plans for Toby'd garden

April 29 2017

The grass is growing vigorously with the abundance of rainfall.  It has been fairly controlled here but Al tells me that down on the Geelong way there have been floods and high winds doing all sorts of damage. The garage in his new house is not waterproof and the gutters are not adequate.  He tells me the plan is to convert his new property into an example of Permaculture, showing what can be done on a suburban block with retrofitting.

On our farm autumn has definitely arrived.  I light the wood stove every day to keep the water hot now that there is not enough sun for the solar system and I am finding excuses like “accounts” to stay indoors once the morning milking is over.  The quinces and figs have gone to Bo and today I started to harvest the olives.  The pomegranates are ripe, and this year we have more chestnuts. Last year’s crop was not hard to beat because there were only 3 nuts!

It has been over three weeks since the first goats were mated and they have not come back into season so by all logic they should be pregnant. Feta and Wilma are now ready to move to their new home but I was pretty stupid and forgot to get the number to phone their new owners.  We are now trying to find them through friends.

Last years kids are all due to be off milk. They are looking well at the moment and are mostly the mixed colouring that I like.  The chooks are also coming off lay and we are due to buy extra point of lay birds to provide winter eggs. The problem is that we need another chook shed to retire the older birds. We now have a big pen ready for them under the trees on the old drive but we will need to buy a new shed and put it up.

Al stayed with us last night and this morning we discussed the plans for Toby’s garden.  Al has already located some interesting plants and I brought some saltbushes and another type of native shrub at Garden world.  We went down there this week on a lightening tour of things we need to get.  We looked at trailers, brought tiles for the dairy and ordered bits for the tractor lights.

We also called into the spa place and decided on the colour and other details. We had a spa for the business before the fires.  Water is scarce most of the time and it makes sense to soak in a hot tub and treat the water rather than waste loads soaking in a bath.  I would like the school kids to have the use of a spa because they work so hard and must need ease for aching muscles as much as the rest of us.

My idea is that you walk into Toby’s garden through a seating area with a fire pit before you get to the spa house.  Al is going to design me a spa house that fits in with the rest of the house and completes the far corner.