Hello there from the very squelchy paddocks here in Marton New Zealand!
It has been a very soggy winter to say the least – still many new natives to go in the ground but have held off planting as the soil was just too wet – it will be an extra busy spring to get the remaining plants in and mulched. Hoping for a mild summer otherwise there will be a lot of monitoring and watering to be done.
Also halting proceeding, the regional council arrived part way through winter and did some clearing of the stream (flood prevention work). It felt like quite a brutal exercise at the time, and one which also put a stop to planting as their diggers and trucks made a huge mess. With mud everywhere, it became impossible to walk around the giant slip and slide in gumboots let alone pushing a wheelbarrow full of plants.
Since there was not a lot of point trying to plant the fields, attentions turned to the vegetable garden and a bit of an upgrade to the raised beds. In total seven large plus one small were built using iron from old roof. As it turned out – quite a big job, a gradual process working around existing beds and transplanting anything worth saving. It felt like a huge achievement to get this done! We are looking forward to seeing how these go over summer, and already enjoying the ease of weeding at a better height!
As the rain began to ease and I was finally able to do a bit of a path mow in the paddocks a week ago (early September) so it finally feels like things are getting back on track
Last but not least, a name for the project – Birdhaven, it popped into my mind while out in atrocious weather one day wondering how completely mad I had finally become. A fantail, as usual, was flitting around making me smile… and there it was – what this work is about.
The Birdhaven project – a steadily growing vision, this is exactly the motivation I needed to keep moving forward especially during the cold and rainy days of Winter. If you want to keep track, this project is also on Facebook and YouTube, links below.
Now please bring on the sunshine, I really need some warmth on my bones!
Thanks for stopping by, especially if you have read this far.
Cheers Sam
