Market Day

A warm and sunny Sunday for the markets! As I've already said, I couldn't be happier for the sunshine. This Sunday was one of the busiest I have seen at the markets. The Nursery was crowded when I arrived. It seems that I am not the only one who is glad to see the sun! Peta and I were flooded with orders, questions about how to plant or take care of things, and people asking for an ATM (we still don't have one, sorry!). All in all, it was an exciting day.

I was able to have a look around even though it was busy. A chocolate croissant and soy chai later, I was happy. I have gotten used to waking up early for the markets and will be sad when I am not able to go to them anymore. Such a wide variety of products and people make waking up on Sunday morning well worth the lack of sleep.

I was able to feed the chickens again yesterday. These guys are too cute, following me as soon as they see the feed bucket. As soon as I step into the pen they look at me expectantly. 

Yum yum, I found another egg!

Sunny Saturday

A day in the Nursery without rain! It's warm! What is this?!

I was beside myself to see that it wasn't raining when I woke up to head to the farm. But, when I got there I was a bit disappointed to learn that there wasn't much for us to do. With a full shadehouse we are unable to propagate anything or even do cuttings. To take up some time Peta and I began making bamboo stakes to sell but it was guaranteed to be a slow day.

Later, I was sent to harvest chili peppers to save for seeds. Peta told me to touch them as little as possible and handed me a bucket and a pair of scissors. After gathering a sizable amount, I left them in the nursery office until next weekend when we can hopefully begin to plant some new chilies.

The view from the nursery office. This is our selection of fertilizer and tools that can be purchased from Edible Landscapes.

Mapping it Out

This past Friday, the 15th of June, I was finally able to work with Simon in the Market Garden. Not only did I get to spend a full day on the farm, it was sunny, warm, and wonderful! I couldn't have been happier about the weather and it put me in such a good mood to take anything on.

Simon walked me though the garden and explained the history of the site and his plans for it's future. A key aspect missing from the garden is a map of the site with it's different zones and uses. That's where I come in. I am helping Simon put together a brief of the site along with a map that he can show to other members of the farm and future volunteers. You can find a detailed outline of the information he gave me here. I will soon be creating a Prezi for him to show to others in Farming Meetings. While work such as this doesn't have to do with physically planting or harvesting, I am happy to help the Market Garden live up to it's full potential.

Finally a wonderful and sunny day on the farm! Here you can see the herb spiral just behind the tree. This is part of the Kitchen Garden. The food here is grown specifically to be cooked in the Northey Street kitchen. 

I can't take the rain anymore!

These past two weekends on the farm have come and gone without me being able to update about them. Though some people are just settling into their placements, I feel like my time left in Australia is a race against the clock. I'll be leaving for Arizona around 6am on July 5th and am feeling the pressure to complete my hours and coursework for my capstone and simply enjoy my time in Australia while I can! I am planning to spend all of today knocking out as much of my capstone work as possible so I can enjoy a nice day in the sun at Southbank tomorrow. I've complained nonstop about the cold to my friends back in the Arizona heat but even I can't complain about it being 70 and sunny when the winter solstice is just around the corner here in Australia!

Southbank's "beach" with the Central Business District just across the Brisbane River.

Friday the 15th I didn't have to make it out to Northey Street. The has been such a downer and it makes it hard to work on the Market Garden project without being able to properly see the garden. I was happy for a day to sleep in but not pleased that I would have to put off my mapping project for another week.

On Saturday I arrived to yet another wet day in the Nursery. The rain was simply getting to me. It deterred customers and made time in the Nursery cold and miserable. Huddled around cups of tea, I was reluctant to even begin propagating anything due to the fact I'd have to step out into the rain.

When Sunday rolled around I was entirely fed up with how the weekend turned out. The puddles around the markets were enormous and I, of course, managed to step in one that went up to my ankles. Needless to say, I ended up with cold feet for the rest of the morning. Customers were scarce and Peta and I even closed up a bit early. What a bummer of a weekend!

A typical gloomy day in the Edible Landscapes Nursery, not a person in sight. 

I did have a highlight during the bleak hours of Sunday morning. I was put in charge of taking care of the chickens for the day! I went around and gave them all fresh food and water. Even though it was raining and cold, the chickens didn't seem to notice. They were excited to see me and knew it was meal time. Almost like dogs, they came up to me and gathered around when they noticed I was bringing food. I was just waiting for one of them to ask to be pet! :)

Henrietta is one of my favorite chickens on the farm. She lives with just one other chicken because they were aggressive towards the rest. She is extremely people friendly and lets me feed her like this. 

Sunshine or Bust

This past weekend was jinxed, I knew it as soon as I got up on Friday morning. Saturday I woke up to rain once again. Determined not to let the rain get to my fun day with Peta in the nursery, I set out for Northey Street.

To begin the morning, my bus was late at the stop near my house. I walked to Woolloongabba station, about a 10 minute walk, to catch the 66 bus to the hospital that is near the farm. It was only then I realized it was Saturday and I had to take the 333 from the Cultural Center station instead. I hopped on the next bus to the city and managed to still make it to the farm about 10 minutes until 9 am.

I arrived before Peta so I sat near the kitchen, out of the rain. Time went by and I saw Murray, my supervisor, come to the farm. He asked me what I was doing and gave my Peta's number since she was nearly 30 minutes late at this point. With no answer from Peta, I waited until Murray left the farm around 10 am and walked back to the station in the rain.

Sunday's weather proved to be no different than Friday and Saturday. Upset about the rain and knowing I would not be much use in the markets on a rainy Sunday, I decided to stay home on with the hopes of a better weekend in my near future.

You're not in Arizona anymore...

There is nothing worse than a lovely week and then waking up early on Friday to see it has begun to rain, once again. That was what happened to me this past Friday and I was not too happy about it. Last week, my plans with Simon were foiled due to the torrential downpour. This week was shaping up to end the same way.

When I arrived on the farm I was happy that it had stopped raining for the time being. Simon sent me out to the Market Garden with Tim, a volunteer and student at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) to map out the garden and begin to come up with a plan for it's future. I had never done something like this before so I was excited to learn something new that would help the farm in the future.

We began with an aerial shot of the Market Garden. The chickens, trees, and paths could be easily identified, but the actual beds were a big blur. Once in the garden it was easier to spot the different plots but many were overgrown and the pumpkin patch had taken over a good fourth of the area. These areas were a little more difficult to draw onto the map but we did a rough sketch of what was in the area. We included what saw growing in each plot in a list below the photo.

The day went from beautiful to rainy once again and just as we finished drawing in the last of the beds, it began to pour once again. After heading back to the office, Simon determined that we should continue a different day and I was able to make my way home in the rain.