Peek a Boo

Bella looking a little sleepy

East Coast - Heatwave 2017

Vacant Koala tree

It maybe hot outside, but in the bush its nice and cool!
Alas, no Koala sightings today.

Early morning at  the top of the block

Jen and Rog
Email: honeydaleqld@gmail.com

Grass growing season

Regular Summer rains ensure that the grass just keeps growing.

Whilst Rog is recuperating, I have taken over the responsibilities of keeping the grass under control.  This has meant learning some new skills.

First up, mastering the ride-on lawn mower, which is a small tractor in its own right. I can now re-fuel the Lawn Boss by myself, attach the trailer and perform a tricky reverse park into the shed. 

Next, I took up the line trimmer, learning how best to tackle the edges and bush that can not be reached with the mower.  

This weekend I clocked up some hours on the mower.  Starting with the grass verge, inside the front fence and then around the shed and garden. 

Until the winter dry season, I feel this will be an ongoing weekly task.  Nevertheless, it is a satisfying when the end result looks good.

Jen and Rog

Email: honeydaleqld@gmail.com

Photos by Roger and Jennifer Holt

Garden 2 - Beans and other vegetables

It has been almost four weeks since we planted beans, sweet corn, pumpkins, cucumbers and various melons in Garden 2.

Beans and Sweet Corn

Melons and Cucumbers

The veggies are going at a good pace but we still have to wait a bit longer before we can enjoy the fruits of our labour.

Jen and Rog

Email: honeydaleqld@gmail.com

Photos by Roger and Jennifer Holt

Update - Garden 2

Today, New Year's Day 2017, we checked the gardens as is our routine and found that the beans and corn we planted on 27 December 2016 had sprouted.

Day old bean sprout

Sweet corn sprout

Meanwhile, the original garden (Garden 1) is still producing beans, basil, silver beet, squash, tomatoes, rocket, carrots and a few other items.

Rock melon and a Roma Tomato

We have been getting a few rock melons, these are very sweet and we have been having them Spanish style, a slice of rock melon topped with a slice of the locally smoked ham as an entree.

We found a "before" photo of the area where garden 2 is now located, compare it with the recent photo.

July 2016

January 2017

The introduced exotic plants (rhododendron and morning glory), an obsolete above ground pool and several steel poles (to be recycled as fence posts) were removed.

Jen and Rog

Email: honeydaleqld@gmail.com

Photos by Roger and Jennifer Holt

First Planting of Garden 2

We arrived at Honeydale a few days before Christmas to the sight of several trees that had fallen during a storm the previous night.  That night we had another storm so the following morning the chainsaw and the woodchiper came out.  

Removing fallen trees was not included in the plan but it had to be done.  We returned to the main task of completing the garden fence which was duly completed.  The tractor came out and we ripped the new garden, given the boring name of “Garden 2.”  The soil pH was tested and dolomite applied as the soil was acidic.  Compost was then spread over the two garden beds that will be planted out.  The ripper was exchanged for the rotary hoe and the compost mixed in with the soil.

Two garden beds were marked out and prepared, slightly raised for better drainage and the reticulation installed.  The new reticulation valve station was completed and the reticulation for Garden 1, the original vegetable garden, was tidied up.  Having prepared the garden beds and a working reticulation system it was time to plant out the two garden beds.

Jenny watering the seeds

In Bed 2.1 we planted four different types of beans and sweet corn.  In Bed 2.4 we planted pumpkins, zucchini, melons and cucumbers.  All these plants can tolerate the heat that we expect to get in January and February.  If things go well we should be harvesting in March and April.

Beds 2.2 and 2.3 have been left fallow so the vines from the pumpkins and melons can ramble without overrunning other plants.

Jen and Rog

Email: honeydaleqld@gmail.com

Photos by Roger and Jennifer Holt

Fencing the Veggie Garden

We spent a weekend making fence posts from some salvaged steel section.  This involved cutting the steel to length, welding caps both ends of the steel section, drilling then painting.  The next weekend we dug 11 holes for the posts and last weekend we put the poles in, hung the gates then strung the wire.

The fence is 1.2 meters high with vermin resistant netting.  The old fence, which was in place when we purchased Honeydale was constructed from chicken wire and a few star pickets.  It did keep out wildlife but was not very secure and the gate was of an old bush design.

View of existing garden from the south.

We have three gates, one for general access and two, one at either end, wide enough for our tractor and its implements.   The new fence includes an additional 250 square meters of garden beds plus access paths and turning areas for the tractor.  We anticipate after the beds have been tilted we will use the access paths and turning areas for pumpkins, cucumbers, melons and other spreading plants.

Person gate and northern tractor gate

While we had the old fence down we did have to keep an eye open as one of the wild bush turkeys made several attempt to get past us to have a scratch around in the garden.  Eventually it got the hint and went to the new garden beds, which are not yet fenced, to scratch around.  We were closely monitored by Bella koala from one of her favoured trees overlooking the garden.

We had to leave a section of the old fence behind as the vines from the Queensland Blue pumpkins are tangled up in the netting.

The Supervisor

 Next weekend we will trench in the water supply pipe from the bore, put in the manifolds and cabling for the reticulation then complete the remaining 30 meters of fencing.  We need to get the trenching and part of the reticulation done as it will run along the fence line.

Then we can start preparing garden beds for our autumn planting, beans, peas, potatoes and onions.  We will also be planting more rhubarb and asparagus crowns.   The aim is to grow enough vegetables to be totally self sufficient by the end of 2017.

Jen and Rog

Email: honeydaleqld@gmail.com

Photos by Roger and Jennifer Holt