Our family always wanted to be on the land but that didn’t eventuate until about a year and a half ago. We found a beautiful 41 acres in Northern NSW that had been quite neglected by the previous owners over the years.
From day one, we pretty much got to work straight away. Firstly, fixing up the little cedar and stone cabin that was already on the property and then started the big job of clearing the lantana from the once perfect horse stud the property used to be.
What we discovered was small creeks, several dams, fertile soil and a beautiful growing climate.
We knew the next step was creating self-sufficiency so planting a food forest/orchard (long-term sufficiency) and creating a large vegetable patch for all our quick rotation crops. We knew we had to do this part right as we have all sorts of animals around that want to have a share of what we grow including wallabies, kangaroos, bandicoots, rodents, quolls, goannas and lots of snakes so we dug a channel around our plot, surrounded it with 1.5m high rodent wire (nothing gets through rodent wire) and chose a no till gardening method.
We covered the existing grass with some mulch, the neighbours horse manure and about 60cm of organic hay and let that sit for about 3 months.
Then it came time to do our first planting of both seeds and seedlings. This is where the wonderful Earthfood came in!
We first gave the whole patch a good soaking with a diluted Earthfood solution in rainwater. We then soaked our seeds in a Earthfood solution for 24 hours before planting and we also dipped all our new seedlings into an Earthfood solution before planting them so the roots would get a good dose of those amazing live microbes. Once we got everything into the ground we gave the whole patch another good watering in with a light mix of Earthfood.
The first thing I noticed the next day is that not one seedling was lost. There wasn’t even a limp or struggling seedling although we had planted over 80 seedlings many of which were tiny and fragile.
The next thing I noticed is that although the seed packets said germination within so many days, each seed popped out of the ground many days earlier than they were supposed to and continued a vigorous and healthy growth from day one.
From there on we made up a large pump action spray bottle with the Earthfood mixed with rain water and sprayed on the leaves every 3-4 days initially and then once a week as they grew bigger.
I can honestly say, all these seedlings and seeds grew faster, bigger, more bountiful, tastier and juicier than I had ever grown before (I have always had a little veggie plot wherever we’ve lived).
The other noticeable things were, no pests (I mean none, nada, no bad guys at all, not even a bite out of a leaf!), no diseases and minimal watering. Although we did spend a lot of time properly preparing our new veggie plot, I still couldn’t believe how little I had to water it. The ground was always moist and springy and full of worms too.
I know gardening takes a fair bit of work, a bit of knowledge and a dose of good luck but Earthfood definitely played a huge part in our bountiful harvest (I was giving veggies away all over the place as we had more than we could handle), the ease of growing without battling pests and disease and the lack of watering required.
So, thank you Earthfood. And to all my fellow gardener, do yourself a favour and try out some Earthfood on your plants. They’ll love you for it!!
Mish
Northern NSW, Australia.