Earth Medicine Centre

31/08/2024

A lovely article to inspire us to eat more from our garden, by making a daily habit of going out there and picking a few things to add to meals, or make a meal from.

https://www.permaculturenews.org/2024/01/01/one-garden-meal-per-day/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1DlOoeE8HCb-gFhqeAQ9u2vEKlItcejqmfkJny85ghpQXbVRueDYhOdyM_aem_NP7kkV9qIKUFhNOWFKfL1A

I'm convinced that the best way to get more effective at growing your own food is to make it as easy

13/07/2024

The last of our roses picked as the roses get their annual pruning. And the boysenberry is getting stripped of its leaves to be drenched in white oil to get rid of scale that is taking over.
Endless jobs to do. Endless pests to deal with. And lots of fun, beauty and love along the way.

07/04/2024

Even at the end of this hottest and dryest of summers our garden keeps producing, although many plants didn’t do well or died. This was some of yesterday’s haul. Pawpaws and fejoas picked before fully ripe to outsmart the rats (for now!). The last two cucumbers, and a wonderful handful of purslane, which is a high nutritious and edible w**d. Comments under each picture.

10/12/2023

A lovely morning in the garden. The stone fruit trees and the white mango had taken off for the sky and needed a good trim to keep their size manageable. We are currently getting lots of zucchini, cucumbers, and still pawpaws, and of course so many leafy greens- butter and coz lettuce, rocket, kale, perpetual spinach, malabar spinach - and many edible herbs. The tomatoes are coming along and the grapes are a week or 2 off being ripe- I hope we get to them before the birds and rats, but so far no sign of them.

15/11/2023

We saw ‘thornless blackberries’ for sale a couple of years back and that sounded good so we bought a plant, then last year another. We think they are actually boysenberries, but who cares. They are not 100% thornless but not nasty either. They have grown on the fence behind the rose garden abundantly and right now we are pigging out on them every morning. I think the season will be short but very sweet.

11/11/2023

Pawpaw abundance. We are eating a pawpaw a day at the moment. Somehow the rats haven’t found them, and there are so many. The garden is giving back so abundantly. Pawpaw is so good for the digestive system. It’s an easy travelling food too when cut up- we did a road trip on Thursday and took one, cut up, and it was great.
We have now planted more papaw trees because they produce so prolifically, but only last 2-3 years.

28/10/2023

We went away for a week and came back to a decimated broad bean crop, and the loquats all gone. Both would have been ready to pick when we got home- we got no loquats and a small bowl of beans left. No rats last summer, but this year, they are back, and in party mode! Dave has caught and dispatched two already since we got back. Urban farming is not for the faint hearted. Between rats, citrus leaf minor and fruit flies, we have lots of competition.

However, other crops have come along well. Last year my garlic failed, this year I have both purple and elephant garlic and both succeeded, I am happy. I also got a small crop of tiny potatoes which I thought had failed altogether.

And this morning I discovered a cauliflower I didnt know was there.
Ah, the lows and the highs!

18/10/2023

Our first bananas- lady fingers . So sweet and creamy- all gone now 😀

08/10/2023

While the garden is a delight, I can sometimes get impatient with all the mess and all the projects that are yet to be completed. I have to remember to appreciate how far we have come in 4 years here, and not how far there is to go! The front area is being developed as a ramp from the small gate, where deliveries can be delivered when the big driveway gate is shut. And then we intend to put a caravan in the front under the peppies, for guests.

08/10/2023

Another season in the garden. New life bursts forth everywhere we look. Abundance and joy abounds. Names and notes under pictures.
If you would like a bunch of leafy greens, just ask.
And we have free range eggs for sale for $7 a dozen.

10/09/2023

A snapshot into the garden at present. Spring is here with harvesting of winter leafy stuff, and flowers.
I just picked all the nettles in the chookpen, because Dave wants to re-do all the brickwork under the fruit trees there. So the nettles are now hanging to dry.
More comments under the photos.

28/08/2023

The dark side of gardening. Dave has been going out after dark to find the slugs and snails which are prolifically breeding right now. Dave pours boiling water on them, to kill the eggs, then feeds them to the chooks. The alternative is no garden.