First potatoes :D

Last night I wanted to make a baked potato dish & decided it was time to go & see if there were many/any potatoes in the garden. For some reason I didn't expect to find anything, I'm not sure why, the potato plants grew like crazy :p They've pretty much completely died back now, & it looks like as though there was never anything there, but just below the straw mulch I found...

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Our first potatoes!

(Sorry for the poor photo, I was a bit flustered at the time)

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I was so excited, it was like they'd been placed there for me to find, like an easter egg hunt ':) just sitting in the soil. I wanted to dig them all up, but they keep really well in the ground, so I only took what I needed.

This puts potatoes on the record as one of our most successful veg, along with zucchinis & tomatoes :V

I've got a lot more to do out in the garden now that it's Autumn, so I'd better go get started...

Ja!

'Dodge!' -A shiny new Pokemon pic-

Recently I remembered the DMAP (Draw Me A Pokemon) event on dA, & decided I'd enter this week. I've entered a few times in the past, & my drawing have made it to the top 3, but I haven't won yet. But that's cool, gives me a bit of extra motivation to try harder.

Anyway, this weeks poke was good old Vaporeon, & here's my entry -

Looking through my gallery on dA I realised it's been ages since I'd drawn any pokemon related pics, I seem to remember deciding to try to cut back on the pkmn fanart, but seems like that phase may have passed...

Hopefully more pics to come! We'll see how long I can ride this drawing phase for ':I

*UPDATE*
More changes to more arts. Mostly colour adjustments this time.
Oh, I totally won with this entry too \[:D/<victory!

Enjoy!

Best parts of the garden

Summer is almost over, & the summer crops are begging to die back, so most of the veggie garden is looking pretty scrappy at the moment. However the plants along the western fence line are hanging in there, & actually doing very well. Happily it's rained vigorously recently, so that can only help :)

I have lots of plans for the garden now that we're headed into autumn, but for now I'm just gathering the last of the summer harvest so I can hack up the plants & lay them down as mulch. I'm hopeful that a lot of them will self-seed themselves for next year, but only time will tell...

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The most successful basil plant we've grown, I'm pretty sure this is one we grew from seed, but I can't quite remember for sure... In any case it's doing very well, I put it in a more shaded position & used a technique I thought of after watching a permaculture lecture :) We're looking forward to having some fresh basil pesto soon.

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This is the 2nd sunflower to bloom, & the 3rd one isn't far off :) It's a much smaller variety than the giant russian, so it reached full size & flowered in much less time. Before growing them I was never much of a fan of sunflowers, but now I love them, they're really beautiful plants, & the way they move around to face the sun is pretty incredible <3
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& finally the zucchini! Just for it's versatility alone it's like the king of vegetables, great in everything from pasta sauce to cakes, the mighty zucchini is definitely one of my most loved vegetables [:D If you take a close look at the photo you can spot one growing in amongst the leaves (it has 3 good sized zuccs on it at the moment)
I love this plant, I love zucchinis, & I love this garden, despite not yet being very productive I've still enjoyed it so much, it has easily been one of the most rewarding & satisfying projects I've attempted（*⌒ヮ⌒*）
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We also plan to get as many trees in as possible over the coming weeks to try to increase shade for next summer, as well as provide useful green mulch, etc.
I'll try to keep up to date with our efforts in the garden, & hopefully we'll begin to see some higher yields as we improve the soil :)

A sobering look at the likely future of humanity...

It's a scary thing to consider, but shunning the truth won't make it go away. Fact is that this is where we may all be headed, best to be informed in my opinion...
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zippBear VS balloon

I've hit another drawing mood, so here's a small sketch to get things going.

Little character I'm calling a zipperBear, or zippBear, having a confrontation with a scary looking balloon. I'll likely be doing more sketches of these guys in the near future.

Ja!

Update -our garden & our mistakes-

It's been a while since I posted anything here, I have had the flu, but it's largely a lack of inspiration/motivation that's kept me away (maybe also the heat @_@)
I do have a few ideas for posts, & I may get into some drawing again soon... I'm also planning to have a try at making an adventure map in Minecraft, I've wanted to for a while now, so why not :p I think I'll wait until after the next official update to get started, but I'm working on some ideas, as well as trying to get to grips with redstone (for the first time ':)

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For today though I have a couple of photos from the garden & a brief update on how it's all going out there, including a list of mistakes, which I hope will prove to be useful for others.

