Recently we had 24 folks come to Milkwood Farm to learn the basics of market gardening under the stewardship of Michael Hewins, Milkwood’s resident market gardener. It was a great weekend of learning and digging and doing.
Michael’s been a market gardener for some years up north, and it’s been great to have him arrive at Milkwood Farm and get stuck into growing. We’re all learning fast (including Michael whose moved from sub-tropical growing to the wonky warm/cool temperate climate of Milkwood) and the greens are growing faster. Here’s a bunch of photos from the weekend…
Digging in with the gundaroo tiller
Roast Milkwood carrot salad for lunch and Milkwood potato gnocchi for dinner… mmm real food…
Freeloaders hanging in the woolshed (two rescue joeys that came with their carer)
The market garden extension with bed-making frenzy
Trish, awesome wwoofer and also bed maker…
Market garden intern Zag with wood ash, about to be applied to beds
Action stations in the late afternoon light
Ashar supervising the compost making while having a quick afternoon cuddle
Compost making! Still refining this hot-composting technique after 4 years, but we’ve decided that manure slurry is paramount for the results we’re after
Michael Hewins, compost maker and darn fine grower
Pretty pleased with the pH of this near completed compost pile…
Transplanting spinach to the prepped beds
Basic soil tests. Very insightful,even at this quick and dirty lo-fi level…
Things you might want to use in the course of growing, and what the heck they all look like
Crop rotation cards made by Michael, to help teach the basics of how to keep soils fertile in intensive organic systems
So many reference books of goodness…
Thanks for coming, everyone!
8 Comments
I love reading about Milkwood and all you guys do – thank you for such an informative and interesting blog. I have two questions for you. What’s in the jar under the coconut peat? And how do you use chamomile tea in the garden (other than drinking it)? Cheers!
Leah,
the jar under the coconut peat is perlite, it is used in potting mixes as an aeration additive…. it is essentially a mined volcanic mineral that when heated to extreme temperatures becomes very light and porous.
We use chamomile tea as a natural fungicide for our seedlings… it has anti fungal properties… we use it particularly to prevent damping off, a fungus that attacks young vegetable seedlings. We make a dilute mix and spray it on the seedlings daily, it seems to work quite well.
Those two joeys hanging in the shed made my day
I had a joey in care for a month as well but unfortunately he did not make it. Thumbs up to the carer
Reblogged this on Life Textures and commented:
Deep in my heart lies a gardener. Heres a peek at Millwood Farms and the good works they do.
Hey, KB! Love your work!
i really dig this post
Some of the teaching aides are brilliant…love the labelled pots of soil supplements
thanks for the chamomile tip!