It’s been a busy month of planting where we are trying to integrate the Maramataka guide as much as possible. Our cloche has been constantly full with seedlings for successive plantings and to share on our cart. The young plants are receiving regular boosts of liquid feed to keep them healthy. We are finding good germination with the seeds that we saved last autumn. Our experiment in making our own seed raising mix, with river silt that came down with the flood… has not been greatly successful yet. Come autumn we will try to make leaf mounds for next year’s seed medium.
Flowers, beans and zucchini seedlings are going into the ground. We build a little fort around them with small sticks so that the birds and chickens can't get in. The birds don’t like the seedlings, but the worm rich compost that gets put into the soil. All the seedlings receive a welcoming drink of liquid feed and a good layer of mulch around them.
Broad beans are swelling and growing rapidly, pepino, pear, peach and plum are setting fruit. Tulips, daisies, strawflowers and many others are showing off their colours.
A huge “Weed Baby” was made from the café’s cardboard and invasive weeds that we collected over the past year. The heat that the pile creates should kill the weeds and turn it into compost within six months.
A big batch of biochar was made, just in time before fire season sets in. We had gathered a good amount of wood which resulted in huge leaping flames. When all the wood was blackened it was quickly hosed down and infused with seaweed, nettle and manure fertiliser to enrich the biochar even more.
Through the next few months we’ll incorporate the biochar with our compost at a 1:10 ratio. The plants will love it as it slowly releases carbon and nutrients into the soil.