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 Lovely bowl of tomatoes I picked this morning. There are 3 or 4 varieties here, but the only one I remember is the large one to the left, I'm pretty sure that's a 'beefsteak' tomato, what a chunky thing it is (& tasty) ':p

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& our enormous sunflower has finally flowered, now it's even prettier [:o The angle is correct & not exaggerated, this plant is quite a bit taller than me, I look up at the flower... amazing

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As for the rest of the garden, things are ok, but summer has really taken it's toll. Many plants have been scorched by the long, direct sunlight :( & we even lost a few despite watering because the sun was too intense [: I
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To keep things simple here's a basic list of things we mucked up, & some ideas for how to do it better in future-

• We were impatient & didn't build up the soil enough first with compost, etc
• Make sure your plants have room to grow. If the ground is compacted you can either build material up on top (make sure there is enough, around 2 feet deep) or the ground can be loosened (there are many ways to do this, even without digging, ie. large root crops, etc) The point is to make sure there is enough good soil for your plants to grow or they may struggle, especially when it's hot.
• Lack of shade! We need trees, etc to provide protection from summer sun
• When starting a garden it's a good idea to get pioneer plants in straight away. These are fast growing (often short lived) trees, shrubs, etc that provide shelter for your main crops. Pioneer plants often fix nitrogen into the soil, have leaves which are good for mulch, provide shade & protection from wind, etc. Using deciduous plants can be a great benefit too because they hold their leaves & provide shade during the summer & drop them & allow sun through in the winter.
• Again impatience caused us to jump ahead & skip cover crops -___-'
• Cover crops are also extremely helpful, these plants grow low & wide, they cover the ground & help suppress weeds, protect the soil, add nutrients, support main crops, etc. Some common cover crops are white clover, cow pea, lucern, & in large areas sweet potato are very helpful. These plants can be dug in to improve the soil or left to grow alongside your main crops.
• Some of the beds are too big, & thus difficult to work
• Plan all your garden beds as carefully as you can, make sure you can access them easily, if you're fairly little like me you won't want really wide beds because you'll have trouble reaching the middle. I find it easiest to work with short-ish, narrow beds, keyhole beds are also convenient & productive.
• We built the first beds too far from the house, they're inconvenient
• I imagine this may be a common mistake. As soon as you step out the door you can start making places to grow things. The closer & more convenient it is the easier it will be for you & the more you will enjoy it. Start as close to your door/s as you can, & work outwards.
• Not enough plants in most beds & not enough diversity
• I gave plants too much space & as a result many of the beds have ended up underplanted. I've learned that it's best to fill up the bed as much as you can with as many different types of plants as you can manage (ideally all types) Try to include root crops, cover crops, climbers, tall plants, short plants, herbs, etc all in the one bed. They assist each other in various ways, with some reading & experimentation you can find endless beneficial combinations.
• Lack of swales resulted in water loss due to runoff when it did rain heavily
• Ideally we would have swaled the entire backyard, however we won't be living here for too long, so we wanted to avoid digging & disrupting the yard as much as we could. However if you're in a more permanent location swales can solve a heap of water issues. Research well before you start digging, swales are relatively simple, but you have to know what you're doing first.
• We didn't stake any tomatoes, & as a result we lost a lot to rot/bugs
• Fairly obvious solution to this one. We've discovered that it's best to stake all tomatoes, even smaller varieties become too heavy with fruit & end up leaning all the way over & sitting on the ground. I estimate we lost close to 20% of our toms because of lack of staking.
• In some cases we did't dig, & compaction has stunted many plants
• We have observed many plants struggling in some of the beds. There are probably a number of issues (including too much hot sun) however I think the main problem is that the ground it too heavily compacted & overgrown with suffocating grass varieties (which are attempting to protect the soil from further damage). We should have either loosened the ground first, then built up some compost, etc on top, or made the beds above ground by building up a greater amount (around 2 feet) of compost, etc.
• Not enough mulch
• Mulch is super important for your garden beds, & when you first start you'll need a lot of it. Mulch protects the soils, helps retain water, & insulates. Cover crops such as lucern or cow pea can help reduce the need for mulch, but you'll still need lots. It's a good idea to grow your own mulch, the more the better. There are a number of varieties, buckwheat is often used as it grows quickly & can be slashed many times & added where it's needed. There are a number of good 'green manure' tree varieties as well.
• (observed mistake) Removing bio-mass from your property
• This is rarely (if ever) necessary or a good idea... Anything that falls from a plant, or which you chop off should not be taken away! It should be added back to the soil as intended. When you collect fallen leaves, excess material, dying plants, etc & take it away, you're taking away nutrients. Mulching or composting these materials is a much better option, it will protect the soil, aid other plants & return nutrients back into the ground. Some plants do contain lots of oil eg. eucalyptus, & their leaves, etc don't make good mulch because they surpress growth of other plants, that's why it can be difficult to grow things near these varieties.
• (observed mistake) Freaking out about 'weeds' I'll spray the bastards!
• Nooooo~ One of the first things you learn if you study a bit of permaculture is that plants which most of use consider to be weeds are actually reparative plants. They grow when they're needed to help the soil in whatever way it requires. If the soil is bare & exposed you'll get creeping cover plants that try to protect the soil & help hold in moisture, if the soil is loose, plants with fine hairy roots will grow to help hold it together & help prevent erosion, if compaction is an issue plants with deep think roots will grow to break through the soil & loosen it up (these are often thistles). Spraying these plants with a poisonous herbicide is NEVER the answer, you're killing plants which are trying to help whilst simultaneously poisoning the ground! Instead we need to imitate the function of the weeds, but choose a plant variety which we like, something that is pretty or bares fruit. try to understand what's going on in your garden rather than mindlessly charging through it, that only creates greater problems.

