Snapshot Earthtalk

Blog 6 For those of you with much greener fingers than me!

Photo 1: Charmaine beside her homemade Earthtalk preserved, pickled, dried, poached, bottled..... etc delicacies.... we can do 'mail-order' overseas....!

Photo 2: Pawpaw Tree in the Banana Plantation.... In 1999, T&C planted a small commercial banana plantation in the lee of timber trees". There are over 50 bananas of 10 different varieties - they need shelter, warmth, water & nutrients. Later, they added other subtropicals like pawpaw & ground cover sprang up to create a second lush subtropical jungle.

Photo 3: My friends, the ducks..... after being fed & watered... in the deciduous orchard... "supporting espaliered apples & pears, arguta - (small hairless kiwifruit), grape vines & berries. 40 heritage fruit trees - peach, plum, fig, persimmon, quince, guava, feijoa, elderberry, loquat etc. Varities chosen for their all-year fruiting. Understory is herbal ley'' - a mixture of plants to bring up deeper nutrients, fix nitrogen, attract beneficial insects, suppress weeds." The ducks eat the slugs, snails & insects, provide manure & eggs!

Photo4: The veggie garden looking worryingly weed-free & too tidy....!!!! "A central flower bed attacts beneficial insects for plant pollination or for controlling insect pests. Raised mulched no-dig 1 metre-wide beds. All year round salad & cooking greens - (Just this week, I've transplanted kale, rocket, garlic, silver beet, & made salad (herb & leaves) packs up using these & harvested coriander seeds, made my first 2 types of pesto using earthtalk's very own basil, pine nuts, &
basil nuts & olive oil..... only for the califorian quail to come down & try & nibble the lot... we were experiementing with using coarse bracken from the hedge instead of nets to protect the young plants... & there's broad beans & onions waiting to go in...when the gale force winds, rains & hail stones have faded...!!!) There's 3 big compost bins in here too... just like the one I helped to make in the subtropical orchard... the laying hens (chucks) live in a straw yard here too... turning weeds & kitchen scraps into eggs 7 manure.... Just outside the veggie garden is a herbal garden... chosen for their for culinary, medicinal & ornamental use... & a rosemary & lavender hedge.. to provide a pest barrier, attract bees & provide prunings for poultry nesting boxes... they really take permaculture very seriously here & have worked miracles on the land!!!! As you guessed the text is T&C's... It's well worth a visit....Come & stay! Love Suz x