cage update october 2011
Crops have been turned over and new plantings are starting to develop well. We are finally working out what grows here… should be a good spring.
cage update august 2011
The cage planting has been reorganised somewhat to make it easier to get to and weed and tend the plants.
A strip around the inside edge has been left free along with several walking strips through the middle of the plantings to allow foot room. It was very hard to get access to anything before without standing on plants.
Part of this involved stripping out the test plantings of sprouting broccoli. They were about up to 60-70 cm high before i removed them – forgot to take shots of them… doh. but very leafy and tasty despite not very big flower heads.
New plantings: Purple podded peas, gold snow peas, to grow up the walls, a long row of sicilian purple cauliflower and a patch of long pod broadbeans.
Also the two dwarf Apple trees have been pruned back ready for spring sprouting.
Current test plants include:
- cabbage – very good so far
- mixed lettuce – all very good so far especially the cos
- wasabi lettuce – slow but good so far
- cornsalad and tatsoi – slow but ok so far
- bok choy - slow but ok so far
- spinach - slow but ok so far
- silverbeet - slow but ok so far
- oregano - slow but ok so far
- mizuna - slow but ok so far
- peas - slow but ok so far
- snowpeas - slow but ok so far
- scarlet runner bean – put it in very late but got good growth for a shirt time and a decent sized root for regrowth this spring – should sprout again soon
- 2 compact apple trees planted in July – no growth yet
It looks kind of minimal atm but a lot of the small seedlings are hidden by the lucerne mulch.
cage stage 1
This is stage 1 of building the cage for growing vegetables in a hostile environment. It is designed to be free of wallabies, bower birds and possums all of which strip growth very quickly.
It is in a property near narrowneck, on the edge of the cliffs, and in open sun and wind on a sloping area facing north west. The trees generally don’t grow very here due to wind.
It is made with hardwood eucalypt and meshed galv wire and then bird mesh on top of that.
The mesh is open enough to allow pollinators through.
The ground area is to be built up with added soil and lucerne.
