Recycling - Garden Project

The new side deck needs a path to the garden

Lately I have come across the interesting work of Mike Reynolds, Earthships.   So I have been saving all our cans and bottles.  We don't normally eat a lot of canned food but at present we are using a lot of organic canned tomatoes as our last tomato crop was pretty dismal (too much rain).  These cans along with a few wine bottles, herbal medicine bottles and few other odds and ends will be use as the basis of our new garden paths.  

The theory is - set the cans (or bottles) in concrete as filler when leveling areas, making steps or small walls.  The concrete sets around the cans and structure is very solid.  Because of the steepness of the block I may need to resort to using a few fly-ash blocks (manufacturing method is said to save energy, reduce mercury pollution and cost less) or tyres.  Once each section of the path is done it will then be paved with whatever left over pavers or tiles are available.

We will be working on this new path each weekend from now on and I will be posting updates.  So keep tuned.  No work today as the rain has set in.

Wrigglers

From the Wangi Garden Journal

I noticed that there are 'wrigglers' in the small garden pond.  I grew up calling mosquito larvae - wrigglers.  When I was a kid growing up on a couple of acres on the outskirts of Brisbane (Australia)  we only had tank water.  Sometimes you would pour yourself a glass of water from the tap and there would be a wriggler swimming in your glass of water. Time to treat the tanks. Of course these days, water tanks have screens and filters to prevent mosquitoes breeding in the tanks.

For my pond I need to get some native Australian fish which will eat mosquito larvae. Kevin Casey suggests in his book "Attracting Frogs to your garden" -

Pacific Blue Eye - I think we are too far south for these

Fly specked Hardyhead

Australian Smelt

Rainbow Fish from your local area

I managed to get Crimson Spotted Rainbow Fish from the local pet store.  Apparently they are native from Coffs Harbour to Tamworth.

I removed the Bacopa plant from the pond and left the Gotu Kola so there would be more room for the rainbows.  

The species I planted is an Australian Native Gotu Kola, Centella asiatica, which is recommended for frog friendly ponds. (Here's hoping - we hear frogs on rainy nights but have not seen any yet)  Gotu Kola also has medicinal properties.  I always found it quite useful for people who have trouble sleeping. It won't help you get to sleep but is more helpful for those who wake up during the night.  It may also be helpful for clarity of mind, arthritic pain and fatigue.  

One of my pet dislikes is the amount of Soy that is in our food.  Most processed food has soy in it.  Soy has been promoted as an amazing health food.  And yes, how it is eaten in the traditional Japanese diet is healthy - naturally fremented and only in small amounts.

We were not meant to eat Soy flour, textured vegetable protein or drink Soy Milk.  For more information go to Soy Alert at The Weston A Price Foundation. Gotu Kola may be helpful to those who have had too much soy in their diet.

The recommended daily dose of Gotu Kola is two leaves of 40mm diameter per adult, or the equivalent in smaller leaves. It will be bitter if grown in full sun.

Gotu Kola is usually considered safe.  However there are a few side effects to taking too much of this herb - mouth ulcers, sensitivity to the sun, increased blood sugar levels, stomach irritation and nausea.  

As with all plants allergic reactions may occur.  

Gotu Kola is contraindicated in pregnancy and while breast feeding. 

Local Climate at Wangi Garden Journal

 New Post
Local Climate at Wangi Garden Journal

Zone 1

Just planted some lovely tomatoes bushes in Zone 1 of our garden.  Part of our Zone 1 is in the front of the house as this is the easiest to access and faces north-east (Southern Hemisphere).  I have always been interested in Permaculture.  Permaculture uses Zones for efficient energy planning.  These zones can apply to farms or suburban gardens. The only modifiers are local factors such as access, slope, climate, and soil.  In our Zone 1, I have herbs and vegies that we use all the time such as tomatoes, parsley, chives, oregano, capsicum, lettuce, basil, calendula, rosemary, lavender, lime verbena, garlic, a lemon, a mandarin, a flame grapefruit plus a couple of pomegranates.  The part of Zone 1 that is in the front yard also contains climbing roses and geraniums for their beautiful flowers. 


I started by reading Introduction to Permaculture by Bill Mollison. My copy is so worn out it has started to fall apart.  However I found that this book was more orientated towards farms.  I only have a small suburban block and I wanted more help with the problems facing organic backyard gardening.

I moved onto The Permaculture Home Garden by Linda Woodrow.  I found this more suitable for a suburban block and had great ideas on how to plan a permaculture garden in a suburban garden. I specially liked the Guild Planting idea for crop rotation in small places.

Garden Journal

30 September, 2010.  In 2009, Greg and I moved to Wangi Wangi on beautiful Lake Macquarie.
We purchased a pole home with views of  Myuna Bay, Lake Macquarie.  To us, there is just one small down side and that is the backyard.  What once must have been a beautiful Australian native garden was now overgrown with lantana. The slope is quite steep.
With a vague plan to plant a vegie patch, herbs and some fruit trees, we started clearing the lantana.  Greg would spend hours chopping away at the lantana.
This area has a number of pole homes and quite a lot of landscaping using copper logs. Research suggests arsenic is only taken up in carrots, radishes and beetroot.  Never the less we decided to make the vegie patch in raised garden beds.  We purchased 4 colour bond garden beds 1.3m wide x 3.3 m long and .8m high.  This wasn't going to be easy as work needed to be done on the slope before we could place the garden beds in situ.  Plus all soil would need to be brought in and carried down to the backyard in buckets.
We started by removing two trees, one that was growing up against the house and banged against the roof in the wind.  The other tree was about to split down the middle and would have probably fallen onto our neighbour's roof.  We decided to leave all the rest of the large trees.  This gave us an additional reason to put in raised garden beds as it is really hard to grow vegies under gum trees.  We will just need to be vigilant with the falling gum leaves.

Wangi Front Yard Sept.09 Looking towards the road

4 October 2010 The front yard faces east.  The photo was taken September 2009 before any work was done. Here I planted some herbs, flower and climbing roses.  I also added two pomegranate trees (deciduous), one on the verge to the south and one north of the drive way.
Also added a chair, and small pathway between our drive way and the neighbour's driveway.  In front of this is a small vegie patch for all those things you may need in a hurry.  You might say it is my Zone 1 (Permaculture).