Author: Darren
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Potato Harvest
Sarah and I dug up the potato bed this afternoon. We got just under 6 kg of small to medium sized potatoes. There were a lot of very small bite-sized ones, so we’ll be cooking them up first. I think we planted the Dutch Cream seed potatoes in late September or early October. We planted…
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December Full Moon Phase
We’re now into the full moon phase. This is supposed to be the best time for planting root crops and perennials, harvesting for storage, taking cuttings, and dividing plants. According to [Aussie Organic Gardening](http://aussieorganicgardening.com/blog/?p=197), here’s what we should be doing in the Illawarra this week: >During Full Moon phase, beetroot, carrot, parsnip, and radish can…
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Dinner From The Backyard
We had a great dinner tonight, with almost all of it coming from the backyard! Megan made an awesome baked pumpkin quiche (store-bought pumpkin, and 4 eggs from Molly). The egg yolks made the quiche really yellow, much more than store-bought free range eggs do. The only down side is that now we’ve got none…
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December First Quarter Moon
According to the information I found in various places on the net, the first quarter moon is the quarter for strong leaf growth. According to [Aussie Organic Gardening](http://aussieorganicgardening.com/blog/?p=197), during the leadup to the December full moon in the Illawarra region (a temperate climate): >Before the Full Moon, cabbage, lettuce, silver beet, dill, and sunflower can…
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Nocturnal Animal Magic at Wollongong Botanical Gardens
Enjoy the ambience of a picnic in the gardens followed by a guided walk by torchlight where you will be amazed by the myriad of tiny and not so tiny creatures that come out after dark. Meet at Discovery Centre off Madoline St car park for a 7pm start. Bring a torch. Duration approximately 2…
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Macquarie Pass Waterfall Walk
Follow the beautiful Macquarie Rivulet upstream to the waterfalls and swimming holes of Clover Hill. Learn about the Rainforest and the aquatic life of this special area. Meet at car park bottom of Macquarie Pass, right hand side of road for a 9am start. This walk has some steep sections. Duration approximately 3 hrs. Bookings…
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The Clean Energy Project – Distributed Computing Initiative
IBM and Harvard University have launched a new distributed computing initiative called [The Clean Energy Project](http://cleanenergy.harvard.edu/). They want to harness the spare computing power of thousands of computers around the world to crunch numbers and search for potential materials to be used in new-generation polymer solar cells. Polymer solar cells will be cheaper to manufacture…
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What Is Lunar Planting?
Lunar planting, or lunar gardening, does not involve nude gardening at night by the light of the moon! It is all about timing your gardening activities to coincide with certain phases of the moon. [Here’s an example](http://aussieorganicgardening.com/blog/?p=198) of how much difference some people claim lunar planting can make to your gardening success. I’ve read various…
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Cheap Grid-Connected Solar Power: $2500 for 1 kW System
If you’re in Australia and have been thinking about getting a grid-connected solar power system, there’s a really good deal right now with Earth Utility. If you order before 15 December 2008, it’ll cost $2,500 installed (after rebates, RECs, etc and excluding utility connection costs). **WARNING:** Earth Utility appears to be in trouble (updated 28-04-2010)…
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Phases Of The Moon
You may have noticed that I’ve put a moon guide in the left-hand sidebar of this site. It shows what phase the moon is currently in, but I thought it would be useful to put that into perspective across the whole lunar cycle. The moon changes appearance in a continuous cycle, through 8 recognizable phases:…