The big news on the farm is that we have removed all our avocado trees. We realised last January that there wasn’t going to be enough water to get us through the Summer.
Avocados are very water intensive, needing up to 100 litres per day each. West Australia has had massive new plantings of avocados over the past few years, so we thought it was time for us to move onto new projects.
The trees have been removed and we have a lot of cleaning up to do.
READ MORE ABOUT HOW WE STARTED, CHALLENGES AND SECRETS TO GROWING BIODYNAMICALLY
In December 2000 we had a lot of friends staying for a New Year’s celebration. They were keen to help us with some farm work so we got them preparing the ground and planting avocado seedlings. It all went well despite some friends pushing themselves, on a warm day, and suffering from mild heat exhaustion. Luckily our friends have forgotten and have enjoyed sharing stories, avocados, wine and farm produce over the years.
Back then there weren’t a lot of Avocado trees planted in West Australia. We will be ever grateful to family friends and Margaret River avocado farmers, Bill and Wendy Castleden, for showing us their orchard and encouraging us into becoming growers.
Bill suggested 500 trees, but we settled for planting three hundred.
Jamie nurtured the trees into production. Lara gave lots of encouragement while managing our three young boys.
We made compost, tried innovative ways to eradicate kikuyu grass and continuously checked and fixed irrigation.
About year four we had our first proper crop. The trees were thriving and produced large amounts of fruit for small trees. It was a special moment to see the success, and the quality of the fruit. Being certified organic also meant we had access to niche markets.
After that the trees tended to have a good year every second year, known as biennial fruiting.
We lost control of the kikuyu grass thriving in the rich compost that was being watered daily in summer. It was our major issue competing with the roots of the trees.
Quite a few times we did get a bit disillusioned but we are always up for a challenge and decided to start using geese in an attempt to control the rampant grass.
Inspired by Permaculture principles – Permanent agriculture. The very problem was the solution. We had inadvertently reticulated and fertilised kikuyu grass. We didn’t have too much grass – we had a lack of animals utilising the resource.
Cows and sheep were out of the question as they would graze the avocado leaves, which can be toxic to them. We tried some of the children’s guinea pigs. That didn’t go so well. Obviously toxic to them too.
Chickens scratched the mulch and roots and we would have needed too many. We decided on geese. Traditionally geese have been kept under fruit trees for mowing the grass.
Firstly Jamie had to make a fox proof fence. This was a big project and took about a year. It was a large expense and huge effort but was best thing we ever did.
A local family had a flock of 30 geese they were willing to part with. Within a year the difference was amazing and 5 years later the kikuyu was pretty much under control and almost eliminated.
Geese have a preference for grass especially the deep rooted kikuyu. A little wheat each day keeps them tame and easy to move to a new paddock.
Thank you to all our amazing customers over the years. Providing locally gown, nutritionally rich, affordable, certified Biodynamic food is our motivation. Your purchases, chats, visits, texts, orders and commitment are why we farm. See you soon!
