Swale in Action!

I was at work today while it poured, but Hubby thought of me and send me pics of the swale!

 

It's deeper at one end, which I actually don't feel is a real problem but I might try to even it out a little more.

 You don't appreciate the amount of water that runs off until you catch it. Seriously stoked about this!

A few weeks time and this place should start looking quite different.

Sweet Potato Harvest

What joy! Dug a hole today for a Pitaya and discovered a decent sized tuber. So we thought we'd dig up the small patch of sweet potatoes. What a haul!
These have got to be my new favourite veg. Looking forward to dinner tomorrow night!

Swale and 2nd Food Forest

Now that things are in swing in Zones 0-2, it's time to start taking steps in Zone 3. The plan - to have a self-sustaining food forest which doesn't rely on watering - so hardy species down here as opposed to the higher maintennance ones near the house.

The bottom paddock, as we've always called it, has sat barren for the last 15 years. We've let our neighbours sheep through it once or twice to get the vegetation down so the paddock can act as a firebreak, and we've ploughed it once to turn over the weeds but other than that it's just been a plain old paddock.

On May 25th our neighbour came over to rip some tree roots out with his backhoe. While he was here I snaffled him down to the paddock and ..voila! 5 minutes later a swale was brought into existence. It was so quick and easy with the machinery. It would have taken me weeks to dig it by hand. The swale isn't very long - about 8m. It should affect 1/3 of the paddock - which is intentional. Small nucleus to start, work outwards from there in years to come.

So, following the suggestions in Geoff Lawtons's '7 Food forests in 7 minutes' clip, I planted 3 pecans below the swale. Wide enough that their canopies should just touch when full grown. Next I sowed a winter cover crop, 1 metre up from the swale, along the mound and for about 5 metres below the swale. this should stop erosion from the mound and start providing some good ground cover. I also planted a few sweet potato cuttings.

Last night, 31st May, we had a lovely storm come over and I was dying to go down and see the swale in action, but there was so much lightning it wasn't a good time. This is the swale at 7am this morning however....

 The sand  in the bottom left hand corner is the run off from the new path the water created to to swale. Now that there is a ridge, there shouldn't be this much erosion in future rains.

 The swale is a little lower at one side - which I need to remedy however, this photo shows how deep the water seems to have been at one point (40cm). The black is silty mud which would have settled at it drained.

And here are the grains from the winter cover crop, swelling nicely in this moisture. The grains are a mix of vetch, lupins and a few others I'm not sure of.

And now we wait, for some growth, and if we're lucky, some more rain!

Bio-Char Experiment

I've been reading a lot about Terra Pretta and I have to say it's fascinating. I remember as a kid 'playing' at gardens and 'fertilising' our little crops with ash because that's what we had. I remember the peas doing pretty well.
In any case, I'm giving this a go again. Spent the morning collecting the bounties left from our Spring Equinox bonfire - plenty of ash, bits of clay, and lots of charcoal. Have mushed it up and mixed it with Green Life Soil company's veggie mix (manure, compost, minerals etc), then dug it in with a trowel in pockets through the beds. If it's all it's cracked up to be, the fertility of our soil should show marked improvement over the next few years. Which would be nice, as despite the amendments we made last season, a hot, dry season has seen it all disappear. Looking forward to seeing this through. :)

Photos for Molly!

Ok! I know a poke in the ribs when I feel one!

Photos!

Left: The sweet potatoes starting to sprawl in the new part of the food forest.

A pumpkin, which took it upon itself to climb up and over the shadehouse and deposit this gift at the entrance.


Below: A Eureka Lemon in close proximity to our Pancakes for Breakfast spot!










Far left: The new pond, potentially.

Left: This is the view to the left of the sweet potato patch. The pond is located roughly in the foreground before the metal structure you can see.


There you go Molly!

Progress check

It's been a while since posts so I thought a progress check was in order. We moved the chook pen away from the fence near the carport, and planted up the area. The plan is to keep adding to its perimeter until this patch joins up with the existing food forest site.
Sweet potato is my favourite addition to the garden at the moment. It sprawls everywhere and transforms dry ground into lushlooking greenery. As a living mulch it is definitely providing some protection to the soil from the sun. The leaves wilt during the hottest part of the day but recover in the evening. We've been eating them in stirfries and as spinach in other dishes.

I've started a pond but am waiting on cooler weather to finish it off. And I've sown a stack of seeds and am hoping that my growing expertise in this area will mean a more successful year this year.... well one can only hope.

The place is growing, changing, becoming more lush, very very slowly. Just needs time. :)

Meet our adopted gosling, "Hercules"

This is Hercules.
Hercules was the last born of our 4 goslings. He also arrived a lot later (1 week) and as often happens (so I've read in the last 24 hours) the parents/flock often reject latecomers. And that's unfortunately what happened in this case.
After arriving to let the geese out in the morning and finding him all alone kicked out of the nest, we witnessed the geese lead their other charges out the door and throwing Hercules back in the pen each time he tried to follow. This was followed with a series of sharp pecks and when he was lying on his back struggling to get up, a stomp on the head which left him shaken and dazed. He wasn't being allowed access to food or water and with the beatings to top it off something had to be done. Kids were distraught watching it all and begged me to intervene.
I know some people would say that you should let nature run it's course, but I won't stand by and watch a perfectly healthy baby die when some help could save it.

So Hercules has been adopted by our family. He imprinted on us within 12 hours and thinks humans are great already. He chatters to us, calls out when he can't see us and is reassured by a call back or a pat, is eating and drinking well. He would be dead already if we hadn't intervened, and I'm hopeful he'll live. He seems strong and healthy so far.
In a couple of months we'll try to get him to join the flock - I've been reading that it can be done. Until then, we have a gorgeous gosling to entertain us with his cute antics and tug at our heartstrings. What a sweetie!