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Bungala Ridge Permaculture Gardens

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Permaculture Year Planner

Staying organised is one of the hardest aspects of a busy permaculture lifestyle, whether you live on a rural or urban property. Here is a quick reference to remind you of things that may need doing. This calendar is based on my personal calendar and is constantly changing. It also suggests things that you can do that are environmentally friendly and will enhance your well being as well as that of your local community on a daily basis.

Do you have a suggestion of something you would like to see on our planner? Then tell us about it!
Planting guides are for a temperate zone only.

January

January 2008 Diary

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30
31

 

Zone 0 - all in the head!

  • Make a Wish List - set goals for coming year.
  • Revise Fire Drill: make sure everyone is familiar with what to do if there is a bushfire.
  • Remember to Slip, Slop and Slap - Summer Sun Safe - Wear a Hat!
  • Make a mental note to increase intake of water.
  • Consider planting these summer climbing plants for next year: bouganvillea, abutilon megpotamicum, bauhinia corymbosa, hibbertia, clematis jackmanni hybrids, clerodendrum splendums, stephanotis, jasminium, kennedia, hoya.

 

Zone 1 - in and around the house

  • Recycle Christmas Tree!
  • Clear out gutters, clean up twigs and dead plant matter, check hoses and fire pump, store buckets handy, cut long grass, store wood heap (and other combustibles) away from house.
  • Get a home brew going - Beer, Ginger Beer.
  • Check gas bottle is full for all those yummy summer barbecues - resist the temptation to use an open fire barbecue, and if you do follow the regulations - check with local authority if unsure.
  • Fruit and vegetable preserving: drying, bottling, jam.
  • Feed indoor plants with an organic fertliser
  • Clean dust off indoor house plants
  • Water indoor plants once a week
  • Paint a piece of outdoor furniture a bright primary colour!

Zone 2 - in and around the garden

In the vegie garden

  • Plant onions, chives and mint around vegie garden to deter rodents.
  • Harvest summer fruits and vegetables... Yum! Pick often to encourage extended crops.
  • Replant early varieties of zucchinis for continuous cropping
  • On a cool or cloudy day, plant out: brussles sprouts, broccoli, celery, leeks, sweetcorn, cucumbers, capsicum, pumpkin, late season tomatoes, sweetcorn, french beans.
  • Make extra sowings of fast-maturing summer vegetables: dwarf beans, cabbages, cauliflowers, carrots, celery, broccoli, kohlrabi, lettuce, radishes, turnips, swedes, leeks, silverbeet, spring cabbages.
  • Build summer compost heap using litter from animal and poulty pens.
  • Plant for successive crops of lettuce, carrots, peas, beans, parsinps, beetroot, and late fruiting tomatoes.
  • Spray sour milk for fungal problems and cabbage butterfly; dipel for grubs
  • Derris dust on brassicas and tomatoes if necessary
  • Hand pollinate if necessary (especially pumpkins, tomatoes, etc)
  • Nip side shoots on tomato bushes
  • Don't feed tomatoes until after first flowering.
  • Add iron chelates on strawberries

In the nursery

  • Take cuttings of evergreen shrubs like grevilleas, fuschias, etc. Encourage good roots to develop by dipping cut end into hormone rooting powder.
  • Take cuttings of: hibiscus, rhododendrons, azaleas
  • Propogate water smart plants: cliveas, geraniums, succulents
  • Lift bulbs and store in dry, airy place - tulips, hyacinths, daffodils.
  • Re-use soil from bulb pots for potting cuttins of pelagoniums and geraniums
  • Repot cyclamens, leaving half of the corm exposed
  • Continue to make compost

Waterwise

  • Mulch garden - seaweed, leaves, spoiled hay, straw, newspaper, cardboard, jute and hessian sacking, old cotton clothes, grass clippings - 20 to 30cm deep.
  • Check irrigation systems for leaks, drippers for blockages.
  • Deep watering - weekly - very early morning to avoid fungal disease and too much evaporation.
  • Keep an eye for wilting and dry spots - hand water and apply mulch.

In the garden

  • Fertilise grassed areas if it looks like rain, cut high
  • Spray roses for black spot with sour milk solution (1 part sour milk, 9 parts water)
  • Use slow release organic fertilisers on pot plants
  • Pick roses and flowers for inside, as it encourages more flowers to come on.
  • Remove dead flowers and lightly prune plants (up to one third for roses to encourage autumn blooms)
  • Add wetting agent to soil if it has become water repellant, then top with mulch
  • Add iron chelates to rhododendrons, proteas, banksias, grevilleas if leaves are yellowing
  • Trim wisteria tendrils to keep tidy: prune hard but retain flowerbuds at the bottom of new shoots
  • Feed fuschias and keep moist using rainwater only
  • Top up mulch around rhododendrons, cameliias and azaleas
  • Prune withered rhododendron flower trusses above new buds
  • Apply worm tea to flowers, pot plants and vegetables.
  • Apply seaweed fertiliser and fish emulsion to flowers, pot plants and vegetables
  • Take cuttings of geraniums, azaleas, rhododendrons, camelias, and native plants from softwood. Look for hardened spring growth at top of stem and take a 10cm cuttings. Snip off lower leaves. These should strike within 8 weeks. You can also do yucca, begonias, cordylines, gardenias, dracaena, jasmine, hibiscus, philodendron and brachyscomes now.
  • Top up gravel mulch in rose garden.

Zone 3 - poultry and orchard matters

  • Net remaining fruit trees
  • Cover (with nylon stockings) grape bunches
  • Check that poultry have plenty of shade and fresh water every day
  • Top up mulch under orchard trees
  • Check drippers are working on each tree
  • Add iron chelates to citrus trees
  • Feed stone fruit after harvest.
  • Pick apples affected with coddling moth grub, spray tress with lime and water to control apple scab.
  • Spray plum, quince and pear with pyrethrin to control leaf skeletonising slugs.

Zone 4 - out and about the property, further afield

  • Finish cutting grass and clearing away combustible undergrowth
  • Salvage mulch material - keep a few bags in the car and collect organic material without disturbing habitat when going out.
  • When out and about, take a plastic bag or two or three and pick up litter.

Zone 5 - wild things!

 

 


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Copyright © Beverley Paine 2002-14. Article from this website may be downloaded, reproduced, and distributed without permission as long as each copy includes this entire notice along with citation information (i.e., name of the periodical in which it originally appeared, date of publication, and author's name). Permission must be obtained from the author in order to reprint this article in a published work or to offer it for sale in any form. Please visit Bungala Ridge Permaculture Gardens for more original content by Beverley Paine.