Huttons Valley Permaculture
Huttons Valley Permaculture
I moved to this property in South Gippsland Victoria Australia in 2018, completed a PDC during 2019, and am now on a journey to bring back natures abundance to this once bare paddock. I hope you will join me as I slowly work towards this dream!
If you would like to support me in returning this little patch of earth to abundance please consider buying me a coffee!! Link below and thank you!!
www.buymeacoffee.com/QJU7W3agEp
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Love watching your videos and being inspired. My veggie patch is on a sloping section of our property so a bit tricky but i think it can still work!
Nasturtium pesto!
Will have to try that one day!
Excellent video, Thank you for sharing.
Thanks for watching 😊
A brilliant idea. Thank you for posting. Liked and subscribed 👍
Welcome!! The compost path works really well - worth giving a try!!
Good morning thank you for letting us see how you clear and do your compost in with the path and how it's cycles.
Good morning! My pleasure - always nice to share with others what I find works!! Thanks for watching 😊
That's great, friend. (new subscriber)
Welcome and thanks for subscribing 😊
Well done Linda!
Lots more paths to do but a couple more complete 👍
I got one from your recommendation, about to get another for my mum! Best thing ever in the permaculture/ no dig garden. Japanese Tools Aust has a referral link, you would have so many points for new tools 😅
very neatly done, bravo Linda! 😃
Thank you! 😊
Looking good!!!! Can't wait to dig up my paths when I get a good day but I need to get the chipper out first. Step by step it will get done. Take care Linda =-)
Yep one foot at a time haha! Enjoy your week Lorraine!
Really loving these compost paths, Linda. Hopefully, all work as well as the initial trial as it seems to reduce efforts, always a good thing 😂
I also loved how it reduced the need for watering during dry times. Lots more paths to go but getting there!!
In the US, it’s recommended to leave twiggy plants like zinnias for the insects in which to over winter. Is this appropriate there? I leave catnip, milkweed and some other hollow stemmed plants until late spring. In fact, last year, I left everything standing until late spring. Several brassicas over wintered (frightening lack of winter in New England) and are now producing seed. Everything else had weathered down nicely and the cut stems of things were carried off by birds for nests. I think that the vegetation helped cover the soil against the rains we are now having instead of snow. Everything went either directly back onto the bed or in the paths. No digging. Whatever root crops that hadn’t fully decomposed, I just left. How lazy can I get, at 59.? In the past, I have mulched all with wood chips. I used to chip the paths regularly after scooping the previous year’s chips onto the bed. Will have to sell the house soon so i haven’t been investing in the garden as of late. Hence the abandonment last winter - which worked out nicely in the end. Now to integrate kitchen scraps directly into the garden. 10 years ago, I started a system where I chad a single long bed that I added everything to with the intention of letting it sit a year when full before planting. But then I moved from there. It’s something that I will experiment with again. I farmed dry beans on a small scale so I had a lot of good material to cover kitchen waste. Bagged leaves would do in the suburbs. Thanks for taking the time to detail your method.
Thanks for sharing all of that - really interesting to hear how others manage their gardens and the organic materials. The winters here are fairly mild compared to areas of the US and our native trees are evergreen rather than deciduous so I think there is plenty more shelter here during the cooler months and probably less extreme temperatures to shelter from, so not much is said about the insects. I am very mindful to leave clearing debris out in my swale areas until it's warmer to look after the lizards but am afraid I have not thought about insects. They seem to do ok! A shame to have to leave gardens that you've worked so long to improve but using your kitchen scrap idea should get new ones started in your new place soon enough. I'm also 59 so appreciate easy ways of doing things! My efforts to add lots of organic material to my whole garden space will hopefully mean in the years to come more and more will grow easily in place and I'll have to bring in very little from elsewhere - that's the plan anyway! Thanks for watching (and your comment) Cheers Linda
Think of all those nasturtiums as comfrey mulch substitutes with benefits! I wish they would grow like that at my place, I can get killing frosts in any month of the year. However my wonderful selfsown calendulas create a thick tall colourful display throughout the worst of winter, and plenty of organic chop n drop too.
There’s always a plant willing to take over in any climate - we can certainly make the most of them 😊🌱
Very interesting. I'm sure your hard work will have rewarding results.
I had huge success with my trial compost path so putting in the effort to get all the paths made this way!!
