A strange thing happened a week or two ago. I arrived home from my yoga class to find Favorite Stepson had loaded up the kitchen table with several large paper bags bearing labels such as: ‘These are a mixture: daffodil,… Continue Reading
There’s a riot of green in the veggie patch just now, plants are falling all over each other as they jostle for space. Even though I expanded the food garden last year it’s currently more crowded than an Auckland motorway at… Continue Reading
During our first summer here I created a Mediterranean Garden from a previously arid wasteland. This year I’ve been working on a companion piece: The English Garden. The plot (haha) was hatched early in the year, when Stephen and Favorite… Continue Reading
Here we are in autumn again. The nights are getting nippier and the ponies are getting fluffier. Summer grows a coat that is plush like a teddy bear. Bonnie just goes all Hairy Maclary on us. In the garden our summer veggie and fruit… Continue Reading
Due to rain — and boy were we glad for it, the water tank situation was seeming a little precarious — bridge construction has been on hold. We don’t want anyone slipping into that ditch (there may be trolls). Sorry. I… Continue Reading
Hello, how are you doing out there after the excesses of the festive season? If you’re at the stage where finishing off that last box of chocolates has started to feel like something to cross off the to-do list, you’re probably ready for… Continue Reading
I like to think I’m a believer in the permaculture ethic of fair share, but really, enough is enough. Since my autumn planting of kale, the humans in this ecosystem have managed to scrounge only two meals from 12 plants. The rest was gobbled by gastropods. Northland snails… Continue Reading
You know how I jokingly said I might have missed a fruit tree off the farmlet list? Well, it actually happened. I recently discovered a previously uncatalogued tree. I know… You’re wondering how I could possibly not have noticed it before, seeing… Continue Reading
It’s officially the first day of spring, and Northland has turned on just the right kind of weather. Around the farmlet spring things are popping up everywhere. Of course no collection of spring photos is complete without a few lambs. Here are some… Continue Reading
One of the exciting things about autumn on the farmlet has been seeing mushrooms, toadstools and other fungi popping up around the place. Here are some that Deborah and I spotted last weekend. I started trying to identify them, but you wouldn’t believe… Continue Reading
