our own place

16 FEBRUARY, 2011

We've finally bought our own place not far from the beach in the wild west side of town. The front north facing yard is large enough for a great garden and has only two hibiscus bushes growing close to the house and a very burnt looking camellia tree. The soil is mostly sand and in the back yard there is a swimming pool.

My sister has just introduced me to incredible gardener Alys Fowler who lives in the UK and grows her own food and flowers on her small urban block in Birmingham. Fowler says that her inspiration for growing flowers and vegetables together comes from permaculture, which she describes as simply observing how nature works and then trying to do the same thing in your own garden. Full of renewed inspiration, I am delving into the garden and beginning to build up the soil around a loose structure of garden beds and a path which led to a chicken coop housing three Rhode Island Red chickens. Again we brought the soil from our old place and transplanted our herbs and vegetables (for the last time!)

Some new hens.

Sweet potatoes popping up.

Iron rich nettle.

The garden is starting to grow and although there wasn't a lot of planning, the permaculture principle "To Obtain a Yield" has been adhered to! I suppose I'm using the approach of working directly with the land to gain an understanding of its strengths and weaknesses.

Garlic chives and rocket.

I am beginning to realise the nutrient deficient soil really needs more help if it's going to continue to produce flowers and food for our family, so I'm slowly began to relearn the basic permaculture principles again and without much knowledge really, attempted to apply them. For instance, sweet potatoes (above) buried in the earth make an amazing ground cover and mulch when they sprout without any effort.