Tuesday 25 June 2013

Update

So I thought I will give a little update here as it has been a looong while since the last post. I apologize for the delay.

There have been several things happening and it has been really busy (which is half the reason for not posting anything....apologies).

We had put in an offer for a large piece of land recently clear cut as I posted in previous posts. This deal has not gone through as there were to many things found wrong with the property during a final inspection. So on this front it is back to the drawing board and we will have to find another property for our plans. On the upside however, during the final inspection, I noticed a sigh less than 5 km away from the site saying 'PERMACULTURE' with an arrow pointing down a small road. I followed the signs and after a while I arrived at a lovely little house/farm where a full 2 weeks Permaculture course was being held. This is a great sign. More courses and more spreading of the topic is essential to raise awareness of not only our current predicament, but also about possible solutions to our problems.

As you can imagine, all this kept us busy, but then there were other problems at home too. After weeks of rain and only overcast weather with temperatures in the mid teens, our garden is not doing too well. Growth has been minimal and some small seedlings were crushed during hard rain events. And now the tomato leaves are turning yellow. This is what really concerns me the most. Only 2 years ago, we lost all our tomatoes and potatoes to blight and I am wondering whether this will happen this year as well.
Even the tomatoes in the greenhouse are taking on a little yellow tinge. However, the fact that still gives me hope that the discolouration is only due ton lack of UV is that our container potatoes in the greenhouse are not showing any signs of distress or disease and are doing wonderfully. So here is hoping.

On the lighter side, I can't wait to try our salsify this year. I never tasted this root vegetable and we seeded some last year. It is a bi-annual and we will have to wait until the flower pop open in the second year, which seems to be imminent. So hooray!