UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY AT NIRVANA ORGANIC FARM AT HEATHFIELD

FOR A LOCAL,RESPONSIBLE, ENERGERIC AND ENTHUSIASTIC PERSON.

A position is available for a 12 month part-time internship which offers an opportunity to learn from 30 years biodynamic growing and small holding lifestyle in the Adelaide Hills.

2 days a week – negotiable times and days. Can be made of some ½ days (week days only) Times may vary depending on season and conditions. (this is farming which is not 9-5) There is no money exchange only skills and knowledge.

For more information on Nirvana Organic Farm http://nirvanaorganicfarm.blogspot.com.au

Application in writing by October 30^th to:

Nirvana Farm 184 Longwood Rd, HEATHFIELD 5153

Further information Deb or Quentin 83392519 after dark, before 9pm.

 

BIO- DYNAMIC AGRICULTURE

BEYOND ORGANICS

Improve your soils water holding capacity.

A one day course to introduce the practical concepts of the biodynamic methods to farmers and gardeners.

The Bio -Dynamic method is a modern organic method that creates a holistic approach to building healthy soil, plants animals and humans.

The course covers history, concept of a living organism, soils, compost, special preparations that enhance nature and equipment required.

 

Sunday, Sept 23^rd 2012.

8.30 am. -4.30 pm.

Cost: $140

Includes: notes, lunch, Membership of Adelaide Hills Biodynamic Group..

COMPOSTING AND MULCHING

Sunday, October 7^th

9.00 - 12 30 $50

Principles of composting and mulching, techniques and materials used and how they can be used most effectively on your garden or farm.

ORGANIC VEGETABLES FOR YOUR TABLE

Sunday, September 30^th

9.00—12.30 $50

Practical guide to establishing and maintaining a productive and healthy

vegetable garden.

INTRODUCTION TO MOON PLANTING AND USING THE PLANTING CALENDAR

Sunday, October 14^th 9.00-12.30 $50

Working with the rhythms of nature can develop your skills in fine tuning your garden and can add a new dimension to your gardening experience.

ORGANIC FRUIT, NUTS & BERRIES.

Sunday, October 21^st

9.00 -12.30 $50

Practical guide to orcharding. Includes establishment, soils, ground covers, maintenance & pruning.

POULTRY KEEPING.

Sunday October 28^th

9.00 pm – 12.30 $50

All you need to know about getting started with poultry. Includes selection, housing, feeding, breeding, pests.

WEAVING A BIT OF MAGIC

Sunday November 4^th

9am – 4pm

$140

.The ideal way to recycle your garden prunings. This introduction to natural fibre weaving will show you the essential techniques, suitable plants & other materials to make baskets, fences, or trellises.

Course includes all materials, lunch, morning & afternoon tea.

.GUIDED FARM TOURS

Book your own tour anytime

An ideal opportunity to gain an insight into a successfully run biodynamic farm .This Garden Quality Farm demonstrates an integrated system incorporating orchards, poultry, native habitat & wetlands, home food production & hardy cottage gardens all rolled into a unique lifestyle.

minimum charge $60 for up to 5 persons

extra’s @ $12/ head)

SCHOOLS; Secondary $8 Student with 1 adult/15 student’s Primary $7 Student with 1 adult/10 students

CLUBS & GROUPS; 15 + @ $10/ head

WORKSHOPS Held at Nirvana Organic Farm 184 Longwood Road Heathfield Phone 83392519 Practical, ‘hands on’ courses conducted by experienced biodynamic/organic farmers, Deb and Quentin. Their successful small holding, which has been run organically/Bio-Dynamically since 1983. National winner of the Organic Federation of Australia Awards of Excellence as the leading Organic Educator The 4.5 ha property provides the ideal classroom filled with practical examples of how goals can be achieved and gives inspiration into this GARDEN QUALITY FARMING for both gardeners and farmers alike. Courses are aimed to maximise opportunities for participation and discussion. The number of participants will be limited so you will need to enrol ASAP

World Kitchen Garden Day 2011 at Glandore Community Garden

Last Sunday we all gathered at the beautiful Glandore Community Garden for an enjoyable World Kitchen Garden Day afternoon.

