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Peasants garden http://byfarming.backyardmagazines.com/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=527	Page 1 of 13

Author:

Peasants [ Sun Apr 24, 2011 10:45 am ]

Post subject:

Peasants garden

Well, finally got around to getting some photos ready!
We live on 10 acres near Jandakot, and grow some of our own food in the form of veggies, chooks, ducks, sheep, rabbits and fish (barramundi at the moment, due to be replaced by trout very soon). At the beginning of the year we went solar-it won't cover what we use though as we are not on mains water and so every time we use a tap we use electricity! It helps the environment though, and that is what counts! We also have fun and keep fit!

Attachments:

File comment: A recent homegrown dinner-rabbit and veg

home grown rabbit and vegie dinner copy.JPG [ 108.41 KiB | Viewed 25892 times ]

File comment: Our gorgeous ram, and Finn the dog-best mates!

Finn and 220 JPG copy.JPG [ 121.01 KiB | Viewed 25892 times ]

File comment: barramundi from last season. This year's will be smaller...but just as tasty!

barramundi copy.JPG [ 120.55 KiB | Viewed 25892 times ]

Author:

Peasants [ Sun Apr 24, 2011 10:49 am ]

Post subject:

Re: Peasants garden

More pics!

Attachments:

File comment: Evacuated tubes solar hot water, and our 26 panels for generating electricity. The picture was early in the morning so in shade.

solar.JPG [ 173.51 KiB | Viewed 25891 times ]

rabbits.jpg [ 112.36 KiB | Viewed 25891 times ]

File comment: Pekins

Pekin ducks.jpg [ 137 KiB | Viewed 25891 times ]

Author:	Faye [ Sun Apr 24, 2011 11:16 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Peasants garden
Beautiful D and M Love your work!

Author:	Lord Viykor [ Sun Apr 24, 2011 6:34 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Peasants garden
Looks good

Author:	jdphish [ Sun Apr 24, 2011 9:23 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Peasants garden
From one peasant to another, well done!

Author:	Big_Dave [ Sun Apr 24, 2011 9:35 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Peasants garden
Excellent job, great work on the solar and those animals look.....yummy ha ha

Author:

Peasants [ Mon Apr 25, 2011 11:51 am ]

Post subject:

Re: Peasants garden

Yummy indeed! It is so nice to know where your food is coming from, what it has been eating, and how well it has been cared for!

Attachment:

File comment: Raised beds with 'wagon wheel' covers

wagonwheels.jpg [ 247.24 KiB | Viewed 25867 times ]

The wagon wheel covers work brilliantly! They keep the chooks out of the growing veggie beds, but they can still wander around and keep the weeds away on the paths. When one bed has finished, we open the cover and start throwing our food scraps, chook poo etc into it and the chooks jump right in and scratch it all around....then it is ready for planting again!

Attachments:

File comment: New raised beds for the herbs-right near the back door for easy access!

herbs growing.jpg [ 232.04 KiB | Viewed 25867 times ]

Author:	big worm [ Mon Apr 25, 2011 12:35 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Peasants garden
very nice! wonderful job.

Author:	The Hopefulls [ Mon Apr 25, 2011 8:09 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Peasants garden
looks great. job well done

Author:	dufflight [ Tue Apr 26, 2011 11:20 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Peasants garden
I like your garden beds with the chooks as support. Its something I'm trying to use in my yard. Once I can stop the dog from eating the chooks and the vegies.

Author:

Peasants [ Tue Apr 26, 2011 4:41 pm ]

Post subject:

Re: Peasants garden

That can be tricky!! Hence the fence all around. We effectively have a large square fenced area, and this is divided into four.
The chook house (Paltry Towers!!!) is one of the quarters, which lead into each of the other three veggie beds, one of which is the one in the picture with the raised beds. The other two are for big stuff like corn, pumpkin etc. The chooks get free range in which ever of these is not currently growing, plus around the 'wagon wheels'.
This way they are safe from foxes and dogs, but get to range and scratch around in a reasonable area. It all works well....unless we leave a gate open and they get to the veggies!!

It does keep the dogs away from both though!

Attachments:

File comment: 'Paltry towers' on the left and an empty veggie bed on the right, the raised 'wagon wheels' behind.

IMG_4375.JPG [ 227.29 KiB | Viewed 25821 times ]

Author:	Peasants [ Sun May 01, 2011 10:42 am ]
Post subject:	Re: Peasants garden
Harvested the barra from the pool....very successful, though we left two behind and had to do it all again just for them! The 'Peasant's patent fish catching method' posted in our aquaponics thread soon!

Author:	Peasants [ Sun May 08, 2011 7:57 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Peasants garden
Just had a power bill....and we are actually pleased!! It is our first complete billing period with our new solar system....and phew, it is worthwhile! We reduced our bill from over $600 down to $87!! Some of this is because we have really worked at being more careful over the last few months and have reduced our usage from over 50 units per day to 30 units. This is still high, but we do use electricity every time we turn on a tap as we rely solely on pumping bore water to the tank, then pumping from the tank to the house..... we don't have mains water. A lot of the reduced cost though is the rebate we get from exporting power to the grid during the sunlight hours. We try to use any power during the early morning and once the sun goes down, so get full benefit of the 47 cent rebate for each unit of power we export! It will be interesting to see the next one, as already with the change of season we are producing less...but it all helps our finances and certainly helps the environment!

Author:	Peasants [ Sun May 15, 2011 12:11 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Peasants garden
We regularly get tiger snakes around the house area, looking for the frogs in the fish ponds. Attachment: File comment: Admiring the art work on the back verandah! DSCF5571.JPG [ 186.29 KiB \| Viewed 25761 times ] After seeing 8 over the last summer, we decided to build a 'snake lake', away from the house. We transfered some Western Pygmy perch and loads of tadpoles into it in the hope that the tiger snakes no longer visit the house!! Attachment: IMG_4053.JPG [ 230 KiB \| Viewed 25761 times ] We haven't seen any for a while....but maybe it is just too cold now!

Author:	Peasants [ Mon May 23, 2011 10:35 pm ]
Post subject:	Re: Peasants garden
Our latest addition....a young black ausralorp rooster! Attachment: rooster.jpg [ 174.59 KiB \| Viewed 25734 times ] Our potatoes, courtesy of a great idea to use collapsable soak wells found on this forum!! Thanks for the great idea! We had some 44 gallon drums (previously used as jumps for the horses), so cut those down and planted spuds too. Attachment: potatoes.jpg [ 222.59 KiB \| Viewed 25734 times ]

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