When it gets hot it's time for a dip down at the swimming hole. A 5 minute drive down the road to the Leader river for refreshing, clean clear water. Perfect way to cool off.
Details
It's summer and dry. The pigs are unhappy due to lack of fresh green grass. We are supplementing their diet with purchased grains but found they enjoy fresh prunings from various trees.
We combine the chore of summer pruning fruit trees with a treat for the pigs and have found they love to eat most stone and pip fruit leaves as well as grape and willow.
It's high summer in 2012 and we have had a pretty good crop of nectarines from the 2 grafted trees and I was surprised to see a couple of almonds on the seedling tree. It is only 3 years old! The food forest area looks completely different now with all the sweet broom (nitrogen fixing small shrubs) and the primary swale feeding nutrient rich water down to the fruit and nut trees.
Details
It's been a hot, dry summer (again). Despite the ongoing drought things are looking fairly good. Most of the trees have a decent amount of fruit set with apricots already harvested and drying. There are lots of flowers buzzing madly with insects. Guest numbers have picked up again post earthquake and now all we could wish for is a drop of rain.
Details
It has been really drying out and we have been busy moving hoses to water as many trees and veges as possible. We have a well with a pump that delivers 25mm of water at high pressure. While I was trying to come up with a way to apply this water gently to the garden I came up with this simple circular terminus mister(click for photo). It effectively produces a 4 meter high column of mist. Wonderful on a scorching afternoon.
Our garden is bigger and better this year with more planning, improved soil and larger variety of plants in the ground. We are just starting to reap the rewards.
Details
Every year, since their construction, our hugelkultur raised woody garden beds have been improving in performance. While waiting for the perennial plantings to establish we have been gardening with seasonal crops including maize, pumpkins, tomatoes, salad, cucumbers and of course lots of beans. Modest additions of straw mulch, trenched in pig manure, compost tea and all plant residues are contributing to the overall fertility of the beds and on occasion where I have exposed the wooden core while digging it is clearly breaking down into a crumbly organic 'compost'.