I love Spring! The garden comes to life again. It's another time waster however, as I spend quite a bit of time just wandering around admiring the blooms from little buds to full on beautiful flowers. I've been really pleased with my daffodils who have come up inspite of all the grass around them to bring a burst of sunshine to wherever they are growing. My rhododendron and camellia under which my chickens spent the summer, look like the are benefiting from all the deposits the girls left underneath them. The number of flowers coming is amazing. It will be just a wall of bright pink when they all open up. The plum tree is kicking into life along with my other fruit and nut trees. And while the flowers on the gum trees are usually too high up to fully admire sometimes you can find one on the ground and with close inspection you can see the beauty in these little flowers as well. It's all feel good stuff :)
Ok, so what did I get up to this week. On Saturday morning my permaculture group had their second face to face meeting. We felt very lucky to have come together given that the regional lockdown advice came during our meeting but we still had time to finish by our 12.30 finish time and get home by the 1pm lockdown. It was great to catch up with some and meet others for the first time. We had a very successful swap table and a great workshop that got us all thinking. So excited for things to come for this group.
I managed to clear away leaves and branches from my fallen tree limb. For the moment I've just piled them high on my roadside swale to help suppress the grass which is just kicking back into life with the warmth and longer days. Before it gets too hot and dry I will cut these branches up further so that they are lying flatter to the ground which, in addition to grass suppression, will serve to retain moisture. While moving the branches I noticed the little white ants at work. I don't think this will be the last limb to fall from my huge beautiful tree.
Not much happening in the veggie garden just yet although I did harvest a few cabbages with which I made sauerkraut. Exciting news - I actually harvested my first asparagus spear. It's the freshest asparagus I've ever had, eating it within seconds of cutting and it was delicious!! I'll be working at getting my front garden under control in the coming week so that I'm ready to plant my spring and summer crops.
At the moment if I'm not studying each bloom I come across I'm time wasting watching lambs. They are hilarious when they start their running and prancing and just springing into the air. Young and carefree!
Another area of the farm that I'm slowly working on is my bottom swale. As you can see from the pictures, grasses seem to be in control. I'm slowly cutting that and getting some more planting done. If you haven't checked out this weeks video already please do if you'd like to see me in action tackling one section at a time. I explain what a swale is and why I'm planting as thickly as I am. As usual Ruby makes a little appearance as well! Link at the top of the page!!
So thats my week. Hope you all had a good one too!
Enjoy the week ahead!
Cheers!!