KIG's Garden

[Mandy Onderwater]

Haha, it's like giving yourself a little gift each time you walk through the garden

 

[Alpenrose]

Aw geez! Don't talk to me about septic systems! When we called in the city to give us permission to install a septic system we got a gal who had just graduated three weeks before! She was terribly nervous because we are on the type of soil that was the front end of a moving glacier--part sand and lots of rock with some clay. She did her first soils test and started yelling we had pure clay could not have a drain field. My DH who is an experienced architect calmed her down and told her to do another soil test 10 feet away which she did--that test was gravel. Then a third test another 10 ft away showed it to be a good mix of dirt, gravel and clay! All test sites were within the area planned for the drain field. Feeling some relief she agreed we could use that area for the drain field HOWEVER, we had install a large enough drain field to accommodate five toilets-- count em 5 toilet for two old people with one cabin one bedroom. I pray she moved on to another job because she certainly didn't care very much about discovering the "whole picture". Anyway we now have a drain field with four long ditches--each one is five feet deep with a PLASTIC HALF TUNEL OVER THE ditch!!! The whole thing is recovered with soil and the area that is covered by the ditches measures about 30 X 30 feet! Like I said--don't talk to me about septic and drain fields!

This summer we are going to build our garden over the drain field. We will be putting raised beds on the solid areas between the ditches. Thanks to my DH taking pictures of every step of the process we know exactly where those ditches are buried!

Last summer the head plumber for our neighbor--a very large glamping operation--came to look at our situation. He dang near cried!! The funny thing with all of this you may ask?
Well here it is: that cabin had not been used for 27 years. However, for the 20 years before that a family of five lived in the cabin full time. FIL had built the cabin and the septic/drain field himself. He placed the drain field about the size of a queen sized bed in the same area we have our new system. FIL used the springs from a queen sized bed to filter the water and prevent the soil from cabin in. He had a septic tank that ran into that queen sized drain field and that was that! Never had any leakage problem in that multi type soil!
Some day when I figure out how to post pictures I will.
Best,

P.S. we still having intermittent rain and snow here with an extreme change do to come this weekend with sunshine and temperatures reaching about 70f !

 

[KIGardening]

I pray she moved on to another job because she certainly didn't care very much about discovering the "whole picture".

One who choose to be blissful ignorant, stays blind for what amazing lessons are around.

 

[KIGardening]

It has been a while with an update of my garden. What can I say...... I have been busy .

In the front garden I removed one shrub that I planted last year but didn't took of, so I took it out of the ground and placed it in a pot to be relocated later. This gave me the space to add another two garden beds to grow some tucker . Nothing is planted out yet, but I'll find something

With the majority of garden beds and plants in it is time to focus on the garden art to complete the entire picture.

As with everything in the garden it needs to be from recycled materials or with the proceeds of it. So I did some serious hours of study to see how this could be achieved, but also taking in account the possibility of the longevity of the art. My love for scrap metal and broken appliances became the foundation for the next step..... Metal Casting. This should give be the freedom for various shapes and personality of the art. Although still far away from the first cast, one still needs to organise materials like casting sand and moulds etc. for the artwork.

In the last few weeks I have been spending my savings on equipment, waiting for delivery and setting things up. But last weekend it was finally time to lit the forge for the first time to melt the scrap laying around to the first addition to the depository for future artwork.

To get an idea what I'm doing here is YouTube movie that shows a similar process, but on a larger scale, lol.


So my first melting session resulted in just over 6kg. of aluminium and just 6kg of brass with more materials to be sorted and melted for the depository. For the moment I stored these in a plastic container as I have to clean out a shed and evict the rats, since they refuse to pay rent. But hope later this year to have a decent storage place with high duty shelving in place.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Wowza! Nice going! I look forward to what you're going to be doing with all those in the future (both garden and the bars). I'd love picture-updates

 

[KIGardening]

This weekends exercise was to clear some bits up around the house. I added 140 litres of water to the rainwater tank that was collected from dripping shed roofs and clear out the pile of electrical engines. Unfortunate most turned out copper coated aluminium, so I added that to the aluminium pile for a later melt. But there was a small window of melting in between the rains, so I was able to add just over 2kg of copper.

