Rain, rain go away, come back next year.

We need rain in the winter to re-charge the groundwater, our dam, fill up the water tank and generally see us through the dry, hot summer. Now, I think we have had enough rain. We are into our second week of daily grey and wet. We have had about 10mm every day on average for 2 weeks. So, that's enough thanks. The pictures show the effects of this moisture on the garden. Gloopy mud on all the paths, sodden beds and depressed looking grass. It remains warm enough for some plants to keep moving. In fact it has been remarkably mild the last week or so. The main crops I have in at the moment are the garlic, the broad beans and the mustard. The garlic will sit through this weather without any problems. I put it in a month earlier than I usually do in the hope that the bulbs will not split like they did last year. The broad beans are partly there for eating and partly as a seed crop for school. They also give the bees some forage and finally act as a soil improver: they add nitrogen and keep the soil structure more open than a bare bed would. The mustard is another over-wintering green manure. It has a yellow flower and I will have a go at saving some of its seed in due course. The chooks like eating the big plants and it makes a change for them from eating grass. The chooks are laying pretty well at present. They have a break just before the solstice as the days get really short. Just before the shortest day (June 21st) the first hens started laying again. We get about 5 - 8 eggs every day from 13 chooks. That means we can have a couple of egg dishes a week, never need to buy eggs and can even barter the surplus. One picture shows the view down the hill towards the middle field. We planted 6 more olives on the hill this winter. Along the pathway we have planted apples and other deciduous fruit trees. On the left a band of native trees is going in. I had tried growing forest trees out in the open in this area. Species such as kohekohe and taraire. After they kept dying I pondered on why this might be. I suspect that they do not like to grow straight into grass with no shade or shelter from the wind. The latest plan is to plant a mixture of karo, coprosma and guava for the first five years. As these establish, they will shade out the grass reducing the need to mow. The guava will hopefully attract pigeons in and these will crap out native seed in their shit. These will be able to grow into the bare soil and will do much better. That is the plan. Check back in 10 years time to see if it works!