Nirvana Biodynamics

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...

Tonight I sat on the veranda and celebrated the completion of putting out the autumn bio dynamic preparations. After a long hot and dry summer it was wonderful that autumn arrived and delivered some much needed rain, although the springs have not started running or the creek flowing yet it’s a good start. If the ants are any indication the serious rains are on the way as they have built up their nests at least 4inches. While walking through the orchard th e other morning I noticed the most amazing aroma, an aroma I had never experienced before, an arom a that eclipsed that of rain on dust! Up to that moment my most favourite smell. But the earthy, damp, sweet, like humus rich compost aroma filled the air.It felt like the soil had become light and moved into the air. I thought may be being morning it was rising from the earth and the dew had contributed to the aroma and feel so I retur ned latter in the morning then early afternoon and again at sunset it was the sa...

So much yummy fresh food driect from our vegie garden.

Get them while there fresh. Available direct from the farm 11am- 5pm daily. Fresh local produce drirect from farm to you. Hot roasted Chestnuts available on weekends in Stirling main street from 26th April. See you soon