1. Weed tea

Sorry to all the stoners out there, this isn't what you thought.
If there is one thing that grows in any garden it's weeds and our garden is no exception. Weed tea is a way of making a high nutrient liquid fertiliser. It takes about 6 weeks but we got the process rolling today. It makes a great fertiliser and renders the weeds compostable.

If you want to do it too you will need a big container, tub or other water-holding vessel, a flowerpot and a big lot of weeds. The flowerpot acts as a big tea bag that can go into the compost after it's all brewed.

We used an old record crate and a flower pot that seemed designed to fit perfectly.

Like this.

Pack the offending plant matter in tightly.

For tufty grass cut off the roots so they can't feed the stems.

Add some water till it's all covered.

Cover the whole lot so no light gets in and let it brew for 5 or 6 weeks.

The other reason I wanted to clear out the weeds was to give our poor lemon tree a chance. It was being choked by cooch grass and so getting little to no water. The leaves were turning a distressing shade of yellow and falling off.

Before

After

Now the tree can get a drink it should start to bounce back. Hopefully the compost and mulch I added will help too. Cass and I got an old bath some time ago and turned it into a garden bed. We put a small aquaduct made of roof tiles from the plug hole to drain the bed and to give more water to the lemon tree.


Watering the bed


Aquaduct

The Gardening Australia Fact Sheet.

21. go for bush walk

Cass, Maja, Suzana and I went for a bush walk today, up from Waterfall Gully to Mt. Lofty and back again. I love the hills. From the heavily manicured European styled part just near the waterfall you go straight into a stringy bark bushland. The wild flowers that fringed the paths were delicate and pretty. The trees were filled with the twitter and gab of birds and the sky was full of shifting clouds. Here and there you can see a blackened stump from a bushfire. The ferns in the understory are so green in the gully but you can tell this is a dry land forest. Some of the trees are very old and grand.


Cass gets support from an old friend.

It was a fine day to walk up hills as evidenced by the huge number of people out and about on the walk today. As we were climbing up we saw a lot of people running down. Running down, as we found out, was not the problem. With the momentum you got from each step it was hard not to run. It was the people who ran up the hills I admire. People were not the only creatures we met today. Skinks crossed the path from time to time and we were accompanied by beautiful dusky orange butterflies. Insects were in abundance and a passing man saw a small dark brown snake hurry into the bushes.


Here's a bug we met.

On the way back down I rolled my ankle twice. I've got rather bad ankles form an old injury or two and the track was very dry and dusty, very easy to slip or roll. I spent the last part of the walk leaning on Cassie and trying not to do it again. I think I need to invest in some hiking shoes. I've also been told about ankle straps that support the ankle and stop it from turning in a bad way.


Ouch! but there always seems to be a bench nearby.

The way we went is crossed by the Heysen Trail. The Heysen Trail goes from Cape Jervis on the Fleurieu Peninsula to Parachilna Gorge in the Flinders Ranges, 1200ks. I think it may be on a future list of things to do.
Here's the Heysen Trail web site