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.

We've got chicks

On Tuesday, just a few days before the eggs we'd set under Berry were due to hatch, she's decided she's had enough and stalked off into the rain.  We were only able to rescue the eggs when we got home many hours later.  So my son set them up in a box under a lamp and we hoped for the best.  There were nine eggs and two eggs have hatched.  I third one cracked open but the chick didn't make it any further sadly.  I dount whether the others survived either as there's no action there, but we're still watching.  So we now have two adorable chicks, fondly named Gertrude and Olive

Gertrude popped out first and is full of energy and her little sister Olive followed behind later in the day.  We've never seen chicks hatch before and so were quite alarmed when Gertrude seems to fade, lie down and close her eyes.  I thought the worst, but as it turns out, chicks have micro-sleeps.  It's very funny to watch.  Run, run run, then wilt and sleep.  Then 10 seconds later, up they pop and run, run, run.

Spring has sprung... at last

I've been watching and waiting on a few things in the garden, but none more than the kiwi fruit that seemed to well and truly gone south (and not just for the winter).  Whilst I knew they were deciduous, I was worried...But yesterday, my patience paid off and it seems we are back in business. 

And just cause I thought it looked invited, here is a snap of the new bird bath (nice and shallow as instructed)

Up close and personal

Everything seems to be growing happily and so I thought you might like a few close ups of the action

 The lupins seem to like living next to the rainbow chard as they are growing bigger here than elsewhere nearby

 The spring onions have grown into giants and I'm letting them go to seed to collect some

The strawberries are growing much larger in the front garden than in the back garden - a little more sun I think

And the blueberries are coming along nicely.  I have them in three different spots and they are forming fruit in each spot... blueberries for Christmas....

Out the back

As I mentioned earlier, I've got only a little space out the back, but here's what I've done with it.  I had saved some seeds from my rocket over the summer and threw them in the new bed that I cleared out.  Here is a photo after I've thinned it out yesterday.

And along the shared driveway, passionfruit and peas to provide some privacy and food

And the rest is pots

Lessons from a rasberry

I was so enthusiastic about getting my garden producing as soon as I could, that if I found a plant I would research the conditions it liked and plant it.  Whilst this is part of the trick, the most important lesson from the garden is, of course, patience.  And given my nickname, clearly the lesson I need.  Here is a fine example.  I found some rasberry plants, and given I love rasberries, planted them.  What I ignored, or hoped would go away, was the fact that it was late autumn and clearly not the time for planting rasberries.  Here's what happened

The leaves all eventually went yellow, shrivelled and fell off (I later learned they were deciduous).  Then to my surprise, now that spring has sprung, a little green leaf appeared on each of them, so I loaded up the chicken poo compost, mulched and watered and here's where we are today.  No doubt they will become towering giants in the months to come.

So I got lucky that planting too early didn't kill them altogether.

The Spice Girls

We currnetly have four chicken, named after another family favourite in our house, ice cream flavours.  This is the very beautiful Caramel, with Mango to her right, not so attractive but very bountiful in the egg department and Berry hidden in the background.  She is also a beauty but currently very broody.  So after trying to snap her out of it, we've finally given up and put some fertilised eggs under her.  So watch this space... And lastly the industrious Chocolate is out of shot but a well loved member of the band.