Update: Day 10 (Money Bush), Day 9 (CBD CC and 2x Professor Chaos)
Last week we had some of the fiercest weather in a while. It rained a lot and there were some howlin' winds, and it got cold, particularly overnight. Usually I'm pretty onto what weather is coming but I didn't see this one looming. Having only just set the young'uns outside under their protection I wasn't equipped (energetically speaking) to go back to bringing them in & out each morning and night - plus I'm not sure this is a good thing re light timing (especially since I can't guarantee i'd be able to do it at the same time each day - and certainly not early enough). Anyway they have survived it like little troopers. I put some clear plastic over the apex of their little cage and this stopped the rain from hitting them directly. I didn't really want them to get too much wetter as they really should be starting the wet dry cycle period now but it's outdoors, and it rains. The cover protected them a little and the pots took in some nice charged rainwater round the sides. The wind gusts were up to 70kph at times and when I looked the little ones were just jiggling in the breeze! So resilient. I'm sure they're now very strong. They hardly even leant over - except money bush hit a 45º angle at one point. It's straightened up again now. I'm hoping the plastic cover over the top part is helping protect them from some cold overnight as well.
At some point during a break between rain events the seedlings were looking pale and because I've never used a coco coir mix before with seedlings (it's 50/50 coir and seed raising mix) I thought some mild calcium and mag wouldn't hurt. I saw on another journal - AKGramma's Perpetual - that you can use the water you make boiled eggs in for calcium. My new food regime includes boiled eggs - a lot - so I'm now saving this water every day. There's no calcium on our water naturally like those on town water (we have rainwater only here) so I figure this will be good for the garden in general (our vege patch had some calcium lack issues last year which we're seeking to correct). I used the boiled egg water (about 600ml) with the tiniest pinch of epsom salts. They got greener pretty soon (within 48 hours) so I'm going to say it worked.
Then, the sun came out and my amendments package arrived. OMG - they sent me so many freebies! And full size ones too. I had, after agonising a bit, left off buying any neem cake due to financial restraints so imagine my joy to find a full size bag included. Plus a decent size of their concentrated fertiliser which is a fermented aloe and kelp mix + humic acid and a variety of microbes, and the last freebie was some malted barley grain. I'm not sure about the barley grain - I may use it for teas but I wont be mixing it in my soil, it just speaks of 'rodent attractor' to me. But seeing as I have it now, I'll research better how to use it. Having try fertiliser means that if there are times I don't have the energy to make up a tea myself, then I'll have an easy go to. It's very appreciated.
I don't know if I can plug this supplier here because they're not a sponsor. And I'm not sure it'd be ok with them either. Anyway - they're an Aus supplier of organic gardening goodies, so folks seeking 'organic gardening solutions' in Australia should certainly check them out. Great customer service and good products (little pricey - but hey, the freebies!).
Anyway - back to the girls. The first thing I did was water in a very light sprinkle of Mycorrhizae and about a 1/4 teaspoon of gypsum into each pot. I tried not to use too much water because they've been wet for a while due to the weather. About 200ml each and because they were wet already I'm assuming the absorption should be good. I wont give them anything more now until they grow up a bit - unless they're obviously in need.
They haven't grown much but they're all starting to pop out the next pair of leaves and hopefully there's plenty of root development going on under the surface!
I seem to have inadvertently developed a theme out of sharing images of the other local inhabitants of my realm with you all - and seeing as 420mag has opened the
guidelines to include pics of animal companions, I'll keep it going. I don't have pets as such. All these critters are my friends. They live here too and we love having them so close. Plus... this little dude is keeping down the ants - of which we have many and many different types. I know this speaks to the wonderful bio-diversity of the place, but I'm happy for our friend here to be clearing them all from the pathways!! Eatings millions of ants is thirsty work...
Happy growing to all
Was wondering if anyone else would... 
- I'm something of a turtle fanatic actually...
. 