gardening Archives - Page 9 of 15

CHANCE OF RAIN

October 27, 2011 2 Comments

We have finally started construction on the two earth-bag garden beds we want to have tamped and ready for the Permablitz! It is exciting to see the plans starting to take shape in front of us, but oh there is so much to do before the day!

The first sight that meets your smarting eyes at most Permablitzes is a mound of compost so tall that if you were unfortunate enough to have it dumped over your head you would be lucky to have your nose in daylight. The main task for the day is moving this pile shovel after shovel and barrow after barrow from its current location to another one some metres away. Even those with the sunniest outlooks can find this a little uninspiring.

We were determined that our Permablitz would involve a lot more variety, some interesting skills to learn and some fun, less back breaking jobs like rendering earth bag walls and planting out garden beds. Unfortunately for people to render and plant they need some of the garden beds made before the day. That is how we, and our poor dear housemates, have found ourselves shovels in hands and wheelbarrows full for the last few weeks. Hopefully their sunny outlooks are not as overcast as the weather forecast for Sunday. Hold off on the rain dances please.

Garden

TO SEE A CARROT FLOWER

October 24, 2011 No Comments

I’m stealing a few hours this morning while the rain dampens our efforts to start putting up some photos of the preparation for our Permablitz. We have been working solidly for several weeks and I have neglected my blog terribly, as we have slowly been swallowed up by a growing mound of clay and so many earth walls to build before Sunday!

Although we are excited by the new design, nostalgia made us solemn as we ripped up some of our old chook rotation garden beds. A carrot gone wild had started to bloom and I felt sad to deprive our bees of its pillowy blossom.

Since we started our little veggie path in July of last year I have never stopped delighting in the wonders of flowers, roots and leaves that I had never before associated with the produce from the green grocer.

Garden, Recipes

ONE PERSON’S CLAY…

September 24, 2011 2 Comments

The countdown to our Permablitz has begun and we put our new housemates to work not five days before they moved in, after all manual labour is the building block of a beautiful friendship right?

Sadly, at our house the greater part of our subsoil languishes under a thick layer of bricks, concrete and, on preliminary investigation old rusted metal including the odd bike. The foundation of a permaculture garden shouldn’t be built upon bought earth. We had to look elsewhere. You don’t have to look far when you are an architect.

After filling a few wheelbarrows of some quite uninspiring clay* we left the building site with Gracie dog in the back of the ute riding high on the mound. (She didn’t find it as amusing as we did.) Then a quick refreshment of Russian Caravan tea and a brief push of the vintage car that has been renting space in our driveway to make way for the mound of clay. Just your average Saturday really.

*Note: uninspiring earth is the best kind of earth for an earth bag garden bed.

Garden, Recipes

UNUSUAL PETS

September 22, 2011 1 Comment

The night before the bees arrived Melbourne rejected its first hot spring day with a crack of thunder. The morning spat and grumped as our bees arrived, but Martin, the bee man, said it was a perfect day for the bees to move in. I imagined them made sluggish with cold, they were unwilling to shed their pyjamas and buzz out of bed.

We sat around the table nursing peppermint tea while Martin solemly told us the tale of a man who paid too much attention to his grooming and ended up with a stung nose. But only after lathering on strong smelling gels, face creams and old spice, then sticking his nose into the entry to the hive to get a better look. Even two female clients of his who had long since rejected shampoo and deodorant had been chased back inside when they had tried a strong smelling chamomile soap. My hair was currently fresh from shower and lavendar fresh with a conditioner Ryan had gifted me so I thought it best to keep my nose well out of their business.

Sitting under a tree on its thin little legs, the hive didn’t look like the Winnie the Pooh hive I had in my head, more like a trestle table with a roof. But the beauty of a top bar hive is that it is so unlike a normal hive which involves pillaging the bees’ entire supply of honey and dooming the colony when the frost hits and the cupboard is bare. Commercial beekeepers strip the honey and then feed the bees melted sugar through winter, there’s something that feels so wrong about that. Top bar, Martin told us with the reverence of a man who believes in the good in his product, allows you to harvest the honey one “bar” at a time so you can leave plenty for the bees to drink up when autumn winds blow the last petals from their stems.

Soon he promises we should be able to see the bees forming a chain like little builders forming a living tape measure for other workers to fill with honeycomb. If I build up the nerve to lie under the hive to take a photo. No shampoo or moisturiser that day I think.