  I have had a lot of questions about the things we do month by month to help not only maintain but add to our system. While the best time to have ‘planted a tree’ was 20 years ago, the next best time to start is now. Each little thing we do can and will help increase our ability to build resilient, regenerative and abundant lives. Let’s Make It Real - Here is our April garden to-do list. We hope it helps you in your endeavors Downloadable file attached at the bottom To Do List •Apply compost to your gardens •Make compost •Collect fallen leaves to make leaf mold •Fill worm farms •Prepare ground for planting deciduous trees and shrubs •Plant large container trees while the weather is mild •Foliar feed the orchard and potager •Mulch fruit trees •Remove old fruit and clean up under fruit trees •Sow winter beneficial bug attracting plants •Sow seeds for May planting •Harvest pumpkins with 15 cm of stalk to store in dry place •Check over orchard for pests and possible disease What To Plant Broad Beans, Beetroot, Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Cabbage, Carrot, Cauliflower, Chives, Endive, Florence Fennel, Garlic, Kale, Kohlrabi, Leeks, Lettuce, Mustard greens, Onion, Pak Choy, Parsley, Peas, Radish, Rocket, Shallots, Silverbeet Snow Peas, Spinach 
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 One of the most significant aspects of nature is that everything has a use. There is never any waste. Everything that is living will die and be cycled back through the system. The medium that this happens through is the microbes, bacteria and other living creatures that feed off the dead material. This creates a nutrient-dense, biologically active fertiliser that can help bring life and nutrition to our gardens. With up to 60% of what goes into our bins organic waste, this is something that we can take and not only reduce our rubbish, but through home composting we can turn them into fertile soil to boost the productivity of gardens and landscapes. What is Compost? Compost is broken down organic material that is produced when bacteria in the soil break down our biodegradable material, resulting in a product rich in nutrient that is an ideal garden amendment. Compost Benefits For one, it's free. You get to use your kitchen waste, grass clippings, leaves etc that would otherwise get thrown away. Soils that are rich in compost produce healthy plants regardless of whether you're growing vegetables, growing herbs or fruit trees. Compost improves garden soil structure, texture and aeration. Adding compost improves soil fertility and stimulates root growth in plants. The soil organic matter (SOM) provided in compost provides food for microorganisms, which keeps the soil in a healthy and in a stable condition. Compost helps break up clay soils and helps sandy soils retain water No need to add fertiliser — just spread the compost into the ground. This fertiliser contains nutrients that plants need for optimum growth, such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. It is an especially good supplier of micronutrients that are required, in small quantities, such as boron, cobalt, copper, iodine, iron, molybdenum, manganese, and zinc. How to get started? Everyone has a different level of responsibility when it comes to composting. For some people, a rotting pile in the backyard is good enough. Others want to apply the rigours of science and constant vigilance to ensure the best (and quickest) compost around. Most of us are somewhere in between. Below are some methods we use that you can be used to help create our own compost. Hole composting Hole composting is the act of burying your food waste directly into your garden. The advantage of this method over other composting methods is that it enables you to compost meat, grains, dairy and cooked foods in addition to other kitchen scraps. Because these items potentially attract rats, mice and flies, we suggest that you don't put them into hot or cold compost. By burying them in a Hole, you can avoid these problems, since rats and mice should not be able to access the material if it is covered by at least 20 cm of soil. All you need is a shovel! Cold compost Cold composting requires less effort. You mostly let a pile build and decompose, using the same type of ingredients as hot composting. It requires less effort from you, yet the decomposition takes a lot longer—a year plus. To cold compost, pile the materials (leaves, grass clippings, soil, manures—but avoid dog, cat, and human waste) as you find or accumulate them. Bury kitchen scraps in the centre of the heap to deter insects and animals. Avoid adding any meat, dairy or fat. Also, avoid weeds with seeds; cold compost piles do not reach high temperatures and do not kill weed seeds. (In fact, plants may germinate in a cold collection.) Hot Compost The quickest way to produce fertile compost is to create a hot compost pile. It is called "hot" as it can reach an internal temperature of 70 degrees plus and it is active because it destroys, primarily by 'cooking' the weed seeds. The size of the pile, the ingredients, and their layering are critical to reaching that desired outcome. Size: A hot compost pile should be a 1 cubic metre. The collection will shrink as the material decompose to about a 3rd of the size. Ingredients: One part of Brown (high-carbon materials - shredded, dry plant matter such as leaves, shredded paper, cardboard, straw, sugar cane) One part of high-nitrogen Green (green plant and vegetable refuse, grass clippings, weeds, trimmings, kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, manures – Horse, Cow, Sheep etc., not dog or cat) Some soil from your garden Pile the ingredients like lasagna, with brown materials on the bottom. Next, add a small amount of your garden soil to introduce local microbes. Add Green nitrogen-based materials, followed by soil etc. Repeat until the pile reaches 1 metre high. Soak the pile at its start and water periodically; its consistency should be that of a damp (not wet) sponge. We have tried a couple of different methods for hot compost and found pros and cons of both  Fixed compost bays are a great way to start. They can be placed in one location on your property making it easy to design around. What we have found is that it also requires us to move the compost around the property using a wheel barrow or buckets which creates an extra layer to our workload  The other option we have found to have great benefit and a huge time saver for us is composting in Situ. To do this, we have a few IBC cages that we have cut in half and move around to where it is needed, build the compost inside of it and then just remove the light cage once down rather than shipping the compost across the site. Below we have attached something that will hopefully help you with your composting at home - Composting, Easy methods for every gardener.
