Mummy Cat was on the garage roof today. I am not sure how she got up there perhaps by climbing the peach tree, which, this year did not give us any fruit. The birds ate 'em! All I found round the perimeter were seeds pecked clean. I gathered up these seeds, about a dozen of them and sowed them around the property. Who knows, some may sprout.
Dad took out the ladder and got Mummy Cat down, I think maybe she was thinking of Mum who has flown away to North America, trying to find out were she's gone. Or maybe she had heard me reading Mog and the Granny. Anyway, with cats, they can climb trees but they cannot climb down.
The clouds did not part and gathered in, starting to rain, which was a blessing as I had sprinkled sheep pellets the day before as fertiliser. Unable to find any sheep, I got them from a bag at Kings Plant Barn. I had gone past the other day and saw signs saying 25% off all plants! I then proceeded to tell everyone. But alas, when I got there the sale signs had been taken down and everything was back to full price. D'oh!
I've sown dutch iris bulbs, moonflowers, crimson clover, morning glory, lupins, and red broad beans. For green manure. As well as butter beans. Hopefully some will sprout with the rain, as half my chamomiles have shrivelled up with the thyme.
I gave Permaculture classmate Verena a tour of my garden after we went to the workshop together. Again it was a full on day broken by a site visit to Auckland's oldest community garden - Kelmarna Gardens in Grey Lynn. After the site visit we all designed permaculture master plans for the site. My group planned for a couple with one child. It included a fruit stand, shelterbelt trees with pigs and mushrooms, fruit trees with ducks and pollinators planted on contour, deciduous trees with chickens, bees, worm farm, compost heap, playground, subtropical plants like bananas and passionfruits, a tank water system, veges, herbs and crops on the sunny slopes, and a riparian native plant zone with nikaus and flax.
We concluded that this couple must have lots of time to invest in this site since they only have one child to look after and they would have people from the neighbourhood picking their own fruit. Also it wouldn't all be done at once. It's so easy to have it all on paper. I could be a designer!
My next thing is to do this for my own property, the Woodside garden, Myra's place, Verena's place, the Universal Drive island strip, Riverpark Reserve, Riverpark Park, Henderson Baptist Church, St Giles Church..watch out.
Yes, why bother with those adult colouring in books when you can print out a contour map of your property and design a permaculture garden?
