We have reached a new mini milestone at this stage out here in Rakaia. Going through the Spring routine, I finally tidied up the raspberries, remove the pebbles, top up the pots with more fresh compost, and put the pebbles back on. In need of more pebbles, the pebbles from the pots of bananas were removed to be used to top up on the citrus and raspberry pots.
Then, I removed all the dead leaves off the bananas, and topped the Gold Finger and Misi Luki. I am pretty sure Misi Luki is still very much alive as the trunk is still green even though there’s no sign of new leaf pushing through. However, after topping both of them, I can now confirmed that they are both alive!
The very core of Gold Finger is still very green, and you can see that the sap is still flowing. So, yays! All 4 bananas made it through Winter.
Wetting down stacks and stacks of newspapers. I seldom read newspapers, if at all. Newspapers that landed in my mailbox usually gets saved for Winter to get the fire going. Now, I also use them to mulch the garden. Very useful.
I did 3 truck load of mulch over the weekend. I sort of have the Spring fever after watching the grass sprout an inch right after the mower goes over. The Summerfruit Lawn used a full truck load. This is crucial in getting the wildflowers establish and prevent weed competition, or the need to determine between a weed and a wildflower, both which are technically weed, the same.
I am not going to scatter sow the seeds but will be running on similar planting systems as those annual flowers garden bed. Just stay tune in a week or two, probably two.
The second truck load of mulch goes on in the Forest Garden.
And the third truck load goes on. I think it will take another 3 to 4 truck load to get it all covered up and the seed sowing shall begin. I must say I quite enjoy walking on mulch, it’s a lot softer, and not as hard on the ground.
Caesar went on the rides to get the mulch and now he refused to get off the truck.
The wee rooted cuttings of Gooseberry Pax are starting to burst forth. They are so thin and lanky that I wasn’t expecting them to take roots at all. However, as nature intended, they gave me the benefit of the doubt.
Plenty of Tagasaste Tree Lucerne seedlings coming through now in the nursery. They are one of my favourite Nitrogen Fixing nurse tree but I’ll be using them sparingly here as they are not very wind firm.
This purple leaf Wattle is a favorite. Stunning. And those big trees are now in full blown flowering all along SH2.
These Alder seedlings are naturally cold stratified. I sown them into the trays late Autumn and left them out in the cold, now come Spring they sprung up, in line with the rhythm of the Earth. The grand design here is to use Alder as fence post. To plan them up, grow them up, and espalier them horizontally linking limbs and form a couple of fences. Who doesn’t want a Nitrogen Fixing fence that you can harvest kindling wood from?
The beauty. Bellis Habanera.
There’s many things still to be done out here. Like the work on the Mandala Garden. Maybe next weekend. There’s also some seeds that needs to be started, tomato, pumpkin, corn… Maybe not yet. At the moment, I am mulching. And focusing on mulching. Mulch before the weeds have a chance to take off.
Permaculture in Rakaia 