 Pests are organisms that can damage and weaken a plant, potentially reducing their availability and quality of the food that will ultimately come to our table. If your plants are diseased or that are getting damaged by pests, then your garden ecosystem is out of balance. In permaculture, we aim to grow nutrient-dense, health organic best practice foods. Still, there are times when we have, or something from outside our system has unbalanced it, and we need to do something to remedy this imbalance and learn from the feedback given. There are times we need to let nature take it course and sometimes we have a responsibility to intervene or lose everything we have tried to achieve. Pesticides from "nature." An insecticide is a substance that disrupts or kills organisms that we consider to be pests such as weeds, damaging insects, or microbes that cause disease. Natural insecticides are pesticides that are derived from a natural source such as a mineral or plant. Most people believe that natural pesticides are always safer and more eco-friendly than man-made pesticides. While this is mostly true, it is not always so. Natural pesticides are much safer and more eco-friendly than conventional pesticides. As they are also very effective, natural pesticides should be your first choice for your home and garden pest balancing needs. Natural pesticides are eco-friendly, safer for the user, and very effective when used correctly, though it may require more frequent application if necessary Below are some of the use on our site if absolutely necessary. There is a downloadable PDF at the bottom for your convenience General Spray An all purpose pest repellent and fungicide. Spray daily for heavy infestations Ingredients: 1 onion, 1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper, 1 garlic bulb. Chop or grind ingredients. Steep overnight and strain. Dilute to 1 part in five of water. Soapy water A spray to chase away or kill aphids, maggots, mealy bugs, red spider mites and whitefly Ingredients: 2 tablespoons of laundry soap, 1 litre water. Mix and leave standing until dissolved. Strain. Add a teaspoon of mineral oil (or kerosene) for big infestations. Add soap to other sprays to make sure they cling to leaves, especially to undersides. Garlic Spray Repels: aphids, cabbage white butterfly, bean fly, caterpillars, mosquitoes, snails, wireworm. Checks: leaf curl, brown rot, downy mildew, leafspot, bean rust Ingredients: 90g garlic bulbs, 2 teaspoons of kerosene, 600ml water, 20g pure soap Soak for 24/48 hours and then add water with dissolved soap. Stir and strain through gauze and store in a glass container (non metallic). Dilute to 1 part in 20 of water Garlic and Chilli spray Treats similar conditions to garlic but is more potent Ingredients: 10 cloves of garlic, 5-5 hot chillies, 2-3 onions. Boil, store in a glass container, and stand overnight. To use, mix 1 small cup in 10l of water; add a little liquid soap or milk to adhere. For curl leaf, spray everyday for about a week. Onion Spray Spray several times for blight on potatoes and tomatoes, for apple scab, curl leaf, powder mildew, aphids and red spider mites. Ingredients: Onions Double the amount of water as onions. Grind onions alone or with chives/ onion tops in blender, then simmer ingredients on stove for 2 hours. Dilute 1 part in 20 of water. Chive Tea For: scab and mildew Ingredients: 50ml of boiling water, 1 tablespoon of chives. Mix and leave for 1 hour and strain. Dilute with 2 parts water Milk Spray Checks virus diseases like tomato mosaic and kills red spider mites, caterpillars and tomato worms. Ingredients: milk/sour milk, nine parts of water. Dilute milk with water. Buttermilk Spray This spray destroys adult spider mites and their eggs, which are enveloped in a sticky mixture and suffocate. Ingredients: 1 tablespoon of butter milk, ½ cup of flour, 2 l of water. Mix all together Baking Soda Spray For rusts and mildews Ingredients: 100g of baking soda, 3 litres of water, 50g soap. Mix thoroughly Pyrethrum Spray Wide spectrum insecticide – use with caution Especially good for Aphids. Ingredients: 2 tablespoons of flower heads, 2 litres of hot water. Make tea with flower heads and add a little dissolved soap to improve consistency. Or grind flower heads and add to water. Let stand for one hour. Spray in the evening against – aphids, caterpillars, leafhoppers, mites and thrips, mildew and scab Wormwood Tea Spray to repel aphids, black flea, beetles, flies, white cabbage moth, butterflies and slugs. Note: wormwood contains a toxic substance called absinthian. Ingredients: 1 litre of boiling water, a handful of wormwood. Mix all together and let stand until cool. Strain Cabbage Grub Dust Dust plants to kill all kinds of cabbage grubs. Ingredients: 2 handful of wood ash, 2 handfuls of flour, ½ cup of salt. Mix all together Epsom salts For spraying on plants with leaves yellowing as they have been attacked by a virus. Such plants are deficient in magnesium which has been ‘locked up’ by overuse of wood ash, lime or phosphorus. Ingredients: 50g of Epsom salts (magnesium sulphate), 4 litres of water. Dissolve salts in water.
  I have had a lot of questions about the things we do month by month to help not only maintain but add to our system. While the best time to have ‘planted a tree’ was 20 years ago, the next best time to start is now. Each little thing we do can and will help increase our ability to build resilient, regenerative and abundant lives. Let’s Make It Real - Here is our March garden to-do list. We hope it helps you in your endeavors Downloadable file attached at the bottom To Do List •Apply compost to your gardens •Make a compost •Check plants for fungal diseases and treat as needed •Time to plant your trees for the year •As trees start to lose their leaves, gather and make leafmold •Foliar feed trees and potager •Sow seeds for April planting •Plant out chosen flowers for beneficial insects •Time to cut back perennials that have finished flowering •Time to plant in containers to give them a good start before winter •Take cuttings of perennial herbs •Harvest macadamias and pecans •Take Mulberry cuttings What To Plant Amaranth, Broad Beans, Beetroot, Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, Cabbage, Carrot, Cauliflower, Chives, Coriander , Endive, Florence Fennel, Kale, Kohlrabi , Leeks Lettuce, Mustard greens, Oregano, Pak choy, Parsley, Radish, Rocket, Silver beet Spinach
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