a new herb garden

As plans for a redesigned veggie patch take hold, I've realised I'll need to start a new herb garden. The existing one, in what was one of the old veg 'beds', has actually been one of my few successes. Mint, lemon balm, chives, shallots, sage, oregano, thyme ... for a couple of years now there's always been something to throw in the cooking, toss over a salad, or brew into a tea.

trying to love capeweed

Capeweed colonises poor and disturbed ground, so it hardly needs saying, it flourishes here. Unfortunately, efforts to improve soil and watering only seem to speed it along! I may even have inadvertently encouraged it in the orchard by using sheep manure as part of compost to build up beds, as it likes soil rich in nitrates, as often found round sheep pens. 

now you see them ...

Cape tulips - priority 'regionally controlled' weeds in this area - appear to have no particular use or benefits. So after ripping off new shoots last month and finding them resprouted, am now pulling them out properly as they reappear. Hopefully this will finish them off!

dynamic accumulators

Homework for September permaculture class: present info on 'dynamic accumulators'.

water water everywhere

Rain, rain and more rain. Fryers Creek is flowing. Lake Johanna in the Botanic Gardens has filled, an expanse of water linking it with the overflowing Barkers Creek along the gardens' boundary after last Saturday's rain, and our dams - as good as dry a couple of months ago - are full of water. The back dam is still filling, broadening and deepening, with overflow from the dammed gully behind. We've never seen it like this.