Day 278

And another slight adjournment.

I thought I'd show you what's on the other side of the post and rail fence that separates the AP system from the rest of the backyard.

It's our other passion in the garden and another part of our sustainable back yard.  The Australian bush is a great place to take time out in.  What we have done here is start to recreate a part of that.  An area we can come into at the end of the day and wind down.  The nearby AP system with the sound of water makes it feel as if we have a small river running by as well.

This whole garden is just now gone two years old.  If you want to see a video of the day we planted the garden you can see it here.  You'll see just how much its grown from day one.

Here it is 2 years ago.

And the same perspective today.

A couple of pics I played with in photoshop.

Day 277

Today I want to tell you all about Dirtgirl World.  I know there are many people who read this blog from all over the world who have kids or grandkids.  Dirtgirl is a great Australian character who is aimed at young kids.  The blurb about this show I have added below but if you can get your hands on this our find it on TV some where make sure you watch it.  It's is so good for kids to learn about their gardens.  They will be busting to get out in the garden.


Oh and her website is here. Dirtgirl World.

dirtgirl is a gumboot-wearing girl who grows awesome tomatoes, knows cloud names and drives a big orange tractor.

dirtgirl's backyard is full of friends. There's scrapboy, her best friend, who's a whiz with junk,grubby with her grub’s eye view, ken the weevil, a super stunt star with a healthy fear of heights,roger the rooster and the chicks, hayman, the monosyllabic scarecrow and thegreenthumbs...real kids in real gardens having unreal fun.

dirtgirlworld is a celebration of life outside.

It's a place of bizarre insects, underground tunnels, vaudevillian trained chickens and performing stunt bugs.

Funky pop songs, guitars with attitude, beats, grooves and loops all blended with a tractor, make up the infectiously cool music in dirtgirlworld.

This musicentric series explores the natural world and invites the audience to 'go get grubby' in the big world outside.

dirtgirlworld is a place where we find out that we protect what we love.

As dirtgirl says...'it's all about balance'.

Made for 4 - 7 year olds, dirtgirlworld takes this audience to a world where real and unreal hang out together.

Day 276

Its been a fair bit of time since I've posted and the only reason is that it's been a busy couple of weeks.  Spring has sprung though and the patch is getting very full.  We are still waiting for those broad beans to appear though.

We are in full swing planting seeds in soil ready to plant seedlings in the next few weeks.   

We have planted so many different varieties of seeds that we should have a massive abundance of produce this coming season.

Grace helping me choose the seeds.

Matilda (the Destructor) "helping" me empty the pots.

Ready for a top layer and some water.

Day 262

You can tell its spring when the colours start appearing.  All this and more is growing in the patch and we are starting to plant seeds in potting mix to grow seedlings for transplant into the AP in the coming months.

Our plan is to pack it so full it will be bursting for the spring/summer seasons and harvest as much as we can.  Exciting times.

Day 258

Here it is.  Our new 3400lt rain water tank.  We purchased this with the money we received for winning the Sustainable Gardens competition last Sunday.  Its going to help us be even more sustainable and will be used to catch rain water to top up the AP system.  It gives us the capacity to basically store enough water to fill the entire AP tanks once over.  

It will be great in summer which is when the most evaporation occurs in the AP system.  So now we just need a bit of rainfall in the next couple of months to fill it up.  Here's hoping we can get it full.  

Day 257

I've just realised that we are nearly into the last 100 days of Harvest 365.  Its amazing to think just how much we have grown of our own food.  I haven't posted every day as I didn't want to bore you all with another "bunch of spinach" post but we have picked a significant component of our daily food.  

We have come along way and learning every day.  We have won the award and hopefully shown others what can come from an AP system.  The best part is it's only the start of the most productive season of the year so it can only go uphill from here.  

Today we ordered a 3400ltr rain water tank.  We used the $500 form the sustainability competition to buy the tank so we'll always have a reminder and we are going another step toward bringing the system to a self sufficient one.  

Anyway enough of my rant.  Here's todays pick.  All that fresh coriander torn up and tossed through the stir fry.... I can still smell it on my hands... Bliss.

Day 256

Another long day at work and we wanted to get something on the table fast for dinner.  My wife asked me to pick as much as I could and came up with this fantastic "frittata" style dish.

Once again the flavours are just amazing.  Even if you have just a pot and some soil, try growing some fresh herbs.  You'll get hooked.

Day 255

We did it.  We were awarded today with the First Prize in the Sustainable Garden Competition at  the Wyndham Sustainability Festival.  It's a great achievement for us and one we greatly appreciate receiving.  It makes all our work over the last couple of years in the garden worthwhile and one that will keep us aiming to be even more conscious of what we are doing with our block.  

Hopefully it will also help get the word about aquaponics out there as well as others discover the different elements that bring our sustainable garden together.

Part of the award was $500 and we are going to use that money to purchase a larger rain water tank to harvest rainfall to keep the AP fish tanks topped up over summer.  

