No walk for you!

So the last three days have been an exercise in patience. I came home Sunday afternoon to find that the garden had been... well turned and fouraged through I guess is the best way to say it. She knew she had done the wrong thing because she was following me until she saw where I was headed. As soon as she saw I was walking toward the garden she turned around and went in the opposite direction. When I called her to come and have a look at the mess she had made - she crawled at ground level and would not come any closer than 2m. I proceeded to growl at her to get to bed, got her lead, showed it to her and angrily said "No walk"and felt my heart break as I saw hers do the same. Dogs are much like children I guess - while it tears you up inside to discipline them, their pathetic looks are verging on the ridiculous and it is all your willpower not to laugh at them at the same time.

The damage...

I managed to kind of rearrange the plantings and figured I had probably only really lost one or two seedlings and most would survive. After 24 hours of no walk and no attention you would think she would understand but no, she went back for more, same treatment and then 3rd day... same again. When I spoke to my sister she said she vaguely remembered seeing something on Dr. Harry about not planting a garden in front of your dog as their natural instinct tells them that you are burying something for them to find. I think come the 3rd day of fouraging for food has left me with the sugarsnap peas, two carrott seedlings, a beetroot and possibly a kale.

The problem...

I couldn't go on being angry with her and 3 days without a walk is no good for the situation. She is a kelpie so she doesn't do anything slowly, but she has slowly moped around the backyard for the last 3 days with her tail between her legs and I can stands no more! She's pretty but she is not the sharpest tool in the shed - so I figured I would starve to death before she learned the lesson. Enter chicken wire.

The solution (I hope).

Lets see how that goes. If she really wants to get in I am sure she will, lets hope she wants a walk more.

• Seasol watered into everything this week (yesterday).
• More sugarsnap peas planted.
• Silverbeet planted.
• Parsnip (hollow crown) planted. 

No dirt, no-dig!

Finally found out where I can get lucerne and straw from in Wollongong (as an internet search doesn't turn up much) and ended up at Woonona Pet and Produce on Bellambi lane. I believe it was about $12-$13 a bale of lucerne that had been water damaged and $3 or $4 for a bag of straw. Mowed the lawns and kept the clippings. Today I used Costa's no-dig recipe (minus the rock-dust as I din't have any and with a few sprinkles of blood and bone throughout). I also didn't have any compost ready to go and so I planted my seedlings that are in coir pots straight into the bed in some extra seed raising mix. Bit of an experiment, we'll see how that pans out.

As the third layer called for dried leaves and my usual hessian sack of them had been exhausted on the compost bin, today turned out to be a great demonstration of David Holmgren's 11th Permaculture Design Principle "Use Edges and Value the Marginal" as my place backs onto a laneway which acts as a wind tunnel and collects leaves just outside the back gate and along the back fences. Score!

Use Edges and Value the Marginal...

Seedlings fresh from the greenhouse.

Love the colours in beetroot seedlings.

Most of these seedlings were planted either on the 22nd May or the 30th May but due to spending most of that time in a sunless backyard they aren't as well developed as they should be. They have really started to go well after a vacation in the greenhouse though.

The beds received about 4 layers of the lucerne, chicken poo, molassus combination, straw on top and then the sugarsnap peas were planted in the two top corners as a frame will be put up so they can climb up and form an arch way over into the next garden bed. (I am saying that is for my 2 year old nieces enjoyment but lets be honest, who doesn't like an archway made of edibles?). Then I have planted a row of carrots down the middle, and beetroots down the edges with silverbeet and kale in the rows in between the root vegetables. This is in an attempt to make efficient use of space, one row root vegetable (grows down) next grows up (i.e. kale or spinach) and more fits in the bed but there is enough room for everyone. 

Sugarsnap peas (6 weeks old).
Love the shape of their leaves.

Everything was watered and another no-dig garden was created in preparation for the Asparagus. Asparagus seeds from Eden - soaked for a couple of hours and a few different approaches. Single seeds sown into three coir pots. Six single seeds sown into egg cartons, that in my head will break down perfectly and just at the right time for them to be planted straight into the no-dig bed. Then I have sown a line of seedlings in seedling tray that has two week old kale, bok-choi and carrot seedlings. I also planted onion (Gladalan) seeds (also from Eden). 

The finished product... YAY!

All done. Time to eat!

Starting with seeds...

Seedlings planted into coconut coir pots around the 15th May. Sugar snap peas, kale, beetroot, spinach, fennel, carrots, lettuce and rosemary. Ready for the big move to Wollongong. Sprouted and growing slowly but they don't really start to get their grow on until I get a hold of my sisters mini hot house. A clear plastic "tent" covering four shelves... and it gets hot in there. The sugarsnap peas are going for gold and ready to be planted out so I really need to get to work on the garden beds.

So far these seedlings have been given the seasol treatment every two weeks and they were sown into what I was informed was good quality seed raising mix. One compost bin is full, a black plastic regular 60L bin from bunnings (eek!) with holes drilled all around it and on the bottom. It smells a lot like a mulchy forest floor so I am taking that as a good sign... lets see how long it takes to compost down. The padres radishes are ready to go - they love the wollongong sun, the poor radishes I sewed in my sunless Sydney pad before I left haven't even started to form their bulbs (some 3 months later!). Asparagus seeds have arrived and I am not sure I am happy with the 2 years it will take for them to become productive but as they say... You should have planted your asparagus yesterday.