Project 365 – visual plus commentry

it bin awhile I know…but since my camera got stolen (and the fact that I kave bin real busy!) i’ve written a coupla posts but never posted.

its kinda boring reading a wall of text. i imagine ppl looking at it and thinking tl;dr…

but now i have a somewhat decent camera attached to a phone (see last post). i thought what would really push me would be the project 365; whereby i take @least one pic a day, and since that phone is always with me – i have no excuse. Combined with commentry to kinda explain why or whats happening, will atleast have a somewhat accurate account of pre and post phase shift (if you belive the mayans) or pre and post apacolypse (if you believe the hype). i feel im about to digress here…

i will be posting weekly summaries of the 6 or 7 pix taken. so here goes my first week (by the way loving my phone!)

1of365:  miniMe meets the board

i have no idea why its this one. it was suppose to be her standing on the board perusing the contents on our dining room table. took 3 photos of her playing with the board. she actually managed to stand on the board whilst pushing it – unbelievable as she is still perfecting riding a scooter!

2of365: deckingception

this was taken with man with camera app, it takes lomo like shots. this one is with the “Diana” camera that takes multiple (only 2) exposures. what you looking at is the right and left area of my balcony (a work in progress, ok more like suspended untill further notice…and by notice i mean funds 😉

 

3of365: springtime of youth

just before writing my last exam i saw a guy with this awesome drawing of Lee (if i even needed to tell you his name, let alone the series name…move along). So had a chat with him after our exam (guess the topic). when his lift arrived, turns out he’s the youngest brother of a friend from campus – small world hey…

 

4of365: say cheese!

i like this pic cos its not staged. i really dislike pictures where everyone gets ready, touching up their makeup and such. you end up with stock standard photos. this one was me playing with the features of the previously mentioned app. i just now noticed that everything around Amina (the baby) is exagerated in size – accidents are mostly beautiful…

 

5of365: To infinmty an be-bonnd!

mention Buzz light year and that is the next words out of both our mouths! as a reward for going potty, miniMe got Buzz’s gun and bobble Buzz (I’m so putting it on my dashboard!). the damn  gun shoots the foam discs crazy far, so in order to not spend the whole day looking for those dics i created a monster that we could battle. when she shot them all out she had to collect and count all 11 (one was lost after the first shooting). Talk aboot making learning fun 😉

 

6of365: non-specific gender bug

I wonder what the PR name for ladybug is? aswell as daddy-longlegs.

I am the only one in the house MOST excited that we have ladybugs, the actual first pic i took of my chamomile plant had two ladybugs mating which is just awesome if your a budding organic gardner. just a pity that no-one feels my joy…aphids, your days are numbered!

 

7of365: not bashful, just tired

self-pic of me after arriving home hot and abit tired. I have a fold up bicycle; Giant FD806, that i used to cycle to the train station and then cycle back home. Today i cycled from home straight to work and back. was abit worried about my old war injury but i’m planning to make it a daily travel – killing multiple birds at once. The route is so lovely that once i witness-the-fitness i can take a longer route.

so that concludes my weekly update of project365. Looking forward to what moments i can document…

Dancing the funky chicken…soon

Ok I’m over losing my last post…

Here’s an update on my keyhole garden

It’s bin going abit slow lately, found out that after the layer of palm leaves. The Gardner dumped branches of a thorny tree we have in front on top of the pile!
Luckily I had gloves and managed to get thru a few, but the thorns ( some 2cm big ) kept slowing my progress and eventually I had enough.
All I actually want is to get to my tree trunk chunks underneath, but that is a two man job whitch I cannot undertake solo. So that’s on hold ATM…

My uncles popped in and wanted me to find out the cost for and delivery of compost from and organic nursery that I buy from. Phoned them today and the delivery is half the cost of the compost before tax! So we gonna make a plan there…

It seems that I have currently run into roadblocks in a scenic area and therefore am taking it all in my stride.but winter is around the corner and soon I won’t be able to finish my wetland project in time. – another roadblock, seems when the guys placed the ball of tree roots into the pond the cracked the bottom ( they obviously said that they didn’t drop it in ) so the pond is losing water fast.
Guess I’ll be draining the rest and patching it up. Perfect opportunity to place some rocks and stones at the bottom – something we forgot to do in the beginning.

So each stumble is teaching me better foot placement…when it’s all done I promise to dance the funky chicken…

Day 8: sometimes your plans just get trampled

Today I came home and saw that a security light had bin installed, but he struggled to get wore through a tube we installed under the driveway paving. Only problem is that the one end is in the roses area…

But let’s rewind back a coupla years…

When we built a second story, the builders dumped the excess white sand on the roses area – not very healthy. The roses never really recovered, but didn’t die yet…
Both my parents love roses, these ones aren’t that great – however these are from my belated grandfathers house. So I guess it’s a keepsake for both my mom and gran when she stays over.
After my father passed, I took on the role of garden maintenance. My previous job being advisor and then manual laborer…
My plan to rehabilitate the land around the roses was; add in compost to better the soil and interplant groundcovers followed by mulching the exposed land. Following advice from a French gardener Emelia herzap (something like that) I instructed everyone to not walk on the ground of that area. I went as far as abit o landscaping laying out a path and attempting a swale.
I was quite religious in the no-compacting the soil doctrine, until the last 2 weeks…

