Over and (almost) out

Our adventures in suburbia are almost at an end. We leave Sydney at the end of the week for the New England area. For the first six-or-so months we'll be in something like suburbia whilst we rent in town, and we'll commence looking for a suitable property out of town just as soon as we've unpacked.

My job has finished, tomorrow is the last day of school for a while.

I'm not sure what shape, form or name my future blogging about our new home will take. Whatever it is and whenever it is, I'll announce it here at least.

I've got things I need to write - particularly to document how my first home brew goes; and no doubt as our thinking on permaculture, organic gardening and green living develops.

On a final note we were at Jackie French's place yesterday for the Open Garden day. It was a fascinating and beautiful place nestled between steep mountains. She grows over 270 varieties of edible plants including over 100 species of apple. Temperature ranges are from -9 to over 50 Celsius. The key is in what she calls 'groves' which provide mutual support in terms of moisture, shelter from winds and from extremes of temperature. We bought one of her books in which she describes some of what they have achieved on their property. Should be a good read.

Over and out - for now.

Growing and going

It's been a strange position to be in - having a couple of modest vegetables patches that were crying out to be filled, but also being aware that they'll be under new onwership from towards the end of next month.

Coming out of winter and leading into spring, I hadn't wanted to plant anything that wouldn't be able to provide us with something useful or edible by the middle of November.

• The broad beans have gone really well. We've had two good harvests off them and there is at least one more not too far away.
• The garlic is pretty well advanced with some leaves starting to die back - so they'll be good to dig up next month to take with us.
• We've had some snow peas and sugarsnap peas but they haven't done too well. We had a very small harvest off the snow peas but a day of strong, hot wind seems to have sapped their will to live.
• Our green sprouting broccoli was a great success with many pickings off 3 or 4 plants. They are now well and truly into flower with some seed pods being formed. The pods that look mature will come with us.
• I planted some Kohl Rabi around 5 weeks ago but they haven't done anything spectacular. The few that germinated are only about 10cm high.
• Our carrots are currently hidden in behind the broad beans so they may be food for the people who have bought our house.
• We have some leeks that are also hidden between broad beans. They are probably around half the diameter of ones you'd buy in the shops so we'll start harvesting them soon and take any remainders with us.

So what will be left? A few broad bean plants bereft of pods that can serve as useful pea straw; some purple carrots, the odd snow pea and sugarsnap pea; some attractive flowering and podding broccoli. That'll be about it - and maybe some late-developing Kohl Rabi if it lifts its game.

Made from beer

Many years ago my father brewed his own beer. It was a hobby that lasted a number of years and many batches. It was something that was strangely fascinating. In those days before premixed tins of extract he'd buy the hops and malt and sugar and yeast then boil up this concoction before it departed to the garage to bubble away for a week or two. The gurgling of the airlock was captivating. We'd stand around waiting for the first signs of life from the yeast; and then we'd be back to watch it slow down and stop prior to bottling. The early batches were hand-capped which was a danger in itself and several bottle succumbed rather than being sealed. Sometime later a bench capper appeared and so one of the dangers of home brewing was averted. I don't recall too many explosions as the beer matured, but there must have been some. At least one batch went towards watering the lawn, but I recall that most were drinkable.

And so it is that 30 years later I'm doing the same thing. The process should be easier with the canned extract (a Pilsener to start off with). I've got the kit (Brewcraft) replete with bench capper. I'm working on acquiring some stubbies and I'll also use some 740ml PET bottles. For this first attempt I'll bottle half-and-half into 375ml stubbies and 740ml PET bottles.

But it all has to wait until we arrive in the New England area. Presuming I can get it started within a few days of arriving, the first bottle should be ready just in time for Christmas.

Once that's successfully under my belt, so to speak, we can try different things. The home brew shop had some red wine fermenting in one of the carboys, and I'd like to try my hand at broad bean pod wine and some fruit wines at some stage. But we need to start somewhere - and a can of Pilsener seems as good as any.

Solar crunch

I've been crunching the numbers on our electricity usage and the likely configuration and cost for solar power and solar hot water for our new place wherever it is.

Currently we have electric-everything - hot water, heating/cooling, hotplates and oven. Our average daily usage over the past two years has been 31kWh/day of which 17 has been standard tariff and 14 has been off-peak hot water. If we opt for a solar HWS, our electricity usage drops to an average 17kWh/day (excluding any electric boost to the hot water). If the home we buy is well insulated and takes advantage of passive solar heating and cooling, and part of our cooking and/or solar boosting is gas and we opt for an energy-efficient fridge then we should be able to bring that down to around 10-12kWh per day or lower.

