Summer already...?!?

The largest of our mango trees in full flower.

We had planned that the next blog post would be a Spring edition, but it's so warm already here at Seven Springs.  A warm winter all around the country, and bushfires west of Sydney, we fear this Summer's going to be a cracker - a fire cracker !! The good news for us is that the most likely fire zone for NSW is west of us, and, there is plenty of water on the property - 7 dams and two huge water tanks - thank goodness.

The lush mulberry tree is starting to crop - we are thinking of turning the ones we don't eat into a sauce that could be swirled into ice cream, or used as a topping for cheesecake or other desserts.  This photo is of the mulberry haul over only a few days.

Orchard duties progress - Ian esquire has duly sorted out the irrigation blockage, and we have ordered trees - apples, pears, peaches, nectarines & plums.

Mullum community garden

On the first official day of Spring we went to the community gardens in Mullumbimby for an open day.  And what a glorious day it was.  Guest speakers were Costa Giorgiadis and Jerry Coleby-Williams from Gardening Australia.

Costa was actually a little disappointing to listen to, we got the impression he was 'playing to the crowd' rather than talking about things he had personal experience with or genuinely believed in.




Jerry however was enthralling.  He spoke primarily about bringing beneficial insects to the garden, how to encourage them with the right plantings, what benefits they will bring to the garden.  He also gave away some seed saved from his own garden.  For anyone interested in this subject, check out the latest Organic Gardener magazine.

Bottle tree in the community gardens.