A worker waiting on my mom thought he couldn’t be idle and started tidying the garden, tilling the soil around the roses upturning some groundcovers. The whole point of not compacting the soil is to give the organisms a chance to multiply and build up the soil from the “ground up” – tilling destroys all that ( non hardwork ) work.
So today after the whole tilling fiasco, followed by the painting of the house ( where trod ding could not be avoided ) and now the electrician trampling the whole one side – side closest to the front door ( in the pic closest to the bottom) I’m now abit upset, not much ce la vie et al ( that )…

I’m prolly more upset that this is prolly a parable of how what looks like nothing much is actually the in between phase of a before and after. Lots of planning and replanning after considering current limited resources, that was prolly the best albeit most patient thing I can do…so now I’m hoping atleast the one groundcover will survive as the other was just about to but it’s def a goner…

Either way, you have to breath out when hit or the more common slogan; roll with the punches…
You can’t really blame them as the flip side is that had they known they would prolly caused less damage ( by atleast not walking on the damned plant! ) but damage none the same, maybe I was over zealous in my no compaction commandment.

One the reasons why I’m so fascinated by nature and mans manipulation there of is in the sheer dynamic ism of nature and it’s ability to cope is as miraculous as the human body’s ability to cope and adapt to the abuse we inflict upon ourselves be it physical or psychological.

Sometimes your plans just get trampled, why bother taking foot imprints, either build a fence structure or adapt the plans to the flow of the foot traffic…I’m always gonna take the easiest but more effective and efficient plan of attack.
The surface may look calm, but the underground is already on fire!!

ambitious garden exspansion phased

My current garden setup for veggies; referred to as experimental garden V1.2. Is nearing its life cycle, with about 2 more months of summer left. I have now designed what I think is prolly the best read easiest design with minimum effort.
But like all designs that are minimalist in there (comparable) effort, the hard work is in the design and setup.

I’m struggling to find the correct arrangement of plants for
a) companion vegs / flowers – within the keyhole garden
b) border plants – for keeping the grass at bay, at base of keyhole garden
c) self-seeding flowers for hard to reach area
d) “show off” flowers – to look nice and for my mom to select and (hopefully) take care of.

my knowledge is rather limited but the interweb and permi doccies have atleast given basics that further experimentation can take place, hence my first garden was based on partly the knowledge i have gained, and partly due to the application of resources available.

the new design requires alot more financial and effort involved, so i am currently breaking up the project into more manageable peices. so giving me time to manage individual parts which will eventually encompass the whole.

in order to lay the foundation for the keyhole gardens a and b, i need to move my daughters swing – which requires taking down the makeshift washing line, and then setting up a new arrangement.

the branches and leaves that would make up the bases would free up the space so that my rabbit cage can be built (the design Im still fine-tuning)

wormbeds built and started whilst keyhole beds being built up as close to 50cm as possible

border plants can be planted around the keyholes

and the flower beds prepared and maybe planted

keyholes can then be completed; topsoil and compost

cover crop grown on open soil

hardscaping done – paths and stepping stones placed

flowers selected and planted

eventual planting of veggies – the ultimate goal!

to be continued – im tired and sleepy

Perfect weathers to do some gardening/landscaping…

Yip, that wasn’t a typo.
Even though the weather was ominous, I needed to replant the dwarf sunflowers as 4 in a pot was much too crowded.
Had a nice idea, planned out perfectly, just needed the time. So today I thought “hey, now time like the pleasant” and was on my way…had to go back to put on a sweater (as PJ’s can only do so much), then back to put on some boots – now you know it’s about to get serious…

Ten minutes in and the sun starts beaming down, take off my sweater and the next minute I feel a drop…nearly done overturning the grass, 5 more seconds…the next drop felt abit hard and then Boom! (well it was a coupla mini-booms!) as hail starts beating me into surrendering.

I retreat and reminisce about the last time I remember hail…got to about where I stayed and then it stopped, so I continued…on to phase two and then rain!
Had I believed in signs I guess I would of stopped, well I do because that hexagon one saved my life at least once, but i believe in challenges so… I continued persevered, (it sounds cooler)

Turned out I couldn’t separate the sunflowers (yet to be named) as their roots were intertwined.
So guess next week I will have to get more. hopefully the nursery still has, they are the only ones…

If this app works proper, I can post a pic of the end result. Just need to populate it abit more.
Will be considering names for the dwarf sunflowers (4), for now they are called ‘team Gordo-name subject to change’…
If you can get that connection, 50 points for you…

tha REVolUtion is green and brown (for now)

Yip the revolution will only be massed produced for public consumption once it becomes economically viable. The real revolution begins in our own backyards…

Mine began quite optimistically with heirloom seeds sprouting only to be experienced by an inquisitive yearling.

more than just a book...

Did all the research, would of been planted at the perfect time according to the season and the moon – making it biodynamic (i wish) aswell. lesson1 sprouted my first seeds (check)

So back again after a well researched plan B. lets go for an early winter planting – skip seeds plant seedlings. Only to find my local organic nursery is out of both out of carrots and beans! So i chose swiss chard spinach and habanero peppers as well as marigolds (mixed) for pest-aside.

proposed positioning of said plants below:

wanted to add more but the (last-time-i-checked) stationary wasp has since disappeared, and am now fearing for my life…