Seabrae Garden 2022¶
INDEX
Cucumbers and Parsley
Terrible Drainage
At the Patio
Some Progress
Bluing 101
Shadehouse Foundation
Fixing Drainage
In The Trenches
Shadehouse Ideas
Pathetic Henhouse
Gardening¶
Cucumbers and Parsley¶
18.Apr.2022
We did alright with cucumbers, parsley and shallots (spring onions) this year. When you buy shallots (spring onions) here in Oz, you get generally get the complete plant. If you cut off the white bit and stick that into the ground, it will grow into a full, healthy plant.
Thus, we have heaps of beautiful, fresh-out-of-the-garden spring onions! And we never have to buy any for quite a while. Lately, though, these stumps I planted never seemed to survive longer than a night or so. We finally figured it's likely a rat or a possum having a midnight snack.
We're going to try the approach shown in the image on the right -- protecting the stumps until they get going growing -- to give the plant a chance at successful growth by keeping it covered. If it works, I'll probably take this approach with any seedlings. I'd planted a whole bunch of broccoli and beetroot seedlings and the whole lot got decimated by some critter. Very frustrating!
We'll see how we go.
ETA: 2025-08-26
It didn't work. The little rascals worked their way under the lip of the plastic container and ate everything. Was appears to be actually working now is feeding those critters down the bottom of the yard, in our compost towers, far away from the front garden. They get plenty of tucker down there and so (hopefully) will leave the house and garden alone. Win-win.
Footpath¶
Terrible Drainage¶
20.Apr.2022
You know how when you start getting into a project, it sort-of just grows? We've been having problems with standing water in our front yard during heavy downpours. Whilst the house is built on a slab, we're seeing cracks develop where they just shouldn't. Some time ago we'd engaged some gardening dudes to put down some ag pipe to drain off that water. That ag pipe -- yes, those two black plastic pipes are humped over the watertank overflow. Not going to work, is it? Water has issues running uphill, I've been told.
Here's where it used to empty into, towards the mattock (pick) and the neighbour's fence:
At the bottom of this bed, I'm going to have to reinforce the bottom of the side to keep the soil seeping out - those logs are doing a piss-poor job of holding the soil in the bed.
Actually have a bit of time to update this page as we're have a young visitor - Harriet! - and gave myself the excuse that it was too warm to work on it today. However, it cooled down nicely, and after doing a bit of "blue-ing" on rusty stuff I'm trying to "resurrect", I finally got stuck into it and finished pulling the dead stuff out.
At the Patio¶
22.Apr.2022
Finally recommencing work on this project as I'm now retired and can focus on it. I started on the garden-bed area for the shadehouse which is next to the footpath which has river-rock that needs filtering / cleaning and well, that opened a can of worms. so it's going here.
That bit behind the air-con took ages to finish. Just couldn't get up the resolve and energy to finish it. The pieces were warped when I bought them - got them for a decent price but they didn't let me select which ones I wanted. Won't be buying from that mob again. Overall, they look okay... up close, the flaws are more evident. I had already placed these timber pieces, but hadn't "tied" them together. They did sink a bit with all the rain we've been having so I had to do a bit of adjusting.
So, now the river-rock rescued from the front has a place to go. I'll be filling most of the "cavity" with rescued river-rock, and have just a layer at the top surrounding the flagstones of freshly-purchased rock.
Drainage Fix¶
23.Apr.2022
A lot of soil has been "bleeding" out from under the beds. I retrieved over a wheelbarrow-full during this exercise. Some of the beds sinking can probably be attributed to that, the rest, probably the decomposition of the biomass we cover with soil. So, I've placed some 'sacrificial' pieces where a log lived, before. 'Sacrificial', because another piece is going to live outboard to that, a piece that I've painted in Timber-Protecta, and I sort-of want to minimise contact with soil and this anti-rot paint.
In the ShadeHouse area, the torn shade sail is put down first, in an effort to eliminate light, a key component in weed growth. The shade sail was in the carport until a strong wind ripped it in half so we had to replace it. It will be repurposed thus reducing waste.
Those shade-sails would normally have ended up in landfill.
Progress¶
25.Apr.2022
There has been some headway on the patio footpath project.
What can't be appreciated is the fact that all the river rock had to be 'sieved' first, before it filled in the footpath. More rock will eventually surround the flagstones. The hardest bit of work was 'rescuing', via a sieve, the river rock mixed in with this nasty pumice-gravel, gravel which will end up under the shadehouse foundation.
Shown here on the right is the method used to tie timber pieces together.
On A Side Note¶
Bluing 101¶
25.Apr.2022
Project update: focus has been on getting my US pension sorted, and so have focused mainly on peripheral tasks, such as getting some of the wood protected and restoring metal bits. I'm actually re-using the screws I used to assemble the decking and grow beds - too expensive to go out and buy new all the time. So, I gave them a rough cleaning and then a soak in a cleaning vinegar bath for a few days, until the bath looks like the above image.
They got a really good rinsing off, then I left them to thoroughly dry.
They still looked pretty rough. Well, here's where the magic happens. "Bluing" is a controlled process that intentionally creates a layer of black oxide on steel for aesthetic and partial rust protection. The process creates a protective black or blue-black finish, often by first intentionally rusting the steel, then using heat or chemicals to convert the red rust into a more stable, black oxide coating.
You sort-of appreciate the process more once I get the wire brush on the item. I've got tools that I did this to, and they never 'red' rusted again.
