A family stroll

We found these California Quails out for a walk this afternoon with eleven chicks. 

I'd guess that the chicks were only a few days old and they struggled to get up the last few steps. 

Eventually I scooped up the last four chicks, one by one, and popped them onto the grass at the top. 

Welcome Annie!

Annie is a two year old cross-breed who we adopted from the SPCA as a companion for Jasper back in September. I think Jasper missed Jemima too much though and he wasn't too welcoming to Annie. They'd happily munch on some pickings from the raised beds, side by side, but weren't very snuggly otherwise. I hope though that they enjoyed each other's company in their semi-detached hutches. 

Of course we'll be heading back to the SPCA before too long to find a companion for Annie now... She's a lovely bunny who is enjoying having a big run now that Jasper has moved on and I've even seen her binkying from time to time. She's a bit shy and timid but hopefully she'll grow accustomed too us just as Jemima did. 

Farewell Jasper

Four and a half years after arriving at our house, Jasper has left us. He has a lovely cosy hole now in amongst the native plantings and I've popped in a kowhai on top of him to mark the spot.

Good bye Jasper! We miss you!

A Walk on the Wild Side

Although the weeds are taking over round here, some of them are, at least, pretty attractive. And our native plantings are still winning the war.

Harakeke/flax that I planted shortly after moving in is flowering and the tuis are loving the nectar. I've found bird's nests under - and inside - the shed and underneath the deck too.

The mynah birds inside the shed have made a scruffy nest but we have another bird that makes the most beautiful nests with a smooth lining. I'm not sure what it is but suspect it's one of the European immigrants - maybe a thrush. Any ideas, anyone?

Chicken news

Our little flock of chickens has survived another winter. They started laying again within a day or two of the equinox and mostly lay in the coop. I did find a clutch of around 14 eggs in the grass atop the retaining wall last week and the vegetation had kept them cool and fresh. I'm still waiting to see a troop of chicks emerge from the bush as next door's rooster has been pacing the boundary fence impatiently.

The quails are busy again, dashing around the lawn, and I found a lovely pair of handmade ceramic quails at our local gallery a few weeks ago - a real bargain.

One chicken is not doing so well though. I'd noticed that her breast seemed to be well fluffed up but she seemed in good health otherwise so I didn't worry. When I found her in the coop last week, I took the chance to have a closer look. I suspect that shes one of our original chicks as she didn't mind me handling her - even though she had a huge growth over her breastbone.

A trip to the vet resulted in a cyst being drained and once that was done, the vet could feel a large tumour underneath. She's still in good health though so hopefully she'll carry on living out her life happily on our block.

The fruits of our labour

I'm just about managing to maintain progress with our raised beds and the demise of Jemima was a good push to plant some fruit trees this winter. We planted feijoa, fig, a dual-grafted apple (Monty's Surprise and my favourite, Granny Smiths), cherry, orange and mandarin. I strapped them to give them a bit of support in the high winds that howl around our place and even managed to feed them all too. 

The raised beds aren't terribly productive at the moment. Most of the salad has come to an end though the silverbeet is going strong. I ripped out all but two of the kale plants because they were covered in white fly and their grubs. The radishes were a great success but we've eaten them all now and the broccoli and cauliflower, in contrast, were a dead loss, too spindly and fast to bolt. Only a few of my carrots sprouted and the leeks will have to go another year before they're fat enough to eat. 

The herbs are fit and healthy but the garlic looks pretty thin. The fruit bushes (loganberry, blueberry, guava and blackcurrant) are coming back nicely after winter and the strawberries are taking hold - I was amazed to discover that they were carnivores when I opened up the strawberry food and discovered that it was blood and bone! 

In the last month, I've put in tomatoes, dwarf purple beans, corn and sugar snap peas which I bought at the local Ag Day plant stall but they've been slow to take off and I think they're a bit thirsty. We're in the middle of re-configuring our irrigation with a header tank to limit the burden on the pump and so the seedlings are suffering. The broad bean plants that I grew from seed rustle when they get a breeze through them. There are a few pods developing though so all is not lost. 

The potato plants look promising - though they're in need of earthing up - and we should have a decent crop in the New Year. And next in the queue are some capsicum seedlings that I picked up at our local garage sale - fingers crossed the irrigation system does the trick...

Border patrol

Now that the sun is shining and the rain is still falling, the weeds are bursting out everywhere. The one border that I've managed to tidy completely is the (very small) one in front of the house. It's a random selection of subtropical plants with one very old rose. The weedmat that Ian laid down is doing its job well so it was really just a question of pulling back the grass that was beginning to encroach from the lawn. 

The rose has been pruned back to ground level a few times and after I gave it a good dose of sheep pellets, it has started flowering. Shabby, tatty pink flowers but flowers nevertheless. One of the bromeliads is in bloom too. 

The flametree logs that make a boundary for the border have produced an amazing crop of fungus too - it looks like wood ear but I won't be taste-testing it. 