When we arrived plot holders were busy working in their plots.

Harry was busy working on the wood fired pizza oven which will be is going to have a mosaic added soon.

Everyone chatted about what excess produce they had bought along as well as something they had cooked from their country of origin.

Produce to share included Lebanese cress, bunches of coriander, Jerusalem artichokes, lima bean seeds, plum jams, chilli jams, lemons, fennel, chillies and a lot of different potted up plants.

There were lots of seeds to share and a favourite seed we saved this year was chervil which is a lovely herb we are picking at the moment.

We had an apple amaranth cake from Argentina, Indian Spinach and onion fritters, Irish pumpkin dip, German lemon cake, Middle eastern Humus, French Cheese and Biscuits, German raspberry muffins, Spicy Orange Muffins and an Aussie multicultural creation of brightly coloured Nasturtium flowers filled with humus and topped with sweet chilli jam.

Daniel (from Gardening Australia fame) told us all about an Orchid show he had just entered in and his Mum said he was being very modest and had won 2nd prize in his Category.

Thank you everyone who came and shared their knowledge, kitchen garden food and kitchen garden produce with us.

We look forward to World Kitchen Garden Day 2011.

Kookaburra in our Liquid Amber Tree

Yesterday there was a choir of kookaburras in a nearby tree laughing their heads off.

By the time we got our camera out they were silent and flew off except for one lone kookaburra who sat silent in our aged liquid amber tree, just pondering and enjoying the moment, on a quiet sunny autumn afternoon in Adelaide.

 

Bird’s Eye View

 

This friendly family of pigeons live in the Jacaranda tree in our garden.

They forage in the garden, and wander around our lawn.

It is wonderful to have a veggie garden for all creatures to share and enjoy.

Cucumber Gazpacho

Summer garden produce is finally ripening in our garden.

We are starting to pick tomatoes and today picked 2 Richmond green cucumbers.

So along with some fresh basil, garlic, chives, mint, red chilli, parsley, salt, pepper and a little water we blended 6 tomatoes and our peeled cucumber into this delicious cold soup which I have called cucumber gazpacho because of the delicious fresh cucumber it had.

All the herbs and veggies were freshly picked and we enjoyed the soup sitting in the garden watching heaps of bees enjoying flowering herbs and busily pollinating the plants in our garden.

LOVE!!! Summer so far!

10/10/10 Today in Our Garden

Succulent mulberries

Flowering Herbs

California Poppy

Cherry Tomatoes just about ready to plant out

We love chicory

Sage and Oregano

We have spent several enjoyable days working in our garden. The weather has been lovely and we have been able to make lots of mulch from our winter pruning's.

We have made a zucchini bed, a potato cage bed and a pumpkin patch. Our artichoke bed is looking good and we have lots of mulberries on our small trees.

The highlight of our garden is the herbs, rapa and rocket plants going to flower and forming seed.

We have planned our summer garden and we will are just hoping that we do not have heatwaves and that we can keep our garden healthy and productive. So for the moment we are dreaming of a mild Adelaide summer with tropical rain showers and cool nights. Reality will hit in January or even in November like last year.

Happy gardening to all.

Be Nice to Nettles Week!

Did you know it is Be Nice to Nettles Week. Check out the website called Be Nice to Nettles Week.

The picture above shows stinging nettle (Urtica Dioica).

Nettles play an important role in an organic garden. They are excellent added to a compost heap. They can be made into a liquid manure & used as an excellent tonic when sprayed on leaves & soil.

Nettles also have an important nutritional value as they are rich in vitamins A & C. The formic acid is destroyed by cooking so they can used in the same way as spinach. Use only the top fresh leaves. Nettles can also be made into teas, beers & wines.

Nettles are an excellent addition to cattle fodder & poultry feed as they are rich in chlorophyll, iron, nitrogen & calcium.

I hope you check out the Be Nice to Nettles website as it has some great information.

Weaving Magic in Adelaide Gardens Today

Today, Monday the 1st day of March 2010, Adelaide welcomes thousands of people from all over the globe as it hosts a myriad of amazing events.

