songbird's roost

Discussion in 'Members' Systems' started by songbird, Sep 26, 2013.

  1. mouseinthehouse

    mouseinthehouse Junior Member

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    Hey songbird, what is rutabaga? I knew this once but have forgotten? We put the fire ashes on the garden too but spread it out well. Onions are one thing which grow very well at our place and nearby, only about 1/2 km away, there are commercial crops grown. I was out walking along the roadside picking up refundable cool drink containers ($17 in three short walks) and found a few onions which had fallen off the trucks after recent harvesting. I picked them up and the next day went for a short drive 'around the corner' where access to the other crop paddocks is and found many more where the trucks had been turning out onto the road. I got 2kg of big lovely brown onions for free. :) We have our onions in storage but they are quite a bit smaller.
    Interesting that your crocus are out. Our crocus have just come out too for Autumn.
     
  2. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    rutabagas are also called swedes, the package says they are a type of turnip, but golden in color instead of pale/white. they have a different taste than the purple globe topped turnip. i used to eat a lot of them in pasties (cornish meat pies) when i lived up north and figured i'd give them a try here. : ) see if they'll establish themelves enough to reseed.

    i have about 15 buckets of ashes from friends who have a wood burning stove, i wanted to give them a few more empty buckets last fall/late winter and so i dumped ashes where i thought they would smother or kill off some of the chives. usually i do spread them around or dig them in when i'm planting.

    we eat a lot of onions at times. i'm trying to learn how to grow them from seeds i harvested last year and trying various methods and combinations. the seeds are open pollinated so it will be interesting what develops from them. i don't mind if they take a few years to get up to size. i have a few spots where i planted seeds years ago and there are still small ones underneath some cover crops that are still trying to grow. once in a while one gets big enough to harvest. we used to have good luck growing onions from sets and plants, but the past few years they've not done so well, so i'm always willing to try other methods too.

    good score on the freebies. : )

    these are spring bulbs so this is the time when they show up. there are some fall flowering varieties of crocus so those must be what you have down there.

    there was a large patch of crocuses that i had dug up and moved to get them out of the way of a garden edge renovation, they bloomed and grew well where i'd moved them and looked great all packed together. last summer i was just about to move them back into the garden where they came from and the chipmunks got them all. hundreds of them. i don't know if they left a single one there. i don't see any growing now but they could still be coming up yet. luckily, i do have other patches to use, i go around when they are flowering and mark the bunches i need to dig up and spread out, because once they die back it can be a challenge to find them again once the rest of the garden is planted. i don't really mind that the chipmunks or bunnies raid them as long as they'd leave a few behind. when the chipmunks get them they'll put them in various places too and don't always come back later to get all of them so i may find a clump in a place where i've never planted them. like right now in the middle of the chives there is a lone crocus blooming. i know i didn't put that there...

    i grow a lot of sacrificial tulips too (in gardens that are not fenced). one thing i would really miss if i lived in a warmer climate (with no winter weather) is the spring bulbs flowering. i mix them in with daffodils to help cut down on deer and bunny grazing, but they still manage to get a few once in a while. i usually have plenty of left over bulbs from replanting the fenced gardens so there's no worry on my part that i will run out of them. it's a few select individual bulbs that i do worry more about. some of them have been growing here right from the first gardens that Ma planted here about 16 years ago and i like them so much, but they don't grow quickly enough where i've had much success with divisions.
     
  3. mouseinthehouse

    mouseinthehouse Junior Member

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    Have never grown onions from anything but seed although it is store bought seed - white, brown, red (spanish) and spring onions. We grow two crops a year. They don't get as big as commercially grown ones but still good cooking size. Any very small ones I pickle whole.