The copper skinks love to sunbathe on the logs and I found a frog a few weeks back enjoying the cool shade of the agave. 

Tui in the harakeke

Midwinter harvest

I managed to grab 20 minutes in the garden today to tend to my vegetables which seem to be thriving on neglect. 

The salad leaves are a little overgrown but they're the most wonderful colours. 

I filled my trug with ingredients for the next few nights - celery, spring onions, bok choy, oregano, marjoram, chillis, cos lettuce and beetroot. I've finally worked out that I can just break off what I need from the celery and spring onions rather than bringing a whole head or clump. The beetroots are a bit small and there's not many of them but they're growing moss so I picked half for a casserole. The leaves are still in good nick so I can use those as salad. Jasper got some of the cos leaves that were battered in the storms. 

The cawliflowers are still tiny but I should be able to use some broccoli next week - fried with butter, garlic and some of the chillis from the garden. The chilli plant seems to be re-growing from the main stem and coping with the frost but unfortunately my tarragon has all gone. 

My cultivated garlic cloves have sprouted and the broad beans look strong. I thinned the radishes and kept the thinnings to give away on our local trade and swap page or else eat as micro greens tonight. The carrots have been slow to germinate so need a few more weeks to establish themselves before I thin those too. 

Over in the compost heap, a new choko vine has taken off - the pukekos will be delighted! And I think there's a pumpkin vine next to it with tiny fruit already appearing. I need to work out how to protect them as they seem to be rotting in the damp and cold. Fingers crossed that some survive at least... 

Weather front

One of the things I love about our place is watching the weather move towards us across the valley. 

Last week was particularly dramatic. This was the view from the back of the house one lunchtime... 

...whilst this was how it looked from the front windows... 

...and five minutes later, it looked like this at the back. 

And after another five minutes, the bush in the paddock was steaming. 

A couple of hours later, it did it all over again. 

Native flowers

I walked over to this dwarf kowhai yesterday fearing that all the leaves had yellowed and we're going to drop off. When I got closer, I could hardly believe that it had actually produced such a splendid display of flowers only six months after planting. 

This manuka is a few years older but it's still trying hard - I hope that its seeds spread into the regenerating bush adjacent to this border. It'd be lovely to have deep pink amid the more common white flowers.  

This hebe was planted about four years ago now and seems well-established now. I think I'll plant a few more along the edge of the existing bush now I know that they do well in that spot. 

One step backwards...

We had one of the worst storms on record for forty years a fortnight ago. Amazingly the only damage was to my globe artichoke. It had already grown to giant proportions so it was a bit of a setback for my vegetable patch. 

Interestingly, the damaged leaves seemed to be even more under attack from aphids (or similar) than when the plant was thriving. I've stripped those leaves off now and hope the plant revives itself. 

The pumpkin growing in my old compost heap is looking very healthy in comparison. It's still quite small but there are flowers already. There's a new choko plant growing alongside it too. 

In the native bed, I was delighted to find that my two dwarf kowhai are in good health and both of them have their first flowers. None of the native grasses survived the summer but some of the other ground cover plants have new leaves. 

Inside, I've been busy pickling red cabbage. 

We've been enjoying bok choi and winter salad too. Our first cos lettuce is in the fridge ready for a salad tomorrow night. Winter growing is off to a good start. 

Time for a tidy up

There were still a few flowers on my dwarf bean plants but not so many leaves so I decided that their time was up. I harvested the last of the beans and dumped the plants with a lot of yellowed kale leaves on the compost heap. 

The red cabbage was up next. There were three cabbages remaining and my strategy of leaving them in the ground until we needed them hadn't really worked. They were rotting from the outside in and home to quite a few slugs and snails. I salvaged over 2 kg though and that's more than enough for making pickled red cabbage. 

I gathered some windfall grapefruit for curd and silver beet, herbs and chillis for a soup. There were a few leaves leftover for a treat for Jasper too. 

I now have one quarter of a bed cleared and ready for turning over. I'll plant garlic at the solstice and then think about what new crops to start. 

Pukeko and Parrot Proof

The pukekos infiltrated my raised beds and uprooted my leeks. 

And the parrots have been pecking my cabbages. 

So I've now put bird netting over the top as well as the wind cloth around the sides. 

The only problem is that my globe artichoke is a little tall but I've used canes to prop up the net on each side of it. 

That should do it! 

First Frost

Hibiscus

An afternoon's work

...and a bee for my friend Barbara's birthday...

Impulse purchases

I bought some seedlings at the supermarket. Leek, beetroot, cauliflower, broccoli, parsley, pak choy and two types of salad.  

There were rather more plants per bundle than I expected so it's all quite tightly packed now. But I can always thin out some of the baby vegetables to eat when they're young and tender.

Hot stuff

I transplanted this chilli plant into the raised beds before going overseas. It's done so well that we can be sure that the irrigation system is working.

There are new flowers and lots of new fruit. I was worried by the fruit turning black but they're green underneath and apparently it's a stage in them turning red. Fingers crossed!