The weather here is great at the moment. Much less humid, high 70’s during the day and cooling off at night. With only 3″ of rain, it has been dryer this month too. I have already started to rake leaves so I guess we are heading for autumn.
Moving to a new place 900 miles south means there is so much to find out about the land, the weather, what will grow and where. I have tried to resist the urge to make big plans as I wanted to see what happens naturally. It’s been fun to see the existing plants developing and having seen them, Miss Lynne and I are better able to make plans. More fruit trees are the very next things to be planted before winter comes.
On the pasture front, I’ve been pleased with the way they have developed and they are in good condition. I’m sure the extra rain helped this year. There is still 3 months to run before I’ve seen the whole cycle but things look good in the main areas. In the old pasture (Area 1 in the layout) I have work to do to address the erosion issues but it has been interesting to watch that area with no grazing alpacas.
On the vegetable front we have had mixed results. The squash went crazy and we had enough to feed Georgia and I must learn to read the labels more carefully as the zucchini turned out to be MUCH larger than I expected. The carrots and beetroot were tasty and the peppers are still producing. Our favorite item was the swiss chard. It seemed to grow and grow. The high rainfall and general humidity didn’t help with the tomatoes, or the melon. They rotted before they could get ripe. It has been an unusually wet year though.
The growing season is long down here so we have replanted the beds for a second crop. More carrots and swiss chard alongside the still producing peppers in one bed. Peas in the second bed. I’m not entirely sure if they have enough time but lets hope so.
For me, the biggest question about the veg plot was its position. I didn’t want to put too much effort into it until I knew its growing potential. We put the two raised beds on just about the only flat piece of land. The issue was that the sunshine does not reach the beds until around 10am, I didn’t need to worry so I guess we’ll be building more beds this winter.
I’ll let Miss Lynne update on the Alpaca side of thing but I can tell you that she is getting very excited about some new arrivals!