15 August 2012

A view from a swale

I think its time for a check in on the swales.  The trees have been growing away happily and they are starting to look a little bit serious.  I'm really looking forward to the day when its actually a food forest and I can just wander through and pick fruit and nuts (sounds idyllic but I'm sure its going to be a bit more work than that).  In the meantime, there's lots of planting, lots of watering and lots and lots of chopping and dropping.  But hopefully it will all pay off.
Here is the top swale which is mostly macadamia nut trees, but mixed in is a cherry bush, a tropical apple tree and the davidson plum in the foreground.  Then of course green manure on the ground as well as sweet potato and pumpkin.  There is still too much grass and other weeds for my liking but I'm sure someone will tell me they have uses I'm as yet unaware of, so its all OK.

I think this Davidson Plum is possibly the happiest tree on the property.  I've mulched it heavily but otherwise its had no different treatment.
 Here is the next swale, which is mostly avocados.  We've mixed in some pigeon pea and some edible hibiscus and as well as some native nitrogen fixers.  Same ground covers as the first swale.
The next swale is quite close to the avocado one, so I've started to merge the two together, planting tropical plum, peaches and pears, as well as cuttings from a few other things growing elsewhere.  The sweet potato is starting to cover the ground in between too.  I feel a forest coming on here...  Then the swale below is sub-tropical fruit with a few other things mixed in again (you can probably only see grass though....hmmm)
The lowest swale is the citrus one and in a way is looking the best.

And finally the long view, back past the veggie patch and up to the house

And that last photo was such a rare, I just had to throw it in - a teenager in the garden.  Sadly, he wasn't coming to help, but to ask a question about stem cells for his homework (as you do).

2 comments:

  1. It is really interesting to see a whole area that people grow from. We all ( including myself) take closeup shots of things, but to get pictures of your farm as a whole was really great.

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    Replies
    1. I think it does help. I know I always wonder what other people's layout looks like. Having said that, this photo is only half the property.

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