Birds, Bees, Butterflies, Blooms and Buds

It is now Spring here in Perth and our garden is full of birds, bees, butterflies, blooms, buds and food. All four grape vines are covered in small bunches of grapes and the apple and pear trees are covered in blossoms.

 The lavender and nasturtiums are clustered below some dwarf pear trees that are espaliered against an old fence and buzzing with bees which will increase our pollination rates and is lovely to see.

The vines that we use to shade the house are also filling out now and it will soon be time to put the shade sail up over these raised beds. Meanwhile we are still using water from the rainwater tanks at the moment and these veggie/herbs beds are flourishing. As we use Permaculture techniques it is now a lot less work than traditional gardens which is lucky as we also have work, family and voluntary commitments to fulfill. For more information on Permaculture click on this link.

Homegrown Film night 3rd June 7.30pm

No Dig Gardens

Our first attempts at successful gardens started with the eclectic /recycled no dig garden made by our daughter mentioned in the first post. That such a small garden was able to grow so much, so easily and also use materials that had been heading for landfill made us look at everything differently. We are keen to reduce our carbon footprint, save money and energy and improve the quality of our life without breaking our backs. The Permaculture ethos tells you to look at a problem as a solution waiting to happen, so unusable water filters, wheelbarrows, baths, pool pumps and even fridges have since been turned into very succesful no -dig gardens. The photos below show Nasturiums, Capsicums, Lemon Thyme, Thornless Blackberry, Lemongrass, Asparagus, Beetroot, Lettuce and Snow Peas, enjoy.