Presuming 4-5 peak sun hours per day, and energy usage of around 10-12kWh/day then a grid connect photo-voltaic solar power system of around 3,000 watts capacity should fit the bill and allow us to net export some energy to the grid. If there are thermal inefficiencies or all-electric cooking in the house, or its orientation isn't optimal for solar power then we may need to go for a 4,000 watt system to meet our expected needs. The cost for that is around $40,000, plus another $4,000 or so for the solar HWS.

We checked out a solar shop the other day and obtained some general information. The bottom line is that we can't do anything more until we arrive and then factor in orientation and thermal factors in our home-buying equation.

We've prepared to spend the $45,000 or so to ensure our home produces as much of our energy as we can to reduce our environmental footprint, carbon emissions and energy running costs. As they say, "It's not easy being green".

Two months

Our house is sold and we settle in a bit over two month's time - an extended settlement.

There's lots to be done - more culling, sorting, packing and tossing. Most areas are under control, but the garage needs some attention! There's a council cleanup this weekend so I may get into the accumulated garage stuff and sort it out. It shouldn't take too long, but there'll be a fair bit of stuff to take with us.

We'll also get some quotes for moving, and we're looking into disconnecting services, changing addresses, taking cuttings of desired plants etc. We've made school selections so that's all good. We're methodical people so we'll continue taking step after step and everything will be done at the right time and in a considered way.

Spick and span

There's nothing like putting a house on the market to muster the energy to get things cleaned up and sorted out. Our path to simplicity over the past few years has meant we've gradually being sorting, throwing, recycling, reusing and generally ridding ourselves of 'stuff', but there is always more to do (particularly with my stuff); and just he fact that we need to 'live' in a house means it will always have that lived-in, comfortable look.

But because other people will be checking out our rooms, opening build-in wardrobes and looking in the odd kitchen cupboard means cleaning, sorting, weeding, tossing away, recycling has hit new peaks in the last couple of weeks. Our house is being shown to a couple of prospective buyers today and the house looks good. Just about everything has a place to be, and everything is in its place.

There's still a lot of sorting to be done, but we'll get to that in the next month or two. The less we have to pack, move, unpack for 6 months, repack, move again and unpack again the better.

Crop Rotation

I've spent a fair bit of time recently trying to get my head around the principles and foibles of crop rotation to formulate a workable, understandable yet relatively simple rotation plan for our yet-to-be-created organic vegetable gardens.

I've consulted a few experts in the process - Peter Cundall, Lyn Bagnall and Jeff Hodges in their books or from websites quoting their approach; and the authors of Organic Gardening in Australia. There are reasonably-enough differences between the approaches and outcomes advocated by these various gardeners. I've sought a method or system that is at least consistent with a majority of their views.

Some of the principles I've adhered to include:

• Not allowing plants from the same family to be successively planted
• Following legumes with leaf vegetables to take advantage of the nitrogen fixed in the soil
• Keep a patch fallow with cover crops or green manures
• Keep at least 3 to 4 years between plantings of the same family

Peter Cundall runs a six-bed system in Tasmania; Lyn Bagnall advocates a six-bed rotation, and Jeff Hodges has an eight-bed rotation (but seemingly over an 18-month to two year period). Given the size of our family and to accommodate the principle of keeping family plantings totally separate, I've opted for an eight-bed rotation with one bed lying fallow for the full 12 months each year. This gives us seven active beds and seven years between when a bed will have plants from the same family. Pete's Patch in Tasmania operates on 6 beds 4m x 2m each for a total area of 48 square metres. The Organic Gardening book suggests 4 beds each 3m x 6m for an area of 72 square metres. I'm opting for 8 beds each 2m x 5m for 80 square metres in total, but 70 square metres after discounting the fallow bed. I'm also opting for 1 metre paths between all beds to allow easy access.

The Dorling Kindersley Organic Gardening in Australia gives a stack of information about plant families so the rotation I've arrived at is:

1. Papilionaceae - Legume - Peas & Beans/Broad beans plus Alfalfa/Fenugreek
2. Brassicaceae - Brassica - Cabbage/Broccoli/Cauliflower/Pak Choy/Radish/Kale/Kohlrabi/Swede
3. Chenopodiaceae - Beet/Spinach/Silverbeet
4. Cucurbitaceae - Cucurbit - Cucumber/Melon/Pumpkin/Zucchini/Sweet Corn
5. Apiaceae - Carrot/Celery/Parsley/Parship/Fennel
6. Fallow/Green Manure
7. Solanaceae - Tomato/Potato/Capsicum/Chilli/Eggplant
8. Alliaceae - Allium - Onion/Garlic/Leek/Shallot

With Asteraceae (Lettuce/Endive/Salsify/Artichokes/Chicory) being interplanted with other beds.

This is basically consistent with the outcomes suggested by Peter, Lyn and Jeff - with a minor twist here and there.

The next step will be to determine specific planting quantities and times of vegetables within each of these families. That could take a while.