To follow on from the final point, synthetic, chemical sprays of any kind should be unnecessary. Any problem you're having in the garden is indicative of something, work out what the problem is & then find the natural solution, & there always is a natural solution. The best example I can offer to demonstrate this is naturally occurring instances of abundance, for example, forests, mangroves, swamps, reefs, etc, all of these natural eco systems thrive, they are full of life & there is no need for man-made sprays or poisons. Everything is in balance & regulates itself, we should learn from these examples & imitate them as best we can. One of the most common mistakes in gardens is lack of variety, strength comes from diversity, by including a wide variety of plants, interplanting them in a clever way & imitating natural systems we can often avoid many common problems.

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That's most of what we've done wrong (plus a few things I've observed others doing) & it's quite a lot! Somehow no matter how many books you read or informative DVD's you watch, nothing compares to actually doing something. Between the two of us Eli & I must have a fair collection of permaculture knowledge, but applying it is something completely different. By going outside & making vegetable beds, growing seedlings, planting, observing, harvesting, & so on, we've learned so much & realised so many important things that you can't absorb by only reading/watching.

So if you want to grow food (which I can't recommend highly enough) do a bit of research, get some basic knowledge & then get out & apply it! That's the best way :)
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I hope these observations are helpful, & that more of us start growing our own food in a natural, healthy way.
All the best everyone :)
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Ja~

My new favourite texture pack for minecraft 1.1 :D

It's Jolicraft! This pack has been around far quite a while I believe, but I never gave it a try because I preferred higher res texture packs. Man I've been missing out! I decided to try this pack after watching 'The Monarch of Madness'  by The Yogscast (funny guys :p) & I'm so glad I gave it a go.
This pack has the same charming feel as another one of my favourite packs (which unfortunately hasn't been updated in ages :/) I also find the colours to be really appealing, & from what I've seen so far all the blocks fit together really well stylistically. I'm especially loving the cobblestone & wool textures. Mobs & animals look awesome, & really unique too. I haven't had this excited 'wowNeedToBuildSoMuchEpicStuff LIKE.RIGHT.NOW' buzz in a while, & I'm glad I'm feeling it again :p
Something which particularly appeals to me about this pack is the unique differences, eg. saplings look like acorns, gunpowder like a stick of dynamite, etc.
There's even Christmas & Halloween themed Jolicraft packs (both of which can be found HERE)
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So I could probably rave on for a while about how excited I am about this pack, but it's probably better to just give it a go for yourself ;p If you're put off by low-res TP's please don't let that stop you! After playing for a little while you adjust! Plus you may find Minecraft runs smoother for you, especially if your computer is a senior citizen ':)
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Screenshots from my game-
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Go now & give it a try!
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Also may be useful-
Minecraft website: minecraft.net
Jolicraft website: Jolicraft.com
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Play hard & have fun! :)