I love this method of nutrient cycling. Having the paths working for you instead of being dead spaces is such a great idea. It also means you don't have to drag all of that material to the compost and wait for it to decompose. It'll be right where you need it for next year. So impressed with your set up and grateful for your videos showing us how to do it too.
Thanks Siobhan having had so much success with my trial paths it makes sense to keep going with this . The organic material across the entire garden space will just keep building!!
As we're in the US here and just starting summer, my chop and drop work has been focusing on grasses much more than trees. Many new tree plantings from this spring have been getting mulched with grass and briar clippings. I've had enough briar to cut back that I've been able to put thorny barricades around some of my nut and fruit trees ;)
Hi Peter! I also love mulching with grass in the growing season. I find I’m not as overwhelmed with all the growth but embrace it if I can use it to add to my growing trees - do you know what I mean!?? Clearing is then a win and a pleasure rather than a chore! I love your use of the briars 👍
Hello, I grew up on a farm in USA. My family are Irish. We have relatives in Australia my grandfather's cousins who have large sheep stations there.
I wish I'd grown up on a farm but at least I've made it to a small 5 acre one now. Have you ever visited the sheep station - that would be pretty awesome. My grandfathers brother married an American so I have distant American cousins!! Thanks for watching!!
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The Energizer Bunny has nothing on you!!
Haha thanks Martina!! 😆
I love your careful assessment of your trees
Gosh that must be so therapeutic .. it is also watching it
It was very satisfying that’s for sure! Thanks for watching- pleased you enjoyed it 😊
Nice!
Thanks 😊
Job well done, it's great having as few weeds/ grass around the base. Still to tackle mine but too cold as you say no rush. Take care =-)
Yes no rush at all. Live in the moment & don’t panic about things too much - we’ll get to it - hey Lorraine!? 😆
Oh, your trees will love the extra sunlight and mulch ❤ The hakeas here do very well, and some are indigenous to us, so i think i will plant more, as you say, they still provide good biomass. I'm interested to know how/where you learnt your equipment skills, eg tractor operation, chainsaw etc (those things not part of an urban lifestyle) I noted the powerlines near some of the self seeded trees near the fence.
Hey Deborah! My skills have all developed right here - with plenty to do and no one else’s to do it you just gotta give it a go - can only get better haha! Yes there’s unfortunately a few powerlines around to keep in mind with growing trees - need to prune those ones sooner rather than later!
Love chop and drop Linda🌱🌱 Your trees will hopefully produce lots of beautiful fruit for jam making season for your stand. I can barely keep up with mine. I froze lots of summer fruit and it’s been wonderful. Off to make some more jam this morning 🤣 Enjoy your Sunday xx Cathi xx 😘
Excellent Cathi enjoy your ham making! I’ve got lots of plums, peaches and berries in the freezer - still need to do something with all of that!! Enjoy your day too xx
At the beginning of the video, I thought, "Oh, no! The nectarine tree is dead!", forgetting that we are in opposite seasons and the tree had simply lost its leaves. When I remembered, I was so relieved. The green trees and grass and the brilliant sunshine in your videos can confuse me sometimes. Right now the USA is experiencing a record breaking heat wave. I hope your part of the world is not having extremes in temperature. Hope your hard work pays off in abundant fruit production.
Haha - perhaps I should have clarified a little more at the start!! Will have to remember that half of my viewers are in a different season! The weather here is fairly mild at the moment so quite enjoyable. Hope the heat settles down soon for you!!
Very informative video. Thanks Linda. I'm still very tentative when it comes to chopping and dropping tree sized bits. I usually drag them off to the side to decompose a bit first. Perhaps I need to chop things smaller, as you're alluding to. Thank you.
I chop tree bits quite small if I’m mulching around small plants but now most of my trees are quite large it’s quick & easy to dump big pieces. You can always go back later to chop small if it’s all sitting up too high! Great you’re giving it a go - the only way to really learn!!
The stonefruit will appreciate that love. Hopefully they'll recover and grow well now. Thank you for sharing lovely ❤❤
Thanks Naomi - I hope so too!!
thank you Linda 😁🥰
My pleasure 😊
Is your comfrey the blocking 14 non seeding variety? The row of comfrey along one side if the bed looks ideal for chop and drop. How does it hold up in summer? Is it on the south side of the bed and gets shaded?
