2014 – the year that was

2014 has been a strange year for us. A year of ups, a year of downs and on the whole

The last week and a bit

The last week has been one of the most intense in a long time. It’s been a week of sadness, of joy, learning and sharing and most importantly, a week of family.

The January garden

I can’t believe it but 2014 is already 1/12th over! 😮 Where did January go I ask you? Likely up in steam given the hot weather from the other week and again heat is forecast here to usher in February.

All tuckered out

I sit here, exhausted! And boy does it feel good. 🙂 I am well ready for bed though.

Hugels in the making

I’ve blogged before (here, here, here, here, here, here, and here) about our ongoing hugelkultur experiments. Hugelkultur literally means “hill culture” and they are raised garden beds built up upon a base of logs. The variations that you may find between them is using logs to line the base of a standard edged garden bed, creating the traditional hill from the logs and covering it with the various layers of nitrogen and compost, building them into dug out areas (great for extra water holding in arid areas), circles, lines, 2 foot high hugels or 6 foot high ones. Anything goes really, but the basic model is the wood in some form in the base to rot down. You can even mulch it although you do need more nitrogen to compensate for the greater surface area of the carbon layer. 🙂

Our first hugelkultur beds growing peas, beans, strawberries, raspberries, chard, a peach tree and more.

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