A New Horticultural Group - The Desperate Horticulturalist

This is not a new idea, but as my knowledge grows of horticulture and the impact is has on the average joe, I am starting to see a new group emerging from normal society. I will call these people "Desperate Horticulturalists". We all know one, or have once spoken to one, they are the people that say they are really into plants and horticulture, but the reality is that it is all in their head. Secretly they have a very small garden usually consisting of a few pot plants, which they know nothing about. Without this one or two plants in their life, they do not feel complete. I can understand the people that can't afford a garden or live in apartments and have to 'green up' their small existances with a balcony of random herbs and the most common a strappy, wilting cordiline.
But these people try to deceive the common house guest, by puting green things outside a window, to trick them into thinking that, even though they came into the apartment or house from a cement forest, that the rear or the window leads to a lush, exotic rainforest.
I guess they are trying, but who are they really fooling?

Smart Garden Watering Website or http://www2.smartgardenwatering.org.au/

So, it was part of this uni assignment that I write of my experience of the Smart Garden Watering Website.
I have visited on a few occasions, as I did find the site abit confusing at first, but then on other visits I did come to realise that the site really isn't that great of a site. Yes, it is interactive and you can share your plantings and water uses and disuses with other gardens, but as there are only 24 gardens saved to the site, (including mine), I found it wasn't that useful. I guess it is always good to know how much water your garden requires, but honestly I don't really see it as more than a large water-use calculator. I just take a mental note of how much, if any, extra watering my garden needs over particular weather seasons. It just seems to be missing something.
Maybe because the site is pretty young and doesn't have alot of followers, it might become more interesting further down the track. I will keep track of the website, but progress does seem to be taking a long while, I might check up every couple of months or so.
Nice idea, but needs abit more oomph.

Step 4 - Final Step

This is the final step which involved filling the units to start the composting breakdown process. I read alot of different ideas about composting and everyone has a different opinion on composting. Most of the people I spoke to, and from my own experience, I have found that the best composting method is decided by trial and error. There are great articles out there on the exact percentages of 'green' matter to 'brown' matter.
This is what I have learned in the past.
Try to keep the layers 50 - 50 , green to brown. Green waste is green in colour. Brown waste is brown or dry and also includes advanced compost and general soils. There are many horticulturalrists who will tell you to compost for specific plants to condition the soil to get peak flowering, fruiting or growth of certain plants. I have found that with  compost, any nutrients will help soil in any garden. Most people in Australia, and I am sure around the world, over fertilise and put way too much nutrients into there gardens and most of these products go to waste and down storm drains.
Start simple. Finish simple. Gardening should be peaceful, not stressful.

Step 3

The third step to this compost unit build is to put the wire around the posts. Sounds simple. I found it abit tricky. Might have been the product but I found it was quite hard to get the wire to stretch straight. It took abit of elbow grease, but I did find out how to do balance it on the next post I needed to tie it to, a few quiet, colourful words were muttered.  I tried to tie it very securely to each post and also to peg the bottom on the wire in to ground to give it extra strength.

I had mentioned in a blog a few days ago that you will need some cable ties to attach the 'door' of the compost unit. At this point of the build, I had not yet worked out how I was going to attach it to be simply removed so the compost sould be used after the full breakdown had occured. Obivously, I need a latch or hook, but as I wanted to extend the life of the wire I would have needed some attachment which would not distort or mishape the wire. I went with cable ties for a few reasons; they are cheap to replace, they are strong, they can be removed easily with household sissors and they are easy to differentiate from wire as my parents are getting older and wont try to cut the wire holding thefencing to the posts.

Step 2

The build took a while as there was a few problems that I had not expected. The first was the cement footing of the wall. Obviously the wall had been build on a subsurface foundation and when constructed had no plans of anyone trying to drive a stake into the ground against the bricks. So I hit a wall, so to speak.
I settled for 400mm off the wall as the stakes had to be drivin past the level of the footing. The ground was actually alot more solid then I had expected and held the stakes quite well and just 250mm.

I set the stakes in 900mm square as I had already lost space due to the walls footing. I tried to allign the wire holes, which if you have encounted a star picket before, you would have noticed that there are only hole on one of the three edges of the picket.
At this point, my project was running quite smoothly, apart from the walls footing.
WARNING: If you attempt this yourself, please call Dial Before You Dig, I knew where all the pipes were as I installed all irrigation on this property and knew where the pipes were from previous work.
I wet the posts and base of the build to let the stakes set solid in the afternoon sun.

Step 1

The prepartion of the actual site of the composting units. Previously the area had been used as a dumping pile of years of grass clippings so the ground was already grass free.
I dug about 50 mm deep and set aside the soil for layering in the units. I graded the area simply with the back of a large metal rake. I did add some sand to the graded section for drainage. I already had a bag of unwashed sand in the shed, so I didnt need to buy it. I didn't add alot, but enough to give the base abit more stability than just dirt.
I have read in my research of DIY composting, that couch grass can be a major problem, as the compost can grow into a large grassy mound. Couch runners are quite vigorous so I knew that it would have to be controlled. I did lengthen the cleared area of the bins as, if you can see, my parents lawns are couch grass, which is abit concerning.

So, I went and bought all the materials. I wanted this build to last as long as I need it to. So I went with abit more exspensive option, but in the long term it should be much cheaper. I should need to repair it as steel wire and pickets are not that easily damaged in the urban landscape.
6 x Star Pickets
6 x Picket Caps (SAFETY)
2 x 5m Steel Wire Fencing (not too large for mulch to fall out the side)
1 x 2m Fencing Tie Wire
2 x Hessian Bags
10 x Irrigation Pegs
10 x White Cable Ties
This list came to $100 approx.

Clean Up

As I am currently living at my parents house during my study periods, I have decided my parents need a few good hours a week help around the garden surrounding their house. This week I decided to fix the giant mound of semi compost/ pile of grass clippings that has been building a small mountain the past few years in a shady corner of the back yard.

I looked into basic and cost effective ways to construct my own compost bin. I settled on the steel post and wire method. I pretty much designed this myself as my capentry skills are quite basic and most of my tools are up at the farm. Dad's tools consist of a hammer, a mallet, a very rusty saw and a jar of nails. Being a student, I can't really afford to by a new set of tools, so I figured I will make do with what I have.

My design consist of a double bin design with six steel posts with some sort of fencing wire surrounding it.
Nothing too technical, yet very affective. The fencing is attached with wire that I purchased at the 'Big Green Warehouse', not to name names. Once constructed a layering technique of corse sticks and a few dry vines of pumkin from my crop just gone, to allow airflow and air intake, then a layer of died leaves, then a layer of advanced composting grass clippings, then leaves, then pumkin vines, and so on and so on....

Photos to come of the build with some handy reflective notes for future composting