Summer Update

Very little January rain, but the nights and mornings are delightfully cool and there is a regular dew.  Several locals have made contact via the blog recently, its great to hear from you! As always there are beautiful views.





A koala was heard very close to the 'house' last weekend, a local expert suggested we would have a number of them in our forest, now to date two have been seen or heard. We had to put in higher wallaby tree protection wiring as they were nibbling the fruit trees summer growth, however they don't like tomatoes or zucchini it seems, lucky us. 

Richard the HVP forestry companies environment officer visited recently. He tells us it seems the waterfall off the bottom of the property the highest in South East Gippsland, although it is not on crown land as we had thought, but forestry company land from the recent government selloff. Hopefully it is too steep for them to ever worry about logging there.

The Landcare officer Sam visited with a gift of blackberry rust, a vial of fungal biologic weapon against the invasive blackberry. Each vial is around $1000 so we are grateful to receive this for free. A month on and it seems the rust at the trial site is taking well with early die off a good sign. We have also started selective spraying at Richards recommendation due to the sheer 40+ acres of blackberry control required and with careful application so as to not damage ferns it seems to be having a good effect. 





It was pretty hot at the farm last monday 43 degrees, so in and under the waterfall was THE place to be all afternoon, a truly Zen experience.





The black cohosh 



and ginseng
  


is taking off in the forest, but alas no golden seal has germinated. 


In the forest its a bonanza of local bush foods with native elderberry and prickly berry bush providing more anthocyanadins than one could wish for. 

The garden harvest provided a good first year trial result of marigold (calendula) and german chamomile. Nothing is more delicious than homegrown fresh organic herbal tea!

Sam and Catie and Wendy help out the harvest