LivinLightly Permaculture solutions for sustainable living

My 4 new citrus trees have all survived the winter! The lemon and both oranges looked a bit unhappy and a few small bits died, but they are now growing madly and are a lovely dark green again. The Tahitian lime I thought had died - it lost every single leaf! However, I left it there and it has now grown lots of new, healthy leaves.

Today I picked over  1 kg of raspberries from the 10 m row. I have been harvesting them for over a week now but most days I have only managed about 600 g. In previous years, when I have not been selling them, I have often missed a day's picking and the harvest has only lasted 2 or 3 weeks. This year I shall pick every day and see if this elongates the season.

It is quite difficult to grow citrus trees in Armidale, although I have seen several well established trees. Nioka is quite low and in a frost hollow near 2 small intermittent creeks and I have lost several citrus trees over the last few years.

After the 95 mm of rain we had in 2 weeks, one of the pomegranate trees I planted in August has started to leaf. I had almost given up on them altogether. The other one was planted about a month later and still shows no sign of life.

In the bathtub pond behind, you can just see some water chestnut emerging from the water. This is another new plant this year. They were put in the pond in early September and so have also taken a long time to emerge.

I am growing my potatoes around the edges of my garden using Jackie French's suggestion of just laying the seed potatoes on the ground and then covering them with mulch. As they emerge from the mulch, you just keep adding more, leaving just the tips exposed. This is because most of the potatoes are produced above the original seed potato. To harvest, you just put your hand under the mulch and pull them out.

It actually rained overnight and everything is glistening outside, so I thought I would start my blog today as a celebration. We had 25 mm over 24 hrs and the water tanks are filling up again. Although we have had a very early spring and most things are coming on early, there has been very little rain and I have had to water something most days.

Permaculture requires personal observation and contemplation and I plan to use this blog as a record of my 'observations' and maybe some of my contemplations.