Sounds fun! I have a few packs of seeds I didn’t care for and some I’ll never get around to planting in my limited space so would love to do a swap.
Husband was just asking me yesterday how many strawberry plants we will need for a toddler and it made me think of you. We only have 4 now but they’ve produced a lot this summer.
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We currently have nineteen (it was twenty, but one plant died!). Most of them aren’t producing yet; we’re getting two or three strawberries a day on average but some are quite small e.g. alpines. I doubt we could ever produce more than we’d want to eat, but if we do, I’ll be happy to freeze them or make jam, or share with neighbours.
I always thought that I didn’t really like strawberries or blueberries until I tried homegrown ones. I wonder how many other varieties of fruit I’ll discover I really do like after all?
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Oh man I’m resisting the urge to get into a blueberry rant…
But overall I hate that in the stores they sell the stuff that ships easiest not what tastes the best.
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In Aus, blueberries and strawberries are also exclusively packed in plastic punnets which I’d rather avoid. Plus Ewok loves hunting for ripe blueberries and eating them as he goes; who am I to deny him a happy childhood??
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Did some pot moving around - spent bulb pots moved to the back porch, remaining tulips moved all together.
Plenty of beautiful flowers pot in the sunshine.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B28ZiVnl-MU/
Done - one of the four pots is to go towards potting up the Bilberries into bigger pots. I have three Bilberry plants and already had two self watering pots to one side for repotting them, so job for tomorrow. The remaining three pots will go towards potting up the last two Daphnes, with one left spare for something that likes wet feet.
Found some more that had been tucked away on the garage table, Chocolate, Plum Tart and Passos. Got kid #1 involved with potting them up, cheeky bugger
https://www.instagram.com/p/B28fybrl9fC/
Looks like I have two outstanding tasks from the earlier list.
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Very productive, GT! Your flowers look gorgeous.
I ran the irrigation this morning. Yup, it’s still as useless as it was last time I turned it on - high pressure sprinklers that either wet the fence or end up on the paving, with a small amount on the plants and garden bed. I will be reading through Bunnings website this week to decide what pieces I need to retrofit the current system to something useful.
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Same here! Existing irrigation system came with house but I haven’t put the time into getting it going yet. Seems to. Be one line along the back deck with sprays out over what will be our fernery. It’d be great to use that for a misty rainforest vibe. There are other lines but they are older and buried. And wouldn’t make much sense with our established garden - maybe date to garden establishment. But we are ripping out trees and putting in fruit so might be useful.
Current issue is working out whether the tap timer is broken or not.
Edit: I read the manual, flat battery. I replaced it earlier but maybe with another flat battery.
@LadyDuck and @PDM, if the situation in AUS is anything like US, unless you have very old, all-metal systems, it’s likely you can just (“just”) change out the nozzles if you have either pop up or impact rotor heads. For example, Rain Bird is the biggest brand here in the US, it is a bit of a PITA, but the nozzles pop out and there are a wide variety of both spray patterns (1/4 arc through full arc) and height and distance (related to gallons per minute) you can chose from. 
It’s not hard either, if I could do it without help. 
(It can be fiddly though because the springs on those suckers are TIGHT) and it’s difficult to both hold the head pulled up and pop the nozzle out at the same time, so an extra pair of hands would be helpful.) You can even replace the entire head (they just screw in!) if you, I don’t know, say puncture one with the pointy end of a pick… 
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Recommendations needed: garden journals!
Over the past two years I’ve been irregularly scribbling garden notes in a spare notebook and have been thinking about getting something more structured for next year. The options on the internet seem sporadic or just ugly.
I’m looking at the Moleskine Passions garden journal. Anyone have any other journals they use and like?
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Ohhhhh I did not know such a thing existed 
Apparently it’s only available in $60 gift set form, be warned!
I just found some plan spiral bound journals on Amazon and use that. A pack of 3 smaller sized ones were $10.
It’s all poly pipe. Should be ok. Mostly tiny misters on short risers and drippers. Nothing sophisticated. I don’t think there are pop up dooby whackers. They’re not that common here I think. Mostly I see poly pipe run around garden beds with drip lines or small fixed sprays.
There is a bit with 4 taps and individual lines going in different directions so I’ll have to go follow those.
Ohhhh that sounds easier, and also, I was thinking about lawn sprinklers, people here to use drip and micro emitters in landscaped areas, but my place has all “regular” sprinklers (for lawn) and I don’t want to change them out, even the ones in the garden if I am going to move soon anyway. Hee hee.
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Totally. My interest in this project will diminish greatly if I have to start digging.
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The way you describe installing the pop up sprinklers makes me wonder if I fucked up the install on my lawn ones and THAT’S why they don’t have the range advertised on the packet.
I’ve got huge monster risers + sprinklers on my irrigation. They come off 21mm poly pipe laid around the perimeter of the house. They are not suitable for the garden bed so it’s unlikely to be just a matter of swapping them over, unfortunately. Likely I’ll have to run smaller lines off the current sprinkler locations and add the small spray or drop heads. I don’t know if the irrigation itself is as old as the original landscaping, that would make it 25 years old. It may well be, or at least the layout and thoughtfulness of design is. eyeroll.
Hm… if you only have one nozzle in the package (and not a variety) my suspicion would be that maybe it is an issue with your water pressure in that line…?
Which brings up another point… one of the reasons I haven’t swapped any of my sprinklers for drip line or point emitters is because everything in that zone has to be the same type of sprinkler (drip or pop-up or impact rotor) because they require different amounts of pressure. Drip especially needs a pressure reducer at the head of the line, plus it’s a question of volume since drip are slower, and if you ran pop-ups and drip at the same time, the drip would not emit enough water for the plants (or you would drown your lawn or wherever the pop-ups were).
(It’s possible we are talking about entirely different types of things too, even though they sound the same… if I have a sec I’ll take some photos of what I have/mean.)
For my pots, I’ve used standard 19mm black poly tube, with Antelco 360 degree spiked Shrubblers attached via 4mm poly flex line. The line runs down inbetween the pots at ground level, the shrubbler is popped into the pot and the flow rate adjusted for the size of the pot. Everything runs from the tap via a timer on a 4 way Aqua Systems outlet (cheap, does the job but very stiff turns, not recommended for those with hand issues), three runs of black poly, with no more than 25 shrubblers per line, and a normal hose for the fourth outlet, so I can do pots that aren’t on the black poly urns. I’ve adjusted flow rates so a 10 minute timed session does just enough watering for the pots.
The Shrubblers were much cheaper from an Irrigation supply place (http://www.smartwatershop.com.au/) than #thebiggreenshed options. And they’re easily cleared of any possible blockages, just unscrew the top, in comparison to the misters dad uses. His get blocked up with little spiders or caterpillars and each couple of weeks he has to undo the blocked ones and use a pin to clear the blockage and blow it out.
Partial success! The tap timer was fine I just didn’t know how to run it. These sprays are good for the fern garden and the drippers perfect for hanging pots. I’ll add/move them to suit us.
The other system is definitely older and has pop up sprinklers. Not many though and I think pointed inwards for the grass?
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