Alas, our property has a fair bit of serrated tussock on it. It’s not poisonous, just indigestible to everything, and it can slowly smother properties by releasing zillions of seeds each summer.

The conventional method is to poison it. We’re not keen to do that, so I’ve started chipping it out with a hoe, several times a week.

Our neighbour Martin says that poisoning them is a relaxing, zen experience, and he’ll make his poisoning gear available when I tire of chipping it out. Thanks Marty.

I wish I could think of a good permaculture solution to this. Goats would probably eat the leaves, given starvation as the alternative, but my guess is they wouldn’t kill the plants. It’s not practical to shade it out in the short term. I might try slashing it or making meadow hay in November just as the plants are flowering. At least that way we get some mulch.

We officially owned the property on Friday 27th, but the previous owner John had got his dates a bit muddled. He moved out (mostly) over the weekend.

Here’s the houses:

The houses at Cockatrice Farm (guest house on right)

We hoisted our pennant, and claimed these lands for House Cockatrice.

House Cockatrice is our SCA household, dedicated to having excellent medieval events with fresh organic produce.

Our only stock at this time are the Fluffies, some silky bantams we brought with us from Canberra. They are great mothers, if not very bright, and they give us a good supply of undersized eggs.

We also have our two cats from Canberra, Twurtle and Brulée. And there are six horses that somebody had agisted with the previous owner, due to go soon.