A day of planting

Remains of the winter veggies 

After spending an afternoon in a friends garden helping do some planting, I was keen to get out and put more into my little patch of dirt. Unfortunately I am aware that I may well get burnt again by a late frost (planted some things 4 times last year before the frosts decided to leave my garden alone).

Mmmm, before I can go any further with this I just need to make a small comment on the lunch I am currently eating. Besides being REALLY tasty, it is pretty fresh. In it is my Kale, Kohlrabi, and some baby onions (had to be removed to make space for some summer plantings). It is a great reminder as to one of the reasons I love to spend so much time in my garden.

Today's harvest that turned into lunch!

Back to today's activities so far. As I mentioned, I decided it is time to put in some of the summer veggies. I have planted 2 small sections of corn (a red variety that I grew a few years ago and collected the seed, and a sweet corn), 2 zuccini varieties (a black one and a round one), squash, 2 types of cucumber (German pickling and an apple variety), rockmelon (dreaming of big things!), and some Jap pumpkin. 

Then I cheated a little (more cheating still to come if my tomato seeds remain as such!). I have planted some capscicum seedlings, yellow zuccini seedlings, celery, and some rainbow swiss chard. Some of these I haven't had much luck with in the past, but I am determined to have a go and get it right. I have never grown celery, so I thought I would have a go.

With the addition of chickens this year my "compost" has been enriched, both in volume and quality. My wonderful neighbours provide me with all their kitchen scraps and occasionally their lawn clippings (as I have removed all my grassed areas to enable more production and to save time and money on mowing). The chickens have scratched all this around and made a few additions of their own. After the chooks have done their job I then wheelbarrow this beautiful mix into the compost construction that I built (again, not quite complete). Here is where the worms that live there finish off the product. There are a couple of areas in the garden where i put some of this amazing (and well cooled) compost about a month ago. Today I planted into it and wanted to eat the soil. It was amazing. Lets just hope it lives up to its looks!

Spring is in the air!

Its Spring so its time to start a new blog about my garden. I love gardening and there is always something interesting to see or do. Last year my son and I watched a tiny caterpillar turn into a big caterpillar and then hide in its web. Unfortunately my son was too young to understand that he shouldn't pick this "cocoon" off the tree it was on, so there will be no beautiful citrus butterfly this year :(

Back in the "beginning"

About my garden:

My garden grew from a pretty unloved state into something full of life. It is a small garden, but gives me great joy. I have replaced a barren "grass only" disaster (see picture to the left!) into a productive and enjoyable space. It is far from finished, with many projects still to come and others not yet complete. That said, I have: a chook house and pen housing 4 happy chooks that provide my son and I wish fresh happy eggs and hours of entertainment in watching them go about their daily business; a number of fruit trees (pear, nashi, quince, lemon, orange, apple); berry world (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries); the "C" shaped veggie garden; the small herb garden; and the rest filled in with mostly local provenance natives. Oh, but how could I forget about the recently planted Kiwi fruit and the two cold climate edible grapes (with the red variety producing bucket loads of tasty fruit last year!)

Possibly more sturdy than the house!!!!

Winter in my garden is usually a pretty desolate time. However, this year I made a serious attempt at planting a winter garden. I usually grow garlic, but that's about it. This year I grew kale, garlic, onions, leeks, broccoli, swedes, parsnips, cabbage, spinach, and attempted broad beans again (unfortunately without much success). There were also a few sad looking beetroot seedlings that a friend gave me that were going to be thrown out from a local nursery. I planted them thinking that they would die. However, they managed to survive our harsh winter and have just sprouted new green shoots and are really taking off.

I am looking forward to starting to harvest the parsnips. They are looking pretty amazing!

I have 4 happy chooks that I fence OUT of my veggie garden. They can be let into different parts of the veg garden if I want them in there, thanks to my fence design. They are currently roaming about the rest of my garden searching for whatever it is that chooks search for.

Little man learning to love his new feathered friends

I am looking out my back door and can see the beautiful purple magnolia flowers, the apple and quince trees starting to leaf up, the Nashi and pear getting their first flowers and birds happily chirping and flitting about. So busy out there!

Magnolia this spring