Gorgeous Greens and Veggie Patch Update

I love lettuce and doesn't this pic just make you want to make a salad, with just a dribble of balsamic vinegar and a shave of Parmesan.

So what does one take to Sunday breakfast at Ella's (thanks for the lovely scrambled eggs and onions on toast with a cappuccino) but a bouquet of lettuce, egg cartons and zucchini (still giving them away).

The veggie patch is doing its summer things and bursting with growth.  I have about three staggered crops of tomatoes and the ones i planted early October on a wall are coming into to full fruit. I expect them all to be ripe within the week.

The Diggers heritage varieties were planted in pots much later and seem to grow a little slower.  There are one or two fruit on each of the 4 bushes at the moment.

Zucchini are still popping out everywhere and seem to have really benefited from having the marigolds as companions (apart from looking stunning).

The main crop of tomato are just starting to form little fruit.  I am constantly pruning the shade leaves off to allow the light in.  Maybe i planted too many in this bed but many were also freebies that grew too big and i was too slack to transplant them.

Corn is ready to harvest and some have already opened on their own.  I'm not sure why but they have been feeding the birds or something.  Tomorrow night will be corn night.  I think i feel a corn relish coming on......

The squash plants have produced such massive leaves that almost the entire bed is obscured.   There are squash and bean plants, a very sad passionfruit in need of sunlight and another free tomato bush hiding in under them somewhere.

So far no aphids.  Ive tried all the tricks and i noticed a few love bugs the other day but they are harmless.  I need to get some garlic and onions in as well.  I think the key to successful organic gardening (hey, im only a beginner so dont take my word for it) is having it all - biodiversity.  Providing a home and a diverse range of food for the good guys to fight the bad guys (very scientific explanation there).

Washed and dried out in the sun - ready for crushing.  This is one of my favourite jobs. I sprinkle them around the garden to discourage slimy suckers from getting my food.  Here that snails, its MY FOOD! 

Don't get too excited, i know i have an addiction to coffee but it did take a week to collect these bags.  We wont mention the ones at the office.  The coffee grounds go onto the garden or in the worm farm and the paper is recycled or composted.  

Alyssum - beautifully edging the garden beds, attracting bees, ladybugs and butterflies.  Insects that eat the baddies are also attracted to Alyssum.  They seem to really help the tomatoes.  

While i was at Ella's i got to visit "My Girls" and to check out for myself the transformation of Ole Cranky Pants Molly to Mother of the Year.  She is so good with her little 4 chicks and we sat on a bench for a while and just watched her fussing over them as they walked all over her.  So Cute.  

That's it.  Another late night.  Last night i was up till 2am because i could not put a book down until i had finished it - Home Front by Kristin Hannah.  Wouldn't have been so bad except I'm up at 5.30 am.   Oh well.

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New Life - A Wonderful Christmas Gift

Awwwwwwww isnt the baby chick cute.  Only a day old and already a blog star.  I guess its fitting on this day that we are celebrating new life.  The hen is Molly, one of my bantam chickens that now resides at my friend Ella's.  I was particularly surprised to hear that she was clucky as she was such a bossy mean chook to her companions.  I guess, having a bigger flock as mellowed her and brought out her softer side.

From Ella i have learned that she stayed on the eggs until they were all hatched rather than getting off with the first couple.  Good Girl.   There are now 4 and it looks like the last egg may be a dud.

I'm looking forward to running down to Lara in the next few days to see them.  In the mean time here is a cute little video.

Molly's Chicks

My thanks to Ella for allowing me to share this moment.

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Look Mum We Are Eating Our Veggies Now

I received an email today with these photos from my friend Ella,  foster mother to my Girls.  Yes, they are eating veggies now!!   How annoying.  I tried so many times to get them to eat scraps from my kitchen and veggies from my garden.  It would just sit there all week becoming a limp and yucky pile that had to be scraped up and put into the compost.  I even cut them up into little bite size pieces and still they wouldn't eat them.   Traitors!!!   Perhaps they needed a little competition from a larger flock.  Still they are looking very healthy and happy in their new home and spending some quality time with a certain handsome fellow. I know a Mother shouldn't have favourites but I'm looking forward to seeing Lacy's (the grey one) chicks one day.  

That same Ella commented recently that she liked the tea set photographed in a newly organised wall unit and asked when we were having Tea.

