I always worry about grape vines in the Winter. They look dead for months, just until those leaves burst open into Spring sunshine. In preparation for the demands of the new season, the soil has been improved with basalt dust and vermicast made from coffee grounds and chicken manure. A good dose of fish emulsion just … Continue reading
Way back in May we had a single Tamarillo fruit left on the tree – and then there was Winter! The Sun is returning to high arcs through the sky, and the wind has become less bitter. Spring and her promise of rebirth has arrived 🙂 So it seems for the Tamarillo, with rapid new growth in … Continue reading
There was a time when I thought adding lots of mulch to poor quality soil would make for good quality soil. But it didn’t work out that way… What happened was that the 2 inch layer of mulch was cooking in the Summer sun, below which a thick layer of poor quality soil remained, impervious to … Continue reading
So you need food to eat in your forest garden, and you are growing all the regulars – apple, pear, citrus, fig, and so on. Then your shrub level (using Patrick Whitefield’s 3 level arrangements as per his How to Make a Forest Garden), is hard at work. All those empty spaces are getting filled with … Continue reading
