Nothing to see.

Mid Week Blues

It seems I've got the mid week gardening withdrawal blues.

I've started a new roster for driving the Taxi that will give me every weekend to myself instead of having a split week.

But last Saturday I felt unwell and had to work on Sunday so it's been nearly two weeks since I've managed anything productive in the garden.

So that leaves me Thursday and Friday to battle through and then I've got two glorious golden days to garden my little heart away with.

I've got to clean the chook pen and spread new straw for them, organise a bin and two piles of compost. There's a gazillion seeds and seedlings to plant. And I've managed to borrow some of the neighbours backyard for planting pumpkin in so that's got to have horse manure, compost and coffee grounds added to it.

And mentioning coffee grounds, I've got buckets of the stuff to spread and add to garden beds, throw it over the lawn and in compost. It's everywhere.

I am currently enjoying some of the best broccoli I've ever grown, along with heaps of peas, lettuce, rocket and coriander. Just enough strawberries to keep me interested and the broad beans are flowering like mad but no beans yet.

Onions, garlic and beetroot are making good growth as well as radish, lettuce, purple climbing beans, Chinese cabbage and pokchoi.

 I can't get any leek seeds to sprout so I'm guessing the seed is old. It's a fresh packet but just no go. Not even one out of two sowings.

How fast does water cress grow? I think my seed has shot but it's very slow to get growing. My first time growing water cress so I've nothing to compare it with.

Not having much luck with capsicum and eggplant seed as well but that might just be from the coldish weather. I'll sow a few more this weekend and see if I have more luck.

Well that's about it for now, chomping at the bit for the weekend to get here.

Cheers

Stewart

It's planting Time.

I cheated and copied and pasted this list but it is a good comprehensive list so I'm putting it up here.

Where did I pinch it from? Well here of course. Eden Seeds Newsletter.

It's time to plant for your spring veggie garden

 

Check your needs of the following vegetable seeds now, or whatever you need for your area from the full catalogue.

Amaranth Artichoke Asparagus Bean, Bush Bean, Climbing Bean, Climbing Snake Bean Beetroot Capsicum Carrot Celeriac Celery Chilli Corn Cucumber

Eggplant Gourd Lettuce Luffa Mustard Greens Okra Pumpkin Radish Rhubarb Rockmelon Rosella

Salad Greens, Endive Salsify Spinach, Ceylon Spinach, New Zealand Squash, Button Sunflower Tomato Turnip Watermelon Zucchini Herbs

Busy day and I'm Buggered.

Busy day and I'm now more than buggered. But plenty was achieved.

I planted the Dwarf Sunray Jerusalem Artichoke that I rode all the way to Brisbane to see Jerry Coleby-Williams open garden for.

Helianthus tuberosus
 
(Dwarf Sunray Jerusalem Artichoke)

I prised a small chunk off my rhubarb some months ago and put it in a pot to hopefully grow on which I'm happy to say it has.

 So today was planting day.

A bucket of  'Witches Brew,' a hole, mix it up a bit and bung it in. Job done.

Just need to mulch it up and we're done.














The coldest and frostiest winter aroung here for years and I decide to try and over winter tomatoes.

Needless to sat they copped a hiding and aren't looking to good at all.

But with the weather slowing warming up a touch of fertiliser and a good watering I thing I'll get a good start on some tomatoes during spring.

I gave a handfull of Rooster Booster fertilised to the Lisbon Lemon I planted a few months back.

Added some mulch and gave it a good drink.

It shouldn't need much more than a regular drink from here on in. Then around the beginning of Autumn I'll give it some more Rooster Booster.

I also placed an order with The Seed Collection who were talking themselves up big on facebook so I thought I'd give them a go.

Turns out they walk the talk and I had my seeds within two days. Very efficient, I must say.

Of the seeds I ordered I only managed to get a few Red Amaranthus and some Red Cabbage planted.

But hey, It's a start.

The BoM is talking up some rain for us here on Saturday and Sunday so fingers crossed I'll get to hear the sound of rain on my tin roof this weekend and get my rainwater tank filled again.

Saturday 16 August

Cloudy. Very high chance of rain. The chance of a thunderstorm in the afternoon and evening. Light winds becoming east to northeasterly 20 to 30 km/h during the morning then becoming light during the evening.

Also did fair bit of liquid fertilising, mulched up some prunings, fixed a gutter that had a hole in it and the rain wasn't getting to the tank.


Cheers and I hope you get some rain

Stewart.

Let's do this:- Toowoomba area Backyard Veggie growing club

On Thursday, the 22nd of January, 2009 I put up a post about  forming a Backyard veggie growing club or group.

I can't believe it's taken so long to act on this idea but over the years there has been some keen interest shown and even more recently as well.

So in light of this I'm suggesting we can have a Backyard veggie growing club/group inaugural meeting.

This coming Monday, the 11th of August, 2014. Bon Amici in Margaret st.

Starting at 6:30 pm at

Cheers and tell a friend

Stewart

Planting Radish Seeds.

It doesn't get any easier than this.

Bunging a few radish seeds into a pot and six weeks later you're eating the little buggers.

