I can see our garlic patch from my office window. It sits there at the top of a small paddock, besides what will hopefully one day be a mini food forest. The thirty odd fruit trees we planted in this space are at present almost floating! So much rain, so much water! When will it stop?! A small consolation is that most of the trees are slightly raised in their individual spots. Before planting them we added a good amount of rough compost and manure into each hole to increase the soil biology. The clay soil around the hole should hopefully become more absorbent. So we cross our fingers and hope that the trees will survive the soggy conditions. Winter is not over yet… We've had an amazingly we
We love our bees. Besides them being brilliant pollinators around the flower garden, veggie patch and fruit trees, they also provide us with delicious honey. When we came to our small farm, there was already a hive on the property and a steep learning curve followed in how to manage the bee box. The first time Frans opened the hive to take a look at the mechanics of it, he really had no idea what his was looking at or what he was looking for. Of course, before he even got to this point he had to kit himself up in the ‘proper’ gear. Many hours were spent researching the best type of suit, gloves and tools. His first capping tool or knife, was a conventional piece of equipment, and the job of