Nirvana Biodynamics

With its memory of the past And it’s potential for th e future To celebrate Spring I have made this sculpture for the vegetable garden. These seeds, when planted in humus rich soil will bring forth abundant food and sustainable lifestyle so long as you tread gently on our earth, seek to understand the earthly rhythms and your part in the cosmos.

The green manure crop of oats and peas, planted in May has now been returned to the earth. Rather than digging it in I prefer to cut it down. I use a brushcutter with a steel blade this gives a clean sharpe cut and leaves the grass long. By cutting it down the roots are retained in the soil and breakdown very quickly w hile the tops form mulch which protects the soil, holds in the m oisture all of which encourages the earthworms and micro organi sms. It is then treated with biodynamic barrel c ompost (also known as cow pat pit or ccp) This year I developed a home garden method of making th is so all biodynamic home gardeners can have their own supply. To use this I took 20grams of the barrel compost and stirred it (using the usual biodynamic method) in 5 litres of warm water for 20 minutes in the afternoon wh en the earth is breathing in. IN THE VEGIE GARDEN There are still good harvests of cabbage, turnips, carrots, celery, kale , broccoli, mustard greens, lettuce, mache, ...

For most of Adelaide Sprin g is deemed to start on the 1 st of Septe mber but here in the cool Adelaide Hills it does not really arrive till around the equinox. It is very noticeable from the winter solstice that the days are lengthening, the buds start swelling, chooks start their laying season after the moult, the geese and wild birds start nesting. All sig ns that Spring is approaching but not yet here. The soil is cold and the sound of ‘ squish’ comes to mind as the valley struggles to take i n anymore water. The plants are smiling as they know there will be enough moisture to get them comfortably through the coming Summer. Such waterlogging could be a problem but the berries are all planted on raised beds. The weeding needs to be delayed to the end of September e arly October so as not to damage the soil. With the tragic los s of li tt le He be back in May we have finally found a replac ement fox deterrent/poultry guard. .Late August saw the arriv al of our new ‘f...

The last couple of weeks have seen nice steady rain, the valley has taken on its usu al waterlogged squish squash which means the water is slowly being absorbed by the subsoil. Our first order creek which joins up with others to become S cott Creek is flowing again and the filter ponds are slowing down the flow and the flow forms are doing their job of aerating and energizing the water before it leaves Nirvana Farm on its way to Clarendon Weir. (It is then pumped back to the Heathfield water tanks to supply this area… but that’s another story!) Here are the flow forms in action in our creek. There is an abundance of wildlife around at present, maybe a sign of early spring! The kangaroos are enjoying the damp grass, while the bird’s colours seem to be brighter as they b usily move around the bare trees. This cute ringtail possum has been around the garden for the past few weeks and managed to sneak into the kitchen when the door was left open. The passing of the Winter...

The Winter garden can be quite a challenge here in the Adelaide Hills. The best results are achieved by good planning and this means back in January /February. All those seeds you planted are now providing delicious winter dishes. Here planting continues throughout the year , although the cool restricts the range and growth is slow.Favorites at this time are greens like green wave, a mustard green, miners lettuce, mache , The colours of the chicory are great (as well tasting great) and the purple cauliflowers attracted attention during recent farm tours. Winter also provides time to clean and sort the seeds produced in Autumn. Click here to see more photos of the winter garden.

Isn ’t it interesting that if you wait long enough what you do becomes trendy. For 26 years we have created a wholistic garden & farm, ‘Garden Quality Farming” in balance with its surroundings. Although it is a commercial orchard it is also a system that embraces the whole and provides opportunities to learn the many skills that have been lost through the generations. A successful example of such a lifestyle is rare let alone so close to a major city & costs the public purse nothing. Whether its educational farm tours that show the overall diversity & balances that can be achieved on any scale to the home orchard , vegetable & herb gardens or natural fibre gardens its all here. Here everything has its place under the cosmos and everything interacts with everything else creating a wholistic system. To achieve such a system takes planning, work and definitely does not happen overnight or in fact after several years. Once the quality environment starts to click in...

While being busy with orchard harvests and biodynamic preparations, both making and applying, I’ve also managed to do some maintenance on the perennial gardens raised beds. The main vegetable area has also had a makeover by removing the ‘wild area’ around the edge of the garden. This area had become seriously entangled with kikuyu, couch and comfrey so much so it was starting to invade parts of the garden. It was dug out removing as much of the invading weeds as possible but I know there will be missed bits to be removed for the next few years. I was going to plant a green manure crop but in the end planted onions there- a bit of a mistake and what you get for impatience as now the onions have been swamped by soursobs – oh well a little more weeding required. (It’s a good thing I enjoy weeding) On the other side of this bed is the pumpkins patch a 10x 9 square metre garden also with kikuyu invading. I’ve now dug this area over removing as much as possible so it’s now ready for the gree...