    They must be moving more onions out from around the corner because we scored another 3kg from the roadside today on our way home from a beach trip. We brought back 5 chaff bags full of seaweed to make compost with. Also, stopped and picked some rosehips to make jelly. :)
     
  4. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    we had great results growing onions from starts (plants growing in cells in a potting soil type mix) for a while, but the raccoons decided that the smell of whatever fertilizer that was used in the potting soil was yummy and they started uprooting them. a few of those sometimes would reach 18cm across, but most would be 10-15cm.

    then we switched to using sets (small bulbs) instead as there is no soil with them, but they have not done well the past few years (weather or soil related or perhaps even both).

    seeds harvested here for free are a preferred choice if i can figure out how to get them growing.

    i'm pretty sure your conditions are not as cold as mine or how you start them or how you plant, grow and feed them i'd still be interested in hearing. and how long it takes. i read what i can find on-line, but it is also nice to hear from people who actually grow them from seeds or otherwise.

    i'm not sure what a spring onion is.

    again a nice haul there. : ) i'm hungry for onion soup again. it is all your fault! ha. : )
     
  5. mouseinthehouse

    mouseinthehouse Junior Member

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    Yes, we don't get that cold here. It is more a Mediterranean climate. We get frosts and temps overnight down to about -3C occasionally but most winter days are around 12C-15C. I have to say we don't do much to get our onions growing. Literally just scratch up the surface of the soil, make a little finger width trench a few mm deep and sow in. Then just scatter soil back over and lightly tamp down. Keep moist but not wet. They probably have trouble germinating if the weather and soil temperature is too cold for too many hours a day. A new crop has just germinated but our Autumn temperatures are very mild to warm this year with temperatures to the mid 20'sC and the nights have been mild too. They grow more slowly in winter than spring/summer as one might expect. The warmer weather crop may take 12 weeks but the Autumn winter crop takes longer.
    Spring onions are sometimes called shallots although real shallots are not spring onions lol. These are the ones that look a little like baby leeks but the leaves are tubular like regular onion leaves and can be eaten but are often used like a garnish. Spring onions are used a lot in Asian cooking which is very common and popular here in Australia.
     
  6. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    thanks mouse, i'm not sure i could plant seeds that shallow and keep them moist. the onion seeds i've planted i tend to put them down 15-30mm.

    have you ever taken the small onions and replant them for the next crop?

    yeah, i think we'd just call them green onions or bunching onions, i've not had good luck growing any of those here. i've started growing extra garlic and eating some of it early as a green onion substitute (it grows really well here).

    shallots i've never tried (we like stronger tasting onions) and Ma is resistant to leeks for some reason.

    chives, we have millions more than we need. i gotta thin some out this spring...
     
  7. mouseinthehouse

    mouseinthehouse Junior Member

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    Keeping them moist is a challenge here too as we have dry conditions and our soil is sandy and free draining. We have our own bore and will water as much as needed to get things germinated then try to back off and water more sparingly. Have never consciously replanted the small onions for a second crop. A lot of times I miss very small ones when harvesting and they regrow - have some of those happening ATM.

    Our leeks don't do really well as the soil isn't fertile or heavy enough for them I think. As our soils improve I hope they do better. I still get a few to use in soups.

    I forgot to say thanks for explaining rutabaga...we do get swedes here in Oz in winter time as people use them for vegetable soup. I love them in vegie soup but don't use them much for anything else. Have never tried growing any.
     
  8. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    mouse, have you thought of using a side dressing of aged chook poo or liquid fert from it for your onions?
     
  9. mouseinthehouse

    mouseinthehouse Junior Member

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    Not specifically mischief...we do collect chook poo from the 'girls' and I make a brew with it sometimes but haven't used it around the onions or leeks. Will give it a try. :)
     
  10. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    you're welcome. : ) i haven't grown any before, but i suspect they'll be fine as the turnips and beets have done well here.
     
  11. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    The Linda Woodrow onion technique is direct seeding (seed mixed in sand) then cover with wet hessian for 2 weeks then remove it as they start to germinate. I can't grow onions for nuts (seed or seedlings), so I can't tell you if it works.
     