Good as gold.
Shadehouse Foundation¶
02.May.2022
Labour Day Weekend: finally able to get stuck back into the shade-house foundation. I'm going to reuse as much of the pumice-gravel as I can under the decking. Putting a separator board between the red cedar chip and the pumice.
The 'Timba-Protecta' coated pieces to be fastened in place next to the "sacrificial" ones.
What's nice about "being your own boss" is the ability to decide when you're done for the day. Unfortunately, I sometimes get caught up in the "just one more little thing to do" cycle and end up knackered.
Overdid.
At the same time, all that horrid pumice-gravel is being removed from the front and from the side of the house, to be re-purposed.
It will be replaced with river rock (seen beside the grow bed in the image on the right).
No more weeds! Unlike that nasty pumice, river rock won't get caught in my shoes and dragged back into the house to wreck our bamboo flooring. I'll have those flagstone walkway things for people to walk on - river rock is a bit rough on bare feet, and most people go barefoot most of the time. Probably need to pick up a few more flagstones.
Footpath Progress¶
Fixing Drainage¶
03.May.2022
Pulled up that ag pipe which just ended there. This was 1) incredibly ineffective drainage and 2) a highly irresponsible non-working solution, as the water would drain towards the fence, compromising the intergrity of that wall.
Besides "Timber Protecta", I figured if the timber sat on gravel instead of dirt, it would break down more slowly. This separator piece (separating soil from the river-rock) sits in gravel.
Here is where I left things today.
I believe this technique is called "french drainage" except it is commonly applied with gravel. We'll be using shade sail covered with river-rock.
Flagstones will provide a place for people to walk.
Meanwhile, the finished bit -- the patio footpath -- encouraged me to keep on keeping on.
In The Trenches¶
12.May.2022
We've been having quite a bit of heavy rain, which has brought a real problem with flooding in the front of the house into focus.
Standing water is affecting the concrete slab foundation. Cracks in the ceiling suggest this is a problem.
It is likely also responsible for the bamboo wood floor mold near the window, although that needs further research.
The trench was shallow at first, just down to the weed mat - and then we were blessed with some incredibly heavy rainfall. Keeping slope in mind, a massive effort ensued to continue the trench along side the house and all the way down to where the property slopes off markedly towards the back. (It was during this period that I wrecked my 70-odd year-old back overdoing it. Have to scale it back a bit.) Drainage pipe was placed in the ground, with a close eye on slope, with the outlet right by the lemon tree. I hope I don't end up drowning the tree.
Hopefully the rain will come this arvo as promised and test the drainage pipe I've put in so far.
ETA: The rain came. The test went well.
Structures¶
Shadehouse Ideas¶
06.Oct.2022
Bit of a gap in this blog: working on the footpath during the rains - digging trenches for the runoff ag-pipe and carting off debris to the bottom of our little property has rsulted in a fairly significant back injury which kind-of put things on hold for a bit. Months later, I'm finally able - cautiously and slowly - to start work again on the frame for under the shadehouse, which itself is not the one I originally thought of putting in: it's a store-bought one.
During the unpacking, I've already identified a few issues: not really impressed with quality of materials. Oh well, we're committed... it will just have to do.
Note added: 25-08-26... the material was actually absolute rubbish. One good windstorm and that 'shadehouse' would have sailed off to New Zealand. vidaxl wouldn't refund me, so I settled for replacing it with other, equally poorly built growbed-covers. vidaxl is anything but xlent. Buyer beware.
I had visions of designing my own shadehouse... built out of pipes. Even bought the elbows and stuff. The picture on the right was done in Blender. Yep, spent hours mucking around in Blender, but it never went much beyond the design phase.
Reflecting today (Aug 26th, 2025) I blush to think how much I spent on Poser, and even Blender. It all looks a bit hokey, now.
Of course, the foundation was sort-of already in place at the time, consisting of fence-post timber protected with Timber-Protecta. The base dimensions were similar to the one we'd ordered: 190cm by 190cm.
In the end, we went with another solution altogether. We still need sheds building: waiting for Annie (next door neighbour) to finish sorting out the whole covenant issue. Meanwhile, got the chook house ready for new occupants: the roof interior had mostly rotted and so we replaced that with a plastic liner for now. I anticipate having to replace the entire roof structure at some juncture.
Crucial to note here is what I'm observing as to my stamina: that injury setback has really undermined my ability to "bounce back". I'm going to have to take a far more measured approach.
We're getting into the whole permaculture thing in a more thoughtful way. Since Julia and I are both retired, we can focus our energies on doing this properly. Here are a couple of videos that are getting us started:
A full video collection on the subject goes into more detail on what exactly is at stake, and the approaches being proposed under the "permaculture" umbrella. Geoff Lawton has an additional perspective:
Pathetic Henhouse¶
07.Oct.2022
Whilst this isn't so much about the shadehouse/greenhouse, Julia is picking up six more "rescue hens" this weekend, so the push was on to get the henhouse ready. The house was built of fairly ordinary quality material, so in time due to moisture leaking through the roof timber, the ceiling had totally rotted out (under the roof). We decided that - for now - we would replace that rotted plywood with a plastic liner. This should keep the girls dry this year, which promises to be a rather wet year. I'll probably need to come up with a more robust, permanent solution as even the roof bits will likely rot in time and will need to be replaced. Yes, the house is "cute", but buyer beware: it wasn't built to last, by any stretch of the imagination. I reckon the shadehouse isn't much better.