 

Sunday seemed like a good idea so we enjoyed playing ladies for the afternoon.  Ella managed it quite well and i gave it a good try.  Its funny that all visitors these days get to waltz around the veggie patch before being seated for refreshments.  Lucky for me, Ella is one of my gardening gurus as she has the same type of raised beds as i and started quite a few years before me.  She is the Queen of Seed and has much knowledge which i found particularly helpful given that I'm currently at war with a few garden pests.  I did get to gift her a Lemon Balm plant that was a freebie.

When it came time to raid the garden for a small posy i had to really think hard and came up with dill and garlic chive flowers.  I added some random pink thingys hanging in the fernery which i don't know the name of.

Not flash but it did give me motivation to plant some flowers soon.

So what does a visiting garden guru, seed queen, foster mother to random chookies and ducks (I'm not the only one) bring to a ladies afternoon tea?

Take a look at the size of those eggs.  They are certainly not my girls little bantam eggs that's for sure.  It use to take around 15 of them to make a decent breakfast (for 3).   The blue one is a duck egg and im looking forward to trying it on toast with some hollondaise sauce and dill.   I only just learnt (since I'm such a beginner, at everything) that you don't wash eggs.  Just brush to poop off and let them be.  Apparently water gets in through the shell and spoils the egg.  Well who knew?  Probably everyone but me.

This space is where my piano use to be (now moved into front living room) and this bookshelf (there are two) will be turned horizontal and the shelving moved around to create a long thin shelf  at the bottom for DVD's and Blurays on this side of the room and on the other wall Tom's PC Games.   There will be a large shelf area above this for storing my sewing things and bibs and bobs.  

Work is still progressing with the decluttering and on the weekend Hubby built a new desk (there will be two in a galley style study) that sits in what should have been a formal dining area.  Who needs one of them?  The desk is 2200mm long and is made from a $99 kitchen bench top from Bunnings.  He added a baton to the wall, two legs ($24 each) and a side panel for support.  Its very strong.  He is now oiling it three times over the next couple of days (it stinks) but it will be stain resistant and food grade.  This side is intended for the office computer (currently in a back bedroom where i am currently locked away as i type this) and a spare workspace for ad hoc activities like sewing or soldiering (yeah right bud - that's banished to the garage but ill tell him when he finished).  The bookshelf will soon be turned sideways and mounted on the wall above the desk with some led lighting installed underneath (he is an electrician).

The desk will have cable holes cut into it to eliminate the usual cable mess and the monitors will be mounted on the walls with brackets.  Hubby is intending switch the current behemoth PC cases to mini ones (he has built all our computers) and mount them underneath so we don't see them either.  Nice and clean....    Once the PC and printer are installed we can start emptying the back office turning it back into a spare bedroom and things like old desks and massive cupboards will actually start leave the house along with alot of paperwork.  Gosh, this is such an exhausting process and all so we can achieve the final result of turning two bedrooms into one large one for a growing teenager.

Time to play with Tilly and do some housework before bed , so.......

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Au Revoir Girls - A Hard Decision

Oh Lordy, I know some of you who have read my posts on my Girls will think I'm stark raving mad.  After all that longing, waiting, courses and subsequent posts, finally getting them, caring for them and enjoying their company, i have now let them go.  They are not far away and I can still visit them at my friend Ella's Shangri La of chook palaces in Lara.

Im trying to train Tilly at the moment so the days where The Girls were allowed free access to the back yard were limited. 

Why Oh Why i hear you ask?  Simply, its not the right time for me. Those who know me will know that our family life is not always easy and sometimes i take on more than i am able to manage.  Recently, we have been through some difficult times and so i have to ask myself how i can scale things down, regroup, better manage my time and focus on what's important to all of us (not just me), right now!

I know that this looks all very pretty but it was only this way after sweeping all the mulch off the footpaths (almost a daily task after work), and pressure hosing the poop off  everything including immediately outside the sliding door and laundry door which made access to the line this way impossible.   There was also a pile of  kitchen scraps and green waste  on the tiled area which The Girls were never really interested in and so it lay there all week wilting before making its way to compost bin the following weekend.    

I'm sure there are chickens in my future but at a time when i don't have Miss Tilly (read Puppy Trouble) to deal with, when i am not working full time and when i have a proper purpose built chook yard in the area that i will leave for that purpose.  Tilly is having the most fun digging there.  It was always important to me that The Girls have the best possible quality of life and recently ive felt bad (yet more guilt to add to the pile i already have) that i couldnt provide that. They were being forgotten other than the cleanups.  No joy, no cuddles, no time observing their funny ways and little time in the back yard.

