chicken coop design
We are going to be lazy and buy a pre made chicken coop from ebay. For those of you who know chickens, would you go for:
A) Bigger coop with one nesting box
B) Smaller coop with two nesting boxes

Price wise, they are about the same. We expect 2-4 chooks.

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no weeding today!
just to clarify - weeding party did not eventuate - just in case any one was planning to tun up!

however we are having a mulching party NEXT sunday - 25th - if anyone has spare wheelbarrow to bring along that would be great - mulching from 1 onwards then barbie & drinks from 4 (no need to bring anything - we'll feed all the workers!)

And to those of you i haven't managed to catch up with, i'm off in a couple of weeks for the 4 month road trip! will hopefully be keeping a journal so will let you know the url!

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help with survey
Hi y'all!

in case anyone is reading.... if you have a spare few minutes would love it if anyone could help test out a survey i'm going to run soon for my new research project (looking at earth garden , sustainable living etc - fun!!!)

I'm going to be surveying people on earth garden path and aussies liviing simply to see what impact these sites have on people's choices around sustainable living.

a test of the survey is here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SustainableLivingTest

feel free to asnwer or just have a scroll and let me know if i've left out anythig obvious or done anything dumb!

ta :-)

Also hoping to have a get together at my place weekend after next - prob on 18th. hopefully some weeding, but mostly socialising before i disappear on the big road trip for 4 months!
cheers
helen

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PS
I forgot to mention too - my brother has a bore at his place and this summer it ran dry for the first time since 1967.

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hi y'all , garden notes
Anyone noticed that the snails and slugs this winter are non-existant/rare? I think that the long dry summer killed their eggs in the soil or something because normally by now half my herb garden has been munched but this year its been nothing.
I have been trying 'chemical gardening' for the last six months in preparation for selling my place. Basically instead of organic gardening, I've been using handfulls of fertilisers, toxic sprays, snail pellets, generally doing what most people do in their gardens. And the depressing thing is that it works, it works better than organic gardening. My garden looks truly fab, everything is really green and looking like something out of a magazine. The point of this story is not that 'chemical gardening' is a good thing, just that I can see why this is what most people do. When we move house I plan to abandon the chemicals but it was an interesting experiment.

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Autumn Grubby Nails Meet
A whole bunch of us got together and made some more gardens! It's magic! 




Current Mood: accomplished

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Grubby Nails Meet!
This Saturday at my house in Camillo!

Plan: I have 2 garden beds that need filling and placing. I have placed the small (easy) one already, which is the kids garden bed. The big one needs to be placed, some digging into place, and then some filling going on. It's not a huge load, but I would love to have any one come along who would like to catch up and have a cup of tea and maybe some lunch and/or dinner.

We're going to clean up the weber and get something roasting in it, plus I have lots of different teas to offer.

Saturday 24th
10am
My place, Camillo (email me if you need the address)
Every one welcome! Kids especially! 

Please bring: shovels, rakes, wheelbarrows, smiles, family.

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CHOOKS!
I'm (well mostly Juffy for the hard bits) going to make a chook house.

I'm (well, mostly Juffy for the hard bits) going to do it on the September long weekend, with various parts happening all weekend.

• Saturday afternoon - clean out the area where the chook house will go and assemble likely building materials (this is an easy bit that I will do).
• Sunday morning/day - plot chook house shape, based on what materials we have to hand and whatever the Chook Book says chooks need (this will be the most fun part), build framework (this will be a hard part).  I have a date to go to the Midland market in the early morning of Sunday, so 'morning' = 'after 10.30am'.
• Monday morning/day - finish chook house (another fun part!), celebrate (a most excellent fun part).

At some later point, probably the Swan View Show in November - buy chooks!

Anyone who would like to come along for any part of the chook house raising is most welcome.

CHOOKS!

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grubby nails meet this sunday
At my house, mid-late morning. Could you bring wheelbarrows (I just realised I don't have one!), shovels, gloves, and newspapers.
Email me for the address (mwatts at internode dot on dot net), also could you let me know if you plan to come so I can do some catering plans.
Hope to see you Sunday, the forecast is helpfully 'possibility of showers'.

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Grubby Nails meet 30th August
Hi all,
Well.. I thought instead of waiting until I got my act together and then asking everyone over - its never gonna happen, it would be best to ask everyone over so then I have to get my act together.
So: Grubby Nails Sunday 30th August at my place, midmorning.
The plan is to get rid of the couch/weeds in the front yard, lay down thick newspaper and then mulch or woodchip over the top. I have a few native tubestock to go in after that. There is a bit of weeding to do as well, but that is about it. Also if you are feeling courageous, muck out the chook yard.
I have a pool if anyone (the kids maybe) feels like a freezing swim.

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Sunday 12th July - Vegie Garden Raising
Late notice I know, but if anyone's interested, we'll be putting in a vegie patch on Sunday, from around 11 am or so. We have seedlings pushing their little heads up in seed-raising boxes, and the wet season is here, so now's the time! We might pull out a few weeds, too.

