First Jaboticaba fruits

Vegetable garden progress

Been busy in the yard getting the veggie gardens planted out with some organic seedlings from the markets. Have fenced it off to keep the dog and pet goats out. 

More plantings.

Busy planting more herbs in the garden. 

Jaboticaba in full blossom!

We were very excited to discover today how quickly the Jaboticaba tree blossoms have bloomed. Now a beautiful display of white flowers covering the many thin branches of this elegant tree buzzing with bees and insects and emitting a glorious smell. Cant wait to taste this glorious tropical fruit soon.

Fertile Soil discovery and first blossums on our Jaboticaba

 

 

Mission for the day was to create an access track to the marvellous soil discovered yesterday. The kids and I set off on the Toro zero turn mower and managed to have the track cleared in just under two hours, Which left plenty of daylight to shovel a few loads onto the ute and deliver to the areas in need of this amazing, fertile, rainforest virgin soil. Such a fantastic discovery and to have it right here on our place. 

 

 

 

Was excited to notice our first blossoms on our jaboticaba  today, As we have been waiting patently for this moment. Hopefully the season is prolific.


Planting out the first seedlings in our vegie patch

 This is the manderine tree on the way up to the shed. It received a major prune as it was growing very tall and now we hope it will maintain a good height for harvesting.

 

 

 

Finally got around to planting our finger lime. I chose the spot up from where our first rock steps were made by the whole family. It appears to be a good location as there will be ample sunlight in this position and good drainage. My research suggest the finger lime is native to southern queensland and northern NSW rainforest, A hardy plant that will grow in shade or full sun.

 

 

 

 

My lovely wife and I planted our first seedlings in our tilled patch. As the garden experiences partial sun, full sun and shade areas, we decided to experiment with our seedlings, (avoiding rows) and plant them randomly in different areas to study which will thrive better. We also planted Italian flat leaf parsley and comfrey amongst our seedlings of cucumber and zucchinis to study the effects between these companion planting. We attended a weekend festival in Mullumbimby last week and listened to Jerry Cole discuss the benefits of flat leaf parsley in his vegie garden as it is the highest attractor of positive insect life to his patch when in flower.

The main objective of our food forest vegie garden is to provide an array of constant fresh food for the family and to create minimum effort from ourselves, relying mainly on nature to raise and sustain our garden.   

 

 

 

 

This is the lovely shaded location under our longan tree where we chose to try some nasturtiums and maku lotus. We chose this location for several reasons: first being to create a living mulch, second being for ease of mowing around base of tree. Also we chose maku lotus as it is a nitrogen fixer and animal fodder which we hope to benefit from. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Late this afternoon we walked to the back (almost dry) lake in the creek and discovered the most amazing soil which we are keen to shovel and use in our garden asap.



vegie garden preperations and front house garden

VEGIE GARDEN BEGININGS
Hired a kabota rotary hoe ($95) for the weekend and prepped the new vegie patch. We were a bit sceptical at first, but after a couple of hours we were making some good progress. As the day neared to an end we added organic rooster booster to the site and tilled it in, about a foot deep. Finishing with a layer of wild grass mulch ( setaria grass ).

 

FRONT GARDEN AT HOUSE PREPARATIONS:
Started planning and initiating the start of the front yard garden design including rock borders, herb and ground cover garden beds, circular fire pit designs and foot path placements.

 

 

 

Planted our Shepherd Avocado tree finally today also.