I think they will be much happier as Ella has a large block and can provide The Girls with lots of friends and plenty of space to roam and dig for bugs and worms.

They were initially placed in a separate coop until nightfall so that they could be introduced quietly this evening.

They will now have a boyfriend and I'm sure that he will find them most attractive and so i may just end up with their offspring in the future.  Ella currently has chicks crossed with this big boy and a silkie and they are so so cute.

Anyway, it is done.  The side of the house they lived in has been pressure washed down and the table and chairs have returned to an area previously known and now again, as Cafe Dyson.  I spent the afternoon sitting out there with my sister sipping cool drinks and felt relaxed knowing that I've gained several hours of my weekends back again.

Cafe Dyson -  The coop is all clean and waiting to be delivered to Ella's.  I think she is going to let her little ones use it till they can run with the pack.

I will miss their fluorescent yellow eggs but I'm sure i can sneak a few from Ella or better still, pop down for a visit and have some bacon and eggs for breakie, like this morning.

Oh, please try and find this stuff or make it.  Its unlike caramelised onions.  Its a jam and is absolutely marvellous with a savoury breakie.  It would be fab on vintage cheese.

Onion Marmalade, with black olives and Balsamic Vinegar.

Followed by blueberry curd on croissants.

Oh, ive just learnt when trying to find you a link that this comes from the UK.  Oh Dear.  Let me know if you come across a similar Australian item or a recipe.

Cheers everyone and....

Morning Update

Ella sent me photos this morning and told me they had a good night.  She placed them all together in the one nesting box and this morning they are out in the run with the others.  I fear that Molly will have to come down a peg or two on the pecking order but really, she was a bossy boots and at times quite mean.

Thanks For Visiting Living In The Land Of Oz.    

Veggie Bed Cleanup and New Fangle Dangles

My first strawberry for the season.  Almost too pretty to eat.  My neighbour picked the right time to pop his head over the fence (not hard when he is hanging his washing on the line and he's well over 6 ft) and so Mohammad was gifted my precious strawberry.  He made all the right noises to pacify my having forgone the pleasure.   I didn't get a picture but i also gifted my very first blueberry to my Bestie when she arrived.  I'll have to wait for the next one to try them out.

Yes, that's right "fangle dangles".  Yet another expression that my mother has passed on to me.  I could also have called them "thingameejigs" or "whatsits" or "doodads" or "gizmos" or....   So what new items am i referring too?

That would be the addition of my new feeder and drinker for the girls.   Looking through many Aussie blogs over this year including mine (Keeping Chickens Workshop), I've seen a few people get these, so the supplier must be feeling pretty chuffed with himself and doing well.  Gav from Greening of Gavin has trialled these with much success.  They are available through their Royal Rooster Website. On arrival a couple of days after purchase,  i can see that they are made from simple plumbing materials and yet very cleverly made. It feels good to support a small local manufacturer just outside Melbourne.   I am hoping that they will cut down the free ranging wild birds that make such a mess (poop) in the yard and eat all the girls feed.

Now the training begins.  I'm sorry to say that although i adore the girls, they are a few sandwiches short of a picnic.  Although they are very cute, lay the odd egg and i hear make great mothers, there's a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock, if you know what i mean.  There has to be a reason for that damm chicken to keep trying to cross the road, right? Maybe it should just stay where it is. Now pigs, that's a clever animal but since i don't have a pigsty out the back, the girls are my only farm animals in residence, dumb or not.   (I'm waiting for the backlash - here it comes!!!)

Well its been only a few days and the girls have surprised me.  They are still clucking very loudly to be fed each morning at 6 but they they must be eating it as the level has dropped and I've caught them a few times with their heads inside.

 
That's Molly at the feeder and Lacy at the drinker.  They are the most bossy of the 4, so i hope the smaller ones are getting their share.

At least with the drinker being such a small receptacle, the sparrows are not dirtying the water having baths.
When we finish the front yard, it will have a bird bath for the birds to quench their thirst in.  So long as they stay away from the back yard and my seedlings, I'm happy to accommodate them during the hot summer.