If anyone is at a loose end and would like to drop in, buzz me on lauredhelhoyden at gmail dot com for the address (let me know any food issues too, we'll put on snacks and/or lunch of some sort). We're in the mid northern suburbs, and could do train station pickup if needed, or it's a short bike ride from the station. Children are of course more than welcome, though bear in mind the house/yard is not childproofed for smaller folk, so they'll need an eye kept.

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Sunday at my place
Hi guys,

Please let me know if you're coming on Sunday (from 10am) so I can figure out how much food I need to feed you all and so I can prioritise this list of jobs :)

The jobs I've got, in sequential order are:

• Move the thin bamboo from the 'keep' pile to the 'burn' pile
• Restack the old fence pickets behind the shed (Juffy may have the first two finished before Sunday morning)
• Pry up the crazy paving between the house and the granny flat and stack it behind the granny flat
• Construct a wicked veggie bed
• Dig in the volunteer green manure in the rose garden and plant the sad lettuces and coriander plants in there
• Whippersnipper the backyard
• Feed and mulch the fruit trees
• Burn lots of shit

Wishlist

• Dig along the retic in the front yard and figure out where all the leaks are (and fix, if feasible)
• Rehabilitate the 13mm retic that I have in piles in the patio area (and lay lengths along the rose garden, the lemon tree side of the pool garden and the veggie beds)
• Figure out what's wrong with the Kreepy

Tools that would be useful for other people to bring:

• Crowbars / Prybars
• Shovels / Spades
• Brains
• Muscles

I can find pruning and weeding jobs for small hands if desired.

So let me know!  Email me at silverjayus@yahoo.com if you don't have my address already

LLF<

K

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Grubby nails meet / working bee - June 14th, starting at 10am.
Hi guys,

My turn to host a grubby nails meet and I'm hoping you can join me on Sunday 14th June from 10am.

As I'm sure I've mentioned there won't be a great deal of 'gardening' per se, as I'm far more in need of infrastructure services. The main jobs will be pulling up some crazy paving and burning a whole bunch of ruined timber, but I'd also love to share what I'm planning to do with the garden and raid your brains for better ideas.

We just decided this morning that instead of pulling down the gazebo, we'll turn it into a chook house.

Email me for the address - silverjayus@yahoo.com

Cheers,
K

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Youse Guys are Grouse!
Today was fantastic!

We had 11 adults and 7 kids (plus Cygnet, who pretty much slept for most of it) turn up over the course of the day. So much got done! Far more than I had really anticipated:-)

I put up a list of jobs to do, vaguely sorted in order of preference. This was a good idea for a number of reasons. Firstly, it gave us a real sense of what had been accomplished. Secondly, it meant that people could look at what jobs were going and choose what suited them:-) It also meant that I didn't have to 'direct traffic' all the time:-)

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Grubby Nails Gathering
Just a reminder that I'm hosting a Grubby Nails meet up at my place on Sunday between 10 and 5:-)
I'm making Pumpkin Soup (vegetarian, tin-free, dairy-free) and Gulaschsuppe. I'm also hoping to make a Chocolate Simplicity cake and some Gingernuts:-)
We have a decent pile of newspaper, but I suspect we could use more.
I'll have some extra pairs of gloves, and we have some tools, but if you have your own gloves and any spades/shovels it'd be worth bringing them:-) The big job (the one I really want to finish) is to spread mulch, but there's some plant removal, some pruning, (hopefully) some planting and maybe some drilling.
Hope to see some of you here:-)

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Bedding Down for Winter (Grubby Nails Gathering)
Just a reminder that this will be happening next weekend. I've decided to work on the Sunday, to avoid ANZAC Day.

Hope to see some of you there:-)

(We're down to about 1 1/2 cubic metres of mulch—our biggest hold-up has been a lack of newspaper. We'll see what we can do to round up some more, but if you have any lying around, we'd love some more!)

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Sunday's Gathering
I've put up my photos from Sunday here. (If you want to see the photos of people, you'll need to be logged in and I will need to have you added as a friend. If I know you, I'm happy to do that, just let me know:-) )

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One construction project down, one to go
We've finished the pool garden wall and fence! Hoorah!

Pics over at juffles' LJ - http://juffles.livejournal.com/96853.html

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Gardening on Sunday is a GO!
We have compost! We have sheep poo! We have plans! We have tin! 

10am, my place, if you have the urge please bring a salad or bread but don't stress about it.
:-)

Remember, it's change your clocks night the night before, so hoping we all roughly arrive at the same time. Coffee pot will be on! And there will be fruit and snacks and etc all day.
:-)

If you would like to come, but are unsure until Sunday morning, that's fine, come along anyway! 

If any one would like to stay for tea, Chesh and I will be buying... whatever you all feel like! 

YAY GARDEN! SO EXCITED! 
PS, please bring shovels, wheelbarrows, and if any one has a star picket hammery thing, that would be handy.

Current Mood: good

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White House Veggie Garden
How cool is this? Michelle Obama is planting a kitchen garden in the White House.

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