So a HUGE thanks to the Wyndham City Council and the sponsors of the competition.  It's great to see organisations getting behind a great cause and bringing sustainability to the forefront.  

Day 253

How could I resist taking this image.  A bunch of fresh parsley offered up by my daughter.  It's the end of another week and tonight we picked leeks, cauliflower and parsley for our dinner. 

I'm playing around with the photos to see if I can go to the next level for the pics I take for the blog.  Not sure if this works though.

It was all a bit much for our youngest one though.  She was getting tired and over posing for a photo.

This is the seeds the girls planted a little while ago.  The have been living in our oldest daughters bedroom for the last couple of weeks and are growing strong.  Each day the girls have a look to see how they are growing.  Wont be long before these go into the AP system ready to produce beautiful heirloom tomatoes for us.

Day 250

Tomorrow is judging day, as we have two judges from the local council coming to look at the garden and "the patch" to see if we will take out the Sustainable Garden Award.  We are very happy to be finalists but even more excited that aquaponics might get more exposure in our area by the inclusion of our backyard in the competition.

Tonight we picked a bowl of pac choi, silver beet, herbs, celery and I pulled a carrot to see what size they are at now.  It made a great stir fry.

Day 249

I've always wondered if there were people out there reading our blog.   We enjoy writing and every now and then we get a comment which we think is fantastic.   I had an idea recently to see if I could find who might be looking in on our day to day ramblings.   I was actually surprised what I found and very humbled with some of the comments.  I want to share some links of those who are linking to us and what they say.


Homestead Basics
Past homestead skills combined with modern advancements makes urban Homestead Basics for Self Reliance today

The Expensive Tomato
This online journal is dedicated to show friends and family the progress I am making on my Aquaponics Greenhouse.


The Aquaponic Source
The Aquaponic Source was started in Boulder, Colorado in November 2009 by Sylvia and Alan Bernstein.


So if you are a reader please write us a comment on today's blog entry.  Even if its just your name and what part of the world you are from.  It would be great just to see from where our readers are.  And to those you who have written such wonderful things about what we are doing, Thank you.

Day 248

Wild, wet and windy is probably the only way you could describe the weather we have been having in the last few days.  With flash floods across most of our state and winds that have been bringing down trees, I was a little worried about what we would be faced with in the patch the next morning.  

We had winds last night of around 90km/h and when we woke the next morning we had surprisingly little damage.  The broad beans are on a small lean, as are some of the leaks but overall it survived the storm..

All this rain has cemented my thoughts that we need to get a much bigger tank.  At the moment we have a 240lt wheelie bin which I have setup to catch the rain. It helped in the early winter when we needed a small top up but we really need to catch a heap more so that over summer we can top up the fish tanks with water we harvest and not from the tap.

Today was a beautiful spring day, so I pottered around, tying things back, trimming off dead leaves etc and enjoying the sun.

We took a few trout out to see how the are looking and were surprised at just how big they are getting.   

You can see from these pictures that they spread across my whole hand.

Another job I have been wanting to do is give the tank a scrub.  It can get a little build up which I like to scrub back and release into the grow beds.  As I went about doing this job my 3yr old daughter took the camera and took a couple of pics.  She did a great job and I must say I really like this one of me.  

This is another one she took of the potatoes we are growing.  It's the one thing that is hard to grow in a AP grow bed so we decided to grow these in the straw that we take from the chook house.  It's a great circle of use and reuse and we will benefit from this with some fresh home grown spuds in a few months.

Day 246

We've just been announced as finalists in our local councils Sustainable Garden competition as part of their Sustainability Festival.

This is a great achievement for us as we have put a lot of work into the whole backyard with native plants etc that attract native insects and birds.  Its been designed to be part of the Aussie bush and low maintenance with only water from the annual rain fall to keep the plants going.

Obviously a big part of the yard is the Aquaponics System which with its many parts you have read about including compost, chickens etc all add up to a sustainable system.

We are very excited about attending the winner announcement next weekend and will let you all know how we go.

Day 241

This is a late post as I must have been distracted by a busy week and forgot to add this one.  

It's actually a good thing I guess.  Last weekend we spent a wonderful morning in the patch with the girls.  Seeing these images this morning gave me a great smile as it reminded me of how great it was.  

One of the things we absolutely enjoyed growing last summer was tomatoes.  I think its one of those crops that no matter who you are, you'll enjoy growing and picking your own tomatoes.  I remember last year we actually bought the tomatoes early in the season.  Even the lady at the nursery commented on that we shouldn't be growing them at that time of year.  Strange...she was selling them!  We ended up with a bumper crop and we are still enjoying the tomato sauces we made even to this day.

So it was with great excitement that we planted some tomato seedlings about a week ago.  We are keen and if we lose them to a frost so be it.  If the gamble pays off again we'll have another great crop early in the season.  

However we thought we'd start an insurance plan and have some fun with the girls.  We bought some tomato seeds and some seed mix and spent the morning with the chooks running around our feet, teaching the girls how to plant seeds.  

