Weed is often a valuable herb in the wrong place

Weed as a definition is a matter of perception 🙂 Some are valuable crops harvested for grain diets, or for us to make precious compost for veges to have something in the mostly poor Australian soils!

Normal lifestyle Jobs [ average 8 hours /week manages everything]

1. After a month’s winter rain, Priority is to pull out and bin the Bindibindi that grows mainly near carport and on front verge where big bins are put out for collection Wed nights. Carpets can be used to kill them too.
   • Dig out sourgrass by bulbs careful to not burst tubers/bulbs!  They’re mainly confined to around giant rocks along west fence and in couch lawn between them and back intake tank, round both those tanks to a lesser extent. Almost complete eradication winter end June 2022 🙂 Could cover as in No.4 🙂
2. Old carpets are under black plastic along north wall usually spread over fine weeds next to carport and the rest of that pathway, or brick paving between flat/house where fine weeds are slowly being eradicated. You can put scrappy plastic from garden shed underneath for a quicker kill. Depending on number of sunny days, it might take up to 6 weeks for a good weed kill, especially if they’ve already grown quite abit. Stops seeds spreading too. Not so glamorous for a month or 2, but better than poison or some labour intensive weed pulling.

   

3. Together on video – Cut back Monsteria – where no flowers. Invite others online to come dig & sell Bamboo, but take care of all the purple pipes and black retic – see page of photos, or the photos section of Facebook
4.  Strong clear plastic bags from limeputty should be used to cover couch/cooch lawn around hedge, fruit trees to kill it. Cover plastic with pieces of carpet, held with spare logs/old bricks with mortar still [from near giant rocks by mulch heap] start in winter, when you have time 🙂
   • Couch grass near raintanks is great to stabilise tank sandpads, but not anywhere else in the future.
5. Weed vege gardens and composting – ongoing except summer when watering & liquid feeding replaces this job.

A weed a day or w/e 🙂 keeps it managable in between these novelties

1. Other garden maintenance includes clean roof Gutters around house regularly, adjust shadecloth, & thin & prune grapes, other fruit trees- no more than 1/3 off 🙂
2. Autumn – corner by study full length window and kitchen gardens layer of orange clay [ from heap by gazebo] & compost veges and grapes for rain to wash into the soil over winter and Plant celery in garden by tall window on north wall of house.
3. Regularly cut back morning glory on fences, especially on lemon grass behind avo trees
4. Adjust bamboo frames for broadbeans … weed 🙂

   

5. Spot Hand-water where necessary if no rain for many days – depending on if temp over 20 deg – using rainfall collected in Big Black bins under flat verandah gutter and from kitchen.
6. Warmer days in spring; put retic on 15 mins when plants stressed still in cool evening.
7. 🙂 Put timer on 15 minutes on phone 🙂

Keep Fruit fly out of your fruit 🙂

1. Mandarin/apple/fig baits – whenever you have fruit scraps – put in a cleaned bottle with holes and hang in fruiting tree, remove bad smelly bait bottles and add to food compost bin, liquid in red box is added to food water collected from kitchens and fed to most hungry/thirsty veges.
   • Rinse old bait bottles using water collected from rainfall, then run it through compost under satellite disc & put old bail in too. Feed liquid compost to grapes where water nozzles trickle over  rockdust raked in during autumn & spring 🙂 

Normal Spring / Summer watering – there is a more detailed instruction Sheet 🙂

Veges daily unless rain or few days under 20 deg.

Francess will show you where to turn taps on, switch sides of garden. Blue hose connected to tap at corner main house by bathroom – can do the kitchen garden, & grapes daily.

Spring

Grapes 19mm ‘inch black pipes’ every 3 days. Join white dots for correct pressure for grapes.

Start before ‘they “tell you” that they need’ it, like when it rains only abit so it doesn’t get down into roots that I’ve encouraged to go deep! Lots of water usually October [unless still getting 50mm/fortnight] until Christmas helps PREVENT POWDERY MILDEW.

• VEGE garden GRAPES need a few extra buckets too so that this year, we prevent MILDEW at last. It’s the only way! Taught to me by the grape-growers. I’m usually stingy with water. But while there is rain to refill tanks, go for it. Of course with more people, more will go into the ATU, which has not been the case for the last 3.5 years with covid preventing me doing Bnb, other than my usual local people.
• Thin the leaves as soon as they get dense to get the wind around them to dry quick is also a good idea, but time-consuming for the 3 times [usually] After Christmas, or the heat and dry weather setting in = mean mildew can’t grow… so I stick to every 3 days for 20 mins.

1. Loquats etc by Hot Colorbond Fence turn on first
   1. Connect the short green garden hose from the tap by the bedroom sliding door to the black pipe sticking out of the ground in the garden by the colorbond fence which is lined up approximately with the tap.
   2. Turn the tap on a quarter 1/4 turn check the nozzles aren’t blocked and 10-mm pipes not popped off – as you walk toward hose end for Pressure check 1^st. Towards the front of the property, the hose ends at the loquat planted below the Moreton bay fig tree, [where rubbish bins should be, all plastic out of sun, please]. check good pressure at last plant.
      • Turn on ‘Front lounge tap’ and return for pressure check after 5 mins
2. Front tap black pipe – every 3 days when loquats want some … It waters only loquats and other plants that need water more than wildflower where nozzles which are not opened. Only had to do them once last very hot, dry summer/autumn. Spot watered by bucket to a couple a few times.
3. West – sliding door bedroom tap – black pipe.  This system goes along back fence loquats / avodados too. Loquat closest to garden shed ‘tells’ you when they all need water.

• • Change to green hose, then put across drive directly west to connect into a black retic pipe which currently does loquats by colorbond fence. Only about ¼ turn pressure.

4. East circuit – black pipe – I usually do last, although it does include what the flat vege garden is connected to 🙂 Suggest running light blue hose from back tap by main bathroom around west of flat, up ramp to connect in directly to flat vege garden retic when you set up the little brown network hanging in gazebo.

Lots of photos on Facebook