Composting for your Garden - By Kay de Gunst

 

Composting Facts:

Compost added to soil can reduce moisture loss by up to 73% and improves the soil structure.    Compost turns waste into food for soil organisms and nutrients for plants. Anything that has previously been living, including vegetable matter and prunings, can be composted but avoid bones and meat because they can attract vermin.

 

Making compost is like making lasagne; you need lots of thin layers of material.  You are relying on worms, insects, fungi, bacteria and other tiny organisms to break everything down.   Arranging your compost as thin layers of materials allows organisms to more easily work their way through the mix.

 

What to Compost:

A huge variety of organic waste can be recycled onto your compost heap. The secrets of good composting are that a percentage of high carbon materials such as straw, paper, mulched wood and twigs, dead leaves, sawdust, chipped wood waste, hay and a smaller percentage of high nitrogen materials such as animal manure, grass clippings, green weeds, vegetable waste, blood and bone are used.

 

Materials to be composed should be moistened so that by squeezing a sample, only a few drops of water are released.   If the compost material is too wet, the system will not work.   Mashing and chopping up tough material will help it compost down. 

You will need:

Nitrogen-rich organic material (grass clippings, animal manures, green waste)

Small particles (chip ingredients by hand or use a mower or shredder)

Moisture (the materials should feel like a damp sponge)

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What to Plant 

Below is a list of plantings suitable for our area this next month.  

• Seeds to be planted directly into your prepared ground:

Asian Vegetables; French Beans / Snake Beans; Beetroot; Cabbage; Carrots; Cauliflower; Leeks; Lettuce; Marrow; Mustard Greens; Onions; Parsnips; Potatoes; Radish; Shallots; Silverbeet; Squash; Sweet Corn; Sweet Potatoes;

 

• Seeds to be planted into seedling trays:

Cabbage; Chilli;  Capsicum; Cauliflower; Celery; Lettuce; Silverbeet; Tomatoes.

• Strawberries:  Prepare sites for runners to be planted out later this month.

              

 

The club has a seed bank library consisting of seeds from our member’s gardens.   Club members have the opportunity to swap or select organic seeds for their own home garden use.   Look for it at the meeting; it is on a table against the wall opposite the entrance.

 

 

 

Growing abundant food in hot drought conditions -  by Pam Burgess

 

The level in the dam is going down, looking really sad now. We have been praying for rain for months. We do not live in Far North Qld, maybe the message got garbled. Anyway, with most things starting to look pale green & crispy instead of luscious & vibrantly green, shade has become the most important tool in my garden, after water.

 

The larger Poinciana, Banana, White Cedar & Palm trees as well as the bamboos are offering respite to all things green in their sphere of influence, grass is still lush, herbs & green leafies are all still producing well, and the ginger & turmeric are growing extremely well. (Providing the goannas don't get their snouts & claws in underneath.)

 

But what about the sunny zones? Well, we had to become more inventive out there, so what did we do? For starters Pete found some old frames that used to protect trees from horses, they got hauled up to the orchard, a heavy layer of mulch was applied over well fed & well watered soil surrounding newly transplanted Jackfruit & Jaboticaba trees. I then scavenged a few good-looking dried palm fronds, cut them in half & tied them to the top of the metal frames, et voila --- light shade during the worst of the days heat.  By adding comfrey plants around the edges, extra nutrients will be mined from the sub soil, bought to the surface into their leaves, giving me a very convenient chop & drop way of feeding my young trees in passing. The comfrey enjoyed the extra shade too.

 

What about the veggie patch? Yes, we have an English style patch in the 2nd orchard, in the sun. So, when almost all of the plants had done their dash, out they came to become ground cover mulch under the Pomegranate tree. The bed got a good dose of well rotted cow manure, a millmud dump mulch & soil mix, plenty of water, then a 6" to 8" layer of sorghum mulch. I then decided to plant according to the moon phases, so on week one of the new moon I opened up the mulch just far enough to create a planting space & in went the green leafy seeds (Bok Choy, Perpetual Spinach, Sunflowers, Millet, Cow Peas, Spring Onions, Chinese greens, Brussel Sprouts).

 

Week 2 of the new moon, heading up to full moon I have planted anything that fruits, like corn, runner beans, more leafy greens, a few zucchini seedlings are looking ready to transplant too & some flowers for the bees. I have some beetroot seeds just poking through the surface in their pots, perhaps I will transplant them next week, or else I will have to nurture them for 5 weeks.

So here are a few photos of life out at Bucca Haven, where there is always something to eat in the garden. All year round.