Bar a few small things still to organise, we were pretty much ready to start construction by NYE, ten days before the footings were due to commence. This meant we could spend some time in the garden, one last maintenance session before the house build, and low and behold some wwoofers were sent to us from the heavens that very week, Tim and Bree.
We couldn’t possibly list the myriad of things they helped us with, but it included quarrying all the decent soil from the earthworks and sowing seeds on the new terrace above the house site
Clearing huge piles of branches to reduce our fire risk, and using the chipper to create a big pile of mulch for the strawberries.
Then munching on the strawberries with us
Potting up all the native plants
Saving seeds and chopping firewood
Blowing kisses to the bumble bees
And removing and pruning quite a few Albizia trees in order to let more sun into the garden. We’re considering using them to enter a new “green” float in the next Mardi Gras…
It felt wonderful to share food out of the garden with Tim and Bree, such as these beautiful beetroots
And gigantic cabbage
Thanks to Tim and Bree’s help, the garden couldn’t be in better shape and we can now focus on building the house without worrying about the garden being out of control. They are passionate about permaculture with similar goals to ours, and are currently travelling around Australia looking for their perfect piece of paradise. Tassie Mania has certainly caught their attention; we wish them all the best with their endeavours, and promise to nurture and feast from the fig tree they bought for our garden.
Reviewing photos from last year to put the amount of growth into perspective was quite a shock… this is the garden at the beginning of January 2011:
And only twelve months later is evidence of the benefits of the permaculture principle of succession and evolution, with established ground covers, herbs, small shrubs, vines, support species and target species creating quite a beautiful and productive food forest.
We’re sure that Joan, the woofer from Spain who built this mandala in January last year...
Will be thrilled to see what it looks like now.
This one mandala bed alone is producing fantastic carrots, beetroot, lettuce, parsnip and sage.
We’re learning more and more every year, as evident in our 2007 carrots te he…
Compared to this year’s carrots :o)
There are apples on the trees…
Peas on the trellis…
Potatoes multiplying in preparation to feed us over winter…
We couldn’t be happier with how much we’re learning and the amount of food we’re harvesting after such a short amount of time.
Apart from all this, our major highlight in December wasn’t Christmas, and it wasn’t New Year’s Eve (although that was a magical evening), it was watching four Welcome Swallows hatch, feed, open their eyes for the first time and then continue to develop right through to witnessing their first flight. It was truly amazing, and we now enjoy seeing the whole family fly around the property during the day, and return to their nest in the carport at dusk. Only to crap on the table mind you.
There’s also pademelons and wallabies with joeys at the moment, and we were fortunate enough to witness three bandicoots playing with a joey only metres in front of us, as they didn’t realise we were standing behind the glass sliding doors.
And if that wasn’t enough animal adventures, I witnessed a cow giving birth, much to the bewilderment of its friend the sheep. How quickly the calf stood up (within ten minutes) was simply incredible to watch.
And finally on the fauna front, two more Khaki Campbell ducks have joined the family since Tumble, Weed, Bubble and Bee’s successful slug eating probation period. The ducks now have full range of the garden, and have completely annihilated the slugs from the composting area, which was previously a slug breeding ground.
Well construction of the house footings has now commenced, so from here on in look forward to some exciting straw bale building blog updates!
