Wednesday

Today is so beautiful. Not too hot. Sunny. I cracked at lunchtime and went for a quick mtb ride. Good opportunity to check on the pine nut seedlings I planted yesterday. They all look very happy with the situation and not too shocked after their first night out of the glass house. One day when they are big they will help to protect the community garden from the west wind.



And here is a piccy of Queen Aprilia. They are going very strong. I really need to put another box on both hives. I can hear Queen Atalia and the girls humming along outside the window. They are spilling out onto the front of the hive - hopefully because they are happy and warm and not because they are planning on swarming soon.



Now I am worried. I'd better go and assemble those extra frames!

Frosty Sunny

Truly inspired by Eliot Coleman, I have been experimenting with cold frames. We had another crunchy frost this morning.

Look - I am not kidding!

But here are my veggies - safe and sound. Soil all warm and decidedly unfrozen. We have eaten all the biggest beetroots, and the silver beet hasn't quite recovered from that minus 6 frost - so I am hoping that the cold house will keep the soil warm enough to kick along some growth.

The only problem with going down this track is that I need to open up the sides for ventilation on warm days, and close them up again at night. In the meantime I can experiment with ventilation and structure in preparation for those EARLY TOMATOS! The goal is for first tomatos by Mr Duck Herder's birthday (23rd Nov)

The rest of the day included a trip out to Crookwell to see the Kiloren garden as part of the open garden scheme. I really liked this curvy wall.

And after that, a reconnaissance trip to Chris and Leanne's new farm at Laggan to inspect a prospective site for my pine nut orchard. Mission accomplished - along with many pots of tea, general farm inspections, lovely food and excellent mirth and company.

All in all and excellent day methinks.

More Pine Nuts

Yesterday driving back from farming hunting east of Nimitabel I stopped in Michalego to take some photos of these pinus pinea trees at the cemetery. The tree in the foreground is what they look like when they have been pruned a little. The lollypop trees in the background is what they look like ala - naturale.

There are no cones on these trees (just like all the pine nut trees in the region) because of the drought. It will be interesting to see if there has been enough rain for these guys to flower in the spring. Even then, it will be another 3 years before any cones are ready - thats a long time to wait for new seeds for seedlings. It makes the little stash of last winter's seeds I have from a local stand of trees very precious indeed.

Lacuna Sabbath

Has a month really past between posts? Sorry folks. I am still alive.

I spent today at home, working on a big report for work, interspersed with trips out into the garden to visit my feathered friends and little plants. Lots of lovely homegrown food for breakfast and lunch. Robin's organic apples - stewed with cinnamon for breakfast, homegrown peppermint tea (with licorice root) throughout the day, fresh scrambled eggs for lunch with herbs and salad picked straight from the garden. Fresh bread baking in time for tea. Eating for Victory at its delicious, most effortless and joyous best.

Here is an update on whats going on in a winter ONC garden.

Here is little Quentin. She and her sister (Miss Bricey) are both named after the new Governor General. Quite appropriate I think. They are almost full grown - perhaps 5 or 6 months old. Their mum Nefley is already clucky again. They should start laying in the next couple of months - although Silkies are very slow to mature.





Here in this little garden bed there are broadbeans coming up, lots of self seeded parsley, lots of Asian greens germinating up the far end and what I very much hope are nettles. I love nettles in winter. For me they are not a weed at all, but a welcome winter guest. delicious. much tastier than silver beet. high in iron. delicate taste and they cook in an instant. just remember your gloves. This variety is not very stingy at all, just a little bit and they can be picked carefully with bare hands if needs be. There are also some pea seedlings along the trellis on the left - but you might not be able to see them, because they were CRUNCHED by something - perhaps some snails, so I have sprinkled the sad little stalks with derris dust.






Here is Tabitha Jemima having a bath in the water bowl as Miriam tries to work out how to get in too. They do have a huge pond you know, they just like to get into anything else they can too.



A peak inside the greenhouse shows lots of lettuces and parsley coming along nicely in the hydroponics system. Well, it's more of an automatic watering system, as the plants are grown in soil and apart from liquid seaweed and microorganisms, they are fed just water through the system. I would still like to get in a couple more boxes of lettuce seedlings. The door of my greenhouse has FALLEN OFF. This is going to take some fixing as it was cheaply held on with fabric hinges which of course, rotted after a few years.




Still in the greenhouse - here are my pine nut seedlings - grown from seeds I gathered from a secret copse of pine nuts. In all my travels around NSW for work, I keep an eye out for pinus pinea trees (they are everywhere once you know them) but the trees that these seeds came from seem to be the only ones around that kept fruiting (coning?) during the drought. They are also from quite small trees - relatively speaking. The will be a year old in spring - time to find them a permanent home. The idea was to plant them at the new duck herder farm - which hasn't materialised yet - so perhaps I will have to find a landed friend who would like a little pine nut plantation on their place.

Well, thats it - a quick tour of the garden. Its nice to be back in blog land.