They are so easily impressed and it slows you down to enjoy such a simple thing as planting a seed, giving it some water, sun and attention.

The girls had a great time learning about seed growing and they water the seeds daily with their water sprayers waiting, watching for something to pop up out of the soil.

The seeds we planted were three styles of heirloom tomatoes and basil.  They were all mixed in the one seed packet and were died in different colours which was another fun thing for the girls as they were planting red, blue, yellow and black seeds.

So if you have children in your life.  Grab a seed and a pot and a bit of soil.  Take the time and plant a seed.  It will slow you down and who knows, you may also plant the seed of learning that may benefit your children's children in the future.

Day 240

We have some exciting news today about the AP System.  Inspired by a comment from a reader way back on Day 25 we have put 2 new poles at either end of the patch and raised the roof of the shade cloth.  

This will make it a great spot in summer and keep the water cooler.  So big thanks to Bob.   Read Bob's comment here.

Day 236

5.2mm of rain has fallen in the last few hours, topping up the tanks once again and giving the rest of our backyard a great soaking.  I had to dash out in the rain to grab some produce for tonights meal and some herbs for tomorrow.

I have a new local butcher who stocks goat meat.  I haven't had much of a chance to try it, so inspired by a co-workers recipe I am marinating a shoulder of goat in white wine, EVOO, Garlic and some amazingly fragrant herbs from the patch.  We'll slow wet roast it tomorrow and see how it goes.  

I picked parsley,  rosemary and thyme and they smell beautiful.  The rosemary has beautiful purple flowers at the moment as well.  It must be nearly spring.

Day 234

What a magnificent day.  Spring is definitely on the way.  Just a tidy up of the patch today and this week we installed something new.  It will make it a nicer place to be over summer in the patch. I cant reveil it just yet but it is something someone suggested as a comment here in the blog a few months back.  As soon as its completed I'll post up a picture.

So for now I have a few pics of what's growing.  Its really taking off.

In the foreground we have lettuce and the background is bok choy.

Heaps of Beetroot.

Very happy to see a couple of Cauliflowers coming along.

Cabbage, but I cant remember the variety.

Leeks... we have heaps.  A big bowl of potato and leek soup is on the cards I think.

And last but not least, the silver beet.  It's been great over winter but I'l be glad to see it gone. 

Day 229

Leek, Silver beet, Cabbage, Coriander, Parsley, Thyme and Rosemary.  That's the pick from the patch today and I had no idea what I would do with it.  A quick look in the pantry and six eggs and salt and pepper and a meal was devised.

Cooked in a flash and we had the most delicious frittata I have ever tasted.  It was like a fresh salad and the herbs danced on in our mouths.  I can't begin to describe the freshness and its days like today that I think it's totally worth it.  

Day 224

I had a very inspiring email today from a lady who lives in the USA and reads our blog.  

It's great to receive feedback from readers so please if you are a reader and can spare a few seconds to write to us or leave a comment it would be great.  

I wish there was a way of telling just how many people are out there.  Whoever you are, thank you for taking the time.  We genuinely hope you are enjoying the updates as we go through the year and Lori, I will endeavour to take the time to post up the recipes.

On to todays pick from the patch, we still had some of the cabbage we picked left over from the other day.  I actually went to the fridge thinking we'd have to feed it to the chooks but it's easy to forget just how fresh our produce is.  It is only 2 days old, not weeks as supermarket produce.  It still had an amazing crunch.  But what to do with cabbage?  

We have heaps of silver beet in the patch so I googled and came up with a Sautéed Cabbage and Spinach recipe.  Easy enough and I'd just substitute the silver beet.

Here is my adaption of the recipe.  Its actually very nice but make sure you don't overcook it.  The greens should still have a good green colour and the cabbage a slight crunch.

1/4 of a shredded cabbage

Equal amount of shredded silverbeet

1/2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1/2 tablespoon of butter 

a couple of pinches of salt

a couple of pinches of sugar

In a saucepan over med-high heat, heat oil and butter, add and cook cabbage, salt, and sugar, stirring frequently, until cabbage is tender-crisp. Add spinach; cook 1 minute longer, stirring constantly.

You can see here it still has lots of colour.

We grilled a chicken breast, sliced it and placed it over a good sized mound of the sauteed cabbage and silver beet.  Oh and yes! Our chickens are still safe.  

Day 221

Well its been awhile and its been very cold.  They patch is humming along though.  The growth in the last week or two is amazing.  We had some strong rain which filled the tanks to the max and this has meant we have a strong overflow which is really causing the water to be very aerated.   The trout are going nuts and eating heaps and the plants are growing at a great rate.  We have got so much going that it wont be long until we are back in the swing of things.  I can almost smell Spring.

But tonight I went out to the patch and I found a cabbage ready for picking plus a Cabbage Patch Kid.  Our daughter Matilda is starting to come out and get involved.   The girls just love picking in the patch.