Namaka Ridge Tree Farm

My Kunekune/juliana cross pigs having a feast.

Some Beautiful fall colours at the farm in our potted tree field!

Making it look like fall.

One of our favourites, the Diablo Ninebark!

A mid season look at our potted tree field

A quick update about our grow out bed. Lots of weeds but in this case, they are not a bad thing! Free Mulch!

These guys do one heck of an amazing job keeping the crops green! He was mere feet above our trees. Amazing to have our own private airshow!

What an incredible sight to see these guys in action!

Constant thunder as a supercell thunderstorm passes us to the south.

Our new seedlings are growing well for the most part, here’s a look at the situation.

Well yes & no in our test. This hen did a great job clearing the weeds but she also ate the new growth on our seedlings. Perhaps if we had pulled her out a couple days earlier she wouldn’t have done so but the weeds were not 100% cleared at that point either.

Had a surprise rush order that required us to get spading! I’m sure the experts will laugh at how slow we are but hey - we are still learning :-)

Training him up early to work hard, play hard!

Digging poplar suckers, plowing over hard packed soil, and more! Still lots more to do before the first seedlings arrive next week!

Digging and moving poplar suckers when dormant is a great way to multiply them! They may not turn into landscape quality trees but will be just fine as shelterbelt - even if it is just for our own shelterbelt!

A big thank you to our former neighbour for allowing us to borrow his tractor!

Doing well after a long winter!

A quick look at our collection of larger potted trees. We dug the Swedish Aspen ourselves from shoots growing on our tree farm. Its a great way to propagate more!

We are turning this patch into our seedling grow out field. With tight spacing it will allow us to grow seedings out for 2-4years before transplanting or potting them up.

A quick look at our new spaded tree field we will be planting out this year. Still a lot of prep work to do - fencing, irrigation install - and some weed/hay control around where the trees will be.

Taking a look at the progress of the post hole drilling and post install. The ground was too frozen on the close holes to get deep enough so that is on hold until this cold snap finishes. You can see the amount of land we are fencing off is quite generous, 2.7 acres in fact.

We are working on fencing off the next section of pasture on our tree farm to prepare it for planting! We were so pleased to see the quality of the soil is incredibly rich black loam! Just goes to show the benefits of a quality managed pasture.

A quick look at whats growing well in my aquaponics system.

A tour of our homestead and tree farm from the air.