Some of the events in Adelaide this week include The Adelaide Festival of Arts, The Adelaide Fringe Festival, Adelaide Writers Week, Artist’s Week, Womadelaide and The Garden of Unearthly Delights.

A highlight for us as gardeners is the magic of woven garden materials created by the very talented members of Basketry SA in their Warp on the Wild Side exhibition, including Deb Cantrill from Nirvana Organic Farm.

This is a contemporary basketry exhibition which reflects a diverse range of techniques displaying intricate patterns, flowing lines, expected shapes and sculptural forms using plant fibres found in Waite Arboretum. Besides the beautiful woven items in the exhibition there are also many items for sale.

Deb’s dragon fly and gnomes house are amazing and can be seen at Urrbrae House from 11 to 4pm daily.

More excitement for us today is the appearance of the beautiful turmeric flower seen above and the yummy cheese and zucchini pie we had for dinner.

If you are in Adelaide and would like to meet up with some of us Seedsavers, Kate, Deb and I shall be at Urrbrae House, or wandering around the rose garden or walking the newly created wooden tree trunk labyrinth in the grounds from 1:30 pm Wednesday, please say hello we would love to meet you.

HUGH'S LITTLE PATCH OF THE MEDITERRANEAN

  By now our summer vegetables are all established and should be producing well but with another heatwave looming down on us, it is hard to stay positive about gardening in summer, in South Australia. I think a covering of the white 50% shade cloth is the answer to keeping leaves and other soft vegetables going well. To a human the white does not seem to provide a sense of shade but to the plants it is the perfect solution as they need to keep photosynthesising to survive and only the white shade cloth allows the full range of sunlight through, but cuts the intensity by 50%. In my little shade house made of this fabric, lettuce and other leaves flourish and nothing is as uplifting as walking in and seeing such happy plants, even though temperatures may be in the 40's. Have a look at Scarecrow's garden for ideas on how to erect the white shade cloth.

At Hugh's he has developed a different approach, as we have had the time to toss ideas about together and time for him to learn little by little by direct experience. Living in a rented house with a yard completely covered in concrete has made him learn to be creative and to adapt to what is cheap, easy and possible. For example, he has lettuce and other leaves growing under the tall amaranthus, making a perfect microclimate. After the accidental success of the bok choy planted around the bird bath, Hugh has put a large pot of water amongst the amaranthus to raise the humidity and on hot days this certainly seems to work, as amaranthus in other places tend to get burnt edges on the leaves. It is amazing how fast this water evaporates in our searingly dry heat.

The floor of the tomato bed is covered in herbs such as the Laksa herb, garlic chives, various basils and tarragon. The capsicums are planted so as to be shaded in the late afternoon only; galangal, beetroot and beans receive afternoon shade from the neighbour's gum tree while sweet potatoes and purslane creep between the eggplants. There is no shade cloth,other than the little shade house only careful planning and, despite the abominable mass of concrete, the garden is flourishing like an oasis.

Of course there have been casualties! The biggest problem that is very hard to alleviate is the wind which rips through everything, bouncing off fences and rattling even the seemingly most protected areas of the yard. Luckily tomatoes love wind and it keeps away diseases but a week of dead calm has seen the arrival of some mites..... now we are hoping again for the wind to return! Whether it was the wind or something in the soil we don't know but the corn was a disaster, after starting strong and magnificent and everything planted in that bed has failed to thrive..... cucumbers, beans, even zucchinis. But the idea was good.... the tall corn was to protect the cucumbers and the beans were to climb up the corn and everything was supposed to be one big happy family!

Before Hugh became interested in growing fruit and vegetables, a lovely old apricot tree died of neglect. Hugh has sown his tallest beans around the dead tree and this is fast becoming a bean tree. Underneath are also marigolds and echinacea and there is a single comfrey plant establishing itself and hopefully soon it will form a clump from which Hugh can harvest the nutrients said to be inside those magical leaves.

There is a dreadful little walled section of garden just wide enough to cook the soil in summer so into it we planted native sand dune plants from this area as well as some okra which loves extreme heat and dry soil. At one end some established spring oniony things are doing fabulously too.

