Hot Days of Hard Work: Building a Permaculture Garden on our Rainforest Farm

This week, many exciting things happened. We've got that first magical feeling of summer. That slow sticky heat in the middle of the day where you're lying in the shade of a tree or floating in the water, or both :) We also worked hard on the cooler mornings, on our latest project - a permaculture duck garden! Sow and sow seeds in time before the first summer, monsoon rains come over the hills. Even more excited, we welcome someone really special to our large family of Animals in the Flower Hat! With seasonal changes, and this darling boy, everything feels like a fresh start--the amazing growth of early summer.

  We are two sisters, Julia and Anastasia, and this is our home in the Australian rainforest. We spend our days taking care of animals, growing food, creating, building, and learning how to live off the land. One of the things we have learned from our time in nature, is to live with the changing seasons. Swimming when it's hot and dancing in the much needed spring rain. fills streams and dams, and allows everything to suddenly come to life; All plants and trees are covered in bright green. It's the perfect time to farm, so we've been working in our new duck yard, with plenty of swimming breaks in the heat of the day! We're still trying to find the perfect name for this big fluffy boy, please comment if you have any suggestions! Hello all!

  So here's our newest addition to the family. He is the biggest lover. He is very lovable, he is a maremma so he will be the protector and guardian of all animals. Make sure they are not harmed by predators or anything else. But for now, he's just a sleeping puppy. But he will learn! You will not learn. You are very sleepy. Today we return to the duck pen. It's been two weeks since we made it and we really want to move the ducks.

  Therefore, today we will do the last finishing detail. We're starting to build a gate so we'll finish that and hopefully hang it up... and start planting flowers! No you do not bite! No chewing. Well, let's start farming, do you want help? We start by drilling the holes - this has been a big project that we've been working on for a while now. We recently built this fence (and our cute duck house) and before that, this whole area was full of lantana - a really invasive weed in this area. I know it's just a small field, but I can't even describe what it feels like - we've used our hands to cleanse this earth of invasive species and now; Replant and renew.

  What a feeling! Although lantana is a weed, the only good thing is that if you can finally get it out of the ground, the soil is beautifully conditioned afterwards. While her mother is digging, Julia lays down the cardboard, and this prevents weeds with organic matter that breaks down in the soil and adds carbon. As we learned to farm regeneratively and incorporate permaculture principles, we learned that it all starts with the soil. Part of our practice is always making compost and adding it to our gardens as well as growing plants suitable for our environment. This African basil thrives and works well as a border plant to suppress weeds. In summer, mulch is really important, because it keeps moisture in the ground and keeps weeds at bay.

  In this garden we want to simulate nature using sustainable farming techniques and layers of shrubs. Rain farming is also a way we work with nature's systems, not against them. It's starting to get very hot, so it's time to swim at the dam. We collect marigold seeds from the oldest drying flowers. It's a nice feeling to pick and sow seeds. I also collect nasturtium seeds from under the bright flowers. The feeling of scattering seeds and waiting for new growth is like nothing else, the simple, child-like excitement of waiting for a seed to germinate and grow into something special. A while ago we promoted this African basil, simply by cutting the bush and placing it in a jar of water. They've grown little roots in a few days and within two weeks they're ready to be put in

  the soil. The black sapote tree is full of fruit! So we choose a lot! It tastes like chocolate pudding but we try different recipes too! Julia prepares black spotty bread! We think it will be a bit like banana bread but more chocolate. We use black sapote, yogurt, vanilla, ghee, coconut oil, eggs, cinnamon, coconut flour, buckwheat flour, almond flour, nuts and some dates. Full recipe on our patreon Next summer means many things here; This means that the beautiful summer rains begin, and everything starts to turn bright green.

  The scarlet flower visits and sings in the evening. The sheep do not have access to much grass after the dry spring, so we take them for a walk to what we call the long field, or road, where they enjoy nibbling on all the grass and running away to the mulberry tree. In the spring, the snakes wake up, and on our way home, we discover the mating of two huge brown snakes, they are the second most poisonous snakes in the world and they can strike very quickly, so we are always very careful when we see them. Back in the hills, we spotted a huge widget eagle, which has a wingspan of 2.3 meters and can hunt large mammals and even kangaroos! We worry about animals every single time, so that's one of the reasons we got our new dog. He will be able to protect animals from snakes, birds, guanas and wild dogs.

  We traveled over the mountains to bring home this sweet puppy and are so excited for him to grow up on the farm alongside all the animals. On his first morning we introduced him to all the animals. Right now, he's now sure of what he's thinking. But one day he will be the guardian of these