small steps towards ....

it can all be very overwhelming you know ... buying a piece of land in order to create a sustainable life .... not just for you but your children as well ... it is a huge responsibility.

and you have to take the time to slow down and do it right .... getting it right is important at this stage.  there will be lots of experimenting down the track .... but we need to get some basics down first up.

we need trees

lots of trees

to create a food forest

to give us shelter

to feed us and give us fuel

so we are startin' small .... by getting a few pioneer plants on the property.  some to improve the soil, some to become nice big canopies for us.  just a few for the moment .... to get things going.  we have put in an avocado (great canopy trees!), an acacia, casurina and a silky oak .... all these will be great for the landscape.

but wait.  oh geez .... how do we water them???? tend them while we are waiting for them to take?  and at this time of year when we don't get much rain?

enter one very creative husband and an old garbage bin. this particular line of trees is planted on a slope on the fence line .... so we have placed the garbage bin just above them ... lid, which happens to have a small hole in it, turned up to catch any rain (wishful. thinking!) .... and the obligatory brick to weigh it down.

brilliant!  thank you sweetie!

this will allow us to continue to plant up and down that line of trees for a few months yet, and ensure that we have a source of water that we can go out to as we build up our forest.  eventually we will have a rain water tank in with a gravity fed ag line i'm fairly sure .... but in the meantime, every other day i am bringing out 5 x 3 ltr containers of water and a 10 ltr container.  watering the trees and putting the extra in the garbage bin to keep the storage growing.  it seems to be working!

the other thing we need to do is create soil.

it is at the heart of what JustEarth is all about .... acknowledging that soil .... this good earth is what will enable us to create a sustainable way of life that will go on into the future.

so we need to make compost.  it's really a family affair at this point .... and i think the kids enjoyed themselves!

we've placed a thick layer of cardboard down with a trailer load of wood chip and mulch clippings on top.  this has been watered in a bit and the next layer will be some green kitchen scraps and more grass clippings. that should do well.  i expect there will be a number of these piles appearing all over our land.

and on one final note.  we don't have a lot of money and we need to get this property under control with all the tall grass.  can't afford a machine to slash (a waste of money) .... and would hire someone to slash, but even that is a lot.  if we can get this slashed we can start creating straw .... which will create our beds later .... quick answer?  a scythe!

i reckon this is pretty ambitious.  but it also means we can do a section at a time get it under control and then move on from there.  on face value a good plan .... and good for the health too!  we will certainly keep you informed of how this one comes together!

where grow tomato's ....

i was out in our rental properties tiny little veggie patch yesterday and my heart sighed -- tomato's.  and i thot .... where there grow tomato's .... there grows hope.

now .... if you follow me at all you will know that i love all things tomato .... even have a first planting calendar here that was to give me the ability to plant a significantly longer season of tomato's .... and of course, then we moved and it all went out the window.

and here we live in the Northern Rivers now ... heading in to winter that would have to be marked as laughable compared to what we had in the Blue Mountains.  but that's ok!  no frost means a significantly longer growing season in all it's glory.

to be living in an area where you can very literally grow year round OUTSIDE ... is truly amazing.  the world of choice and options that is available for all your planting is fabulous. winter veg becomes a reality and you would be amazed at just how many different types there are!

i was at the markets the other weekend and was talking to a local grower and asked them what the growing season for tomato's was like and they said that in all truth, if you were willing to put up with slow growth in July/August, and potentially cover for a few nights of cold that you could easily grow tomato's all year.  wow .... tomato's as a legitimate crop all year.

who woulda thunk it!

so that has me happy as a pig in mud!  thinking about trying a few new varieties after looking through the Eden Seeds Catalogue that i have.  i already have a a few dozen ready to be planted out.

so i am dreaming of mandala gardens full of tomato's and basil and of a spring passatta making party that will bring friends and neighbors together .... because you see, even in our little rental property veg patch .... we have tomato's growing ...

and where there grow tomato's .... 

there grows hope .... 

and the promise of more scrumptious varieties of harvest yet to come!