Alpine Farmlet

Alpine Farmlet

The Alpine Farmlet commenced in April, 2021. Our goal is to:

convert the old farm house to a more sustainable, low-energy building;
grow food for family, friends and neighbours;
rebuild our soils and biodiversity;
grow/make/build/create as much of our consumables as possible on the property in unison with nature; and
play in, learn from and connect with nature.

Latitude: 36 degrees south

Elevation: 230m

Climate: cool temperate

Annual rainfall: 1,100mm

Soil: alluvial river flats

The Journey 2021

…cottage

The starting point…

Stripping out the cottage.

Recycled floorboards and insulation are installed.

Restoring a secondhand door.

…Farm

In the beginning….

Winter sets in….plenty of chill factor here.

July: first attempts at pruning

July: digging holes for new fruit tree rootstock.

August: Mel’s first attempt at grafting onto rootstock.

Making healthy plant food: our first batch of compost.

Nut grove planted.

Nut grove under water!

Our first flood! Catching us off guard as the water entered the property from an overflowing creek, and not the bordering river.

Farming 101: have clean drains.

Cleaning out the water course.

September: cherry blossom: should we dare to dream we may get cherries?

August, September, October: Spraying, spraying and more spraying. First it was organic sprays to prevent disease and then I joined forces with the hover fly crew and the lovely ladybugs to take on the hungry aphids.

Farming 101: a backpack spray unit is not adequate equipment to manage 80+ fruit trees! Ouch.

No cherries here! 74 trees with no fruit.

Hooray, it only takes one tree to get a feed.

A total of 7kg of edible cherries and 2+kg spoilt by birds and other hungry critters and mould.

December has been bountiful for us and our neighbours.

Berries galore.

Mel’s favorite farming job: growing garlic.

You can also catch our latest posts here, follow the action at the Alpine Farmlet on Instagram, Facebook or watch our mini-series, 4Us…with Mel & Frank, for a laugh.