  12. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    : ) interesting, especially if you don't have troubles with other plants, but then again...

    i'm not sure if i have onion sprouts yet, but i do have some peas which are coming up. after today and tomorrow i expect to start to see some more sprouts as we have warmth and sunshine.

    i was able to get more digging and stuff buried and that one garden is coming along nicely. no more planting yet. i ran out of stuff to bury so Ma had to scrounge up more. can't work at full capacity yet, but it feels good to be moving again, when i get tired of digging then i have plenty of other gardens to work on. i've spent a few years trying to get the garlic out of the back green manure patch. amazing how much i've missed. now is a good time to work on it because the alfalfa and trefoil have not taken off yet, so the garlic shows up easily. yummy too. it will likely be a few more years to get it all out of there.

    the other night during some rains we had three tree froggy visitors on the patio door. i was able to get a few pictures of them. quite small in comparison to the froggy picture from before. i'll get them edited and posted eventually. they like to get the bugs off the windows if Ma has the big lights on. then we had a few cold/below freezing nights so they went back into hiding for a while longer.

    coming into daffodil/hyacynth season. most of the crocuses are finished (having either been frozen or chewed by rabbits). tulip season should also start up. i'm hoping we are done with the real hard freezes, but can't ever tell...
     
  13. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    Pics: Deer and Peepers

    a version of where's waldo or counting, how many can you find in this pic?

    [​IMG]


    just love froggie pictures and these were hanging out on the patio window a few nights ago when we had a lot of rain and the lights were on up top to attract bugs to the windows. these tree frogs were about 1/10th the size of the picture up further on the page. still way too cute!

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Apr 9, 2017
  14. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Nice wildlife! My cat brought me a present tonight of a VERY large rat. (Minus the yummy parts of course) I'd hate to see what he would make of deer in his back yard!
     
  15. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    out back in the spiral garden

    ECO:

    that's one of the things i just can't like about cats, they can bring home all sorts of things... a friend used to find half eaten rabbits on the floor of his back seat in his car. of all places. how i found this out is that he was giving me a ride to the bus station (i could have walked, but he wanted to chat). i went to put my bag in the back seat and there it was looking at me. well, not quite, it didn't have a head...

    in that field it is usually either wild turkeys or deer. the past few weeks it sometimes has been both.

    anyways, the phone was out for days, could not connect, i did a lot of reading instead as i could not work outside some days (rain, too tired, too busy cleaning inside, etc.) finally fixed it this afternoon. i asked the phone fixer if they would be getting DSL out here some day? said they will eventually. i asked him to make sure to put a note in that i'm waiting patiently... they are going to run a new cable under ground from the box (which is about 1/3 mile from here) as the cable has been hit by so many people digging in their yards that it has two wires left that still function. we had so much hum/static/clicks on the line that the modem wouldn't even work and could barely hear people who called...

    so back to that garden. i renovated it about 4 years ago now, and leveled it to get rid of a gully that was forming. light tilling during a very dry spell and it was rock hard clay with a little sand, no worms at all, but it did give me enough loose dirt to move to level and then i planted it in a spiral pattern with alfalfa and birdsfoot trefoil. kept it weeded sometimes, off and on, reseeded some of the trefoil sections because the alfalfa grows so quickly at first to shade the inner spiral parts. the spirals were not wide enough. next time i would make them 4-5ft across instead of 2ft.

    after the second year when things were mostly established i flung handfuls of garlic bulbules all over the place. i've harvested a lot of garlic out of that garden since then and the garlic does a great job of improving the soil (along with the alfalfa/trefoil choppings that i leave behind for the wormies to eat) but they are royal bitch to dig out of heavy clay in the middle of summer when it is hot, dry and the clay isn't easily dug. last year i dug up most of the patch to get the garlic out and planted turnips in the bare spots to keep the soil active (giving me about 4 gallons of garlic). i missed a lot... this being the time when it all starts growing again is a good time to get the garlic again that i can find. it stands out.

    i might be able to get it all done with one more round of digging tomorrow (Saturday). then i can get back to taking out one of the chive patches and getting other gardens ready for spring planting. a lot of cover crops to chop back or turn under.