The weekend was spent cleaning up all the beds and pulling out the winter crops that had gone to seed or for that matter, gone nowhere.  That would be the brussel sprouts, which for some unknown reason, i seemed to have planted many.  Also i pulled what i thought was cabbage plants with a mountain of leaves out and added them to the pile in the girls yard which was about a cubic square metre by the time i was finished.  Thank goodness they haven't worked out that they are suppose to eat the green stuff i put in there.  The next day while walking past i spotted this in the pile.  I actually grew a cauliflower.  It looks super good so i took it back from the chooks.  They didn't want it anyway.

I'm seeing cauliflower with cheese sauce in its near future.

Beetroot and leaves, Snow Peas, and various lettuces

Silverbeet and Chard -  all frozen and vac sealed in the freezer.  The boys don't eat these and yet Hubby made no comment when he had his quiche tonight.  It had spinach and chard on the bottom topped with leeks, bacon, asparagus,  feta and  cherry tomatoes.  Yum.    

Naughty girls laid some eggs behind the chard tree.  Yes that's right, chard tree.  It was over 6ft and the stem was 5cm thick.   My rotating compost bin is stuffed to the gunnels and so i was lucky that a friend came round and took the green waste home to his compost. 

My plantings for spring now include:

Bed 1 - Corn and Lettuce. When the corn reaches a foot high I'll plant beans around them so they can climb up.  This bed also has mint and dill and small white flowers as companion plants.  I tossed some radish seeds in the gaps over the weekend.

Bed 2 - My perpetual baby spinach is living up to its name and still going strong from last year.  Ive continually picked leaves for salads from it.  This bed also has the two parsley plants (flat leaf and curly) which took over the bed during winter.  After a hard prune i found mushrooms from the mushroom compost underneath which i didn't think were safe to eat.  There is also beetroot plants coming to an end now, garlic chives and a pot with lemon balm in it.

Bed 3 - There are several snow pea plants on the trellis that are going strong and are picked often.  The only other thing in here at the moment is the silverbeet which also keeps on keeping on.  Plenty of space for something but not tomatoes as this bed had them last year.

Bed 4 - Pretty much empty except for 6 heritage tomato plants about 15cm high on the trellis and strawberry crowns which i haven't separated yet, and some marigold seedlings.  I think this will be my tomato bed this year and so there is plenty of room for perhaps a dozen more later in spring.  There is also basil seeds thrown in here to help keep the bugs at bay.  I've put a few in Bed 7 as well in case a disaster hits and i lose all the tomatoes from Bed 4.  I may do up some pots too.

Bed 5 - Zucchini plants, marigolds and about a dozen leeks left over from winter being stored in the ground.  I picked a couple on the weekend and they are still great.  I eat lots of salad and so later on more lettuce will go in.

Bed 6 - More Zucchini - i know but i do love them and hope to pickle them this year. Perhaps Ive gone overboard as they were quite successful last year and i seem to run away from my failures, like carrots. I've put them in the waist high beds this year as they landed on the ground last year. I also have a raised trough planter with more strawberry plants, as above.  There's room for more but i don't know what yet.

Bed 7 -  Capsicums still growing from last year, two grafted tomato plants, lemon balm on the loose and bordered by alyssum.   Still space left.

Bed 8 -  A black passionfruit vine was planted a few weeks ago and since it is still only a foot high i have put cucumbers on the same trellis over summer.  Lots more room for more stuff in this bed.  

7 & 8 are against the wall of the back of the house and so being under the eaves they miss the rain and also get the heat off the wall.  I have to be really careful to water these two beds often and I'm looking forward to getting my irrigation system up and running (so to speak), literally.   I have a 2000L tank that is full and a water pump in the shed just sitting there.  So many projects on the go at once.

In Beds 3, 4, 7 & 8 which are all about 45 cm high i have to find a solution to the Girl problem.  They love to get into them and Tilly thinks they are pretty nice to dig in as well.  Working on some mesh gates that i can put in and remove when working on beds.  The other beds are all 90cm high and are lovely to work in.  No bending.

In separate pots i have garlic, borage, blueberries, rosemary, lemons, kumquats, mandarine, pear and of course lavenders to bring in the bees.  Surrounding the garlic box i have made a potato bed that is growing profusely. I cant keep up with it and have to keep topping the soil and mulch.   Gosh i hope that there are some spuds in there and not just lots of leaves.

