Transplanting Fruit Trees

We used the winter period this year to transplant three fruit trees: one orange and two plum trees. All trees are mature fruit trees that have not been pruned for a while, about 10 years old, but that's hard to say. All have nearly the same height, around 3 m plus.

This was the first time that we have attempted to transplant trees. Julian doug them out carefully, pruned the roots and wrapped them with black plastic for the transport. The ute came again in handy and the first tree was tied to the car with the branches facing into the wind. Luckily there was not a big distance to travel.

The branches were held together with some plastic mesh as well. We had to dig out a peppermint tree to make room for the orange tree, the first one to be transplanted. 

We prepared the soil well at this end, lots of compost, worm tea and some bentonite to assist with the retention of water in summer. It was surprising how light the tree actually was with only little soil left on the roots. We easily carried it to the hole we prepared earlier and doug a bit wider and deeper than actually needed. This orange tree had quite a shallow root system.

We positioned the tree in the hole and turned it to match the space best. The leading root should position into the wind we were told. Fortunately the tree's new location is quite protected behind the garage door in a sunny corner or the garden.

We had to adjust the height of the roots to ensure that the trunk ended up again level with the soil. We left a bit of a ditch, to make watering in summer easier; and after a good soaking for a few days we topped the area under the tree with mulch, leaving enough space around the trunk to prevent rott.

The tree still had a lot of leaves and some oranges too. They were quite small, visible sign of underfeeding and poor care in the past. Still the tree showed plenty of buds and they now, six weeks after the actual planting they have not dropped off yet, so there is hope for some flowers in the coming season.

We are happy to have saved a tree and promise to look after it. I deplore the lack of research prior to the planting of our first tree, but when the tree found its final spot in the ground, all felt right and all is good as is. A good article about transplanting trees into the urban orchard in Perth and presented by Josh Byrne for ABC is available here.

I have been watering the tree in the past weeks without rain and am pleased that our water tanks are both full and 6,000l of water available for the coming hot season.

Pura Veda Seeds

My latest discovery and an enrichment to my breakfast choices has been a seed mixture of buckwheat, sunflower kernels, raisins, sesame seeds, millet, pumpkin seeds, linseed, poppy seeds, chia seeds and amaranth. This mixture is called pura veda seeds.  I add it to my musli for breakfast and love its taste. Alsio during the day eat it some joghurt and tinned fruit or steamed apples. I have come across thus stuff by accident through one of their promotion events at Manna Wholefoods in Fremantle about two months ago.

I have actually lost a bit of weight too without changing any of my diet. My naturopath who I visited last Friday said she rarely sees healthy people like me. A few friends of my are hooked too now. Give it a shot. I think you will like it. And the producer of this heavenly stuff don't even pay me to say this.

Winter harvest

Lettuce in pots - 5 August 2011

In our garden there is not much growing at the moment. I must have missed the days to plant winter vegetables, but still am very glad to see my neighbour Paul grow his suedes and beetroots.  There are a few kohlrabi plants and some left over sping onions still gowing from last year, but my pride and joy is the lettuce patch.

The last rain has done the lettuces well. We nearly reached average monthly rainfall for June and July, just a few mm short. One watertank is full and the other one 3/4 full, despite only a very small water collection area on the roof.

The lettuces are thriving, may be due to planting them in pots in the middle of best home made compost. Or the companionship with garlic is working out. I planted garlic in the corners between the pots, plenty of it and it has been growing just as well as the lettuce.

Snails seem to avoid the lettuce alltogether, apart from a few common garden snails (helix aspersa) that were tucked on tighly and came with me into the kitchen when I cut the leaves for dinner.  

It is a delightful pleasure to cut lettuce leaves for family meals. Just enough for a few people. Fresh and home grown it is eaten within 10 minutes of being harvested! We love it! Any leftovers go in the lunch boxes for the next day or into the next compost batch!

Lettuce patch - 25 September 2011

Pruning grape vines

Today I spotted the first growth on my grape vine. It was time for pruning and I worked for about 15 minutes using my best secateur. I know that the plant only grows flowers and bears fruit only on the new shoots therefore I cut everything back that I did not want sprouting in the wrong directions. I want the grapes to ripen along the sunny fence and want to avoid much sticking out into the garden, as one of our coffee tables is close by. 

The picture shows the branch cut off already on the table, looking quite healthy despite some insect bite marks.

I never had any training on how to prune grapes but had very good outcomes last year. In the meantime I also learned that I should cut out the weaker growth from shoots that cross each other.  I will try that in a few days when pruning our two transplanted plum trees where I already spotted some green shoots coming straight out of the trunk of the tree. Probably a sign of stress.

Happy with the outcome of my work, all that needs to be done now is to get rid of the cut-offs. I don't want to put them in the rubbish bin and am thinking of other options. Any ideas?

New water tank

Everybody is celebrating that the dry spell is over. Winter rains have arrived in Perth and given us a good downpour. Highest daily rainfall was just under 60mm on 25 June. Still, there is no reason to talk abut a wet year. March was totally dry. April and May had below  average rainfall and even the 'wet' June did not reach the average rainfall for Perth. It remained actually 4mm under the average. Here is the chart again, from http://www.watercorporation.com.au/R/rainfall.cfm:

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Total
2011	30.2	0.4	0	19.4	85	171.4	42						348.4
2010	0	0.2	40.4	25	88.6	51.4	142	63	43.6	20.6	11.6	17.4	503.8
Average	9.5	12.7	19.5	44.1	117.5	175.7	169.7	133.6	80.6	52.2	22.1	12.8	850

July has started well, with already 42mm in just three days. The weather has changed a few days ago, it is now quite cold and dry but sunny. Night temperatures have dropped to 3 degrees which is not unusual for the temperate climate in Perth.

