Printable 2010 Moon Calendar for Australia

Are you are looking for a simple 2010 calendar that shows the moon phases?
I found one that prints out on one piece of A4 paper on the Australian Fisheries website.

http://www.afma.gov.au/information/publications/fishery/moon_phase/calendar_2010.pdf

I hope everyone has an enjoyable Australia Day :-)

--
BevB

Rainy day

Weather Forecast for Today:
Rain periods. Some moderate to heavy falls and local stream rises possible. Windy with fresh and gusty E to SE'ly winds.

I like how they say "rain periods". It hasn't let up since it started early this morning and it feels like it's set in for the day!

The view from our back deck on a rainy day...

Moon Planting: 27th March to 2 April - New Moon
During this phase I put in a new lot of mixed lettuce seedlings as the last lot were starting to go to seed.

April 3rd to 9th - First Quarter
Sow or transplant fruiting annuals and sow green manures. Apply liquid fertilisers.

If you prefer a daily guide to moon/zodiac planting, check out the April Moon Guide at Cosmic Gardening.

If you're wondering what veggies to plant in your part of Oz check out What to Grow in April at Aussie Organic Gardening.

Have a great day.

--
BevB

Two Little Lorikeets

These two Rainbow Lorikeets landed on the railing of our front veranda yesterday morning

and they were here again this morning

Moon Planting: March 19th -to 26th - Last Quarter Phase
No planting during this phase so I have been busy weeding, preparing a small no-dig bed for my potatoes and turning the contents of my compost bins.

Recycling: I've set up a worm farm in this Can-O-Worms I was given by a friend who no longer wanted it.... thanks mate :-)

I've put it in a cool spot close to the back door so my wriggly friends will be guaranteed plenty of treats.

Have a great day.

--
BevB

Australian Garlic

I have been keeping an eye out in the supermarkets and greengrocers for Australian Grown Garlic, but it's always from China or other overseas countries.

Thursday morning I woke up to find an email from Green Harvest letting me know their autumn supply of seed potatoes and garlic are now available. Thank goodness! I ordered some Italian White Garlic, Pontiac Potatoes and seeds of Moon & Stars Watermelon and Lockyer Gold onions, then went out into the veggie patch.

Moon Planting: March 11th to 18th Full Moon phase.
Time to plant root vegetables so I put in a metre long row each of Baby Carrots and Detroit Red Beetroot seeds. I cheated and used Yates Seed Tapes so they'll be evenly spaced when they come up. Or should I say, if they come up! Unfortunately I don't have much success with small seeds.

Yesterday I was in a Woolworths and spotted some Australian Grown Garlic. That'd be right, now that I have ordered it online it is suddenly available in the supermarket! I bought some anyway, and told a young chap in the veg department to thank his manager for stocking it.


I checked the letter box when I got home from shopping and there was my parcel from Green Harvest. What great service :-)


Later today I will be planting garlic and onions. I will have to chit the potatoes.

Have a great weekend.

--
BevB

Where Did The Week Go?

This week just seems to have disappeared!

Australia Day.....
As I said in my last post we were going in the boat for two nights. We met up with friends out on the water and had a lovely time even though it rained quite a bit Sunday afternoon and evening.

Here is our Australia Day sunrise.....

and our Australia Day breakfast.....

Here are a couple of pelicans we met along the way.....

Garden....
This week (26th jan - 2nd Feb) we've been in the New Moon phase. I planted a new lot of lettuce and silverbeet seedlings.

Weather....
In our backyard we've had a lot of sun, rain and humidity, while my relatives in Victoria have been coping with the heatwave.

Cleaning my insides.....
I am still "almost" clear of dermatitis :-) I had a visit with the naturopath on Tuesday and am now doing a bowel cleanse for 10 days. I am using my rebounder every day and the body seems to be toning up.

Birds.....
We recently put a terracotta tray up on a fence post. This gives me somewhere to put food scraps out for the birds, and keeps any visitors safe from our dog and cat. They never harm the birds but they do tend to chase them out of the house yard. So far I have only seen a few magpies and a couple of sulfur-crested cockatoos enjoying the scraps.


Have a great day.

--
BevB

Growing Challenge #4

The Growing Challenge -
Grow one additional type of fruit or vegetable than you did last year, and grow it from seed.








During the past week I have been clearing the veggie patch of plants that have finished producing or gone to seed. The wet weather ruined the squash, zucchini & pumpkin so I will have to start fresh in that area.


Progress report....

The Sebago Potatoes are flowering....

and I am picking 28 spotted ladybirds off them daily!

The corn will soon be taller than me!

Moon planting....
New Moon: a good phase to plant leafy vegetables.
Seeds sown: wombok, pak choy, silverbeet & spinach.

I probably should have waited for the next moon phase, but I also planted out this choko my father-in-law gave me.....

Speaking of the moon.... did you look up last night and see the alignment of Jupiter, Venus and the moon?

It looked like a giant smiley face in the sky!

Have a great day

--
BevB

Early Morning Stroll & more planting

Around 6:00 am this morning I took my ritual stroll around the patch to check for unwanted bugs. I also took the camera.
I have a few large pots in the veggie patch. The 1st one has Spring Onions & Chives....

The Spring Onions were free, well sort of ;-) I planted the bottoms from some supermarket spring onions and haven't had to buy any since. A couple have gone to flower so I will see if they self seed.

The next two pots have potatoes at various stages....

The tallest ones are supermarket potatoes that had begun the sprout in the cupboard. The other pot contains potatoes that had grown in the garden from the veggie peelings I had buried. They were growing where I had other things growing so I transplanted them.

The 4th pot has a white choko in it.....

I noticed the dwarf butter beans and climbing purple kings are beginning to flower....

so I planted more later in the day.

This is the last of the mandarins....

and the first of the zucchini....

I been reading about moon planting so I'm trying to follow the recommended planting phases. As we are in the first quarter today I have direct sown seeds of the following fruiting crops.... Beans (dwarf Butter & climbing Purple King), Sweet Corn (Terrific F1), Watermelon (Sugar Baby), Pumpkin (Butternut & Golden Nugget), Cucumber (Armenian heirloom), Capsicum (Seven Colour Mix heirloom) and mixed Squash (Sweet 'n' Kwik)

--
BevB