Now its time to kick up the legs and relax.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Looks like a job well done - and some well-deserved rest

 

[KIGardening]

It was pretty wet for the garden here to do stuff, so it was more shed time. I managed to add 4.2 kg of aluminium for future garden art in between showers.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Oh wow!

 

[KIGardening]

With spring getting into swing, it was time to take the left over weeds out of the front yard and prepare my beds for the summer crops. Not all beds have been prepared yet as I still have some with goodies in it. Best thing was that I found some hidden harvest of a forgotten potato plant, so I will have some nice oven roasted potatoes with rosemary and salt later. I will add some oven roasted veggies from the garden as well with it, beetroot, fennel and pumpkin.

I have been busy with filling up some green bins with weeds and the recycling bin with corrugated flute from the cheep made in china greenhouse. The sheets are deteriorating and I have made the decision to rip out the plastic sheets and use the frame for building a chickencoop. A nice little project for the coming weeks to do.

Further this week was busy with dusting off my forgotten DSLR camera. Had a play with it after preparing the garden beds and after many years of not using I still manged to make a few impressive garden photo's, although it is still pretty rusty to get back into it. So enjoy the photos below.

Time to kick my legs up for an afternoon snooze followed by me getting some goodies from the local winery

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Nothing like a hidden/forgotten gift in the garden! Did ou end up getting a lot of potatoes?

I'd love to see updates on the chicken coop build once you start! I think it'd be interesting to see

Ahh I love the flowers and the bee. Almost seems like a good omen for the future <3

 

[KIGardening]

There weren't a lot but enough for a feed. It was one of those small potatoes that was overseen that made a crop.

I will have to remember myself to make some pictures of the project. I already smashed a few plastic sheets out but have more to do before it is bin day this week!

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

It's still a treat

I'll look forward to it, if you have time

 

[KIGardening]

Ohh, dear it is so much fun to read your ideas or plans back and then realise you were too excited to continue that you forgot to take photos of the projects your working on. Sorry Mandy no pictures of me smashing out plastic sheets out a cheap glasshouse. That part of the project is done with high demolition quality and fun ... #Karate Kid's Crane bird kick was so much fun to replicate.... before you ask, I did wear safety boots, as ramping is still happening for the ED of the local hospitals, so better not to end up there! One bonus is the frame is still intact

Now was that all for this update? But, wait there is more , you better get a or a . That last one is what I'm having while I'm typing all of this. Ohhh, make that I'm going soon for a refill.

For the ones that like to listen to the same music that I wrote this update on... here is the link! Just one warning to potential listeners, this classical and metal music fused together, so I understand not everybody's cup of tea.



My morning and afternoon walkies with the little pooch always brings interesting adventures in life. Most are good and sometimes not so good. A few weeks ago the little pooch got unprovoked attacked by another dog during an afternoon walkie. I spent the evening at the emergency vet before she was released out of surgery. The following nights I spent sleeping on the floor to comfort the little pooch as it was in a lot of pain and didn't want to be lifted up at all. However the little one managed to crawl onto the mattress and snuggle into me for a safe feeling. The other dog and owner took off, but when you think you can mess with the little one.... your wrong as there is a smart big buddy! It took only 48 hours to track the dog and owner down to unleash the force of the authorities on it. The little one is healing well and doing walkies again. Although I did noticed that it still has phycological scars due to interaction with other cats and dogs.

So after the not so good walkies we had some good walkies. We managed to score some free goodies that were still in good nick for a next chapter of the life cycle. The first one is a nice big outdoor pot. I had space for one and was like... thank you giving person. It will go to a good house. I brought back the pot and planted a chilli bush in it, as I have lost some chilli bushes over winter after a few years of production.

During another walkie with the pooch found ourself another treasure. I still needed a watering can for the front yard and forgot to get one. Well it seems if you forget to get one for a long enough time, the universe will place one on your path! Yep there was a free unwanted watering can on the verge and even better it turned out to be a metal one in good nick. This will last me a long time and it saved me some dollars as it turned out that these ones cost about $30 till $35!

