A Permaculture blessing by Joel Salatin

May all your carrots grow long and straight,
may the foxes be struck blind by your chickens,
may your customers love cooking your food in their kitchens,
may the rains be gentle on your pastures,
may your fields grow with soil,
may your earthworms dance with celebration,
may the wind be always at your back,
your children rise up and call you blessed,
and may we all leave a better world than we found…

Rain and Mist

The wet season continues affecting on the tomatoes somewhat but the sweet corn is loving it, if I brush a stalk a cloud of pollen is released.

I had one day of sunshine and then the rain and mist returned. This is expected to continue until Autumn.

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Rain, Colour and Song

There has been weeks of rain and I am having doubts about some of the veges, the tomatoes and others may succumb to mould if it keeps up. The Met Bureau says that it will continue until Autumn (March).

I may have to stop planting anything that doesn’t like wet feet and just control the weeds until the wet season is over

In the meantime here are a few splashes of colour from a rare sunny day.

Here are some potted pansies on my front veranda. I love looking at them when I walk up to the front door.
 

Some bright nasturtiums from the back yard, they are nice in a salad.

 

A few Snap Dragons in a pot on the front veranda.

Here is a beautiful Ivy Geranium from Hely’s. It sits on a table on the back veranda where I have a coffee.

The honeysuckle and jasmine are in full blossom and the perfume fills the air on still mornings.

As I write this I have been serenaded by a butcher bird sheltering from the rain on the back veranda, the song has been going on for over an hour. I am blessed. Butch looks a bit wet but a Pavarotti nevertheless.

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Two weeks away = Lots of growth

it”s been two weeks since I was in the garden and the weeds have a whale of a time. I spent three hours puling weeds out of the paths. Luckily the paths have had weed-mat covering the soil for a number of years, even so there was three of these heaps. Good compost.

The good news is that the veges have grown dramatically, I will be eating pak choi (?) and spinach tonight plus a small beetroot I pulled up with a large weed.

The dwarf beans are anything but dwarf, I wasn’t expecting anything as big. There are some small flowers forming so there will be beans very soon.

The tomatoes have shot up much further and some have marble sized fruit. This being the correct time for some sulphate of potash, I applied some to all the plants. This will strengthen the stems, increase flowering and add to the flavour. The three varieties I planted are al doing well with the exception of one plant. The Brandy Wine variety that Kay gave me has grown from about four cm to 15cm in the two weeks, I was a bit doubtful about their progress in the punnet but all they needed was to get loose.

The potato crop has grown so rapidly in just two weeks:

I think this is a good ladybird. Good/bad seems to depend on the number of dots.

Here’ the sweet corn, it loved the dressing of composted manure plus some organic sugar cane mulch between the rows. I will plant some more soon.


Here are the zucchini’s I expect there to be edible ones within a week. I already sampled a finger sized one with a flower attached – delicious.

I had made three beds from the decomposed horse poo and a few other things and planted three Jap pumpkin seeds into each one. Most of the seeds have germinated and are now about 7cm high.

When I first started in the garden I had doubts about the soil fertility but the biological farming system sure works well. I have put on hold the aerobic compost tea for a while as things are going so well, perhaps midsummer will be the time. I still have to use the biodynamic preparation one day.soon.

With all the systems up and running the growth rate is going to be fantastic.

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Warmth + Rain = Much Growth

The cicadas are singing very loudly - more like a din than a song, the weather is warmer and the humidity is high after the rain during the week, summer is in the air and the soil.

The tomatoes have grown so much I had to tie them to the stakes again after only a week since the last tie-up. Kay’s Brandy-wine tomatoes have been planted even though they are rather small but they will get going fast in this weather.

The sweet corn is looking so good. I spread some BFA certified organic sugar cane mulch between the rows and pulled out a few weeds, it likes lots of organic material to feed on and it will soon be time to plant some cucumbers between the rows, the two grow well together.

Donald has found a treasure, several barrow loads of horse manure which has been hiding under black plastic for many years. The hay-burner poo is well composted and weed-free so he spread it on the fallow bed, I will spread some on the sweet corn as well. There was a grey snake hiding in the plastic – it was most upset when disturbed!

The tomato crop is growing beautifully, I am pinching out the lateral shoots and pulling out the few weeds that grow around them:

The zucchini have doubled in size in a week:

In the early morning on Mt.Tamborine the air is thick with perfume from honeysuckle. The jasmine is in full bloom. This is a great time of year:

Here’s a nice flowering ground-cover I got from Hely growing outside my bedroom window, I have taken some cuttings for pot plants. Its growth habit would be ideal for a hanging basket. It looks  a bit tatty as I have just removed the weeds. Some begonias at the back.

The carrots are winning the battle with the weeds, with some help from me. I will work this end over thoroughly when the carrots and beetroot have finished. This part was not covered by the black plastic and has several years of weed seeds ready to go.

Here are the beans, they look so healthy. I wonder which will be the first crop to be ready to eat, the beans look like they will start producing pods very soon:

Some honeysuckle and jasmine:

del.icio.us Tags: tree change,organic gardening,tree-change