CcBear Dunbyu Gardens

Ccbear · **Posted:** Mon Mar 24, 2014 5:41 pm

With my Aquaponic system and Recirculating Aquaculture System both running well it is time to resurrect the rest of my garden.

It been a few years since I have done any work to the dirt garden due to ill health. So that is now behind and it is time to renew the garden and myself.

I hade made a couple of wicking beds about 6 years ago and they are looking rather poor. Instead of tring to fix them I will be bringing in a bobcat and levelling the area and building new wicking beds using half IBC's.

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Have been cleaning up the retainer garden and have planted two lady finger banana's, lemon grass and ginger as well as the existing Turmeric plant. The chooks have been scratching around all the plants so I need a way to provide temporary protection. Luck was with me with a few items
I had from the recycle centre.

Bottom cut out of milk crate protects the lemon grass.

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Joined 4 bread crates together to protect the banana tress and new suckers

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Will slowly add updates as work progresses but it will not be at a rapid pace. Cheers

Ccbear · **Posted:** Mon Mar 24, 2014 5:52 pm

A local visitor, Goanna about 1.5 metres

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gazza · **Posted:** Mon Mar 24, 2014 9:01 pm

Nice one, nearly ready for roasting!

Jaymie · **Posted:** Mon Mar 24, 2014 10:16 pm

nice cages for the trees

Snags · **Joined:** Wed Jul 07, 2010 10:52 pm **Posts:** 234

What are the cages for?
Brush turkey, goanna,bandicoots?

Ccbear · **Posted:** Wed Mar 26, 2014 11:45 am

Thanks Jaymie

Snags they are to stop the chooks from scratching all the mulch away. Bananas are just starting to produce suckers and the lemon grass has just been planted. Nice to let the chooks out but wreck shit out of the garden.

The last two days have produced the most rain we have had for a year. We are fully dependant on tank water for the house and fish systems. I was starting to worry that With the aquaponics, RAS and renewing the dirt garden I was not going to have enough water for the year. Just noticed the tanks overflowing so that has taken some pressure of and I can continue renewing the garden.

Ccbear · **Posted:** Thu Mar 27, 2014 12:37 pm

Well the rain has certainly set in for the day, tanks are well and truly overflowing which is excellent and the creek is getting a flush which will improve the back area.

Snags · **Joined:** Wed Jul 07, 2010 10:52 pm **Posts:** 234

Im happy about the rains too

Tanks are overflowing hopefully this will soak in and give the trees something to draw on for a few months

Ccbear · **Posted:** Wed Apr 16, 2014 9:57 am

Enjoying a bit of time in Adelaide while the good wife is doing some work here. Will then drive over to Victoria and up the east coast to home. Been visiting the vineyards and having a good look around, nice city but starting to get cold.

Blind Freddie from BYAP has been looking after my place. Every thing is going well except he had to put one of the chooks down. The rest will be in the freezer for winter when I get back and we will start again.

Aquaponics has been running well and with the bit of rain from the cyclone up north the tanks are still over flowing. Good position to be in for the year. Will still practise the careful water management due to the fact the tanks are our only water supply. Have a bore which produces a small amount but this for garden only.

Have fun folks and take care if you are travelling over the holiday period. Cheers

Perpetuitas · **Posted:** Fri Apr 18, 2014 11:55 pm

Can you tell me how far away you are from Dalby?

Ccbear · **Posted:** Sat Apr 19, 2014 9:53 am

Hi Perpetuitas if you mean Dalby Queensland we are 200 kilometres East and a bit north. Were you and the family in Coober Pedy last year by any chance?

Perpetuitas · **Posted:** Wed Apr 23, 2014 3:56 am

Me? Na never :-)

Yes, I meant Dalby Qld, how many others are there?

The last I have been in Qld, was in 2008. My former employer said, it changed a lot since then. It has became more of a mining town.

I love your Garden :-) I enjoy seeing gardens were you have to manage difficulties.

Ccbear · **Posted:** Wed Apr 23, 2014 5:50 am

Yes Dalby has grown a lot over the last couple of years. It is a main centre for the Coal Seam Gas operations.

Ccbear · **Posted:** Sat Apr 26, 2014 12:39 pm

Been back two days now and mainly working on my aquaponic systems. The yard needs a full mow after 3 weeks and the weeds have had a field day.

Remaining 5 chooks seen ok but only getting 1 egg every second day. This appears to be from one of the brown girls who are the oldest residents.

Thought I would add a couple of shots of the chook yard. This was to be my shade house for my wicking beds which is a story in itself. Decided to put the chooks in there and covered it with chook wire over the shade cloth. Area is 6m x 4m with a 4m x 2m shed inside.

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Ccbear · **Posted:** Sat May 03, 2014 1:45 pm

When I first did my garden area we had no worms any where, after a few years of adding mulch, organic fertiliser and keeping the garden area moist and covered with mulch I had created a worm paradise. No matter where you dug you bought up large amounts of big earth worms.

After a few years of neglect due to ill health it had reverted back to no worms anywhere. Just before I restarted the garden I tried to find worms to catch a couple of fish from my aquaponic system. No luck no worms any where.

After two months of having the garden weeded, replanted, watered and mulch the worms have returned. When I plant something I trench around for water retrenching then mulch with sugar cane mulch. The rest of the bed I make sure is heavily watered, fertilised then covered with newspaper. I then water the newspaper and cover with shredded paper and water this down as well. This keeps the ground very moist underneath for a long period of time and the worms are loving it.

Why use shredded paper? The price of a bail of mulch hay here has gone through the roof if you can get it and junk mail is readily available. I use all junk mail, letters, envelopes, old books and magazines go through my shredder. The chook nest boxes have shredded paper, under there roost is shredded paper which when cleaned out then goes on the garden.

So this morning I decided to try and line catch a fish out of my aquaponic system for tonights dinner. For the first time I was able to dig a worm from my garden which was a joy in it self. I then used the worm on the hook and within 3 seconds had caught a 790 gram Jade perch for dinner. A double joy morning with worms in the garden and after 18 months just being able to catch a fresh fish to feed two adults from my own system.

Life is good so why do I have to go and mow the lawn?

Any one interested in my Aquaponic system the link is in my signature below. Cheers

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