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.