-Minecraft 1.1 seed-

I'll hopefully update this with new seeds as I find them, but for now, here's the first one...
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#1 - rainbowTrout
Generate a pretty cool world. You land on the border of a desert & plains, with a swamp right next door. There are also some awesome mountains near-by, a forest, & a pretty huge ravine too (which I haven't explored much yet) There's even a super convenient hill a stones throw from the spawn that you can burrow into for your first night :) & not too far from that there's a handy little group of pumpkins. Enjoy.
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Play hard & have fun!

Before & After. Then & Now...

Back when we first started. Sunday, August 7, 2011 (Winter)

vvv

This morning. Monday, January 16, 2012 (summer)

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I tried to get (roughly) the same area in the photo... as you can see things have changed so much! In less than 6 months we've put in 7+ garden beds, we've got a huge variety of fruit, vegetables, herbs, etc growing (most of which we have started from seed), we've planted trees, chopped down the old dead plum tree up the back, tried a few mini swales, & heaps of other stuff. Since we started, life has increased enormously, there are lizards, butterflies, spiders, beetles, bugs, etc etc etc, all over the place ^_____^ It's amazing to look back & see what you've accomplished in such a short time :D It's all organic & it's all good. I hope I can continue practicing permaculture techniques for the rest of my life : ) & I strongly encourage absolutely everybody to take a look at permaculture & give it a try at your own place! If you keep it natural & follow nature (work with, not against) you can't go too far wrong.
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All the best! : )

Sneakily + WIP

A quick sketch I finished a couple of weeks ago, but never got around to posting.

This is a WIP, but I get the feeling I'm not going to finish it...

*Trees & bushes*

So far we've put in 2 trees & a Grevillea bush :) We plan on also getting a cherry tree, & sometime later down the track maybe a nectarine & a maple, along with some other natives that will hopefully attract some new species of birds, etc.

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Baby lemon tree.

It'll be interesting to compare this to how it'll look in a few years time :)

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 A 'moonlight' grevillea we bought at the market on the weekend. It'll eventually grow pretty yellow-green flowers that attract nectar-feeding birds. Hopefully it does well in the spot we chose (there are a few large eucalyptus out front & they're very pushy trees ]: /)

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We've also put an olive tree in out the back, & we have several varieties of trees & bushes at various stages in pots, ranging from saplings, to seeds, to cuttings. So far we have drumstick trees, elder bush, some wattles, a mystery tree from the city (we collected seeds & they're growing), avocado, nectarines & an acacia (possibly Acacia melanoxylon), & various others which we have not identified :p We're planning on planting them out as soon as they're strong enough, if they make it that far ': )

I'm going to try to collect & grow as many different cuttings, seeds, etc as I can to build up more stock for the future, & eventually have a go at grafting. (I'm so going to make a fruit salad tree one day :p)

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Ja ne ; )

How things are growing [: ) -Plants around the garden-

Things are going well out in the garden. We haven't had any huge yields, but we expect productivity to increase year by year as we improve the soil :) So here are some photos of things as they're growing...
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LEFT: A young Elder bush (Sambucus nigra). We managed to grow a few of these from cuttings. They were the only ones that made it though :( Guess I need to practice ':) They are easy to grow & there are many uses for the flowers & the ripe berries.
RIGHT: I noticed yesterday that the nasturtium flowers growing in the bottom bed are funky coloured. Usually nasturtiums I see are a single solid colour, but these have all kinds of beautiful patterns, etc. They are edible flowers, & are apparently great in salads, but I haven't had the heart to cut & eat any yet :p
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LEFT: Our very first borage plant, & this is the first flower :D They kinda remind me of face huggers, but at least they're blue ':p These plants deter pest species & help attract bees :) Both the flowers & leaves are also edible. I'm a bit worried about trying to eat something so hairy, but I'm sure I'll find a way!
RIGHT: Our first (& largest) sunflower, this is a 'giant russian' & it will grow to around 2 meters tall with a huge productive flower. They're surprisingly hardy, & do well even without much water. Eli & I both love this plant, it's leaves are beautiful & it follows the sun like a trooper. We can't wait till the flower appears!
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LEFT: The first sweet corn is starting to grow. These haven't gotten very big at all, so we may only get 1 cob per plant. We've planted 6 or so in various positions, so we'll see what they do. Can't wait to snap off the first ripe cob /XD\

