The "Show us ya Garden - Landscaping" Thread

[Fizzie]

7 pizzas

Is anybody else allowed to touch the "shovel"

[Spada]

Is anybody else allowed to touch the "shovel"

Hell no 

had a look this morning, 12h after last nights cook the oven was still 250c. Within a minute of taking the door out the coals re-ignited, so we made breakfast 

[NZMarkb]

Doesn't that make all the blood sweat and tears worth while
That looks fantastic mate, well done

[Pete79]

Mate this whole build is awesome.

The outhouse extension looks great and the pizza oven came up a treat.
You should be proud of all of this.

I'm sure all of the neighbors are happy with the fruits of your labour....

[Spada]

Yep, real happy to be able to start enjoying the fruits of our labour. It's been 4 months in the making.

The oven was still 210c at 4:00 the next afternoon so we re-heated the leftover pizza & garlic bread and baked some chicken wings for Sunday Sundowners with the neighbours, and also did a roast lamb & veg for dinner. That's 24h of cooking from a single fire of about 1/2 a wheelbarrow worth of wood.

[GeoffA]

Yep, real happy to be able to start enjoying the fruits of our labour. It's been 4 months in the making....

You get out of it what you put in.

A job well done...

[D4D]

Yep, real happy to be able to start enjoying the fruits of our labour. It's been 4 months in the making.

Your oven has turned out great, it certainly holds the heat well.

[Fizzie]

That's 24h of cooking from a single fire of about 1/2 a wheelbarrow worth of wood.

Awesome!

How long did it take to get up to temp before starting cooking

You're never going to use the kitchen again

[Spada]

Your oven has turned out great, it certainly holds the heat well.

Cheers, thanks. I'll be curious to see what the temp is tonight, which will be 48h from firing.

How long did it take to get up to temp before starting cooking

Hi Fizzie, I lit the fire at 4:15, and around 5'ish It was way hot enough to start some of the pre-cooking. It got up to about 500c by around 5:30-6'ish, so I probably had a little too much wood in the back of it to start (learning curve). That was a much faster pre-heat than I think is good for the long term life of the oven? The model we got was advertised as a 2 hour preheat to get it to 450c. It actually got there much quicker, but I think my initial firing was a bit too enthusiastic and I had too much wood in at the start. I'd stacked 6 big lumps of split hardwood across the back wall and built about a 400mm square fort fire in front of that with another 2 split hardwood lumps leaning against the front of that.

Around 5:30'ish I started roasting some pumpkin and an eggplant near the mouth of the oven, and made the tomato based pizza sauce in a frypan in the oven. I also had to fry off some mini meatballs and saute some mushrooms for the toppings. Then I baked a couple of flat breads and some melted brie dips for nibbles. We didn't actually start cooking the pizzas until around 7'ish, but the oven was at temp a good 1&1/2 hours before then. The pizza's were cooking in less time than the prep team could build them

We did learn a few thing from this first real firing - a bit less wood at the start would be better. We worked out you don't need a super hot oven at the start when you're making nibbles and prepping toppings while its preheating, and we also need to work on getting our dough mix right. We carefully followed the recipe but I think it was a bit too moist and I was having a little trouble sliding the raw pizza's off the peel onto the oven floor. Possibly the humidity affected the dough mix?

[Pete79]

and we also need to work on getting our dough mix right. We carefully followed the recipe but I think it was a bit too moist and I was having a little trouble sliding the raw pizza's off the peel onto the oven floor. Possibly the humidity affected the dough mix?

We've found a good dusting of flour on the peel is vital, then after spreading the base we give a little shake to loosen the dough and make sure it slides around right before doing the toppings.
If the base is only on the peel for a minute or 2 while doing the toppings it slides off nicely into the oven.




If you mess around too long the dough starts to stick to the peel and your wife wants to divorce you for dropping cheese and crap all over the base of the brand new oven as you shake the hell out of the peel trying to get that darn pizza off....  Don't ask how I know....

[Steffo1]

Do you have a set of bathroom scales in the kitchen?

[Spada]

Cheers, thanks. I'll be curious to see what the temp is tonight, which will be 48h from firing.

Just checked and it's still at 120c 48h's after being lit.

[Raym]

If you mess around too long the dough starts to stick to the peel and your wife wants to divorce you for dropping cheese and crap all over the base of the brand new oven as you shake the hell out of the peel trying to get that darn pizza off....  Don't ask how I know....

The beauty of the wood fired oven is that all that crap disappears next time you fire up.

I cooked plenty of beer can chicken in mine sitting on the floor without a tray & there is no staining from it.

[Fizzie]

Question for all the Garden Gurus, thanks

We're currently putting in a few rain water tanks around the yard & wondering about pumping water from them, rather than just gravity feed (trickle)

Don't have 240v to any of the spots without running a long extension cord, so wondering about solar powered 12v pumps

Do any of you use one

Don't need a lot of pressure - just enough to get the water from the tank here across the yard over there - ~15m, & it really doesn't matter how hard it comes out at that end. Just so long as the Mrs has enough water for her plants!

As we all know, happy wife ...

PS Please don't tell me that it's cheaper just to use town water - that's a discussion that's well & truly been & gone!

[Steffo1]

You can get a small petrol pump pretty cheap, if you hunt around..............................or one of these might be the go.

[Fizzie]

Thanks Steffo.

Was hoping to avoid petrol due to both noise & exhaust

& the manual version is way too much hard work!

[Steffo1]

Was hoping to avoid petrol due to both noise & exhaust

Yep, I understand.

[Fizzie]

Continuing with rain-water tanks ...

How do you all keep mossies under control

[Mace]

Continuing with rain-water tanks ...

How do you all keep mossies under control

Keep the inspection  lid on and ensure all inlet/outlet  connections are well sealed. Run any oulets down to ground level and give the little suckers  no means of entry.  Or are you considering an open tank?

http://www.tankworldtas.com.au/installation.html

[Fizzie]

They are screened, thanks Mace, but screens sometimes come loose / get moved so the little sods get in there

[bmwfreak]

They are screened, thanks Mace, but screens sometimes come loose / get moved so the little sods get in there

The wrigglers add to your daily protein count .
How old is your tank installation? May be time to update/upgrade some of your fittings if they are coming loose or moved (I assume you mean by nature, not human intervention?).
We have had tanks as our main source of water, in two different houses for 12 years and not had a wriggler issue. Another 'fix', (which won't stop the mosquitoes) if concerned about ingesting the little suckers, is to install filters on the outlet side of the tank supply. We have 2 x 5micron filters and 1 x UV filter directly from the pump, and a 1 micron silver filter at the house. Or the old standby of kero, which creates a film on top of the water in the tank.

[Pottsy]

Couple of drops of paraffin oil in the tank seems to do the trick.

[Fizzie]

Thanks, fellas.

These tanks are only for watering the garden, & maybe topping the pool, so not worried about swallowing anything

Have heard about both kero & paraffin - they don't damage the plants or put a bad taste in the veges

[Pottsy]

You only use enough paraffin to put a slick/rainbow on the surface. Tiny amount required, never had an issue.

[GGV8Cruza]

During the lockdown period in Vic the projects list got bigger and bigger. One of the main projects was another entertaining area beside the pool. We are getting there.

GG

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