A Blog based on my travels round the world

Farm: More Babies Due
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The arrival of four kids and two lambs in the spring was the cause of great excitement, but there is now some competition on the way in the Poultry Department. First Mrs Duck (a placid white muscovy) started disappearing for hours at a time, signalling she was laying in a secret location where her eggs could not be pinched for the making of creamy custard. After eight days she vanished completely, except for a brief cameo appearance each evening to fill her crop with corn and have a quick dip in the pond with Mr Duck. If a drake can look hangdog, that's his demeanour during the day as he paces the fence and waits for her to disengage from her duties. He's become very protective, and even lunged at my hand with his beak while I was topping up their feeder bowl. We are expecting eight or nine ducklings next Tuesday (the 22nd).

MM
2011-11-16 (Blog ID: 34)

Farm: Gardener of the future
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This is Aaron - he was one of the keenest kids at the garden workshops and knew all the answers when I asked questions and potted up his herbs and seeds like a true professional. His Mum sent this photograph and wrote that on they way home they stopped at a nursery and bought bamboo poles which he subsequently painted bright red and set up as a tower for growing climbing beans. He was also setting up a compost heap, just the way I taught them.

Good on you Aaron, and I hope you can came back again next time I have a workshop.

MM
2011-11-11 (Blog ID: 33)

Farm: the garden is exploding
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Two weeks ago I had the farm garden 'open' to the public. This is always a terrifying prospect as during the weeks leading up to the event all I can see are weeds, weeds, weeds. The Saturday morning of the opening it poured with rain - not just a spring shower but a huge dump of water that turned into steam because as soon as it finished the sun came out.
More than 820 people visited over the two days and it was tremendous fun, with the Yetholme Progress Association providing yummy morning and afternoon teas and hot lunches. People brought picnics and I held three fantastic garden workshops for kids. They planted potatoes and tomatoes in a patch Ethan and I had prepared and I wanted all the kids to know that the plants are bursting out of the ground - the tomatoes have trebled in size. It's such a delight to see our workshop developing into a 'real' vegetable garden. Well done kids.

MM
2011-11-11 (Blog ID: 32)

Farm: Garden workshops
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In spite of torrential rain in the morning we had more than 500 people visit the garden and thirty children doing the workshops.
The children were fantastic and we toured the farm to learn the difference between a tree, a shrub, a perennial and an annual. They identified nine different types of manure (stumbled on the alpaca pooh) and made manure soup and a compost heap. Then they potted up some Basil and planted tomatoes and potatoes in the new patch of ground that had been turned over by the tractor the day before.
It was great fun although I almost lost my voice by the end of the day.

MM
2011-11-01 (Blog ID: 28)

Farm: Spring has Sprung
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Who knows for how long? The warm weather is with us and the potager garden is suddenly springing into life, although I still need to cover the tender plants at night with a blanket.

Everything is growing at such a rate, including the lambs and kids. I wonder how long I will be able to pick them up like this? Soon this little sweetie will turn into a rampaging goat and I will be cursing the way he peels the bark from the trees and tries to knock the fences down. But for now he is still adorable.

If you still haven't booked your children into the garden workshops on the 29th and 30th, do so quickly. You can contact me through this site!

MM
2011-10-27 (Blog ID: 27)

Farm: French Potager
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Here's an overview of the newly planted potager garden. The wall of the old corrugated iron shed at the back of the garden has been painted to match the gate (or visa versa).

The word potager is French for 'edible, vegetable' and is commonly used to describe a family vegetable garden. Flowers are part of the mix, so it's not just straight lines of vegetables in rows, it's lots of colour and diversity.

I believe people should grow gardens like this in front of their houses - instead of boring old lawn and shrubs. It takes a bit of work (great exercise) and the bonus is you can EAT your garden, it's organic and it's constantly changing - growing and being harvested. Imagine the fun of working in your garden and chatting to people passing by, who are wondering what on earth you are doing.

We have had to use old windows to protect the tender plants from overnight temperatures - I also 'wrap' the garden in wool blankets before the sun sets.

