Pondering from Purple Pear.

[purplepear]

Not too sure how much time I can give to this but here goes!
Life at the farm has been hectic of late. Despite council approval to go ahead with the shed that could take some wet weather education, we have not commenced construction. The money we had set aside for the concrete footings was used to supplement income when the last PDC did not fill and we had to cancel. Today I have been using some of the windows and doors to modify the carport/shed to serve as a lecture room and will be used very soon to run movies for Transition Towns.

We are organizing the equinox festival atm with various games and entertainment for all. The festival is aimed primarily at subscribers for our CSA boxes to enhance their unity with the farm and many more who support what we do also come. This year it will be a bit different as we have hired a great blue grass band and will be charging an entrance fee to help cover the cost. May be Woodstock started this way.

Thats all for now but more soon I hope.

[pebble]

Thanks PP, nice to hear what you are up to.

[eco4560]

Hmmmm 2020 the International Purple Pear Blues Festival - kinda has a nice ring to it I think...

[purplepear]

Thanks guys. It is probably not a great idea as I have little time for this even now I am supposed to be packing the ute with push bikes to go off on a Transition Town bike ride in Dungog.

Enough time to say that we have preped beds for tomatoes and have propagated around two hundred tomatoes 150 capsicums and egg plants and basil all ready for a bumper summer crop.
Bugger gotta go - I'll be back.

[eco4560]

I'm jealous -- NONE not a single one of my capsicums and egg plants have germinated yet. The tomatos are all up though. I've been telling myself that it is still too cool, but then you go and prove me wrong! Are you using a heat pad or something?

[sun burn]

What are you going to do with 150 capsicum plants? I mean how can you eat that many capsicums? Are you selling the plants or the fruits?

Strange Eco, what are you doing? I was able to germinate my capsicums in winter even (up here) but they didn't grow. I've got some more on the go. Im waiting to see what they will do this time? I use bought seed raising mix. What do you use? I also germinate them in the sunshine.

[eco4560]

I'm using bought seed raising mix. They are in a shadehouse under 50% shade cloth. Should I just move them to a sunny spot? Last year the ones that did germinate never got really big and I only got about 3 caps off each plant.

[sun burn]

Maybe its poor seed. My second batch of seed is from a shop capsicum whereas my first ones were from a seed packet. When i put them in the ground and nothing happens, i figure its the soil. Maybe next time I will sow direct into the garden. I don't know what's going on. I had used to think that capsicums were easy to grow for some reason. Maybe they just need some rain.

[purplepear]

Hey sunburm
we grow the capsicums for our food boxes in the CSA and for sale to farmers markets in the Hunter Valley
Eco
My best response has come from a capsicum that came in food scraps from the organic shop and was destined for the chooks but I got the seeds as it was big and red and yes I have used an underheater to get them away early

The farm continues to imped on other things in our life. Yesterday we went for a twenty Kilometer bike ride as a part of the Transition Towns push to get people away from fossil fuel depentency. Today we address a crowd (I hope) at the Sustainable House Day about what permaculture can do for the masses.

The garden is looking after itself though we need to plant out a bed today (it should have been Friday) We plant about 250 seedlings twice a week. This equates to the rythum set by moving a chook dome every two weeks. As we have four domes in operation on seven mandalas it is a move on Monday and a move on Friday and a subsequent plant out. It is important that we stay on top of it because we can not put the food into boxes till it is grown and it will not grow properly without being planted in the soil.

Images are still a bit of a mistery to me but you can see some in the mandala town photos and I suggest that may be the best we will get for a bit.
Sorry but gotta go and I see spelling mistakes that I have no time to fix. Back soon I hope.

[sun burn]

250 is a lot of work. I don't actually like the planting part of gardening. I much prefer weeding. I think i'm going to stick with perennials as much as possible. But its great to read about what other people are doing. I'll hunt around the mandala group for pictures.