Flores Permaculture

This year, we are trying to establish a Guinea Fowl flock in Zone 2. The area is ideal for them because it is further into our farm (less chance of a dog attack), and there are less cliff edges - so they are much less likely to accidentally fly down the ravine, only to get stuck and spend a very noisy few days trying to return to their flock. There will also be an abundance of food for them (earwigs, caterpillars, slugs, weed seeds), although we may never be able to grow corn in the area as that is warned to be a favourite of Guinea Fowl.  Our current set of 16 keets are over 3 weeks old. We have roughly half lavender and half brown/grey, with one that is a mix with lavender wing tips. The brown/grey genetics seem to be slightly weaker in the first week of hatching. One had splayed legs that had to be fixed, and two others had crooked feet that also needed to be isolated and corrected. All have survived and are doing well, even the weakest one which is still half the size of its si...

The last of the Eucalyptus in Zone 2 is felled, and we now have a clear skyline and full sun. That's around 10 dropped, so we can have this beautiful space to spruce up 😄 Without being able to cut all the huge trees, this land would be useless. Now to tackle the aftermath of tree felling...  The Greenhouse is almost finished, we just need to tighten the cover on a hot summers day and add better snap clamps, before the September windstorms. We have reinforced it as much as we possibly can. Much of what we used is recycled materials, which means the greenhouse may not look idyllic but it functions. We built a wind break out of pallets on the side that will get most hit by strong winds. This acts as the hub in these gardens, where I can hide from the rain and have all my seedlings for that area. It also means we will have a very long tomato season, staggered through to December, and it will make seed saving of specific crops every year much easier too.  Only a year ago, much of ...