Waiting in the forest we made

Its been a long day. Carting manure and hilling potatoes is hard work. Now I look back at the new little forest I planted coming up down from the house I think it hasn't been that bad a day after all. The thought of the farm coming alive - it was a nearly bare land 14 years ago - makes me feel proud. With my hands, my mind and my heart I've changed the land to be more productive and a nicer place to live. Anyone who has planted their food and made a forest has a right to be proud. Still the beauty and wonder of nature makes us feel small, but small is good and that is our place.

I wait for Lisa to come down the drive back from a mission to Perth - health and herbs.
I 've started the tractor (to make sure it starts when I need it), hilled the potatoes, stacked the extra wood on the verandah and put the wheelbarrow back in its home in the woodshed. I've done an honest days work - I've put goods to right.

Every good action that we do makes a difference. Every good deed, every plant we grow means a little bit more good over evil. YOU can make a difference - just get out there and try it.

Lisa's latest herb garden

Although I (and others) planted a lot of it somehow this garden became Lisa's latest herb garden - how does that happen? Anyway, its doing well despite lack of light in winter - not too many casualties - and an interesting range of herbs.

In the Seed Garden

 Chinese mustard is doing quite well and the Chinese kale is still alive despite us eating a lot of it.

 Onion sets are starting to show in front of the beets >

 Little coriander seeds coming up, rare onions and some land cress in one of the keyhole beds.

Looking into the seed garden from the front - spring is starting to spring despite the cold and it still being winter!

In the Kitchen garden and the lounge garden

First the Kitchen garden 

A wall of NZ spinach!

Kale - Scottish Borecole, some rocket and a lot of weeds

Broccoli - Calabrese(not the best specimens I've grown)

Only the very early greens in here some parsley and the leftovers from summer - broccoli, kale(its always one the hardiest and keeps shooting back - this variety's Borecole or Scottish kale) and a wall of NZ spinach - the amazing perennial - an Australian native (despite the name - although its also called Warrigal greens) more grown commercially in France than in Australia - hmmm! The grasses are getting away but we'll get onto them soon.

In the Lounge garden (it's outside the loungeroom window...duh!)

Alexanders

 

bunching onions and corn salad

In winter there's some ruby chard (and soon to be some peas) and a bed of bunching onions and some self-sown corn salad or maiche or mache (depending on where you come from) - its a very good early spring green. Its better grown in rows but this is the slack method - later we'll transplant some in rows to make room for more crops, but for now it's OK where it is.

There's also some alexanders an early forerunner to celery. We eat the tops when we don't have much else - useful in winter for a bit of greenery as a change. Young shoots are tastier.

In the AP orchard with the spuds

Today I was working in the AP(Apri-plum) Orchard. Its a small orchard we have put in in the last few years. It has some apples, plums, apricots and peaches with herbs under (some of) the trees and vegetables in-between rows. Its been very cold the last few days and I've been thinking the early potatoes are probably going to get frosted, so I thought I'd try hilling them with manure to see if the heat released from its rotting will keep off some of the frost. I've been inspired by what I've read in some old English books about French intensive gardening methods. It's a bit of an experiment so we'll see what happens.

 New windbreak trees coming up - mostly tagasaste and early black wattle - fast growing and good chicken food. The tagasaste also is good goat,sheep and rabbit food, stops some of the heat blast which kills people from a fire, and we burn it as firewood when its dead (its not the best firewood but its not that bad either - good for cooking).

The early black wattle is extremely fast growing (doubled vegetable production in parts of Indonesia when alley cropped), seeds are good chook food, is a fire retardant (in fact the only tree to have survived a fire near town a few years ago) and makes good firewood when its dead. We are now totally self-sufficient in firewood because of this tree - I started planting them from out of the roadsides about 14 years ago. The local government sees it as a weed. Its only really a problem in degraded verges. Pull them out if you don't like them in the bush and plant them back on small farms where they can do some good!

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 Windbreak for the AP orchard (and a bit of garlic we weeded a few days ago).

Self-Sufficiency Workshops this weekend:

 

 ♥  ♥   ♥    Self-Sufficiency Workshops    ♥   ♥   ♥

Saturday 9th July 2011

Workshop: 1.00pm-2.00pm Planting Early Spring Greens $20
                                       Learn how to grow life-sustaining greens

Activity: 2.30pm-3.30pm Weeding & Feeding the Garden $15

                                   Feed the garden - feed your soul

Sunday 10th July 2011

Workshop: 1.00pm-2.00pm Designing a Self-Sufficient Garden™ $35
                                                  Learn how to plan your garden so it really feeds you

Activity: 2.30pm-3.30pm Planting Grains for Self-Sufficiency $15
                                              Sow your oats!

Transplanted capuli cherry seedlings

Today I transplanted two seedlings from one of our capuli cherries - the Brazillian semi-evergreen cherry. The birds mostly get ours before we can - such is the way with cherries - if you don't get them quick the birds do.