Well, you get the idea. I'll figure out how to insert pictures soon enough I suppose.
Got a good phone message from Brad, he sounded excited about the bamboo plantings, and perhaps a bit gratified that I too can get overwhelmed by the rampant growth of the tropical pasture grasses.
I really should be pulling back and trying to hold onto what I have already planted but I just can't help myself! With the bamboo, well the sooner it gets in the ground the better, and well, the grass is growing quickly, but so is all the good stuff. I can get around to smothering the grass with paper and mulch in the winter when the growth slows down, maybe...
After lunch I cleared out the chook shed for a compost and realised how bad the spider mites are in there. Got out the scrubbing brush and hosed out all the cracks as best I could. Was totally covered in crawling terror by the end of it. Doused myself in a tea tree oil solution and stood under the hottest water I could get. But I did move the broodies out of there, as I think they are the primary breeding ground. I dunked them in the Melia bath, which killed beetles who got stuck in there, even when they had sticks they could have crawled out on, so you never know...
In the later afternoon I planted more peanut around the barn garden perimeter... It would be nice to get that all planted by the end of the summer... I do think that we are on the right track. Soon we will have some pretty substantial motherbeds of the peanut that we can constantly take cuttings from... Same with the seed from the various legume trees and shrubs... I don't know how Stevo did his place exactly. One time he told me he had a lot of help, and another time he told me he did it all himself??? I know I have seen teams of workers there pulling weeds out of his peanut patches though!
Of course, we are assembling a variety of plants that will work as useful groundcovers and understories... Cocoyams are something that will grown in shade that you can actually eat, as are the Monstera's. Of course, we're also working with the sweet potato, and are getting to the point where we can propagate several different flowering shrubs that will make good insectary ground covers...
So, it is going well.
Okay, some pictures...