Food Forest
With all the rain this Summer, I couldn't do much to my farm. Not even keep up with the grass! Now the weather is cooling,I am all inspired to get to work!
I have finally begun on my food forest that adjoins the long chook run. I plan to put low bushes next to the run to allow sunlight to get to the vegetable compartments down the run, and then plant sucsessivly taller trees until reaching the other side of the paddock. The paddock will be fenced to keep out the cow and any stray horses and keep in the chooks when they forage in the mature forest.
Well, the first plants are bought! I was at the Yandina Markets on Saturday and came across 70 little Midyim plants in tubes for a good price and snapped them all up! I will have just enough to plant them in two rows at about 1m apart. They are supposed to grow 1-1.5m tall and they will be perfect for the first row. They bear from Jan to June so will be very good to eat.
Next problem to overcome is the Kikuyu grass. I asked the local 4 square for cardboard and they have lots of it so I started putting it down over the grass and covering it with raked up grass. A long hot job but I think it will work. The plants have to be very close together to create a frost free understory so I cant mow between them. Anyway, with the price of petrol going up I wont be able to forever mow, will I?
I am going to tree guard them with the ones I made for the Gum trees last year, just in case the hares try to eat them as well.
A friend is going to help with the fence soon. I have almost all the materials I need bar the metal gate, and that isn't essential at the moment. There is lots to do with refreshing the chook run as well and finishing the compartments down it for the veges. I have one finished for vegetables. The chooks have been pecking it over and fertilising it all Summer and now it is ready for action! I just added lots of fresh grass straw and cut up branches to their straw yard and they are happy again! Molting is finished and they are starting to lay again. I have 10 old hens that are probably not laying and 10 younger ones that should be! Here's hoping!
I hope to inspire my community to start their own gardens and keep chooks like in the early days. Everyone did out here in Kenilworth but now they need encouraging again. People see me working from the road and wonder what I am doing:)
Anyone with helpful comments is welcome to sent some to me. It is all a bit of a Permaculture experiment!
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March 26th, 2008
Oh what a life you lead !
Sounds great ! My wife and I bought a little patch in Kyogle, Far North NSW, and had a big chook run. We planted lilli pillies and mulberries in their run, which they loved - especially the mulberries. We aslo had a heap of pumpkins growing in there - the chooks liked resting under the leaves in the heat of the day, and we had so many pumpkins we could make soup any time.
I've been trying to find some Midyim berry bushes - we moved to the Gold Coast a couple of years ago, and just bought a little house on 400 square metres. We're only 170 m from the Nerang River, and I've planted some sweet potatoes in the long grass on the bank, out of range of the Council mowers. Also gradually converting the little back yard into a vegie garden. Nothing like a superfresh salad for improving ones mood, i think.
Keep up the good work, and if anyone is interested, I've started a relocalisation group on the Gold Coast, called Sustaining Gold. Give me a call (55020 229) or email me (pvanloon@goldcoastwater.com.au).
Enjoy your day,
Pete van Loon
March 26th, 2008
Food Forrest
Thanks for the ideas! I have a mulberry seedling that seemed to grow from a seed! that I am going to plant where the chooks can reach the fallen berries. My other mulberry trees are out of their usual reach. The Midyim bushes are close enough to the chook run fence to poke through, I think. Pumpkins sound a good idea but I have frost all over the paddock, Hense the need for a good cover of frost resistant trees in the food forest, at least at first. I'll plant pumpkins in one of the compartments of the pen as well as the sweet potatoes. I want to try corn, millets and other grains for the chooks as well as human veges.
The midyim buses were at a market an the grower said not to expect him to have them every time as they were hard to get. A land care group might have them or the bush food magazine called " Australian Bushfoods Magazine" might have info.
I think it is a great idea to plant food in "wild places" where they can be available if necessary or the land is unused. Be careful of spreading something that shouldn't be, though! I believe that many sorts of foods should be growing along the roads for use in emergencies or by the hungry. It seems like such a waste not to be using all the land we have in Australia for Bush Tucker foods or even ordinary ones that might survive in the wild.
March 26th, 2008
These chook pen "compartments" you speak of...
Can you tell us more about your compartments ? Do you have any diagram that can be put on this forum?
I'm intrigued !
Yes I agree re roadside bushfoods. Why dont we have mangoes and other fruit trees for street trees ? In Victoria the councils were scared of litigation - someone slipping on a fallen plum, or getting sick after eating something. Imagine how productive our nature strips could be if we put responsibility back in our own hands, like in the good old days. If only we stopped following American trends. In Japan, they have so much personal responsibility that they can have vending machines out in the streets selling whisky, beer, and cigarettes, and the kids dont touch them !
March 26th, 2008
Compartments
I got the idea from the Permaculture books. The chook run is long and rectangular and you net in smaller compartments all down it with gates into each one that can be opened or closed as you like. The chooks are let in to browse or clean up at the end of a crop and fertalize the area. It is handy as a vege garden and next to a source of fertilizer and scraps from the garden can be easily passed to the chooks. That's the theory and I have to make it work. I have the long run built and one of the compartments, and I ran out of money for mesh! The hens get let out into the bigger paddock (which is becoming my food forest) for more variety in food. They do scratch up young plants in their enthusiasm so I am tree guarding them.
Food down the roads would have to be put in a safe stopping location so as to not cause an accident if a car was parked but there will be fewer cars on the road soon with the price of fuel rising and trees need to be planted soon to have time to grow. Some could be planted secretly in good locations, I guess and quietly maintained for the good of our future communities. Hungry people wont be suing anybody! And there needs to be lots to go around to minimize stealing of the food.