Three Trees Permaculture

Delicious avocados- our avocados are ready! The seasons and the specials in the farm.
Our little boys are growing and really enjoying different tasks at the farm. I feel lucky to have space for the children to explore in the sunshine, rain and in the cold. Everything changes and I appreciate that they are able to play and understand the changes and the season.

When life gives you lemons…

Well, this ain’t a lemon (our lemon bushes aren’t fruiting yet), but when metaphorical lemons come along it means it’s time to take stock of what’s important. I reckon tough times can be a reminder to value what’s going well, what you *do* have and take your focus off what’s not going the way you want.

Nature has a plan. Theres order in the chaos. Our humble efforts to do good in the world can take time to root and flourish and we must remain adaptable: change is the only constant.

This giant plum came along last week (several times larger than any other we’ve grown here, and a couple of weeks later!) and was delicious! We’ve been eating nearly exclusively homegrown fruits and vegetables these last weeks and it feels good. Roasted carrots and fennel with garlic and potato, gourds of all shapes and sizes, apples, apricots, honey. Almonds are on their way.

We share a lot (sometimes more than we’d choose to!) with the birds and insects, but they were here first and we must support and nourish the non-human life around us too.

We give gratitude for what we have and for the relative peace that we live in to do what we do.

Kimbu / mulberries!

Our trees have really started fruiting this year. These taste so sweet it’s unreal!

We’re finally able to share these tasty tasty treats beyond our farm boundaries - if you’d like to order a punnet/tub, let us know. (That’s if the Forest School parents from don’t snap them all up first!)

A huge thank you to students from for helping pull this transformation off in just 3 days.

After about 4 years of great functionality, we removed the bamboo frame which had started to rot and lean over (we got a head ups from another wooden trellis we have elsewhere what happens if you don’t take action when you read the writing on the wall - post on that coming soon!). So we’ve upgraded our nursery with a metal frame and extended it by about 6 ft.

Nursery space was always limited so hopefully now we’ll have space to expand our seedlings production as we expand our own project more broadly.

We’ve kept the same design otherwise - woven bamboo walls which allow light and gentle airflow throughout. So it also still looks beautiful. One benefit of the metal frame is once the bamboo begins to fail (it’s not in the ground so should last years!) we can simply pull them out and replace them. Happy times!

A great few days with a group from Rebuilding our bamboo nursery, shelling our dried peas, shucking corn, learning about natural dyes, making soaps, and so much more!

Just a few days, but jam packed with learning, fun, singing and of course wood fired pizzas! Thanks for all your hard work, friends!

Asparagus!!!
Out came the heads. Finally new veggies and fruits popping up as spring is upon us.

Changing seasons brings changes in our mood and our diet.
Looking forward to enjoying spring.

Finally a happy meal with home-made pasta. We ended our meal with honey from our garden that we harvested this morning.
Definitely ending the night with a happy tune with bee 🐝 tunes.
Happiness at home!

A Saturday well spent.

We’ve seen the numbers and diversity of birds increase MASSIVELY since we moved to our little patch of agricultural land here in Suryabinayak and began planting trees - particularly in the last few years since the first trees have grown above 10ft tall. It’s been really encouraging to know that our efforts are paying off, not just for us but for the wider (non-human) community.
It’s especially uplifting within the context of so much destruction of forest habitat in the wider Kathmandu valley. Of course with habitat destruction comes loss of food but also habitat including nesting sites. Our food forest goes some way to provide food and appropriate habitat to move about, but the young trees do not provide much in the way of nesting sites.
In come nesting boxes. These three are pretty ramshackle - made with off cuts from other projects, but with the two we’ve already put up (made of a similar quality off-cuts) being used regularly we’re optimistic for these ones.
Surely we’ll make more of different sizes, with different sizes holes for different species. These ones will go up in or around our food forest but soon we’ll put more up in our forest which is becoming more a more important to conserve and improve for wildlife.

New compost bins already in action!

We started out with a 3-bay system with each bay measuring 5’ x 4’ x 6’ for an amazing hot compost system - there’s loads of info out there about this, but basically you need that size to get optimal heat to kill w**d seeds etc. But we found over the years that it was a lot of effort to fill the bins in one go - which is needed to get the heat.

So finally we got some pallets (we had some other pallet projects lined up too, so bought a truck load) for a new, smaller system. Of course the first step in creation of the new is destruction of the old. So the old bays got dismantled and a few pallets did too. I made a single-bay compost heap several years ago following inspiration from which worked really nicely so this is just building on that concept.

Proper aeration is important to get your compost fully cooked and composted. This 3-bay system works by adding new material to bay 1, then turning it into bay 2 then into bay 3. Making sure to mix it well during the turning. By the time your second batch in bay 2 needs to move, your earlier batch (now in 3) is ready to use. That’s the theory anyway!

I love compost.

Waiting for our visitors! Feeling blessed to have the opportunity for us to share our learnings and to learn.

Forest School Taster Sessions happening very soon! There are still a few spaces left.

Get in touch if you'd like to sign your child up for a one-off Forest School taster session.