Friday, 26 May, 2017

Rain pretty much all day yesterday which was great as we needed it.

Ordered the garden loam mixed with mushroom compost. Should come next week.

Brought home a yard of black mulch and continued working down the driveway...laying newspaper and cardboard on the grass and weeds and then covering thickly with mulch. The edge of the driveway is a mess with the weeds so think that I will start to spray them with vinegar on a daily basis until I eventually kill them. Likely will take the whole summer as I am unable to dig them up. Cannot even get the garden fork into the gravel to loosen them to pull them out.

Have cleaned out the chicken coop and removed all the straw right down to the soil level. Have decided to switch over to pine shavings instead. The girls were not sure what to make of that at first but they like the soft thick fluffy stuff so were soon just fine in there. 

The big Jersey Giant. Hollyhock, was acting oddly. She is going to the vet in the morning to be sure she is OK.

Thursday, 25 May, 2017

Am hoping to resume this blog for my own record keeping.

All the seedlings that I have grown are doing well and are now pretty much hardened off. They have spent the last couple nights outside and are well accustomed to the sunlight.

Have already planted out peas in three beds and also some spinach in front of the peas in one bed. Planted kohlrabi and rapini but it has been eaten to the ground by something. Will need to keep the brassicas under row cover until well established.

Have purchased rolls of Hex plumbing tubing to use for make hoops for the beds and will stabilize with bamboo pole across the top and then cover with the row cover. Will do the same in the strawberry beds but cover with netting to keep the birds off the plants.

We have begun construction on the last beds in the kitchen garden. 20 new veg beds and 6 new strawberry beds. 10 veg beds completed thus far but not yet filled. They still need to be lined up properly and then filled. Ordering the garden loam today.

Been spending most of my time weeding out the area for the last row of veg beds. Lots of weeds continued to grow underneath the tarps that have been there for close to 4 years now. A lot of dandelions and LOTS of couch grass which must be carefully dug out to avoid regrowth.

Asparagus has been producing well. I reckon about 12 pounds thus far.

Wednesday, 7 September, 2016

The Gladioli are blooming and look wonderful. Torn between the idea of cutting them to bring into the house or leaving them to enjoy in the garden. No decision so far.

Chickens are doing great. Getting bigger every day. We are now bringing them out of the run for a few minutes in the morning to wander around. They have eaten all the grass in their run and there is nothing left in there but scratched up dirt. Excellent idea to put them on a piece of ground to have them work it for us. They would love it. Frank catches grasshoppers daily to feed them and they really love that.

Still unbearably dry and we are in the middle of yet another heat wave...in September. 

The garden is still producing well. Harvesting potatoes, millions of tomatoes, carrots, beans, courgettes, chard, and basil. Want to be able to plant more herbs next year. All annuals of course until a permanent herb bed is established.

I have the name of a man in town with a backhoe who I am going to call to see if he can clean up the outside of the fence for me. It will be well worth paying him to do it just to get it all done in a short space of time. If his tractor will fit inside the garden I will get him to clear away the back of the raspberry border and the pathway, the large mound of weeds and the stump and also the area on the west side of the garden to start on the orchard beds.

Monday, 29 August, 2016

We tried out the new pressure canner. It certainly does take a long time what with getting it hot enough and then the cool down but the actual processing time is MUCH shorter. Only 25 minutes instead of 85 minutes in the hot water bath for tomatoes. We did one batch in the hot water bath and then the next batch in the pressure canner. One of the jars did not seal and this is probably the first time this has happened. The jar may have been a bit too full and that is why it did not seal. Have put it in the fridge and will likely just freeze the contents.

Drought continues. Watered a couple days ago but we have really had no rain at all.

Sunday, 28 August, 2016

The chicken run is completely finished. We have the fencing done to over 5 feet high so I can comfortably walk inside and also the top is covered with a very strong bird netting so they are safe from flying predators. They are just loving the run. When I open the pop hole in the morning they all come tumbling out. I just love to watch them.

Got a 12 liter box of dill cucumbers and made 11 jars of bread and butter pickles. Have not made them in years and I cannot think why as I just love them. 

Thursday, 18 August, 2016

We managed to get the fencing done all around the chicken run to the 4 foot high point. Frank blocked the gate with a large piece of plywood and we opened the pop hole.

Very surprisingly the 4 white Jersey Giants were the first ones out the door, followed by Naked Neck, then the 3 black Australorps. Poor little Hamburger was the last one out. She was so timid until she was left all alone in the coop and then she ventured out.

The 3 Australorps got the hang of it right away. In and out multiple times. Naked Neck was not too bad either but I had to physically put the Jerseys, Hamburger and Andi back in. Andi was a problem and we ended up almost chasing her around to get her back in. Right now since there is no netting up over the run I did not want to leave them out on their own. We hope to finish up that part tomorrow.

Sunday, 14 August, 2016

Got an incredible amount of rain yesterday. At one point the driveway was completely underwater until it could all be absorbed. Same with several areas of the lawn. The area between the house and the chicken coop was also submerged and unfortunately the driving rain got into the coop a little bit. The wood 6x6 is wet just by the door and I had to almost close the south window as it was coming in there a wee bit. The poor birds were freaking out as they have never experienced a storm before. I put an extra flake or so of straw in the coop to absorb any excess water. Checked this morning and the wood is of course still wet. Unfortunately it is very humid this morning so I see no chance of the wood drying out any time soon. Will need to keep an eye on that.

Also plan to move the dust box and roost today and will add more "soil" to the dust box as the coop is unbelievably dusty. I will sweep down the windows and the top of the nest boxes to clean things up. Actually, since they are not yet even using it, I may remove it completely for the time being and install it outside. 

The garden looks LUSH after all that rain. Much as I water all the time, I think that merely keeps things alive. The natural rain is what makes the garden thrive.