Wwoof hut nearing completion

After a year or so of sporadic work and wonderful wwoofer's helping we are finally nearing completion of the wwoof hut. This humble little abode will be home to our guests and is a classic Australian rustic and forest experience. It is quite tiny being big enough for a couple of beds and room to move but the little deck boasts a peaceful and green view of the forest..almost like being in a treehouse. The morning sun provides a wonderful spot to relax on the deck and shines in to the many windows. We have several guests stay in the hut already and we are looking forward to the hut growing in character as new guests pass through her.

All the building materials are recycled and either salvaged from other peoples rubbish or bought cheaply from the demolition yard. I have always dreamt about building a whole house in this fashion perhaps demolishing other derelict houses and rebuilding it with the salvageable timber. It does take a lot of work however just simply denailing timber is a time consuming job. For a building the size of the wwoof hut is has been perfect though and I hope that we get to share this special little place with lots of people.

Greens from the gardens

Picking fresh greens from the garden is so satisfying and makes for good food. Silverbeet and spring onions would be two of my most favourite greens to grow. So easy, vigorous and delicious. Fordhook giant is such an impressive variety of silverbeet and planted with rainbow chard makes for a colourful and tantalising display of greens. Spring onions give your gardens beds an interesting dynamic planted throughout. I plant them in every spare little patch I get as they don't take up much space and you can replant the bulb after you have chopped off the tasty greens and it will re shoot. Yesterday we planted out a big bed of Tatsoi, my favourite Asian green... beautiful round dark green delicious leaves, and are looking forward to watching them boom after a night of gentle rain to water them in. The next candidate to plant out will be the tiny broccoli seedlings we have hundreds of. We have been using the nursery bed method where we plant out the seed direct into a bed but always have a thick growth of seedlings so then transplant to other beds in the garden. It can be hard work transplanting such little seedlings but the first lot of pak choy that we transplanted in this method has been very successful. Looking forward to an abundance of more delicious greens.

Green Pawpaw in Curry

Must be time for another green paw paw curry. With the skin removed, chopped and added to any curry it is a fantastic filler. A really good use for those yellow paw paws that don't have the same deliciousness as the red papaya.

Fresh Juice

Our little navel orange tree is dripping with fruit at the moment and they are deliciously juicy. We have been having fresh squeezed juice every morning..with a touch of lemon and lemonade fresh from the tree as well. Having just one Navel tree and one valencia I am thinking it would be good to plant some more. With the new Lofty Meadows Organic Vegie plot that has gone in it would be great to compliment the vegie supply with a healthy crop of fresh citrus as well.
I will need to do a bit of research of pruning and general tree care. I was just thinking as I was juicing the oranges how happy I was that Lofty Meadows was getting to the point of good food production but how important it is to not take it for granted. With our lifestyle choice of growing organically and even biodynamically I am really aware of how easy it is to neglect the trees sometimes. So I am looking forward to rewarding this beautiful vigourous young orange tree with a healthy treatment of the Biodynamic Tree paste. We'll wait to do that til after we prune but for now I'm off to enjoy a fresh juice.

New garden 2011

After four years we have finally decided to put the front paddock to good use and have built a new fully enclosed garden. Measuring 11 metres by 17 metres it looks very impressive and is going to keep us very busy. It has been a very satisfying project from concept to design to construction in 48 hours!...my back and my hands are sore from digging and mixing concrete for the posts but I am still so excited about this new space to grow. We have already dug the first bed and will plant our Lofty Meadows purple king Beans and Snowpeas this afternoon.

We put the net on last thing yesterday and just have to finish edging it down and patching the last corner where the net didn't quite reach! Off to collect materials for some trellis to grow the beans and peas.