Last night was the Noosa Permaculture Xmas breakup meeting & we had a mystery gift giving part where people brought along something secondhand that they nolonger needed or wanted to regift.
I took some sewing material that was given to me as an xmas pressie.
In exchange I got a steel mesh quail cage that I will upcycle into a plant stand, 2 tube stock trees for my food forest & best of all a consultation with the local permaculture expert.
This last item I am very excited about because I am keen to see if anyone else can get food to grow at my place with less effort than I have had to input.
The consult date is Dec28. I will take some drone photos in preparation & I have to write a list of preferences that the consultant will build a plan around regarding how much effort I am willing to put in, what sort of food I want to grow, how much land I want to devote, how much money I can spend, what water is available, etc.
This last item will be the sticking point since the dam water will be out of the equation. So I am thinking he will be wanting to use the swale method with chop & drop. Not that there is much to chop & drop out in the paddocks right now since it has gotten so dry again. But I'm sure I can find greenery & manure, etc from some other source.
Hopefully rain will come along right after the swales are made so it doesn't take a year to see results. This measly thin topsoil doesn't hold moisture for more than a few days after rain as the spotted gum trees will attest to. However there are many black wattles that can be cut down for chop & drop if their foliage will be good enough. Plus the tops of 2 ornamental fig trees that are too close to the house.
All I need then is someone to come along to provide labour to help me do the chop & drop since it is not something I can do alone these days.
I also spoke at length with a guy who has commercial bee hives plus many native hives. He might be willing to put some hives at my place if he sees there will be enough food for the bees.
All very exciting & is the some total of the xmas pressies & parties that I will get this year since I no longer have family handy.
I took some sewing material that was given to me as an xmas pressie.
In exchange I got a steel mesh quail cage that I will upcycle into a plant stand, 2 tube stock trees for my food forest & best of all a consultation with the local permaculture expert.
This last item I am very excited about because I am keen to see if anyone else can get food to grow at my place with less effort than I have had to input.
The consult date is Dec28. I will take some drone photos in preparation & I have to write a list of preferences that the consultant will build a plan around regarding how much effort I am willing to put in, what sort of food I want to grow, how much land I want to devote, how much money I can spend, what water is available, etc.
This last item will be the sticking point since the dam water will be out of the equation. So I am thinking he will be wanting to use the swale method with chop & drop. Not that there is much to chop & drop out in the paddocks right now since it has gotten so dry again. But I'm sure I can find greenery & manure, etc from some other source.
Hopefully rain will come along right after the swales are made so it doesn't take a year to see results. This measly thin topsoil doesn't hold moisture for more than a few days after rain as the spotted gum trees will attest to. However there are many black wattles that can be cut down for chop & drop if their foliage will be good enough. Plus the tops of 2 ornamental fig trees that are too close to the house.
All I need then is someone to come along to provide labour to help me do the chop & drop since it is not something I can do alone these days.
I also spoke at length with a guy who has commercial bee hives plus many native hives. He might be willing to put some hives at my place if he sees there will be enough food for the bees.
All very exciting & is the some total of the xmas pressies & parties that I will get this year since I no longer have family handy.