Month: October 2009
Plenty of rain, but to no avail
It’s very frustrating. It’s absolutely pouring down at the moment, flooding the street and the garden, but the water tank is barely filling up.
So we’ve spent the money, and put in a great tank. What it now highlights is the problems with the existing house.
In particular:
- The side gutter is hanging off the house at a funny angle, and is full of holes. So more water goes off the edge of the gutter than into the tank.
- At the back of the house, the gutter consistently fills up with leaves, due to the poor design.
- Some madman also put in two right-angle joints to the downpipe, which almost immediately block with leaves.
We’ll have to tackle this in two stages. The first step is to replace the side gutter with a new Smartflo gutter, must get this done in the next few weeks.
I have fewer options at the back. With a planned extension in the pipeline, it doesn’t make financial sense to replace the gutter. So I think I’ll:
- get some cheap leaf guards
- get our handyman to bodge some new downpipes, getting rid of the crazy right-angles
It all seems so simple in the brochure, just another thing to be aware of when retrofitting a water tank…
Harvesting carrots
The great thing about carrots is that you can leave them in the ground until you need them. Although as you can see from the photo above, they can become monsters!
But with spring planting underway, we just needed the space, so the carrots had to go! Out they come in one big harvest. A few strange looking ones, or ones that split, but the majority are glorious. (They were all planted in autumn, and were in the ground over winter.)
We’ll give some to the neighbours, cook up carrot cake, and store the rest in the fridge.
A very early Christmas
On Monday I cooked Christmas lunch for my team from work, as is the tradition. (Yes Christmas! The price to pay for having two of the team going on maternity leave late this year.)
For the meal, the garden provided:
- masses of silverbeet
- carrots
- spring onions
- salad greens
- herbs, including mint and dill
From this, and a a few store-bought ingredients, we had:
- spanakopita (cheese and spinach pie)
- roast chicken with baked potatoes
- indian carrot salad
- green salad
There’s still heaps of silverbeet left in the ground, and the spring crop is just coming into its own. It’s amazing how little has to be bought when the majority of ingredients can be pulled straight out of the ground an hour before the meal.
Chippendale Food for the Future Fair 2009
It’s that time of year again, and tomorrow (Saturday October 24) is the Chippendale Food for the Future Fair 2009. While we don’t live in Chippo anymore, I still work there, and continue to feel a close attachment to the little suburb.
This is a great day to visit, with plenty happening:
- launch of local food co-op
- open air bookshop
- gallery tours
- on the day cooking
- no dig gardens
- water tanks and grey water systems
See you there!
Water sustainable urban development: tour through Marrickville
I spent an enjoyable morning today, visiting local houses who are saving water in interesting ways, as well as looking at some “rain gardens” in the street. (Our house was also the last stop on the tour, showing off what we’d done in the garden.)
The Water Sustainable Urban Development (WSUD) tour was organised by the “water revolution” staff at Marrickville Council. Not knowing what to expect, I was pleasantly surprised. It was hard to tell who were more passionate, the householders installing the water tanks, or the folks on the tour!
A few highlights:
The first stop was Graeme’s house in Marrickville. This showcases a significant project (8 months in length) to install a pair of 5,000L water tanks at the bottom of their large, and heavily sloping, garden. The tanks were then plumbed into the house, for absolutely everything other than drinking water. The cost was actually pretty reasonable, and the duration of the work was I think due to Graeme doing a lot of the work himself, presumably on weekends.
Something I hadn’t seen before was the pressure accumulator tank. About the size of a gas bottle, this holds water at pressure. This means that if a small amount of water is required in the house (washing hands, etc), the water is drawn from this holding tank, without the pump having to come on. This reduces the electricity required, and presumably helps to prolong the life of the pump. I’ll definitely have to look into this for our house.
The Hill Street rain garden was extremely interesting. This takes the normal storm water that runs of the street, and passes it through this mini wetland. The goal is not to store the water, but to filter it through the plants, which are grown on top of several layers of sub-surface material.
The end result is cleaner water going into the waterways, with a lot of the sediment, rubbish and nitrogen stripped out. I think it also makes for an interesting take on street-side gardens. Would love to see more of these go in throughout the Inner West.
John Caley, who ran the water course I attended some months back, had a house that certainly met expectations. Plenty of careful design of water tanks, and a nice use of water off next door’s roof (with their permission!). What took my fancy, however, was their lovely little communal garden in the small laneway beside the house. Plenty of produce to share amongst the neighbouring houses.
Mike and Jen’s house had everything that an inner-city greenie would want. Water tanks, careful management of water runoff, and chooks. Oh, and a nice vegetable garden squeezed into their small back garden.
Thanks to Maggie for organising the day! Visit the Marrickville Council water pages to find out more on future events, and how to get involved.
Street food comes to Lewisham
We’ve been steadily planting out on the nature strip. First the bay tree that moved with us from the old unit. Then a kaffir lime, and two dwarf lemon trees. Finally a lemon-scented tea tree.
Yes, this is guerilla gardening, but not just for our own selfish benefit. From the outset, the aim has been to put out plants that can be harvested by the locals as they wander by (perhaps the lemons break this rule).
So this afternoon, the first “street food” sign went out onto the nature strip. We hope to start a local movement, copying what has been done on Myrtle St in Chippendale. Now we see whether it’s harvested to death, or gently pruned…
Planting under citrus trees
When I planted our citrus trees, I was well aware of the need to keep the grass away, so it doesn’t compete with the shallow tree roots. So I lay down a thick layer of bark mulch (being careful to keep the lower trunk clear).
Some time later, I read through the Introduction to Permaculture by Bill Mollison. It highlights the benefit of “companion planting” out a whole under-story of plants under citrus trees, increasing productivity and actually helping the trees.
This is what seems most applicable to the urban garden:
- spring bulbs
- comfrey
- dandelion
- globe artichoke
- fennel
- dill
- tansy
- carrot
- catnip
- daisy
- nasturtium
- flowering ground covers
I’ve started with planting out some nasturtium seeds (which produce edible flowers and leaves), as well as dill. I’ll probably add fennel and comfrey down the track…
Silverbeet going to seed
I’ve just got back from two weeks in Europe (work unfortunately, not pleasure). It’s definitely spring: everything has grown hugely in the last fortnight.
This includes the silverbeet, which seems determined to take over the world! The leaves are huge, and are crying out for some serious harvesting. A number of the plants are also going to seed, so I think they’ll soon be coming out, to make space for the next round of planting. Peas perhaps.
Lewisham House and Farm 