But wait... there is more

I have further been busy with planting seeds. As usually I keep making the same mistake over and over again.... not proper documenting what I have planted! So what I managed to remember is:

• Radishes
• Sunflowers (various types)
• Shallots
• Tomato (big fleshy yellow one)
• Radicchio
• Some kind of broad bean that looks like a red skin with white/yellow spots. I just tried this as the seeds were out of date and thought it can always become compost/green manure for the soil.

But... wait there is more! Sounds like a brilliant advertisement for KIG's garden on TV

One of my nemesis is growing rhubarb successful and I decided to give it another shot and got me a seedling. I started to prepare a garden bed and found out quickly I stuffed up somewhere. There was a whole harvest of potatoes there, so not knowing how much I stuffed up I started an archaeological potato dig. It was great decision as it turned out to be a great crop. At least 10kg there. With the potatoes out of the way I finalised the bed for the rhubarb. Time will tell if this is the spot and success.

Were now entering in a new stage of KIG's front garden adventure.... the installation of the long awaited irrigation system. I started to lay down the infrastructure for this last year, but due to going into the hot summer back then I decided to wait with the work near ground level as it is not a fun job to do when it is hot and doing close interacting groundworks. The heat hits you twice to three times as hard, I know this of practical experience of more that a few occasions. So what did silly me decided today.... to install irrigation with 24C and no cloud cover..... what about doing such things in winter, when it is cool . At least I wasn't that silly to do it when it was 35C or higher as I did in the past .

The first thing to do was to have the irrigation pipe running from the tap to the dispensing station. I was clever enough to install a metal pipe under the concrete path when the previous garden was excavated... just a crap kikuyu grass lawn, so no loss there. So I took all the loose debris out of the holes that I dug on both sides for feeding the line through.... and nothing happened. I could not feed it through. I was like . Then it struck me, it has been a year that it sat like that, so there must have been some soil blocking. First I just tried a garden stake to pierce through, but that didn't work. I tried to loosen it with a water beam, but that didn't work either. So I decided to get my special metal cooking spoon out with a big hammer . A few bashes later it was unblocked with a 4-6cm long clayish cylinder coming out the pipe. Nothing than a good special cooking spoon could have saved that.

With this out of the way installation made a big progression. Within minutes the feed from the tap to the dispenser station was build, but it started also to warm up and I could feel that working so close to the ground. After an hour or so I had my first feed in from the dispenser station to the first row of garden beds. It was now midday and the sun started to play up on me. So time for a break and a little midday snooze . After the snooze I went back as I had to finish it. So I got the second row in. Then it was KIG's better half telling me it was lunchtime. On lunch was a delicious meal with about 65% of ingredients coming out of the garden and/or homemade preserved and a locally brew to go with it.


After snacky time it was back to finishing the irrigation and test it out. It turned out to work well and now I'm ready for the hot summer afternoons where I can water my veggies sitting in the airconditioned room watching it, while I water water myself not forgetting the heat and the sweat it took to get to this stage.

But... wait there is... Just kidding this the end for this entry. Enjoy the rest of your day and thank you for reading. I hope it inspires you to do grown your own quality food.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Haha all good. I reckon this post makes up for it

I was a huge fan of Nightwish when I was younger! I don't have a favourite singer, as I think all of them have their qualities. I can't quite remember all the songs I used to listen to, but the first I came across was "Amaranth". I love "I Wish I Had An Angel", and liked "Bye Bye Beautiful".