So that's the role call and along with mowing and whipper snipping around all those beds it was full weekend of gardening.  Now its just feed, water, feed, water, feed and be on bug alert.

Thanks for visiting Living In The Land of Oz

Sunday Sunday, doo doo, doo doo doo doo

Hands up if you know that tune.Yeah Yeah , i know its meant to be Monday Monday, but who wants to sing about Monday when its the start of a new working week and back to the grindstone.  Saturday is full of chores not managed at night during the week, shopping, chicken coop clean out, lawns and on and on .....   Nothing better than a Sunday with only a few errands so the whole day just unfolds.  I'm writing about Sunday before Saturday because I've left my phone containing the photos from the Royal Melbourne Show on my office desk and right now, it feels like I'm missing an appendage.  So excuse me if I'm out of sync this week.

My Sunday starts with some very very loud clucking right on 6.00am  For that matter, make that most days. I'm sure the neighbours wouldn't believe the size of the chooks making that much noise.  Those bantams make the loudest noise ever and even i cant pretend i cant hear them and have to drag myself out from under a doona into the cold to feed them.  Note to self, put the grain out the night before when they have gone to bed.

My very bossy girls.  Ive fixed their little red wagon, today i ordered the Royal Rooster Feeder and Drinker.  No more early morning feeds. Yeah me.  How dumb not to have done it sooner.  It will also help with keeping the other birds away.  I'm sick of cleaning up their poop. Like any Mum, its ok to clean up your own girls poop but not others!

So why is it such a big drama to have to get up.  Why cant i just go back to sleep?  Because i have a puppy in the house.  Once she sees me awake, that's it, play time.  She is so full of energy. Being only 10 weeks she is only making it as far as 4am (gosh its like having a baby all over again) and then with a little cuddle i can get her back down again.  Once she sees me out of bed though, the game is up and i have to keep her quiet so she doesn't wake the rest of the house having a weekend sleep in.



My name is TROUBLE!

Take one massive beetroot found hiding in one of the raised bed.  Its about the size of a softball.  A little woody on the end but salvageable.  

Skin and cut into large chunks, toss in  little oil, salt & pepper and garlic.  Roast at 180, cover in foil for 40 minutes.  Test with skewer for softness.  You don't want it mushy but just a little bite

PS.  I don't eat beetroot but Hubby and Bestie were impressed.

Waltz around the garden picking leaves from various green things including snow peas and baby beetroot leaves and give them a good wash. 

All packaged ready for early morning prep of lunches this week, and it didn't cost me $5 a bag (which i can re-use next week)

Talk about fluro eggs.  How yellow are these?  The scrambled eggs looked almost weird on the white plate with crispy bacon and toast triangles (no photos but I'm sure you get the picture)  but tasted divine.  Tom not only ate them (miracle) but said they tasted great.  Bantam eggs have a greater proportion of yolk to white.

This lettuce, which is one of the ones i pick my weekly bag from is months old and almost 2 ft high.  You can see the lemon balm on the left doing very well now that it has been moved from under a pile of parsley. 

There is so much growth going on i cant keep up.  This chard just took off and grew literally feet in a week.  I still don't do anything with it.  Please send a recipe that you think might be acceptable to two very plain eaters.  The spinach must be hidden.   I wouldn't grow this again (as i don't use it) but i planted it last spring and its still here.  At least it is lovely to look at.  The girls don't eat it either. 

I have several of these in my pot garden (all terracotta) and they are literally covered in bees.

I pot up smaller pots of lavender and move them around the garden beds wherever there are flowers to be pollinated.  

My sister has taken her grandchildren "home"  (read country NSW) for the holidays and so i did my sisterly duty and snuck in (on her request) and gathered up all the hidden Christmas presents to bring to my house.  Yes, she is that organised.  All put on layby earlier in the year, paid for and ready for wrapping.

Yep, that's me!  Santa's Little Helper - i knew one day i would sneak in a photo of myself .
 I Wish (and so does my Hubbby)

OK, so now that you are all thoroughly jealous and ive allienating every female reader and perhaps gained a few male ones, i will take my weary feet (long day at Show) to bed with some Dencorub and a painkiller.

Wouldnt you have sore feet and be uncomfortable walking for 12 hrs in those snazzy high boots and short dress on a very cool blustery spring day here in Melbourne.  Give a girl a break.   Next time ill wear opaques. LOL.

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