Wattle Trees

Today as I sat down on a break from shoveling crushed rock in the shed, I made the most wondrous discovery.  Springing up out of the hard packed subsoil that had been cut for my eventual house site was the plant below.

On closer inspection, I realized it was actually a Wattle tree.  How it got there is still a complete mystery to me, yet by some natural miracle, there it was.

The wattle tree is a type of Acacia that is actually grown in many country's around the world.  It is a multipurpose tree, used for wood working, extracting the tannin in the bark for leather work,  soft mulch cover from the bark and of course, their beautiful flowers.

However, what I am looking to use this wonderful tree for, is nitrogen.  Wattle trees have nitrogen fixing nodules within their root systems, and of course nitrogen within the soil promotes strong growth in plants.  To have found such a valuable tree growing wildly on the farm is an amazing find!

I am still a fair way off my planting strategy for the wider landscape of the farm, there is still too much to do in establishing my home base and the immediate food production needs, yet this is now in my mind as a resource to call on when the time is right.