I got the comfrey from a friend and it is the seeding variety. So have to be careful with mulch & if it’s in seed. It’s been perfect for chop & drop & is great in summer. It’s on the east side & gets plenty of summer sun which means it grows well and gives about five harvests of mulch throughout the growing period
It sure was cold Linda, it was freezing here too. Bring on the longer days now 🙌🏼 xx Cathi xx 😘
Yes we’ve turned the daylight corner 👏
Thankyou for this.🎉
My pleasure 😊
Where are you from mam.
@user-os7ni9kx7e I’m in south east Australia
Good luck with your trees. I love macadamia cookies.
Thanks Vicki - yes they’re lovely 😋
Fingers crossed for the trees. Frost is a real beggar in the garden. have a good week. =-)
Frost is a challenge - especially for these little trees - just don’t want to have to start again (like I keep doing with my avocados!!)
We get frosts here on our cattle property in QLD, first one Wednesday morning, I don't think our cattle had frost on them though! I was racing around hosing my tomatoes, ohhh the things we do for our gardens and beautiful food! It's the best time of year for me to grow tomatoes, but it's tricky being that bit inland and having a low lying property with the Winter frosts. If you have too big an area or awkward area to cover, hosing the leaves saves your plants as it's the sun hitting the ice that burns the leaves. Thank you for the reminder for us all, for our frost sensitive trees, especially if you don't fancy getting frozen watering the ice off, it was very special watching the sun come up as I stood there in all my layers though, sunrise on a frosty morning❤
It’s very tricky gardening with frosts. I don’t plan on watering in the freezing cold - well done to you though!!! Thanks for watching Joanna! 😊
Good day and thank you for sharing the update on your nut trees growth . They are looking pretty good
They are doing great - just have to nurture them a little longer!!
@@huttonsvalleypermaculture I better I'm been doing a lot of research on the secret Forest AKA permaculture like you have going on . And we're about to move to Maine here in the USA right up by the US and Canadian border so we've been looking into cold cold climate fruit and nut trees to plant
How exciting!! Good luck with your move & future gardens!!
Look grate mate
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I hope they thrive for you , I love macadamias . I've got to go and give some TLC to the bush tucker area this weekend and hopefully everything is OK there. We had -2.4 this morning. Frost at my neighbours. Quite brisk. Lol. Now a slightly warmer few days before more chill. Keep warm lovely ❤❤
Below zero is definitely no fun - but the warm days are great!!
Im wanting some frost to sweeten up my mandarins and navals.
You can have mine Bernie haha!!
Oooh, macadamia... i must find something for mine! I don't have obvious new growth, but perhaps some babying will get me some growth this coming season. It has been well mulched. Thanks Linda ❤
Good luck - worth babying them haha!!
Your trees look like they'll be ok and hopefully will give you nuts in a few years.🙃😉😊
Thanks Christa!! 😊
Thank you for another lovely video.
Thanks for watching Veronica 😊
I just found your channel and immediately subscribed. You produce such lovely and informative videos! I just found permaculture about 2 months ago and it's been a complete paradigm shift, but a very exciting one. Thanks for what you're doing here!
Thanks so much Clair and welcome!! I know what you mean about permaculture and it changing the way you see things - lead me to quit my pharmacist job and do what I love full time - also better for my stress levels. Much nicer producing videos (and lovely gardens) to share 😊
@@huttonsvalleypermaculture Thanks. My dad is a retired Pharmacist who is also very happy doing something else. You've led me on a search for a suitable sickle as it looks so useful!
@clairseoirdochasach yes I’m discovering anything else is preferable to working in pharmacy!! Definitely find a sickle or similar they are fantastic!!
Pluck dry fowl wet and waterfowl dry. Scalding and plucking machines don't really work for waterfowl. Best to just take your time plucking them by hand. Plucking is the main reason why they're not commercially as available as chickens. Plucking is not something quick and easy to do in very large industrial scale numbers.
Thanks for sharing your experience with duck plucking. Will have to give it a go dry next time & see. Thank you!!
