I have left plastic pots outside my gate for anyone to come take them as not reusing them. The first lot are gone but the second lot are still there..and the box got soggy from the rain. I had so many pots I didn't know what to do with them as am not nursing any plants. But maybe I should start again now have a greenhouse, some seed raising mix and I DO have some german chamomile seeds. However seed raising is an skill I am not the best at - I am a terrible nurse and forget the watering. I need to devise a fail proof system in which I ask Mother Nature to do the task for me.
Principle 3 of permaculture 101 is Obtain a Yield. You can't work on an empty stomach
When I look at my garden the yields have been mostly from fruit - tangelo, feijoas, peach. My vegetable yield this year is going to be pumpkin, melon, tomato and capsicum.
My herb yield is rosemary, lavender, thyme, oregano, chamomile.
Edible gardens have become all the rage now and definitely the rewards are great for ones stomach. I do think with dismay how some gardeners totally neglect the edible part of their garden in favour of ornamentals. Yes vegetables and fruit require more care but if you spending that much on ornamentals might as well grow edibles because they can be beautiful plants as well!
I remember visiting Ayrlies and while it is a lovely garden I got back home and wondered where the vege patch was. Maybe it wasn't looking so beautiful or maybe the owner didn't want her veges nicked. Back in medieval times the edible garden was an artform, because they had potagers but it seems that kind of gardening fell by the wayside with the advent of landscapers and industrialisation. Thankfully with the permaculture movement it's making a return. I am now reading 'The Permaculture Handbook' Garden farming for Town and Country. It seems like things are pretty dire in North America where the book is published, you would think for a vast country like the USA they would have plenty but it seems like the land is just wasted on monoculture industrial agrofarming methods. Which is why it's such a dustbowl and everyone there lives on junk food? Hopefully Americans will wake up and start gardening again with aplomb like their British and French counterparts. The only thing they need to contend with is deer. In England it's foxes, in New Zealand it's bloody Pukekos. In France they have no problem cos they eat everything, even snails.
I have just weeded more of the rock bed outside the back door and planted more woolly and emerald carpet thyme, roman chamomile, and oregano. I have also put in (for decorative purposes) echevrias, sedum, lambs ears, more spider plant babies, common thyme, aenomiums, creeping fuschia and catmint. My weedeating Socks Bunny has been helping me keep the weeds down. It seems none of the neighbours are claiming him (or her?) although one neighbour, who works at the Vet, said if we manage to catch it we could take it in and see if its microchipped and then return to its owner if it is, but somehow I doubt it will be. Mummy Cat isn't microchipped. I think only dog owners would go to the trouble and expense as dogs need to be registered but cats, rabbits and chickens have no such requirement.
Anyway off to visit an Heroic Garden in Coatesville today after church so will report back and tell you if it's up to Permaculture standards!