That must've been so terrifying! I hope your pooch is doing okay now?
When our dog got attacked, the muscle in her shoulder got shredded, and much more. They had to stick up quite a few large tears. Absolutely terrifying. She could hardly move and I slept snuggled against her. It was really hard to figure out what she needed, as she'd start whimpering when something was wrong. Took me a while to figure out that her initial whimpering was because she was cold, and couldn't move to a warmer spot. Once I had her all snuggled up she was good for an hour or two thankfully. I'd wake up at the slightest noise, sleeping with one eye open. Getting her up to go to the toilet was a nightmare though. We'd have to lift her and bring her to the grass, she'd do her business and we'd carry her back to bed.
I think something that hurt alongside it was that the dog that attacked her was a friend. She'd played with it and we'd occasionally pick it up to go swimming in the creek nearby. It must've just snapped randomly, as our girl didn't even fight back (I did though!).
We never made any calls, but a few months later someone else must've had an issue as it's now classified a dangerous dog and has to be locked up 24/7.
Hopefully authorities get your end sorted and hopefully there'll be compensatin for the vet bills!

That's a good looking pot and a very healhty looking plant!

If you take decent care of those cans, they can last for many years to come.

Rhubarb has always grown well when I lived in a temperate climate in The Netherlands. It could grow well for your as well. We had limited gardening space, so I can't give you any pointers, haha. It grew along the path in the back-garden when I was a child, next to a small apple tree (that never fruited).

I couldn't help but giggle at your calling 24C hot, but had to remember that we considered that hot in The Netherlands too. I'm typing this on an overcast rainy day.... at 33C.
But I hear you. I've had plans to do a lot of work in the Winter, but life got in the way. So I'm still trying to catch up now in the Summer heat.

Nothing beats an ol' lady with a frying pan... or a KIGardening with a cooking spoon

I love this update. Looks like you have got a lot of work done, and it shows! Well done

 

[KIGardening]

The little one is doing fine, the wounds are healing well, but she still is afraid for other dogs and loose running cats. Before she got attacked she would chase them, since their size

24C is not hot when you normally walk around, but when you are working close to the ground it becomes a whole lot warmer when those sunrays hit the ground and bounce back up. It was 39C today without cloud cover... can you imagine how it would have felt doing that work today!

Well it's back to watering the garden as the plans are thirsty.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

Yeah, our dog was the same for a while. It took me some time to get her confidence back, and now she's right as rain again! For her, I would introduce her to calm or smaller dogs, after having gone for a walk herself. Getting the energy out of both parties first is a must. And I did this with strangers too, I just asked if they were okay with my dog greeting theirs (after confirming their dog's personality). You would be surprised at how willing people can be

True, true. Even worse when there isn't so much as a breeze either.

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

How's the dog doing? Hopefully nearly recovered?

 

[KIGardening]

The little one is recovering well. The physical wounds are all closed up and phycological she is getting better. she made dad proud to get into the hunting mood after she spotted a cat. Big dogs are still an issue for her, so we keep monitoring. I also received official notification from the authorities last week that the attacking dog is officially classified as a dangerous dog and the owner has a whole list of things to adhere to.

Last few weeks I have been busy in the garden with the normal work, but I found some interesting bits for the garden during kerbside shopping as well. Including a a few bed frames that I have converted into trellises where I grow my beans against. Even the star pickets were free

This morning I came across a lone lost tree seedling in a pot.... that I completely had forgotten about and was struggling. So I decided to plant it out where previously I had taken out an almond tree that was dying. Not sure yet, but this might also be an almond tree. We will find out next spring . During the project I did notice I did not had enough mulch to spread around the tree, so I went....... kerbside shopping. I did notice some big gum trees shedding their bark and dropping it on the footpath. By collecting the bark I cleared the footpath (creating better access for the less mobile people around us) and unblocked a drain on the street as well and I ended up with some beautiful mulch. I have to get back later when it is a bit cooler to collect some more. But you will get the picture

 

[Mandy Onderwater]

I'm glad your dog is steadily improving. As the owner of an attacked dog, they get over it. A steady/confident pet parent is key. And finding some friendly people to introduce the dog to helps too. I searched for large dogs who were submissive by nature. I literally went up to dog owners and asked if they were okay with me introducing my scared dog to them, and what their dog's personality was like. No one said no (except the parents of a very dominant dog, which wouldn't fit my purpose anyway - but they were nice enough to let me know this).
Good to hear that the authorities have done the corrects steps.

Nothing like some DIY/reupurposing! Love it. Looks very professional either way.