Once you've planted your seeds you'll need to keep them moist and not let them dry out.

That's it, enjoy your radish.

I've also written about 'Why Are My Radish Hot.'

Herb and veggie mix.

Post by My Veggie Garden.

Cheers

Stewart

Nasturtiums

Nasturtiums Galore 

I've got Nasturtiums self sowing all over the place here but I think I might have to have a closer look.

Here's a whole heap of guff about Nasturtiums from Savour Soil Permaculture that I never new.

Hope you find it helpful.

Post by Savour Soil Permaculture.

Growing carrots in a pot.

While I was up at the Qld Gardening Expo my Mum suggested to me that I do a few stories on growing veggies in pots.

So here's the first of many as there's heaps of veggies that you can grow in pots.

I need to find a good potting mix though.

So far most mixes I've used I've found wanting in a few departments.

Anyway, this is about as easy as growing veggies gets, so why not have a go?



Cheers and happy growing veggies in pots

Stewart

I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner!

Sooner 

I don't know why I didn't think of it sooner!   

I've been putting wire cages around plants here forever to keep possums from eating my seedlings and at the same time I've been trying to work out a way to stop the white cabbage moth from laying it's eggs on my cabbages as demonstrated by the cabbage below.  

I've known about those fancy exclusion nets and such but I only grow one or two cabbage at a time.
Rarely in a row, and it seemed like a lot of effort for one or two cabbage.  

Wire Cages

Then it occurred to me, just leave the wire cages I'm using to keep the possum away over the cabbage and the moth can't get to the plant, so simple.

So simple I don't know why I haven't thought of it before.

For now I have the bigger chicken wire and the smaller bird wire covering one cabbage each.

Mainly to see if the moth can be bothered to fly through the larger chicken wire spacing.

No Support

 The cages don't need any extra support and are free standing. No need for staking or making frames up.

If it works though, I'll need to increase the overall size of my cages to account for the extra size of growth as my current cages are for covering seedlings only.

Here's the evil culprit chowing down on my broccoli.




Cheers, lets see how it goes

Stewart.

Lime Sulphur

If you're looking for something to do in your veggie garden this weekend then might I suggest a little Lime Sulphuring.

July is the right time to get stuck in and get this job over and done with and out of the way.




I'm working on the sound, I know how to improve it I just need to gather my gadgets.

Cheers and you smell like rotten eggs

Stewart.

How's The Frost Out On The Pumpkins

Post by My Veggie Garden.

And This Is why

Golden Laced Wyandottes.

Just a quicky of my chooks having a scratch in their new straw. Love my Wyandottes but they have a short laying season.

Highfields Falls

Right, here's the post as promised.

After months of trying to get all my ducks in a row it finally happened.

• The I have a motorbike duck
• The I have a licence to ride the motorbike duck 
• The I have a day off duck
• The it's not raining duck
• And the I don't feel too tired duck, all lined up and I was off to find The Highfields Falls which up until a few years ago were unheard of to me but once I'd found out about their existence I was determined to find them even if they were only 10 minutes to the North of me.

And this little booklet I picked up from the Tourism place here in Toowoomba is how I found out about the Falls. There's 52 mostly short day walks listed in the book and at this stage I plan to do each one and report back here.

I've already done several before I bought the book but I plan to do them again.

Sweet, aren't they?

Now, the Falls, like I said are only ten minutes North of me here but I did have to have two goes at finding them. Being a bloke I'm not supposed to need a map or directions so I left the book at home and went looking and while I could hear them I wasn't game to venture any further without directions. So, back on the bike and head home to get the book I goes and the second time with a decent set of instructions I found them easy peasy.

 There is three tiers to the falls the first and the third are small with this, the second, being the largest. At a rough guess I say twenty/thirty feet or so.

 This boulder was just sitting in the middle of the stream and I can only guess that it was washed there during the wild floods we had in January, 2011.

 By the time I'd finished my walk I counted seven different seed species stuck to my pants and it took a good fifteen minutes to pull them all out and off.

Last but not least the falls from a different angle.














Cheers
I've planned to ride to Inglewood and Texas and home via Stanthorpe tomorrow (07-04-13) but I'm not sure if the weather gods will be on my side.
Stewart.

Magic Monday

Hi all, well after two weeks of sinus problems and 97mls of rain I made it down to the Toowoomba community organic gardens today.

The main job I wanted to complete was to plant the broad bean seeds that I collected from last years crop to use for a green manure crop.

Job done.

The peas I planted a few weeks ago have come up and are well on their way so the next job will be to provide them some support.

Even though they are a bush pea they still grow up to one meter high and will need supporting.

Next when I got home was some new laying boxes for the chook a books.

They are about 6/7 months old so they should start laying soon, but I'm guessing they might not start until the day length starts to get longer.




The Rolls Royce of laying boxes or am I just kidding myself.














My dear wife has been getting frustrated waiting for my chooks to start laying eggs and went out to the local produce store and got herself two point of lay chooks.

So now it's a race to see who lays eggs first.

