Letting it slip :(

I really wanted to do this. Write a bog about how awesome my garden is. About all the food I'm growing, eating and preserving. But it is not going that way... I live where I work. My husband and I run a guest house, we have the baby (5 month old now), so when I get free time i just want to read my book and have a up of tea. So in my spare time I have not been going out into the garden. I want this to end! I am going to get out there this week, pull out the tomato's, weed the grass and plant some root crops and onions. I will also make a proper fox proof chicken pen (maybe not this week) so my next lot of hens will be safe. ( we lost our Scaredy Hen as well)

Just one our feathery friends.

I want to think of some positives. I live in an amazing place, the weather is just getting cold and I love it. We have some special wild life and this is going to be a great place for my kid to grow up.

over night this Orb spider made a web in the door way of one of the guests rooms.

We have The common Blue tongue and this Eastern blue tone here. We have had babies running around as well! So cute!

The aquaponics is going well, but I will up date about that soon, for my boy has just woken up.

A Sad day.

I lost 3 of my chickens today! I feel really sad... Now it's just Scardey Hen left. It looks like a fox did it. Just 3 piles of feathers in 3 different spots. I will look at getting more, I can just have one poor girl by her self... But I think I will make an enclosed pen. So they don't just fully free range.I will think about that all a bit later... I do know some one local who breeds Australorps.... but we will see....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australorp

More sad news. My Sweet corn tasted like card board! And my Red Aztec corn tasted even worse! I do not know why this happened! I was so looking forward to eating my very own fresh corn off the cob, bah! I shall have to try again next year.
Also My tomato's are getting those horrid grubs in them. They bore in,while still green and then as to tomato's ripens they eat it and then it rots! Have still been able to harvest some of them though.

Some bright news is that the butternut pumpkin has finally got fruit, and they sweet pumpkin is still going, making pumpkins. We used on to make scones with and they were YUM!

The Aquaponics kit final arrived. It is set up and ready to go. We just need fish (have ordered 100 silver perch fingerling) and then then a hole bunch of seedling.

So wish me luck and lets hope thing run a bit more smoothly from now on.

Rain

It has been a while... But in that time I have watched my garden grow, my chickens grow and gave birth to my own little being and watched him grow as well. On the day my little baby boy was born it rained so hard and heavy that I added a second middle name at the last moment. Rain. The sound of it beating against my window and making the day dark out side soothed me though my labour.
Rain, it has not stopped since then. At first I thought, yay, my garden will be ok though this summer. But then things started to rot! And Mold! My no dig potato's are all soggy, I have not had the heart to dig them up, but I'm pretty shore they didn't make it. I have not been very active at all in the garden of late though. Brest feeding and new baby and constant rain have kept me busy or inside.
Things that are going well: My corn, both types, have ears! Lots of green tomato's. D's sugar pumpkins are going wild with fruit and flowers. The herb terrace is going great! And the french sorrel is green and lush and seeding (it self seeds so I should have lots next season).
Things that are not going so well: The cabbage white butterfly's decimated my 3 cauliflowers. Even though I kept going out there and squashing the egg and then pulling off the horrid green caterpillars. The butternut pumpkins hardly grew. Some flowers, but no fruit as yet. And the cucumbers have been rotting in the wet.
I will be trying to get out there more and write on here more.
Till then, may the sun shine and the plants grow!

Eggs!

I now have fresh eggs! My 2 big hens are laying. (they are also getting into my garden, which is making me more inclined to have roast chicken rather then a steady supply of eggs...) I gave away my first eggs to a friend the other day. It was such a nice feeling, to give some thing like that. The 2 little Chicky's are almost not Chicky's any more. The peeping has almost stopped and I catch them making more adult sounds. The are getting bigger. It wont be long and they will be laying as well.

My Garden is plodding along, but I had some trouble getting my Eden seeds to germinate (in the cold frame or in the garden) . The corn and 2 types of pumpkin did well in the garden until the chooks got in. They suffered some losses and war wounds, but my cucumbers and D's attempt at watermelons did not survive. I'll try and germinate some more tomato's, Mellon's and some other things that I maybe did not nurture well enough. In the mean time I went out to our locale nursery to purchased some herbs, Tomato's, beans and cucumbers to keep my gardening spirits up. I planted them yesterday, watered them, and then it rained. With only a month to go before my bub comes I'm taking it nice and easy in the garden.

My Chickens!

I have never had chickens before. I was a little unshore about them at first, not really being a bird person... but now I love them! They are funny and cute and hopefully will be giving me eggs soon. I Still have to keep the 2 little ones in a different cage at night because the 2 big hens are big bully's and peck them quite bad ( though not as bad as a week ago though) I hope to have them all in the same pen in a week or 2. The Pen I have is good for 4 chooks, but not to stay in all day and night. So they are all out free ranging being very happy little Chicky's!

This is what D, my husband, bought for my birthday. It came all in flat pack and he put it together. I loves it!

There is some info I gathered about my two types of chickens.

ISA Brown

• They are a hybrid and not a true breed. Made by crossing Rhode Island Reds and Rhode Island Whites together
• Created by a company to get the most value for money egg laying wise.
• There best egg laying time is in the first 18months. You may get 300 eggs per hen in the first year.
• They are good little pets ( in my opinion)

My 2 little New Hampshire

 New Hampshire

• Breed created in America in 1915
• A duel purpose bird ( meet and eggs)
• Lays brown eggs around 120 per hen a year

They are such a delight to watch, pecking and diffing and dust bathing and napping in the shade. After seeing just how happy my little guys are it really makes me rethink buying any chicken product that is not free range and looked after. To imagine those poor battery hens, just stuck there in tiny cages laying eggs. Never seeing the true light of day, never ruffling there feathers in the dirt. It is truly sad.
Just been told by D that all the chooks are in the veggie garden! I have to go get them out!

My first Blog ever.

My husband says this is a waste of time, that face book is the same thing.. but what the hell I say. I'll give it a whirl!
My husband and I are expecting our first baby. We both thought it was important to provide fresh fruit and veg for the little one, and to teach it where things come from. And that's how our garden got started. I have been looking into peraculture and it seems the way to go. Maybe not down to a T, but it's principles sound pretty sound to me. I'm very interested in heirloom plants and animals for my mini back yard farm.
So far We have a compost set up and 3 working veggie beds (so far).  Corn, cucumber, watermelon, pumpkin and potato's growing so far. And a little herb terrace just planted out.

No dig garden beds. Back one full of seed potato's.

So for my birthday I got given a very awesome chicken coop that can  fit about 4 chooks. And then I was given 4 chooks! 2 Isa Browns and (about to lay any minute) and 2 new Hampshire (just little chicks, but growing very fast).

Anyway, lets see what happens eh?