:: walkabout wednesday ::

 

A couple of weeks ago now, we were invited to walk a neighbour's organic farm property with a group of other organic-growing farmers and gardeners in our small local area.

The weather afforded us a very fine, sunny Spring morning and we much enjoyed our morning tea then set out to walk their farm.

 It was interesting to meet the herd of lovely Dexter cows who have the privilege of fresh grass every day or so - yes - there are 30-something paddocks here for these bovine beauties.

It was good to just chat and discover ideas and perhaps solutions to common challenges to working with the land organically.

Like this simple, yet highly effective carrot-raising concept: lay newspaper in an open-ended piece of plastic guttering (in another container to hold the soil/seed-raising mix in), fill with soil/seed-raising mix, sow carrot seed.  When the carrots are big enough to go in the ground - simply dig a suitably-matching small trench in the garden and slide the seedlings directly into the ground, including the newspaper - which will break down - and firm up the sides with soil!

Carrots have been one of my difficult crops...and are notorious for their dislike of being transplanted...I shall definitely be trying this.

And I found it fascinating to notice that our neighbour, who is growing this garlic less than 500m from where we are growing ours, has so much more growth there.  Planted at the same time, I wonder whether their garden is just that much more elevated and sheltered than ours?

The name 'walkabout Wednesday' has been coined and the intention is to walk each others' properties over the coming Spring months.

Heck, it was just great to actually stop working on the land for a morning and go and talk with some real, local people about stuff that really  matters!