That's it for Monday,
Cheers and happy gardening,
Stewart

E-Waste Collection

Lifted word for word from


Don’t let it live out it's life for the next 10,000 years in Landfill Heaven, send it to E-waste Hell!

When: March 14, 2009
Time: 8.30am to 2.30pm
Where: Water St Carpark, Herries Street, Toowoomba City
Phone: (07) 4688 6824

More Information:
When you’re going to the store to buy your new fangled-dangle, beautifully-shiny-bright-white product, and you’re about to throw that son-of-a-bitch-broken-piece-of-crap old product in the garbage Wait! Don’t get mad, get even!

Send that five-hundred-dollar-only-lasted-18-months cell phone to get dismantled into tinsy, tiny pieces and melted down to bare trace elements.

--

The problem of e-waste in Australia is huge and growing rapidly.
- E-waste is growing at three times the rate of general waste in Australia (ABS 2006).
- In 2006, there was around 1.6 million computers disposed of in landfill, 1.8 million put in storage (in addition to the 5.3 million already gathering dust in garages and other storage areas and just 0.5 million recycled) (ABS 2006).

Electronic devices contain toxic substances, including lead, arsenic, mercury and polyvinyl chloride which can pose risks to human health and the environment if they are not disposed of safely.

The Toowoomba Regional Council will be collecting e-waste including "all computer equipment, televisions, DVD and CD players, audio gear, cameras, faxes, all phones and VHF and UHF equipment". Don’t let it live out it's life for the next 10,000 years in Landfill Heaven, send it to E-waste Hell.

Did you enjoy this article? Subscribe for free by RSS or e-mail and you’ll always know when I publish something new. (What’s RSS?).

Toowoomba area Backyard Veggie growing club

*Edit  17/08/15.   Toowoomba area Backyard Veggie growing club now has a Facebook Group Page. If you are keen to find out more about the  Toowoomba area Backyard Veggie growing club then come on over and Join up

*Edit  06/08/14. It's happening. Inaugural Toowoomba area Backyard Veggie growing club this coming Monday the 11. Click here for full details.

*Edit 10/06/14. This is one of my most often visited posts if anyone is interested will you please get in touch with me, either through the comments or email ('contact me' button in the side bar) and we can see what we can but together? Thanks, Stewart.

Just been floating this idea around in my head for the last few weeks and thought I'd run it up the flagpole.
Anyone in the Toowoomba area interested in forming a Backyard veggie growing club to gtg every 2nd week or once a month focusing on growing veggies, exchanging info and helping others with veggie problems.
This could include sustainable living, preserving food, managing livestock.
Also you could sell buy exchange or give away excess produce.

There could be field day trips, gardening demonstrations etc, etc.
Any feedback welcome.
What do you think?

Happy New Year World.

A priest and a taxi driver both died and went to heaven. St. Peter was at the Pearly gates waiting for them.
'Come with me', said St. Peter to the taxi driver.
The taxi driver did as he was told and followed St. Peter to a mansion. It had anything you could imagine from a bowling alley to an Olympic size pool.
'Wow, thank you', said the taxi driver.
Next, St. Peter led the priest to a rugged old shack with a bunk bed and a little old television set.
'Wait, I think you are a little mixed up', said the priest. 'Shouldn't I be the one who gets the mansion? After all I was a priest, went to church every day, and preached God's word.'
'Yes, that's true. But during your sermons people slept. When the taxi driver drove, everyone prayed.'

'tis the season to be silly

The silly season is upon us in taxi world.

Christmas parties and gtg's are on all around town which makes for a busy night, so busy that I worked through to sunrise and being such a beautiful morning and needing to unwind from the night a bit I decided to walk home.

It's about a 45min slightly diagonal walk from south to westish of north.

Here's some photo's I took with my phone. A kinda walk journal











4.50am









5.09am



Queens park












5.14am



Just bright fresh morning daylight











5.16am



Campbell st. looking east from Hume street.
Toowoomba should be well known for it's avenue's of Camphor Laurel streets













5.18am


This looked so much better in real. It's a salmon bougainvillea with the morning sun highlighting it's brilliance.












5.19am



Just sticky beaking over someones front fence.












5.42am



Nealy home. Looking back from where I'd come.
Looking south on Ruthven Street near North Street.












5.43am



Round the cnr. Agghh, Home at last.










5.44am


Just before I go inside I say good morning to my Sage and hello Rhubarb.






Good Night

Cab 11

Well it's a drizzly rainy day here today so not much gardening happening although every thing is growing really well.
Got to be happy about that :-)

As seen as it's raining and there is no gardening happening I'm thinking I'd like to introduce to you to the Taxi I drive here in Toowoomba

It's a Toyota Prius which, if your interested, you can find out all about on the Toyota Website.

It is a funky car to get around in and fun to drive and the savings on fuel are phenomenal.

Now with half the population running scared and hiding their money under the mattress due to the world economic crisis I'm finding it a little harder than usual to find customers, so if you find yourself in Toowoomba and need a cab then by all means look me up.
You can't ask for me by cab number but if you contact me through this blog I'll make sure you get a phone number you can use to call me direct.
Cheers
Stewart