What is that variety of blueberry bush you have with red leaves? I've never seen one like that! Also, I love citrus trees! I have a Meyer Lemon I bought at a big box store a few months ago, but keep it in a pot because if I ever had to dig it out of the ground I don't think I'd be up to it physically. I'm putting in several garden beds his year over the past 6 months because next year I may not be able to. (I'm around your age I think, but have medical conditions that make me fatigued and in pain if I do too much physical work). I am digging them from scratch, amending and tilling them to make the soil the right well-draining condition that it needs, as this soil needs alot of work to be up to snuff! Have been putting fencing around some areas to keep animals out. Some of the areas are full of rocks and roots; the pebbles and rocks the previous owner put there on purpose as well as burying insulation around the property for some odd reason and so I have to do the heavy duty work digging that stuff out and amending the red clay with compost and potting mix every other day to let my body rest in-between. I still have alot of seedlings yet to go in the ground and may miss the window for some of them that are hardening off on the porch right now; some tomato plants losing leaves because I'm really struggling to keep up in this hot weather. Really wanted to get out there to plant today but just wasn't feeling well enough. I'll be glad when the hardest part is over and all I have to do is maintenance. Your video was helpful on several things I an incorporate.
Hi there and thanks for such an informative comment - love to get to know my viewers. Great for you to get out and do what you can - very therapeutic even if it does wear you down at times!! I hope your health turns around for you so you can continue to enjoy getting out and working in the garden. But sounds like you have a plan in case you can't - having a lot already established and on their way is a good thing to be working towards!! The wonderful thing about citrus is that they can be grown very successfully in pots so your Meyer lemon should become productive for you. A friend gifted me that particular blueberry plant and I lost the tag before planting it so I'd only be guessing at the name - maybe Sunshine Blue!?? I'm trying to propagate some more plants from that one but have tried before and wasn't successful - I'll keep trying because it will be definitely worth the effort to get some more! Thanks for watching 😊
Everything looks so lush and green Linda🌱 Those pesky caterpillars appear from nowhere. I am a bit late planting my brassicas, so hoping the colder weather will help a bit with deterring them. Have a great week lovely, and I hope your stand is going well xx Cathi xx 😘
Hi Cathi - thanks it’s mostly going good in the garden! Good luck with your plantings - never know with the weather these days what will grow when! I had my biggest sale from the stand yesterday so that was exciting! Hope all is well with you - enjoy your week xx
@@huttonsvalleypermaculture that’s awesome Linda, well done🌸 We had a great day on ours yesterday too. You just never know, and the weather plays a big part too. Here’s to a successful week xx Cathi xx 😘
Beautiful flowers for you and the bees. My asparagus is looking good now that its growing in the hugelkulter raised bed. Its now 4yrs ago i planted the seeds . I wonder if they'll be big enough for a small harvest this spring. Thats some great piles ready for the compost path. My chook compost is looking pretty good so far. About half full and lots of piles left to add yet. Great job lovely ❤❤
That’s exciting about your asparagus. It’s a long wait from seed to harvest. I’ve got quite a number of plants I’ve grown from seed but still waiting for harvest day to arrive! Is your chook compost one you let the girls dig over & you keep piling it up for them?? Sounds great! Thanks Naomi 😊
@@huttonsvalleypermaculture yes that's the one . This year instead of having several chooks turn it and having them eat a substantial amount of the scraps and probably adding more nitrogen than needed, I've only got one girl on the job and building it a bit slower and being a bit intentional about ingredients. No weeds at all, lots of pumpkin vibes and zucchini plants to hopefully add lots of (is it silica?) For plabt strength. The hay is full of seeds though, so we'll see whether they're weeds. Grrr. Lol. Either way , I'm always short of compost . Aren't we all. Thanks Linda 🥰🥰
@countrymousesfarmhouse497 she must be the envy of the flock! Gotta luv experiments 😊
Garden looks great, Linda, we've had great rain, my mini cabbages have exploded 😊
A bit of rain certainly helps the garden along! I'm pretty happy with my cabbages at the moment!! Thanks Kirsten!!
Most people don't understand that gardening isn't all straight and organized -- I moved to the country to have enough space to do whatever I want and not have 'spectators' criticize my messy gardens. I've been here for my fourth garden season ... the place had been a homestead but not tended to for the past 20+ years as the previous owners got older. I've been trying to tend to the fruit trees while building gardens ... work in progress for sure! Thank you for your video :)
Yes people do like an organised garden in suburbia. I had to grow a hedge to hide my front yard veg patch and chickens when I lived in Melbourne haha! Sounds like you've got a project on your hands - what fun. I just love turning these manicured spaces into wild abundance. I hope you get it turned around soon! Thanks for watching 😊
It's all looking good Linda =-) Winter has really set in here. Time for me to start planning. =-) Fingers crossed my garden will be better next season. Take care.
Rug up then & get those plans in place. I expect big things from you next season 😆 - but no pressure 😄
@@huttonsvalleypermaculture 😂😂😂
Gulp lol