Sept-oct-BER
Spring has powered the steps of the 2 folk, the dog and the tractor (maybe not the tractor) during September and October. The rains have saturated the colours of our landscape. The grass is a vibrant green, the sky a glorious blue and the blossoms pop. At our place the purple haze of Robertson’s Curse/Salvation Jane, is like having your unmentionables on show - yes we have “weeds” so virulent that I suspect you could see our place from outer space.
we are “mobilising the copper in our soil…”
Without doubt we have had a fabulous start to spring this year. I used to worry about everything bursting into life and out of control; the weeds, every possible garlic disease, sheep parasites, and of course snakes. But this year I am actually enjoying the changeling weather. The rainy days are gentle and persistent, and the air cool. The sunny days are a welcome break and the warmth is coaxing blooms to burst forth…especially the virulent purple ones.
Letting that go…
fabulous winter sun
Being an owner builder is an ongoing exercise in patience, on all fronts, forgive me, I know I am repeating myself. Our approach typically extends time beyond all known physics. Once we work out what we want it takes time to source suppliers, build and finish. Consequently our trees are growing faster than our experience / decision / action chain and my patience is not really improving. This last month we have had to wait while the components were made for our external window shades. There is nothing to show despite it being such an important step. These shades will limit the sun hitting our large north facing picture windows and warming the floor inside, creating radiant heat. Great in winter, properly horrific in summer. Their positioning, their depth, their fabric, their manufacture, and their design have been an ongoing focus for a couple of years now. Much reading and testing of ideas later, we are just a few, maybe 20, bolts away from solving this problem.
peas for everyone!
baby apples
quince flower
The kitchen garden is overflowing with abundance, admittedly more for the bees than us as the bout of warm weather sent the coriander, parsley and brassica’s bolting to seed. But I proudly announce we have peas! I have often lamented my inability to produce a good crop of peas and after many kind responses I have worked out peas don’t like alliums, as in garlic/chives/spring onions. They don’t like sitting next to them or, following behind them in rotation. Even the Sweet Peas are in two minds to thrive or not. The late winter planting of Sugar Snap seedlings were located 1 metre away from the chives and spring onion section and all is well. In addition we are harvesting asparagus, cabbage leaves and loose heads (!), kale, spinach, broad beans, tarragon, rosemary, coriander, rocket, parsley and of course, garlic greens and shoots. We are officially in Spring Famine time but we don’t mind eating warm salads and stir-frys of leafy greens and peas.
The bee garden is frankly not even getting a look in now the Patterson’s Curse is flowering. Our hive swarmed with so much fodder for the gals. The fruit trees, vegetables, borage, lavender and wallflower offered a small bit of variety. With so much purple in the paddocks I am re-thinking the garden colour design. At this stage, and I suspect in response to the drought earlier this year and our current situation, I’d be happy with a garden that is just all green!
bi-colour sweet pea
homegrown tulip
It is the 29th of September and the looming deadline to write my month end blog post is IN MY FACE. I am struggling to negotiate the new blog software and getting frustrated with tech, creativity and words failing to coalesce engagingly. I look over my notes about the month’s activities and I can see the garlic business has dominated. How do I not write a story about our garlic filled months/s? On paper it was looking pretty busy, competent even; website launched, newsletter sent, social media informed, great customer support, garlic fed, orders received, and enquiries answered. Sighing deeply I decide to stop fighting the new software and step away from the computer, for a short break to re-focus. And a small wine to relax. Perhaps a morsel of cheese as a snack.
Needless to say, I did not make my deadline to post in September.
It is now October, the paddocks have reached peak purple bloom and we are tired from talking, texting and researching what we got wrong, what action can we take to avoid repeating any mistakes and feeling like failures. It’s that exhaustion of feeling defeated, of having to accept somethings may be out of our control. With properly fabulous words of support and reassurance that we were on the right track, we still felt nervous at the idea of having to take a ‘leap of faith’ that things would work out, Nature is powerful like that. Funny how you feel you have to act, have to know why, have to operate to a plan, have to…
A mad day of action, that may well have little impact, made us feel so much better. We now realise this was the issue that would frame our regenerative journey. Our practices and paradigms will evolve, here, on this land, through many trials and over many years. Our solution will only fit our place, at best give hope to others. And for the record, our last act of defiant action has been to sign up to learn how to take and read soil tests scientifically and rigorously. If we are going to take a leap of faith we are going to ensure we are as well skilled up as possible.
This is our farming experience over the last 2 months. One positive, effective and looking good and yet the next, often just within days, can leave us feeling out of our depth and anxious about the future. Experience will even these ups and downs out. Leaps of faith will not be needed. There can be no better teacher than Nature.
“Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can.”
Booklist
I found this book really enjoyable because it is a very good read and well written. I did not feel anything was constructed, I did not feel manipulated. I cared about the characters and wanted to know them more. I snorted my tea at the funny bits and cried at the hurt bits. There are few authors I love and read anything they produce, time and again. This author will be one of them.
last word
“Do the best you can until you know better - then when you know better, do better”
thanks for reading!