RIGHT: A small strawberry ripening in the sun :) The strawberry plants have been a bit up & down, but we've enjoyed them a lot, & the berries we've managed to beat the slugs, lizards, etc to have been amazing. We recently mulched them with the scraps from our christmas tree because pine trees are acidic & strawberries like slightly acid soil. The most productive plant has recently sent out a runner, so I'll have to read up about what to do with it, cause I have no idea :p

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We were given this as a little (unlabeled) plant, & we had no idea what it was. So it was a nice surprise when it suddenly started busting out little cucumbers :D We've eaten one already & it was so good! Not sure if this one is going to fill out a little more or not, but if it doesn't soon it's gonna get eaten pretty quick :p
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ABOVE: One of the varieties of tomatoes we have growing. To be honest I don't know what half of them are... but I'm really keen to try these ones, just cause they're a funny shape :p
BELOW: Most of the tomato bushes are getting pretty heavy with fruit, & they're starting to ripen [: ) We've had 5 or 6 in the past couple of days, & very much looking forward to horfing down some more! Check out how many there are on this bush alone 0v0

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This is the confused diakon. Poor fellow got wrapped up around himself somehow :p We think he hit a rock or something, then started growing back up-ways, then got terribly confused 'XD None of the daikon have done very well yet, they've bolted to seed & the roots have been woody. We're seed saving from these plants, & we're going to try planting some more when it cools down to see if that makes a difference.
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This is what's left from what I harvested yesterday, a couple of toms & a beetroot. I should have got photos of all of it, but the camera battery was charging, & we were hungry... so it didn't quite work out :p All the veggies have been super delicious though. I'm so glad we've started gardening, I love it & I never want to stop.
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& that's where we're at.
Permaculture FTW! :p
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Ja~

purpleOctopus -Minecraft seed- (^_^)

Tis a nice seed for version 1.0.0 of Minecraft :)

There are some cool hills & mountains, & the spawn point is near several different biomes. Also heaps of sheep, plenty of pumpkins, & caves to explore too. I'm having good fun with this one so far :D

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So the seed for this one is purpleOctopus

Enjoy :)
Ja!

.。o○ Cheery Japanese Song ○o。.

I recently rediscovered this song. I listened to it heaps back it 2005, & it still makes me happy :)

Sakuranbo - Cherry - Ostuka Ai. Enjoy...

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Ja~

Merry (belated) Christmas (• ε •) & other things...

We had some crazy weather on christmas day, & it killed our internet @_@' & so that's why I'm kinda (super) late with this post...

Moving on though, I had a great christmas & I hope everybody out there did as well, or at least tried to make the best of it :p & so I say Merry christmas to everyone, & a happy new year too! On that note I will be sharing a traditional Hungarian recipe that is eaten on new years day, I'll post it later ;3

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The weather on christmas day as mentioned above was insane, there was an enormous hail storm, crazy loud thunder, & amazing lightning. There was a lot of damage around Victoria, but thankfully we weren't one of the worst hit, we mostly just had to deal with some minor flooding. Some of our larger leafed plants, like our pumpkin & sunflower sustained a bit of damage, but they all seem to have pulled through.

Personally I love storms & I was running around outside collecting hail as soon as it let up a bit, I did still manage to get hit a few times, & those things hurt :p but I found some strange & beautiful formations :)

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 Loop! :D

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 Claw >:)

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 This is what most of it looked like. I found it pretty odd, I'm pretty sure all the other hail I've ever seen has been smooth, white balls. I like these :)

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This is a tiny sample of the damage done to our pumpkin. Some hail stones punched holes clean through : / The nasturtiums, beans, sunflower, corn, & a few others also got hit pretty hard [:o...

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& some other photos I shot on the day...

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 The sky was like this all day, it made me happy :)

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 Macro shot of rain drops of a swizzle stick.

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One of our whirligigs.

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So we had a very eventful christmas, one I hope I won't forget. I do wish I had taken some more photos, but guess I'll try to remember that for next year :)

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All the best everyone!

Ja ne (〃^∇^)ﾉ