Winter work

The fruit and herb bed before weeding. 

The rabbits after I'd weeded. 

Our rhubarb is flowering! 

The new compost bay. 

A few useful bits and pieces. 

Autumn fruits

I bought tomato seedlings at Ag Day in October and planted them about a month later. They didn't grow. But amazingly one of them didn't die. 

Instead it stayed the same size until the rain started up again. And then it grew and fruited. This is the meagre crop to date. I don't mind at all though, given the fight that the plant put up through a long hot summer. Fried green tomatoes, anyone? 

In contrast, my kale is still producing well, over a year since I cut the first leaves. This week I made kale chips (which were surprisingly delicious) and kale pesto (which was also a great success). I do hope the plant keeps going for a while longer yet! 

Autumn colours

A week of work

I've taken a week off this week to get the raised beds back into production. 

The first job was putting into effect the third or fourth attempt at securing the windproof fabric which acts as bird/chicken proofing for the garden. 

I haven't managed to finish it because our local hardware store only stocked about a quarter of the shackles that I need. The shackles are already a second choice behind snap hooks which are too expensive. I've got cable ties as a stop gap (literally) and will try horticultural wire next. 

It's been lovely to spend the days outdoors. There aren't so many birds around as it's still a bit hot but the insects are plentiful. 

Our more permanent bed, home to herbs and fruit, had sprouted lots of mushrooms. I'm not sure what brought them in but it must have been something.

I'll be planting asparagus in this bed today.  

I planted up half of the vegetable bed with celery, spring onions, sugar snap peas and broad beans - all past success stories. I have lettuce now too for the other end of the bed. 

And then the nervous wait begins to see what survives our never ending summer. 

The rabbits got some kale and silverbeet that I pulled up. I let them mingle too in an effort to bond them. They spent time exploring each other's territory and all was going well until Annie found Henry in her hutch and the fur flew! I'll try again today. Wish me luck! 

Sunday Stroll

We spotted a tractor parked up by the gate today and went out to have a look. The local contractor left it so that he can mow the paddock this week. The sheep will be pleased. 

Going to seed

Cow parsley, swan plant and chives. 

Spot the skink!

I found a skink in my watering can today. It wouldn't come out even when I tipped the can over. But it let me scoop it out before it scurried for cover. 

I was less pleased to find this nest of paper wasps on the rabbit hutch but it was still interesting to watch them laying their eggs. 

On the bright side

The hens might not be laying but this monarch butterfly was busy on the swan plant. 

The grass is growing and so are the cicadas. 

The raised beds have dried up but there was a crop of potatoes still in the ground from before it stopped raining. 

It's still a bit warm but Henry had found a cool spot. 

The weeds are head high but I found this cape gooseberry bush in amongst them. 

And the possum has taken every last apple but the lemon tree is still producing. 

Blackberrying

We really need to get a contractor in to mow the paddock and spray the brambles. 

We might as well make the most of this year's crop first though... 

A plant to call home

I've been waiting for months to find caterpillars on the swan plants that we bought at Ag Day. 

I had been consoling myself that at least we'd have seeds for new swan plants next year. 

And then today we found three caterpillars, one skinny, one moderately sized and one big fat one. Yippee! 

The next generation

The white hen has been laying and sitting on eggs in the long grass alongside the drive. Today we found her in the coop and when I nudged her to one side to look for fresh eggs, there were two chicks beneath her. 

We have no roosters so this white hen must have been visiting next door. The chicks are only a day or so old and when I went to check on the hen's nest, I found more than a dozen abandoned eggs and two recently deceased chicks. 

We decided to leave the chicks with their mother rather than hand-rearing them as we can manage another two birds in the flock. 

But we picked out one of them so that we could have a closer look. The children were really gentle with the tiny chick and we're looking forward to visiting them again tomorrow. 

New Year, Old Projects

The time off over Christmas has given me the odd opportunity to catch up on some things that I'd left undone. 

Staking this kowhai was a top priority. It had quite a lean and has started to yellow. It's a special tree as I planted it over one of my two placentas. I also love kowhai and the tui that they attract so I was keen to save it. Fingers crossed it works. 

Fixing the flapping and fraying wind barrier on the raised beds became more pressing once I planted my first crown of rhubarb and a cape gooseberry. 

I used my father's idea of threading through a bamboo cane and hooking on a bungee cord. Some of the original hooks had rusted through so I hammered in a baling hook saved from a cube of sawdust. The bungee won't last in the sun though so I'll need a more sustainable option for the long term. 

Inside the house, I conquered my fear of meringue and made a pavlova base. Sadly our hens have stopped laying (in the coop at any rate) so I had to buy eggs. I was able to buy them from a local producer who once took some of our chicks so they're almost our own eggs. 

I also squeezed in an hour of sewing to put together a shopkeeper's apron and a tool belt for the children. They need the straps adding in but they're much closer than before. Progress at last.