Dear Friends,
It is that time a year again! We have planted all of the seed crops, as well as, all the summer crops and now the time for maintenance and observation take over after the rush and flurry of spring planting. We get to sit back and anticipate the harvest season and all the bounty! Of course, we are making sure things are well watered and fed. This is all, in part, thanks to Jeremy, Laurine and Lily who have all arrived in the last month to learn and work in our garden! Jeremy has been here about a month, back since last autumn, and this season he has helped so much to finish the big spring push for bed prep and planting. Lily arrived last week from the USA! As coincidence or fate would have it, my Mum met Lily at her local farmer's market in Swarthmore, PA. Lily was working on a CSA farm in the area and they soon disovered they both were traveling to NZ later in the year! So my Mum, who also recently arrived, suggested to Lily she may like to visit our gardens here. And just to let you know some of the photos in this newsletter are my Mum's. Laurine, came straight here off the plane from France a few days ago. So with a crew of 4 interns keen to learn, a lot can happen in a day!
At the moment we are enjoying all of the spring veges, harvesting our first courgettes and looking forward to the glut of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and cucumbers arriving soon. Dinner time usually has a salad with a mix of our lettuces and orach, mizuna, tat soi, and rocket. We also have been making palak paneer, an Indian dish, with our Silverbeet Fordhook Giant and the Orach Red. As we get into fermenting for the season, Kimchi was our first kraut of the year, made from our Chi Hi Li. Some of the purslane which has self sown from last years seed crop, has been an added bonus, as we only just transplanted it from our glasshouse a few days ago. A good reminder that nature knows best when to germinate a seed!
The end of the calendar year is upon us, and with that usually comes time away from the garden as the festive season begins. So, our big focus this week, and aptly timed as the Hawkes Bay summer heat kicks in, Mulch Fest 2017! We are doing the “big” mulch, something I have often dreamed of doing and with a few extra helpers recently arrived, the time is now! We have baleage and water and many hands and we are soaking our garden beds and soaking the balage and thickly applying it to the whole garden. Watch this space, I am so excited and hope to significantly reduce our irrigation needs as a result. It is not like we have not been mulching all season, but it is now time to up the ante! And for those of you who may be traveling over the holidays, I would suggest the same for your garden. Gardens are hard to leave, but if you can at least leave them protected from drying out, you will be rewarded on return with lest pests and more food!
Upcoming Events Next Year:
Garden Tour and Harvest Meal – Come and see what we have created! Setha will take you through the garden and talk about the hows and whys behind the design. We will follow with a meal from the bounty of the harvest season.
February 17th 10:00 – 2:00 $40.00
Seed Harvesting and Processing Workshop – Discover the time tested techniques for harvesting and processing both wet (fruiting) and dry (flowering) seed. Wet fermentation, threshing, winnowing and seed dancing will be covered. Then see how best to store your seed for future seasons.
March 10th 10:00am – 1:00pm $50.00
Growing a Healthy Garden with Natural Fertilisers – Want to improve you plants health and vitality as a natural way to insure good harvest and less pressure from pest and disease. We will show you how we do this in our seed garden by sharing how we build a fertile compost heap, make compost teas, use cover crops to build soil fertility and apply foliar feeds to boost plant health.
March 24th 10:00pm – 1:00pm $50.00
Design Your Dream Garden – Whether you are new to gardening or feeling like your garden could be more productive with a few tweaks, we will share permaculture design concepts and biointensive gardening techniques to help you design and create an easy care garden you will love. Bring your questions and issues to share.
April 14th 10:00am – 1:00pm $50.00
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