The Secret Garden part 1 - Time to change things up a bit.

Time to relook and change things up a bit part 1 - The secret garden

Drought, water restricitons, empty rain tanks all trees still babies - there goes the shade.Mulch packed high so which made everything last longer than it should have but SCORCHED veggies.
AGAIN !! Weve been here for almost 3 years and for both of the summer seasons the same thing has happened.. I feel like a bit of a poopal for having to go through it TWICE before waking up.

Ok we planted a zillion trees which are growing nicely but still hardly past the height of me. No shade or relief from there.

We are changing things up this time.
Remember the secret garden? jungly area close to the house with passages and canopies, so overgrown only the big fat pig and small children could get through the little pathways.. Really cute and exciting but not used as much as you would think..

 After being inspired by some of the garden walkabouts that I'd been on - using this space for crops that needed a bit of shade made such perfect sense.


I could kick myself for not thinking of it sooner - AND  it's closer to the house so zone 1 - yes please.. Keeping the piggy out of the b veggies might prove to be a bit of a challenge.


First things first - create a high canopy. Eish - its a mission, especially when some of the trees in there are big thorny hardcore terrifying creeper things that look like the thorns the wicked witch put around the castly on sleeping beauty.

 They are climbing and and over the other beautiful trees and suffocating them.. One branch even wrapped so tightly around anothere tree that it fused into it and even when roots were cut, continued to survive as part of the nice tree !!! quite amazing.
Our trees are looking like they can breathe again and the soil underneath is so rich and mulchy and beautiful.

 BUT with the help of our amazing farm guy who lives with us and helps maintain the farm, grow the food, fix stuff and generally just be supehero AND our new family member, the chainsaw and boychild, with wild mom - we are managing.


My two coffee trees went in soon and we are just keeping clear of them during the ripping and hacking of mangled vines. (they are thriving by the way).

TO THINK all of these years weve been TRYING to grow my own food canopy instead of using what we have.
Down in the field - Big crops - mielies, popcorn, sweet potato, orchard etc (once we catch that dreaeded porcupine and spinache etc when it cools down - up here - other veg.  Pet piggy will be allowed into that area to eat fallen fruit and leave his treasures bhOrchard already on its way and the baby moringas we are protecting from the dreaded porcupine the a makeshift cage.

see.. happy pig, happy tree.. Im liking.

so - we are giving ourselves 18 days to get it cleared and ready (keeping all the gorgeous trees, cutting low branches, ripping out thorns and scary stuff and digging out roots etc.
During that time making the 18 day compost, planting seedlings and getting woodchips ready and grew water system in place.

Will update you in part 2

WATCH THIs SPACE