Crazy stuff - yes, but definitely worth it.

MM
2011-10-25 (Blog ID: 26)

Farm: Open Garden
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Agreeing to open your garden to the public is a risky (maybe crazy) business. There the weather, fighting the weeds and the lack of time to get it looking 'up to scratch'. However, once you have said yes, it's relentless work to reach the deadline.

By serendipity I had an email from a delightful young woman - Nicolle Clout - who is a landscape designer living in Bathurst. She wanted 'to help' so I suggested she design an ornamental potager. A tarted up version of the good old vegie patch. Crazy, really, because I don't usually start my vegetable garden until late November due to the cold weather in spring here in Yetholme.

Nicolle came up with a great design, helped me shop for the plants, weed the garden, do the planting, the mulching and then paint the garden fence and walls in some wild colours. It may not be fully grown by the time visitors arrive on October 29, but it will certainly give them something to talk about.

Here's Nicolle attacking the garden gate with a paintbrush

MM
2011-10-21 (Blog ID: 25)

General: The future for the Kids
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My tenth grandchild is due early next year and I can't help but worry about how our world will be by the time he or she turns 21 in 2033. The world economy and climate change are just two issues that affect how we feel about the future.

My sense is that between now and then there will be major social changes and we will have adjusted to a different and more simple way of life. Technology, of course, will still rampage ahead; In spite of that, I am hoping we will downsize our needs and expectations and adopt a more spare and yet rich and satisfying lifestyle.

I wonder if I'll be around to see it?

MM
2011-10-18 (Blog ID: 20)

Farm: Visit the Farm
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It's all farm, farm, farm this week. In a moment of madness I agreed to open the farm gates for the Bathurst Spring Spectacular - a fantastic range of gardens are open to the public every year and they anticipate more than 2,000 visitors, Including bus loads of garden lovers from clubs all over NSW. Oct 29/30.
My garden is not a show garden. It's certainly not perfectly planned and immaculately groomed. It's a farm garden with plenty of weedy patches, but we love it and we have done so much in ten years to improve the environment. Protecting Frying Pan Creek and the wetland; allowing various paddocks to regenerate with local species. Fencing off a wildlife corridor.
I am setting up a tent and giving garden workshops for kids over the weekend - 11 am and 1 pm both days. Only $5 per child, just to cover costs. So email me through the website to book a place. It will be a lot of fun and the kids will enjoy checking out the kids (wee below).

MM
2011-10-15 (Blog ID: 18)

Farm: Baby Time
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It's that time of year. We have two gorgeous sets of goat twins and, only yesterday, an unexpected lamb arrived on the scene at breakfast time. It was hard to see the ewe was pregnant because of her luxuriant coat. We have called a shearer for her, the ram and the two alpacas.

There is so much to be done for the gardening opening (Oct 29/30). Weeding, mulching,planting etc. I should have done more in the autumn. Yetholme has a challenging climate and that really limits gardening time. We are doing our best!

MM
2011-10-12 (Blog ID: 17)

Books: My Gorgeous New Gardening Book
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I love the cover of this book - it's so bright and beautiful. Inside there are a multitude of great ideas to inspire children to get involved in the love of gardening. Beautiful photographs, and plenty of step-by-step instructions to make it easy.

Bring your kids to my farm at Yetholme, near Bathurst, over the last weekend in October. I am giving six garden workshops JUST FOR KIDS and they will get a chance to pot up some herbs and help me plant my summer crops of tomatoes and potatoes. Email me at mary@marymoody.com.au for more details.......

My grandkids love digging up potatoes most of all - it's a lucky dip each time they slide the fork into the soil. Some of the spuds are enormous, and I am sure they are visualising crispy roast potatoes while they are harvesting. Their next favourite is picking the sweet corn. It's a bit of a game - I put a pot of water on to boil and they have to find the ripe cobs, strip them of the foliage and silks and run like mad back to the kitchen so they can be cooked while the sugars are at max! A bad of butter, and we are all in heaven

MM
2011-10-11 (Blog ID: 8)