Trish Stretton
Deeply Rooted
Hi, I live in the South Waikato, New Zealand.
I restarted my gardening a number of years ago with a Permaculture garden a la Linda woodrow with a dome chicken tractor which made me round beds to plant into.
That went well for the first 18 months but I started running into problems with it. In hindsight, i should have made the dome smaller. that would have made it more manageable.
After struggling with it, I locked the hens up in their own foraging section....or tried to, they always managed to get out, much to the amusement of my elderly neighbours, who delighted in watching them fly onto the top of my fence, walk along it and hop down the other side, where they hid all their eggs.
When I became aware of the need to also provide habitat and forage for native species, I started cycling out plants that were not herb, vege, fruit or beneficial insect plants, in favour of native plants/trees.
I also started concentrating on permanent plants and fruit trees and have almost run out of places to put these and still have room to grow vegetables.
Three years ago, I decided to add honey bees to the mix and have managed to keep these alive, sometimes by the skin of their teeth. So far this year they are looking good going into winter.....
This year, I decided to let go some of my work commitments and have been trying to get things back under control, starting from the front yard to keep my neat and tidy neighbours placated and working my way up the back.
I'm currently paving a sloped path from my courtyard up to the back lawn so I no longer have to haul the lawn mower up round 5 curved steps. Just got the last 5 meters of the flat section to go.
I have always thought of it as a work in progress and every little change makes it that much enjoyable.
I restarted my gardening a number of years ago with a Permaculture garden a la Linda woodrow with a dome chicken tractor which made me round beds to plant into.
That went well for the first 18 months but I started running into problems with it. In hindsight, i should have made the dome smaller. that would have made it more manageable.
After struggling with it, I locked the hens up in their own foraging section....or tried to, they always managed to get out, much to the amusement of my elderly neighbours, who delighted in watching them fly onto the top of my fence, walk along it and hop down the other side, where they hid all their eggs.
When I became aware of the need to also provide habitat and forage for native species, I started cycling out plants that were not herb, vege, fruit or beneficial insect plants, in favour of native plants/trees.
I also started concentrating on permanent plants and fruit trees and have almost run out of places to put these and still have room to grow vegetables.
Three years ago, I decided to add honey bees to the mix and have managed to keep these alive, sometimes by the skin of their teeth. So far this year they are looking good going into winter.....
This year, I decided to let go some of my work commitments and have been trying to get things back under control, starting from the front yard to keep my neat and tidy neighbours placated and working my way up the back.
I'm currently paving a sloped path from my courtyard up to the back lawn so I no longer have to haul the lawn mower up round 5 curved steps. Just got the last 5 meters of the flat section to go.
I have always thought of it as a work in progress and every little change makes it that much enjoyable.