The water from the rain water tank is used to water those things that suffer most from our salty mains water..... tubs of fruit trees and the salad garden, purposely planted right next to the tank because neither of us believe we should be using pumps... that is something I have written about before and no doubt will again. In the '50's when this house was built, people did sensible things like putting the tank up on a stand to give some head or pressure; today this seems to be all forgotten and people use pumps and make pollution in order to save water !!! To make most use of the vertical space and to keep the tank water cool, Hugh has just planted 3 different passionfruit in tubs, after covering the tank in chicken wire for them to climb up..... what terrible English this is but I am running out of time and need to get ready to go to Wednesday gardening at Sally's!!

Everything is thought through here and lessons learned, as best we can, for next year. It is amazing what you can do, no matter what your constraints. All you need is observation, imagination and ..... oh, please find the word that eludes me to go here..... it means effort/to bother/.....oh yes... determination! These 3, as my old school passage from the bible goes, but the greatest of these is observation !

What is happening in your garden this 2010 Australia Day?

I thought it might be interesting to see what is happening in everyone's garden on this day  the 26th of January 2010.

It is summer in Australia so we are picking some cucumbers, a few zucchini and lots of herbs and wild rocket.

Our tomatoes and passionfruit are not ripe yet.

We have some lovely chillies and a few finger eggplant but no capsicums yet.

What are you harvesting in Auss or wherever you live?

Jane from Kapunda Garden Blog said her garden looked like a Bedouin tent, this photo shows how we  shade our Adelaide Plains veggie garden on really hot days.

Have a great holiday today.

Berry-picking at the Gnomes’ Home

 

Among the more experienced seed-savers in South Australia are “The Gnomes” – Vegie Gnome and Flower Gnome to their friends - who inhabit Gnomesville high in the hills above Lenswood in the Mount Lofty Ranges, where the cool winter temperatures are just right for raising berries of all sorts. As it turns out, it’s Flower Gnome who’s the berry grower, and today we were lucky enough to be invited up there with a handful of other seed savers to pick silvanberries, boysenberries, youngberries, raspberries, loganberries and red-currants. Strawberries and blackberries are either finished or yet to fruit. Pine needles from the nearby commercial pine plantations are added to blood-and bone and compost to boost the acidity of the acid-soils so loved by the berries.

Gnomesville is a 3 acre block with its own dam (supplying water for the sheep who graze alongside the chickens outside the kitchen garden) and rainwater tanks to provide water for the kitchen and the gnomes’ personal use. Solar photovoltaic panels on the roof offset energy use in the home, and solar hot-water heaters on the roof reduce reliance on mains power for water heating. Wood fires fuelled with fallen timber from around the property provide warmth during the long winter evenings when the gnomes snuggle inside and entertain themselves from the vast and diverse collection of wall-to-wall books.

The kitchen garden is fenced off to keep the hens and sheep on the outside, and contains nearly every herb, vegetable and fruit tree known to man. An elderberry tree out in the chicken yard was the source of the elder wine that we drank with desert made from ricotta cheese and berries, along with dried figs and fresh raspberries.

The sun shone, the air was crisp and clear, and the surrounding vineyards, grazing lands and apple, pear and cherry orchards provided a many-shaded green contrast to the darker eucalypts and pine forests. Eighteen years of effort have gone into Gnomesville and, as in all gardens, Mother Nature provides endless change and challenges to mix in and enjoy the outdoors and fresh produce together. We picked our own berries, and purchased fresh farmhouse cream and honey that the gnomes had purchased in bulk from local suppliers. A wonderful day!

 

Creating a beautiful home from a concrete water storage tank!

If you are thinking of converting a concrete water tank into a home this is the place to look at.

Tickle Tank is the home of talented artist Irene Pearce .
"You will visit an intimate and adventurous multi-level garden which surrounds a house made from a converted water storage tank. The garden is filled with garden art, mosaics and sculptures made from recycled materials which add humour among the colourful array of spring bulbs, hardy natives and cottage plants. An inspiring garden, brimming with artistic ideas."
See the video at the ABC website: Tickle video (scroll down to the Tickletank video).

Welcome to Purple in our Spring Garden

Purple sprouting broccoli, flame mustard greens, society garlic chives, purple tatsoi, lettuce, violas, pepino blossom & lemon blossom.