The desire to catch as much rain as possible for use in summer made us buy another polyethylene water tank. We went again for 3000l again, to match the size of the first one. This one is a good one. Like the other one it came with a tap to harvest the water. The inbuilt overflow has a cover with mosquito mesh. The tank also has a filter for the big inflow area on the very top of the tank which allows it to be filled to the very top. We don't want to waste any of the 3000l, apart from the one that is below the waterline of the tap and difficult to access anyway. I can't wait to water the garden with rainwater during the coming summer. Twice the water in the tanks should last twice as long. I guess it will give us plenty to smile about all the way through summer.

Our water bill in the last half year has dropped considerably. We actually used 50,000l less water than the six months before. Surely the cause was more than just installing a rain water tank. It happened through being conscious and mindful of the use of water in our lives and through following all the water saving tips promoted by the Water Corporation. However, the water tank was the motivator, that it clear to me. It changed our attitude towards the availability, usefulness and preciousness of water.

The new tank was on special because of end of year sale. I saved the delivery fee of $65 and tied the tank to the ute with some proper straps. It was easy to handle and I unloaded it with my children. We rolled it in the garage on my boy's skateboard and there it stayed for a few days until we brought it through into the garden on the weekend.

The tank was a lot cheaper and is a lot better than the last one I bought two years ago from the same company. Both tanks don't match. They are different makes, but they at least have the same colour. Also, they do not stand next to each other anyway, and design purposes have rarely been a deciding factor for purchases in my life.

The inlet of this new tank is close to the side of the tank and it therefore can be positioned straight under the gutter's down pipe. The gutters got a good clean, amazing how much compost gathered in there. It went straight into the raised garden bed.

This time we did not need to prepare the base for the tank much, as the location already has some proper bricks that were laid evenly. The last time we used some rock samples as a base, compacted down with dirt and held in shape by garden bed shaping made out of thick plastic. It has worked well so far. Despite the overflow from the full tank running straight down the tank with a danger of eroding the base, it still looks good.

All that needs to be done now is to undo a few pop rivets, remove the downpipe and put the tank in place. It fits neatly under the gutters and will catch a part of the roof that previously ran off freely. I guess the roof inflow area is about 50m2 or about half the size as for the other tank. 1mm will bring in 50l. 60mm should do then to fill it. There is hope this winter. July has 100mm to go to last year's rainfall and 120mm to average rainfall. We have a few days grace to put it up, make sure the foundation is right as well.

Lettuce in pots

Lettuce in pots - planted on 22 May 2011.

The idea of growing lettuce in pots came to me from a Bulgarian gardening friend. He gave me a pot of lettuce as a present one day, just dug it up from the garden bed. It seems to be working well. The seedlings get the best nutrients straight to their roots due to the compost contained in the small pot. Their roots can venture out through the draining holes if they need more space.

I thought about cutting out the bottom of the pot to give the plant better access to the soil outside the pot, but I did not want to go that far. I want to reuse the pots until the plastic gives up. Therefore the pots were left as they came to me.

Lettuce in pots - 3 July 2011

The lettuces have grown well in the past weeks. It has been six weeks since I planted them or at least since I took the photo above. We harvested three decent salads so far. I simply picked the outside leaves, gave them a thorough wash, included a capsicum that was ready to be picked too and we could eat the most delicious salad.

The second generation lettuce was seeded when I planted the first lot. It was ready today to be planted out and again I used old pots to give them a good start in best home made compost.

There is a variety of salads, simply seeded from a mixed lettuce seedlot, not sure whether they are heirloom varieties. The next lot would be ready to go, but I though these will do me for the next weeks and I decided to seed other plants, just not sure which ones. Will consult the plant calender and wait for the moon to change.

It has been a while since I have written the last post, my kitchen ceiling was replaced and demanded a more comprehensive paint job not only of the ceiling but of the whole kitchen. It has been completed and the place is ready for us to move in. It felt great to paint and to see the bright new colour reflect the light. The garden had to suffer, but things happened that I will write about soon, such as the arrival of a new water tank and of two transplanted fruit trees, the digging out of several root systems of a lilac tree and more. Watch this space.

Lettuces - 27 September 2011

Lettuces starting to seed
after 50 meals we ate just picking the leaves!
10 October 2011

Mulch is spread

Beautiful mulch, organic material to enhance the productivity and biodiversity of our soil. I just noticed that I never wrote about the adventure of spreading the mulch and yesterday was the International Day for Biological Diversity.

2011 is the Year of Forest Biodiversity, but nevertheless, improving the soil of any environment is right up the aisle.

Mulch saves water and keeps the moisture in the ground. Now it finally has commenced raining and the first showers strong enough to penetrate the mulch. We want the water to stay in the ground as long as possible and nourish a healthy plant and animal live. (Only the breeding of the slaters should be exempt from that process.) The impact of mulch on biodiversity is well documented.

It took a while to spread the pile of mulch. We did not count the total number of wheel barrows that were needed to shift the 25m3 of shredded trees. We set an easy task and focused on lots of around 15 wheel narrows at a time. We used early mornings or evenings to work, as the days in March were still very hot and the work turned out to be quite intense and sweaty.

All of the front garden was covered. We also filled up two raised garden beds and spread lots of mulch in the backyard under the trees and shrubs. Not long and it will be time to order the next lot!