Ok so here is the post where I overload you with photos of our new place.

 So this is the back of the house. The land goes on further behind me and off the right of the image (which you’ll see soon), to the left are trees, mainly pine, some tea-tree and tree ferns. The roof you can see sticking out on the left is the wood chopping area (I have some more plans for this space I think <insert evil laugh>). There are loads of small & medium sized raised beds, mostly surrounding fruit trees or along the deck space. We are going to replant these with our kitchen essentials. Those items that you want to grab to make a meal even when it’s raining outside (like this morning).

 

You can just see the glass house in the right hand side of the image, Fern (the lamb I was looking after) and I cleaned it out the other day. The floor was a carpet of weeds and peppermint (the smell got really heady after a while of me walking on and crushing the leaves). But it’s now all cobweb and weed free and ready for some serious planting to begin. I’m going to start the spring seedlings off soon so that we are ready to go with some early spring vegetables when spring finally arrives.

Looking back behind me (away from the house):

We are thinking it would be a good area to tether a pair of goats to, and there are some lovely secret spots to climb into under the trees up the back.

 The land goes down the slope to the driveway (off to the left) and the main fenced paddock, sheds and chicken house are up to the top right where you can see the red. I believe that is one of the olive trees, and a copse of bananas just behind the white electric fence tape. There are quite a lot of fruit trees, all in great need of love, including apples, olives, bananas, plums and figs (there may also be peaches and a few others but I’m not sure) oh and grapes as well. In the bottom left you can see what will be the perennials bed (here is one a bit closer in):

The bed is edged in rocks, has a good rich top layer about 6″ deep but the usual NZ clay soil under that. This bed will hopefully include:

 

• Globe Artichokes
• Asparagus
• Chicory
• Dandelions
• Ginger
• Kumeras
• Rhubarb
• Rocket
• Sorrel
• Yams
• Parsley
• 5 or 7 year beans (penny beans)
• Chives
• Fennel
• Garlic (to harvest the tops only, not the bulbs)
• Lovage
• Lemon Balm (and maybe lime balm if we can find some)

We could probably like quite happily of this bed if need arose, but we wont have too because beyond that will be the 4 rotating beds. There needs to be a little bit of terracing done to them and a lot of digging.

And this would be the main fenced pasture land, it’s horrible pasture and not fit for horses, sheep or cows just yet. We are planning on putting some pigs through to turn it over, followed by the chickens then we will sow it with good livestock food like rye-grass and put in some herbal banks. It will take about 6 months for it to become usable pasture (I’m told). The pigs and chickens will be giving the same treatment to the rotating beds space before the hit the freezer.

Now for those who have been wondering, this is Fern (with Sparky):

(she’s actually all black but I put on a little felted cover to keep her a little warmer). She’s gone back home now but she really did give us a great peak into the reality of owning animals and what you have to do to keep orphans or abandoned babes alive (and we got her at 10 days old). She had to be bottle fed, 4 times a day at 5 hour intervals (we actually got it mixed and had been feeding her 5 times a day, oops).

Ines brought Luka over to see her right at feeding time:

It was rather cute

I think that should just about update everything now.

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