Back in the garden - Bus life on hold

After over 12 months on the road, living and working from our motorhome (#forkthebus - that's a whole story in itself that you can find on our facebook Finchys Australia page if interested,) we find ourselves living in the driveway at my parents house.

Not far from where we lived at our permaculture property, they have good soil, good rainfall and a temperate climate, although going into Winter now after chasing the sun for the last year feels like the South Pole.
However, mid to late Covid-19 Autumn is a perfect time to get in the garden and plant winter crops.
My dad, (Johnno) and I refurbished and extended his vegie patch.

In southern Australia it's time to plant winter greens and root vegetables. We are planting by the moon and running with a 4 bed rotation system. So we planted vegetables that grow above the ground in the New Moon Phase (1).

Bed 2 is our Brassica's bed which includes leafy greens, silverbeet and spinach etc.

We planted Broccoli, Silverbeet, Perpetual Spinach, Rocket, Mesclun Salad Mix and Baby Spinach.
This bed needs manure and blood and bone turned into before planting. Chicken manure is ideal but needs to be old, anything fresh will burn the new plants. Our new load of soil we had delivered had poultry manure in it already, mostly duck shit, so is ideal for these crops.

In the First Quarter Moon Phase (2) plant above the ground again. We planted into Bed 1.
Bed 1 is our Legumes Bed or peas and beans. We planted Dwarf Peas, Climbing Peas, Climbing Snap Peas and Broad Beans.

The tags I use are old venetian blinds cut up. Write on them with pencil and then rub it off and re-use.
I write the date planted P, the date to harvest H, and any other details that will jolt my memory about their care as they grow. The legume bed only likes organic matter, potash but no nitrogen.

Permaculture course - 2005

In 2005, I completed a Permaculture course in Adelaide and designed the small property we now live on in the Limestone Coast in South Australia. I love to learn,design,create and share what I am passionate about and what I discover.

I have been fortunate to have worked with many elderly people during my life that have shared their gardening tips and tricks with me.

My garden is an experiment as much as anything. We have 5 acres of land which was once a quarry. The site is on a slope and half of it has been scalped by machinery. It has a combination of soils and surfaces spread over it including sand, clay, limestone, bedrock and the lovely red terra rosa dirt.

My main experiment is to grow the gardens and revegetate it only on rainfall. 

We are fortunate to average 750ml a year, but that is an average since 1923. In 2006, we only had 485ml, and was the year I began planting.  I have hedged my bets and planted shrubs and trees in the well draining areas that only need 200-400ml per year, similar to Adelaide; and indigenous species and vegetable gardens and orchard where the soil is richer and deeper. 

Looking down the hill in the photo, the red terra rossa soil is now the vegetable garden. The house sits on higher ground to the left. The vegetable garden is watered from its own rainwater tank which gravity fills from the overflow of the two rainwater tanks for the house.