Time to move on

This was always a practice garden.  We've had plans for many years to move to acreage where we could take what we've learnt from our suburban attempts onto a larger palate.  So we've now headed north and found outselves five acres to play with.  So from here, new new blog is http://barefootbounty.blogspot.com/ which my husband Shaun and I will be doing together.  See you there!

Ever more beautiful

In going from missing my opportunity to try my first home grown artichoke to letting it flower.  And now I find it's saved its greatest delights until the last.

One of the greatest pleasures of gardening are the constant surprises that await

Things are getting hot

I planted a few Thai chillis in a nice sunny spot and they are starting to come into their own.  Shaun is a huge chilli fan and loves to come and pick them when he's cooking up a storm.

My bee magnets

When I first started, I was very focused on productive plants only and got busy removing anything that would provide the family with food.  I very quickly realised that if I didn't have more than that in the garden, there'd be no visitors and no pollination, so I got a few packets of seeds, some for flowers than I loved such as cosmos and poppies and then mixed packets as a lottery, just for fun.  What's showed up has surprised me, such as blue cornflowers and red carnations but the other surprise was the flowers on the veggies themselves.  We let our artichoke go to full flower as Mum said they are very attractive and are used in flower decorations.  as with all things, she was right.

Here are some of our other beauties

Who's coming over for a pumpkin curry?

I'm excited by the volume of the crop, but who's going to eat it all?  And this picture was taken after I gave the neighbours a cut.

Solar

I forgot to mention that we put solar panels on the roof prior to the rebate changing (my mother says that her higher energy bills are my fault).  We put it on the west side of the roof as the north facing roof was too small.  The only downside was that I had to walk a block away to get this shot....

We've only had one bill since and did see a reduction, but it was a mixed bill from th period prior to connection as well.  So I'm looking forward to the next one saying $0

Should I be worried.....

Happily, it tasted good in the vegetarian lasagne we made tonight

Orange delight

This year I thought I'd try mini pumpkins.  They take much less space than their larger cousins and seem to produce much better as well.  Here's a shot of one of the many I've got going in the orchard.

Definitely going for these again as they are the perfect size for my small garden

Sad but true

There's no denying it now, both chicks are roosters and will sadly have to go to the farm in Windsor where they will spend their days chatting up the girls and adding to the gene pool.  So tomorrow we say a sad farewell to our little chicks who aren't so little anymore.  Here's a final shot of the now fully recovered Oliver

My Arch Nemisis

Last year I made the rookie mistake of putting carrots into my wonderfully composted raised garden beds and surprise, surprise, they looked like Chernobyl carrots.  A wise member of the permaculture club explained that carrots need poor soil so they they grow down in search of the good stuff.  I also learned they play nicely with onions.  So this year, I left one garden bed in its original sorry soil state and happily planted carrots, onions and some garlic.  The onions and garlic are happy campers and tasty as all get out, but the carrots....

Back to the drawing board....

Chicken Dramas

We finally let the chicks out of their mini pen and into the main run with the big girls.  They seemed to be getting along nicely and I came back to check on them at bedtime and saw that Gertrude, the white leghorn was heading into her mini hutch but she was looking agitated.  I could hear Olive, the brown leghorn, calling to her and so she went inside. 

When I came back out early in the morning to feed them, I couldn't find Olive.  I imagined I could hear her so the whole family was outside searching through the brush outside of our front fence as I could only imagine she had flown over and was lost in there (there were no signs of foul play).  We looked for two hours but found nothing.  I was quite upset at having lost little Olive after helping her out of the egg and hand feeding her.

The next morning I went out as usual and swore I heard her thumping against the big coop.  I start yelling "she's in the coop" as Shaun comes out to check on me ("wife finally loses it..." you know).  Thought I couldn't find her in the coop, Shaun heard her as well (clearly wife hasn't lost it yet) and we scrounge around the grass on the other side of the coop next to the fence.  It was a little like seeing the wicked witch of the East's red shoes sticking out from under Aunty Em's house, but there were two little yellow chicke feet sticking out of the grass...it was Olive!  She had been stuck there for a day and two nights and was barely alive.  We imagined that the bully in the gang, one Caramel, who is delighting at not being at the bottom of the pecking order anymore, had chased her in there.

So little Olive was rushed to the emergency ward (well, back the bathroom that she was born in) and fed through a dropper for several anxious hours (I need to get a life, don't I?).  Thankfully, in 24 hours, she was back to her usual self, if only a little thinner, and was ready to go back to the big house.  As I took her into the run, Gertrude went crazy - her bestie was back.  As soon as I put her down in the mini hutch, as some protection from the evil Caramel, Gertrude jumped in beside her, and when they both considered it safe, they simultaneously jumped out and ran around the run, shoulder to shoulder, like two little minnows.  It brough a tear to the eye....

More garden bounty

Now that I've got more space, I've been planting things I've never been able to try before and its so exciting to see them come in.  Here are the latest...

Things are getting out of hand

I've been talking about the abundant spring rain, but this is ridiculous

 And now that Toby fancies himself as a bit of a blog celebrity

Garden surprises

I planted a few packets of "cottage garden" seeds to colour things up a bit and attract the bees.  But I was puzzled when this massive plant popped up in a spot where I hadn't planted anything.  It grew like a triffid and it took me over a month to work out what it was.

All I can think of is that there are sunflower seeds in the chicken feed and occassionally a bird gets in the run for a quick meal. So perhaps one made a deposit as it headed out of the garden....

The wettest Spring on record

My neighbour is convinced I have 10 green fingers, but I've had the dumb luck of letting my chickens free range an area of garden before I decided to plant it out and then the wettest spring on record in Australia.  So the garden continues to grow and provide us with fabulous food.  Here are the latest pics after a full week of rain (its even raining today when I took them).  Toby, our cockerspaniel, was keen to star in the last one.

The Chicks are Growing Up

Gertrude and Olive are now living in the elements (and my bathroom is the better for it).  We've got them in a run, inside the run, so as to allow them to get to know their new family.  Caramel, who is the chicken at the bottom of the pecking order, is delighted to have someone else to boss around.  So she paces the cage, waiting to get in and make her presence felt.  The chicks are clever enough to give her a wide berth.  Here is a pic of Gertrude, who is clearly not a Brown Leghorn as advertised, but who is growing into a big, healthy White Leghorn.

Things get productive

As its coming to the end of spring and we've had plenty of rain, the garden is really turning it on and every day there's something else to pick.  Many of these are a first for me such blueberries, rasberries and some of the fruit trees, so please forgive my enthusiasm.

Chick's Day Out

The chicks, Gertrude and Olive, are now old enough to go outside for a while and experience the wonders of the world.  We also wanted to introduce them to their new chicken family.  So we borrowed a cage from a friend and took them on an outing into the garden.  At first, the chickens were fascinated but after five minutes, they wondered off to other chicken business and left the chicks to it.  We were also giving the chicks their first taste of greens, so they were busy exploring that culinary world and didn't seem too concerned about the feathery giants on the other side of the fence.

After the rain

I was overseas for a week and it poured with rain whilst I was away.  The garden made the most of it and was almost unrecognisable when I came back.  Have a look

So far so good

Our two new chicks, Gertrude and Olive, are healthy and happy and running around like mad things.  They seems to like each other more now as there is less exploratory pecking and more cuddling up.