Jarrah saw dust

I sourced some jarrah saw dust for the garden and we picked up a big bag of it last Sunday. It has a red ocker colour, fine consistency and a lot of dust came up when we bagged the saw dust for the tansport. Again demonstrated how little occupational safety and health is involved and how little we were prepared for the dust. We tipped two bags each straight into the raised garden beds. Not sure what is next to prepare the soil for good winter planting. There was enough to fill the beds half and we had leftover for a decent stock pile close by. 

I watered the saw dust in and it takes a lot of water. It seems to keep the water well, as layers further below were still dry. I could not find much on the internet about jarrah saw dust and gardening. Probably a too rare material to come across here in Perth. I made sure that the jarrah is untreated otherwise I would not have allowed it into our garden. The jarrah saw dust comes from a metropolitan backyard mill. The timber originates from the old Emu Brewery in Fremantle. It was never treated and is now finding a new purpose, being turned into floor boards.

The next months will be a bit of trial and error  will check what to do with it and how to best use the saw dust. This morning I put a bucket full into the next compost batch with a bucket of greens, a bucket of emu  manure and a bucket of leaves. Will tonight add moist cardboard and see what else I can prune into the mixture.

A friend gave me more zucchini plants, hybrids unfortunately, but I still planted the four seedlings yesterday. One went into garden bed three and this morning there is no trace of it. This must be the capital of the slater population, the place they want to keep free for parties, where they try to keep the ground clear of any vegetation. Two seedlings went into tomato pots. As the tomatoes are on the way out I thought the new plant would have time to establish and grow. By the time zucchinis would be ready for harvest the tomatoes can be removed. Both plants were in the centre of a slater nursery this morning and I doused them with a pyrethrum-chilly-garlic spray. That might assist.  The fourth plant fared the best. It went into a newly cleared area next to garden bed two. I just added compost and put it straight into the ground. Watered well and covered the surroundings with straw. It looked pretty unscathed this morning.

My moon planting calender showed a good time slot yesterday for planting root vegetables. So I finally added heirloom carrot seeds that I got for my birthday last year to the bed. I also planted a ginger rhizome at the edge of bed one after noticing that it started sprouting in my kitchen cupboard. I also found fresh growth in a spot in bed one where I grew some sweet potatoes in the past years. We must have overlooked a bulb or two and nature takes its course. The leaves look healthy and I added straw to mulch the spot and assist the plant in getting to the moisture and nutrients it needs. 

The weather is friendly, we had a few cooler days with temperatures in the high twenties. Friday's prediction goes up to 40degrees again, need to increase the mulch and water well.  Yesterday morning I watered with seasol and gave the plants a treat. With the additional watering in this hot weather, nutrients are more likely to wash out and need to be replenished. The plants simply need a bit more love and care.