The Food Forest

We finally got to start planting in the food forest after months of clearing the site of brambles. With many canopy nut trees and fruit trees already established before we took on the property, a lot of the systems were already in place.The soil is of a reasonable quality and with a now thick coat of ground cover.
We are now planting small fruit trees- apple,peach and apricot. Shrubs of -blueberry, blackberry, gooseberry and raspberry and a harbaceous layer of strawberries and companion flowers. Terraces are also being repaired and paths cut out for access around the terraced site. This now will be an ongoing project over the next few months of planting out all the missing layers.

Layers we are lucky enough to have already established for this site include:

Walnut trees x4
Chestnut trees x4
Hazlenut  bushes x12
Elderberries x4
plumb trees x7
Apples trees x4
Pear trees x3
Olive trees x10
Fig trees x3
Persimmons x1
Pomegranate x1
Lemon laburnum
Bamboo

                                                               Updates coming soon!

Orto Action

Signs Of Spring

Continued

Work has already started on the new patio.Taking advantage of all the wet weather has meant i could dig out the bank in front of the house a lot easier than when its dry, so work has progressed pretty quickly in the last 3 days.Now just need to dig out the ground for the foundation and i will be able to start tilling and putting up the first of the support walls. The patio will also have a roof but this will be done at a later date, just be great to have some more outdoor lounging space and another rain water collector that can be run down straight to the green house.

From patios to politics, the Italian comedian Beppe Grillo has been giving the charade that is Italian politics(all politics) a well needed shake over here and with a large percentage of the vote he is causing a real headache for those EU puppet politicians and the ones that are pulling the strings. In the same vain as American comedians Hicks and Carlin, Grillo is not afraid to speak his truth and with his popularity, more evidence that people are waking up and have taken enough of the bullshit. Makes me proud to be in Italy, lets hope we start seeing more of this around the rest of Europe - viva la revolution!!

Getting over winter

Been a while since my last post as things have been really busy here over the last month. Winter has been pretty Brutal in many respects.We seem to have had the lot this year, high winds that tore apart the wood shed and compost toilet and many trees, snow as high as 9 inches , weeks and weeks of rain and lots of minus temperatures that were constantly freezing our water pipe. Today i am stuck indoors as we endure heavy rains with the met issuing severe flood warnings. So much for all that global warming bollocks,this winter has been a real cold one. This kind of got me to thinking how mans natural habitat is one of warmer conditions,moving and migrating with the sun or going into hibernation, if we were meant to endure cold  conditions we would have been designed with a built in fur coat and after all we did all originate from Africa , anyway just a thought and yes summer is just around the corner. For now spring is in the air even if it is just a whiff, meaning our greenhouse is bursting with seed trays, tomato, pepper and aubergine seeds have gone in as well as many of our companion flowers, carrots, onions and beetroots. we are planting more seeds than ever this year, for tomatoes i think around 350 in all and everything being planted is in keeping with the biodynamic moon cycles. particularly excited this year as about a month ago i turned vegan with the emphasis on a high raw plant based diet. I have to say i have never felt better both mentally and physically and with a diet like this there is no reason why i can't feed myself about 90% off the land meaning less of a need for money, health and less financial stress, a win win situation.

In between all the bad weather things are still getting done as well as the seed planting i have just mentioned which will now be an ongoing thing over the coming months- new beds have been put in around the land. Solar panels have been bought along with a special water pump i had to order from the States that can bring up water at long distance and with a low flow of water. perfect for the little springs we have down and around our bottom woodland. I've done a few tests and it all seems pretty good so far.