End of summer jungle

 

Tomato seeds

 The best of the best.

This is the time for tomato seed saving. I choose from the healthiest, tastiest, highest producing plants. Let the fruit ripen fully on the plant and then squeeze some seeds into a small jar to ferment.

This sits on our kitchen windowsill until the seeds fall down and we get a beautiful white lactobacillus bloom on top. Then I rinse and hang above the wood range to dry before storing.

This year we a trialing a range of yellow and orange tomatoes from Mark Christensen's Heritage food crops trust collection and will save our favorites to go with our long standing bunch.

Changes

 

This photo was taken 10 years ago when we started the first stage of our road. 

Since then this area has fed us, many friends and an ever increasing diversity of wild and farmed animals with an ever evolving succession of kai.

From the seeds grown and saved here we now have a community garden, seedling house and propagation area to distribute plant material into our community. 

Thanks to our friend Byron we have a birds eye view of this craziness.

Summer garden

 The Kumara is the only wide angle shot I can take at the moment. Most of the garden is so high you cannot see very far.

That is until you have a friend with a drone visit.

Thanks Byron . What a cool perspective. And you can see the whole garden. 

The job of the day was harvesting potatoes (bare ground). A day later and winter cover crop is sown, soil mulched and it should be green in a few weeks.

Bee watching!!

Watching bees.

First you have to sneek up to flower. 

Make sure your shadow is away.

Slowly hold flower and if you are gentle you can bend it towards you and get really close! 

Tagastaste are up.

 These seeds are sometimes hard to germinate.

Lucky me. I had a whole heap of little fingers to help me collect them and then we made a worm cast potion for the seeds to soak in for a week before planting.

Germination success!!

These are some of the most valuable trees on our place. Tree fodder for Kereru, Tui, sheep, and cows, mulched for compost shelter for emerging trees....

Community garden

 And we are off again...........

It feels so good to be gardening together again after a bit of a break. The tunnel house is once again full. These are our first lot of winter seedlings (evicted from the tunnel house as it is full!) hardening off before planting and distributing around the community next week.

Some of these seedlings we have grown from seed saved from some of the first plants we grew at the start of our community gardening.

  

Waikawa

 I love making Waikawa. Every step a new form emerges.

Weaving the base, making the corners, bringing up the sides, fixing the top and then my favorite plaiting the ends and making handles.

On the farm Pa Harakeke are beside drains and ponds and as an understory under larger deciduous trees for; animal habitat, bird food, self help rongoa for my animals and are all good weaving varieties.

My Pa Harakeke has been neglected for so long so as I 'clean them up' Waikawa making begins. These quick functional baskets are great for washing baskets, onions and potatoes, harvesting fruit.....and giving away to friends.

Compost is the key.

Only plants can photosynthesize and since sunlight is an amazing form of free energy then I use plants to capture as much as possible. Composting is a way of keeping all of that sunlight energy in your system.  

In my gardens anything that is not mulched to cover the soil is composted. A good compost will not smell (smells can indicate the loss of energy and certain nutrients) and will be full of composters (visible and invisible) working to cycle this energy. I usually make compost with these guys in mind.

 

 

New tree systems

Meet our new wicking tree propagation unit. Thanks to the help of our amazing Woofers Renata and Tiago we now have;

-over 20 different varieties of semi-hardwood cuttings in our unit (so will see what works).

-a dedicated area in the community tunnel house for tree propagation from seed.

-loads of air prune pots.

-a shady area for potting on our seedlings (we already have; Inga bean, Custard apple, Tree Fushia, Currents, Honey locust and are awaiting more pots for; Tagasaste, Tamarello, Peaches, Plums, Raspberries, Pawaw,..and loads of natives.)