Out of the way, under a tree, centrally located.

What I get from permaculture is inspiration on integrating systems and behavior.
They say that one year seeding equals seven years weeding.
we remove the weeds and take to the compost heap seed and all.
We cart it back to mulch
We water with dead water.
we buy feed and mix to fertilize.
We then spend most of our garden time weeding  ?

- Simple solution -

Weed Tea
The garden waste stream is processed as to type and effects. All plants Material that I want to encourage seed and all go onto the compost, Grass weeds go directly onto the lawn.  
Weedy plants that I want to inhibit go into the tea.
The seedy weeds from the garden go in large bucket, a handful of blood and bone, ferment, water the plants from watering can. the hose is only rarely needed.
200l fresh water, float valve connects to house tank, siphons into weed bucket, always full.
Makes it easy to water and feed.
Plus a rich pulp for mulch, worms or compost.
Careful management will minimize weeding
Systems can always be improved

July Garden

July
A windy Month in the highlands

cloches help with the young plants.
http://www.veggiepatch.com.au/howto.html

Gardens and Gardening are art
A process of the soul

Forever changing like the seasons.
No static picture a thing on paper with nowhere to go
Design is process, Process by design
The garden designer is a part of their creation
The most beautiful things
have been worked and reworked many times over

July

A good time to service restore garden tools, sharpen oil secateurs saws spades etc
Put a sharpening stone on a small windmill

fruit trees - winter tree care

Never head a tree, remove dead wood and wayward branches.Trees are reactive and will replace the mass removed, the more removed the more work created the next year.
Cut to apical bud. Conscious and careful attention to growth, being prepaid to spend a number of years to obtain desired results.
Select appropriate sized trees and root stocks.

Spray -
Peaches - Leaf Curl
kocide, copper compound
at Leaf fall, Bud swell & One week later.
Winter oil - General Purpose spray
Roses – fungal diseases
Before bud break, lime Sulphur

Citrus Gall wasp - Remove & burn

Take hardwood cuttings

TRIM -
STAR JASMINE shape promote spring flowering
PHOTTNIA rim to shape promote bright red growth
HYDRANGEA cut back to two pairs of plump buds remove dead straggly wood
ROSE cold climates best left until august. Pruning is essential for the best blooms & compact bushes

Oxalis & Onion weed ,The Bane of the Garden Trowel it out, burn, Cover thickly with newspaper, mulch heavily, this may have to be repeated for a number of years in heavily infested soil. Control seeding. Replace soil. It’s sensitive to herbicides when flowering.
Divide chrysanthemums


Plant -
globe Artichoke, Asparagus crown, Lilium, Lily of the valley,Roses.
Mustard greens, Oats ,Onions, Onion - spring, Peas climbing, Peas Dwarf
Rhubarb crown, Shallots bulb Senpodia Swedes Turnip
Under cover - Cauliflower, Cress, Winter Lettuce

Feed -
Feed the bulbs before and as they die down.
Much better to make compost and incorporate the needed elements into it for desired situations.
mulch with organically bound substances, leaf matter chips straw.
liquid compost for the growing plants.
soil chemistry is slow now, N&C cycle weighted in damp cold directions processes, excess available N&C will not necessarily promote growth & be lost.

Build a hot compost as well as the kitchen Heap.
This is for the summer crop.
look to the worms,