Eight Acres

This is a post from February 2011, back when we only had Eight Acres and were working on fixing the soil fertility and clearing the paddocks.  A few thoughts on what you can do with a small property. This is the second small farm/acreage property that we've lived on.  The first one, in the Lockyer Valley, was fairly flat and cleared of all but a few tall trees, with two good dams and few rocks or weeds.  We were hoping to find something even nicer when we moved to Nanango, but we couldn't find anything in our price range, so settled for one of the cheapest options we could find. We didn't know how lucky we were with the first property!  It was selected by Pete for its dirt bike riding potential more than any small farming ideas, but it worked out just perfectly when our focus changed to self-sufficiency.  The place we found at Nanango is steep, rocky, weedy and the dam was quite saline when we first arrived, but it was cheap and had a perimeter fence. ...

Our little Dexter bull Donald was sick with lantana poisoning for several weeks.  I wrote this post last week with a happy ending, hoping to share with you our success in curing him, but unfortunately he didn't make it, Pete burried him yesterday.  I still wanted to share this as a warning to take lantana seriously.  We have had cattle eat it before and not suffer any consequences, so we got blase, and now we have seen first-hand how dangerous this plant can be.  We are going to miss our little bull, I'll write more about that another day, here is just the practicle aspects of lantana poisoning. Donald in full roar before be got sick If your animal is sick and you are looking for advice in a hurry, scroll down to the summary at the end. Lantana camara , a declared class 3 pest plant in Queensland, seems to flourish in the South Burnett (and indeed throughout most of coastal QLD and northern NSW). Usually I am happy to let plants grow, especially if th...

Peter Andrews is an Australian farmer who has worked hard over several decades to observe, experiment with and understand the natural cycles in the Australian landscape.  The focus of his work is the role of plants in controlling the distribution of water and fertility in the landscape. I read Peter Andrews' books " Back from the Brink " and " Beyond the Brink " a couple of years ago and I decided to read them again recently to refresh my memory.  I'm so glad I did, because I had forgotten so much and I found that some of the things that didn't make sense the first time really clicked into place this time.  There's no way I can summarise all the ideas here, if you are interested in improving the fertility and water-holding capacity of your land, as well as reducing your input costs (fertiliser and irrigation), you really need to read the books carefully yourself.  However, I can summerise the ideas that we are applying on our property. Farms...

I often read that " a weed is just a plant growing in the wrong place ".  This is a sweet quote, and very true in the garden.   This link has some great tips and explanations about weeds in organic gardening. Lantana on the side of the road in the South Burnett - its hard to control when birds spread the seeds However, in the wider world, weeds are not so sweet.  The QLD Dept of Primary Industries says: Weeds cost Queensland an estimated $600 million annually and have significant impacts on primary industries, natural ecosystems, and human and animal health. The weeds that get d eclared in QLD are targeted for control because they have, or could have, serious economic, environmental or social impacts.  For the most part, this means that they are difficult to control (ie invasive) and/or potentially toxic to livestock.   Unfortunately our Nanango property seem s to have several examples of declared weeds and even some of national significance ! ...

In my short gardening experience I have discovered that organic matter is the most important aspect of soil for successful vege gardening.  Organic matter provides nutrients and improves soil structure.  In my garden, the main source of organic matter is the mulch (also used to retain moisture and keep the roots cool) and fresh manure for our steers (thanks boys!).  I also keep a compost bin for all vege and garden scraps. Our compost bin and weed/manure tea drum, the tomato is an added bonus! I have kept a compost bin in the past when living in the city, and it was never very successful, so I was little nervous about starting one for the garden, but it is working well so far.  I think the mistake I made in the past was not having the right ratio of wet/dry matter.  I just chucked in all scraps and grass clippings and the compost just went a bit slimy and didn’t ferment properly.  Now that I have access to some compost activators (micro-organisms ...