    as it is my green manure patch i harvest greens once in a while and chop and dry them to feed to the worms or as a gradual fertilizer for the gardens.
    the worms love having some real green stuff to munch on in the middle of the winter and at other times i chop the whole patch back to simulate grazing so the roots will cycle and help keep improving that soil. as i'm out there digging i'm finding a lot of changes in that soil and it's looking much better. heck, just finding worms in there is a welcome change. before it was so compacted you couldn't find much of anything if you could even get a shovel into the ground. it barely supported weeds (with much space in between plants left bare so that the soil would wash away taking any little organic matter that was left). now it stays green all season and once i start adding more veggies and strawberries to that patch it will become yet another garden for critters and people. this year i'll start adding different veggies and strawberries... :) i can't wait to see how it goes.

    it's so much a welcome change from being inside too much of the time. i can sit and ponder whatever, listen to the birds and wind-chimes and munch on early garlic and play in the dirt.

    otherwise, daffodils and hyacynths out and the earliest tulips.

    cloudy and cool much of the coming week. good digging weather...

    some day i will get pictures posted of the progression of this garden as it was renovated.
     
  16. mouseinthehouse

    mouseinthehouse Junior Member

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    That is such a beautiful scene in that photograph of the deer with the forest in the background.

    Our internet here is two options: satellite (done that - terrible; slow and expensive) or with a special antenna to pick up a stronger 3G mobile phone signal.
    We have the antenna and it is connected to a modem/router thing which creates a wi-fi spot. Then we can use the laptops anywhere in the house for internet. It is still expensive (and not terribly fast) compared to the deals available in town but better than satellite. My old satellite dish is now a bird bath. :)

    Glad that the weather is improving and can imagine how wonderful it is to throw off a bit of winter hibernation and get back out in the garden. As winter approaches here it is getting cooler especially at night. My oldest son who has been away for the last 8 years living in the tropics of central Queensland will be home to live arriving tomorrow night. Not sure how he is going to adjust to the weather but hey ho. :p
     
  17. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    It'll be nice to have your boy around MITH. Point him towards where you need holed being dug or heavy things lifted!
     
  18. mouseinthehouse

    mouseinthehouse Junior Member

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    In time eco...unfortunately he slipped on stairs and went feet first through a plate glass window. The damage to one leg (soft tissue luckily, not bone) required surgery and he's been in a half cast and on crutches for four weeks. Now he has a moon boot on and only about 30% capacity in the leg but will improve over time back to normal. So not much good to me ATM for the garden lol....and he is a landscape gardener by trade too!
     
  19. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Oh no! At least you can prop him in a chair in the yard and get him to give you advice about plant selection and location.
     
  20. songbird

    songbird Senior Member

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    ouch! mouse i sure hope your son recovers fully. i thought i was the only person around who did things like that. : )

    looks like rain forecast for most of the coming week. i suspect i will be outside a few of those days as even if it is raining i can still get some seeds scattered and raked in and i can also get some wild grape vines cut back off a fence.

    wild life is wonderful, wish i had more land to let it alone for more of a buffer zone. we have a great variety of creatures that use the ditch as a highway right into the yard and unfenced gardens. without the fenced garden for the more formal veggie patches i doubt we'd get much of a harvest. one woodchuck can mow a lot of greens down and we've got families of them and rabbits and ...

    we don't encourage deer to wander through our property on this side of the ditch as they do carry ticks and it's no fun to have to contend with lyme's disease. for the first time since i've been gardening here, yesterday i had a tick on the outside of my upper arm (an odd place). luckily it was just starting to bite and hadn't sucked blood yet, but still took a chunk of skin when i pulled it out. usually have enough layers of clothes with arms and legs buttoned up to avoid any bug problems, but was wearing a looser shirt. will wear my more normal clothes today and check when i come in as i sure don't want a repeat of that... ick.

    ok, it's getting late and i better get a move on...
     

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