Apr 11 2010
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More heirloom carrots from the household garden. The colours make a welcome change! As easy to grow as sprinkling a $2 pack of seeds on the ground, then you will get up to 500 carrots!
Feb 28 2010
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Fresh Basil
Fresh Tomatoes
Making Pistou
Marmande Tomato Tart
Harvesting the beginnings of the tomatoes, and also some basil. The final item is the Marmande Tomato Tart with basil and garlic, courtesy of Rick Stein’s French Odyssey
Dec 15 2009
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Planted Carrots
I got about 1250 carrots planted today at lunch. Should be able to start pulling baby carrots in Jan/Feb to start thinning them out, and have full Carrots in Feb/Mar.
Dec 14 2009
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Climategate
I recently received an email stating how taxes on CO2 emissions is stupid, so felt compelled to write something. Plants need CO2 for photosynthesis, so lets get rid of all CO2? :-)
You want conspiracy? How about scheming by political powers.
The carbon and emissions trading (Cap and Trade) is an oft criticised scheme to introduce a worldwide trading scheme for which the rich will become richer, the poor poorer and markets will spring up. Carbon trading futures anyone?!
Pushed by Obama:
“While on the board of a Chicago-based charity, Barack Obama helped fund a carbon trading exchange that will likely play a critical role in the cap-and-trade carbon reduction program he is now trying to push through Congress as president.”
Pushed by Al Gore:
“Gore, self-proclaimed Patron Saint of the Environment, buys his carbon off-sets from himself–the Generation Investment Management LLP, “an independent, private, owner-managed partnership established in 2004 with offices in London and Washington, D.C., of which he is both chairman and founding partner” - and GenerationIM founded by Gore is involved with CCX, the Chicago Climate Exchange. CCX are involved in Cap and Trade, carbon trading futures.
CCX are “… North America’s only active greenhouse gas cap-and-trade system, with global affiliates and projects worldwide. Members include … Offset Providers, who own or administer eligible greenhouse gas mitigation projects; and Liquidity Providers, who trade on CCX for purposes other than compliance, such as market makers or proprietary trading groups.”
Of course, GenerationIM founded by Gore - is a MEMBER of said CCX, and as stated above from the CCX page GenerationIM as a member will “… trade on CCX for purposes other than compliance”. So Gore can buy his own carbon credits from himself and then trade them. Hmmmmm.
The same man who made the “Inconvienient truth” movie, using the “Hockey Stick” temperature chart - based upon the data from the East Anglia University in the UK. His movie has findings based upon recently leaked data and emails and shows fudging and “tricks” made to the data.
You can search and read the leaked emails from the Climate Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia.
“The authenticity of these emails has been confirmed by most of the relevant parties including the CRU at Univeristy of East Anglia and many of the authors. These emails contain some quite surprising and even disappointing insights into what has been happening within the climate change scientific establishment. Worryingly this same group of scientists are very influential in terms of economic and social policy formation around the subject of climate change.”
It’s simple to search. Here is a quote from a particular email:
I’ve just completed Mike’s Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (ie from 1981 onwards) amd from 1961 for Keith’s to hide the decline..
If you want further info, Andrew bolt has a good writeup on Al Gore and falsifications.
Reader comments on the age show the same understanding of Gore. Something is happening, change is in the air - but what is it?
Nov 15 2009
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If your ground is hard, and you are digging a lot of new garden beds, you may find it easier to use a rotary hoe.
In my case I have 40 metres squared worth of beds to dig. I tried with a spade, and it was very difficult.
Nov 14 2009
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Mark out the plot
Start Digging the edges
Turn over the middle
What’s one of the best things you can do for your lawn? Dig up the lawn and plant some vegetables. They bring Carbon Dioxide “back down to earth”, and you get food to feed your family.
Start by marking out your plot with a string or similar. 1m x 9m is a good size, and you can get three rows of vegetables in there quite easily. 1 metre wide is a good width for getting in there and weeding, planting etc.
Now start digging the edges and turning over your grass. Repeat, repeat and do it again until you have a well turned over lawn-less garden bed :-)
Don’t waste your time making raised beds with sleepers, etc. Steve Solomon, with a lot of gardening experience, writes that it’s easier and more efficient to not bother.
The Deliberate Agrarian agrees with Steve Solomon’s book, and he ripped out all his “perfect” raised beds. He is persuaded that this method gives him a “… serious amount of good quality food”.
Oct 19 2009
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Freerange chickens enjoying a dust bath. Chickens are practically mandatory if you want muck to compost for your home garden.
Aug 19 2009
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The human body is capable of sustaining between 75 and 150 watts, depending on what shape you are in. This is sufficient for lighting, radio, a laptop computer, water pumping, and other small devices. It’s also good exercise. Via Green Trust.
Jun 03 2009
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Open-pollinated, heirloom, organic, non-gmo seeds
This is a fantastic way to start your vegetable garden. I’ll need to find an Australian seller of a similar product.
Apr 18 2009
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Vegetable garden beginnings
I’ve started growig vegetables. The main reason is self sufficiency, but the secondary reason is the price of vegetables in the shops. I cooked a risotto for family recently (for 10 people) and just the tomatoes alone were over $15. Instead if that, I have bought a punnet of seedlings for $2.50 and we have about 12 plants. According to a @lucass his small number of tomato bushes yielded more than he could eat in a week!
All you need to do is find a patch of soil, check your pH levels, fertilise the soil and plant your seedlings.
An advantage of planting already underway seedlings is it stops local birds making a meal of your new backyard crop. They tend to leave small plants alone, just eating seeds.
If you have chooks, you already have a source of fertiliser for your garden beds.
I’ll post about no dig garden beds and using chook manure for the plants another time.
Even if you have to use pots, get out there and start a couple of your favourite vegetables growing!
