My days.

Since I started developing my food forest in April this year,  I have felt so much peace and happiness in looking at what is transforming - and also thinking about what it is going to be like in spring - summer - next summer - in 5 years time.......

Each day I spend so much time just walking around the mulched area, pulling the ever growing Kikuyu grass shoots out, and just admiring and loving all the plants that I have planted. 

If I had started this garden in the spring - I would be seeing things happening now but I am glad it is winter - it will give the plants a wee rest in the ground before they burst into fast growth and life. 

It also teaches me patience which I lack at times.

My mind is always thinking about what I can do next - 

what will the garden look like when it is all growing?

Have I planted too many plants - or perhaps not enough?

Have I got enough diversification? 

If I was a bee - would I like what is growing?

If I was a bird - is there good food and shelter and possibly a nesting place?

If I was a pesky bug - is there food available that isn't going to ruin a crop that is wanted for human food?

Is this area going to feed us and our extended families?

And on it goes. 

With this blog I want to share with you images and thoughts of my daily life that have been with me since I started on this Journey in April.

As well as obviously wanting to grow food for us to eat, to feed the birds and insect life is just as important. I have dotted flowering plants throughout and they are starting to come into flower now. So beautiful to watch the bees feeding on these when food sources are scarce. These plants will grow harmoniously with the other food plants creating companions and diversions for the insect life.

I have learnt so much about Nitrogen fixing plants which I knew nothing about prior to this journey. One of my favourite new plants is the Tagasaste. A fabulous nitrogen fixing shrub and a favourite food for the Kereru ( Native Wood Pigeon). We have so many Kereru around Coromandel, but none in my garden. This will change in a couple of years I am sure. I have planted several Tagasaste around the garden now, and being a very fast growing shrub I am looking forward to seeing them develop.

Broad beans are also known to be a good nitrogen fixer. As a child I couldn't stand them, and have resisted growing them until now. I have planted a few and I am determined to get over my aversion to them.  I have seen some pretty tasty looking recipes using the young beans - certainly not like the huge dry beans that my mother used to boil and serve up to us. And of course when I have harvested the beans, the plants will be chopped off and dropped manuring the soil for the next crop of plants to go in. 

When I decided to start a food forest, one of the big things to me was to have chooks again. As well as

getting the beautiful eggs, the work they do in the ecosystem is so important. There is something infinitely exciting to look in your chook house and find your first egg !! 

The little brown oval beauty that beams out of the nest and hits you right in the heart. 

Yesterday after checking constantly for the last 3 weeks there was an egg in the nest box. 

I squealed. 

Actually I yelled! 

I was so happy and excited, and my smile was as wide as it could get!

Chooks are tireless workers. The manuring of the soil, the constant turning over of plant matter on the ground, and eating unwanted bugs and grubs never ceases to amaze me.  

I just love these birds. They all have individual personalities and are great company when I am outside.  They have their own yard but I will let them forage around the food forest when my seedlings are more mature and can stand a bit of pecking. I have let them out once to see what would happen, and of all the area available to them, they went straight to the hugelkultur mound and started pecking the brassica's!! Murphy's Law haha.

My blogs are a diary. A place for me to write freely about what I am doing. 

My mistakes - my successes and if along the way a reader gets a spark from what I have written I feel this is a bonus and worth every word! 

I would love to think I have given you a spark - a desire to follow your dream and make the world a better place.