Bernie the Permaculture Sage came and looked at the properties today (ours and next door). We're bringing him back in next week for a longer consult, but got some good ideas already. The best one it seems is to forget our plan to get Dorpas (a breed of sheep) to manage the fire hazard of grass in the bottom paddock and instead use geese! I didn't know they were such effective grazers but Bernie reckons a dozen or so would easily maintain that area. Worth a try - despite the advantages of Dorpas over other sheep (no shearing, muelsing etc) they do require pretty rigid fences and ours aren't the best on one side. Apparently you can train them to follow you too, so bringing them from the bottom paddock up to the orchard is feasible and it sounds like geese are lower maintenance than chooks - which we can handle.
This permaculture thing is really starting to move along. I walk around our property now and can really see some progress. Tonight we ate Tuna fishcakes (with heaps of herbs) and a side of freshly picked Bok Choy (which is growing madly). Hywel as we picked them said he actually wasn't a fan of Bok Choy - and changed his mind completely after we'd eaten it. Fresh tastes so much nicer than anything. The only thing in dinner that didn't come from our place was the tuna and potatoes. Next year it'll only be the tuna. How good does this feel!
4 comments:
Hi CWM!
Thanks for visiting my blog, glad you enjoyed it. Yours is right up my alley too, so I have bookmarked it also:)
I am in Northam, so not that far from you or Crone:)
Be back again...blessings:)
Soglad you have posted again after the chook saga! A friend of mine has geese for grazing (and eating - I am looking forward to goose-plucking day...sort of!)and they keep her 10 acres 'mown' to perfection. I like the permaculture principles and always try to use them eg plants should have more than 1 and preferably 3 uses. If you need a hedge, plant one that feeds yourself and/ or the chooks and maybe is native for the wildlife too.Harmony.Feels good.
Hi to both of you,
Great to hear about the geese Kate. Does your friend eat them often? My in-laws said they are hardly worth the plucking as a full sized bird ends up looking literally like a rubber chicken once the feathers are off. Does she feed them anything special? I must say I think we'd possibly have some if meat gets too expensive (as they're predicting) and they breed REALLY well.
Molly,I will talk to you via your blog re: some soapwort!
Nat :)
Psssssssst....you've been tagged, if you want to join in, take a peek at my blog:)
Blessings:)
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