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Category: general growing conditions | Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 2:46 am

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Wow! It's been ages since I've been on Gardenstew.
It's been a hectic few months, with a lot of changes.
I haven't had time to get out into the garden for months either. In the meantime, the weeds have taken over completely. a lot of plants have self seeded, and gone wild. The Guinea fowl have grown, started laying eggs, but once you find them, they never come back to the nest. Silly sods!
I put them under two different bantams, in two different cages. Same result. Upset hens, not sitting. Cold eggs. Very cold eggs. Oh well.

I built a temporary fence from the gate to the chook pen (which is completely bare of weeds. Poor chooks are competing for every leaf.) over to the vege patch, and back. Now they get let out every morning, and have access to almost half the vege patch. They have to get locked back in at night, or the foxes get them. The silly things have heaps of large green leafy things available to the, but they don't seem too eager to get out there and do their jobs yet. This morning I got out there and started pulling weeds, then moving along and calling them. they love the newly weeded areas to scratch in. Hopefully they will keep it up for a while before going back in. the upside is, the eggs are HUGE now. Kind of which I'd thought to do this sooner, and then their pen wouldn't be quite so denuded.

Well, it's probably the end of a very mild winter here in Australia, and it smells of spring. The bees are loving all the trees in flower, so hopefully we'll get some honey soon. I haven't been back into the hive since my last disastrous foray in where I got so many stings. Ouch.

Hope to hear how everyone's Summers are going.

Deb


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Sjoerd wrote on Fri Aug 20, 2010 8:23 am:

Welcome back!
What a nice story of how things are going there. I am sorry to hear that it was a 'mild winter' there. It is a good thing if the winters are more harsh, I have found.

Oh me, how nice it would be to be able to have chickens. I would really like that! I could use the extra help with combatting pests and the poop. I would REALLY like to have access to some chook poop. It is extremely difficult to get hold of it here.

Sorry to hear of your unfortunate foray to the hive. --No pain, no gain, right? ;)

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debbieteale wrote on Fri Aug 20, 2010 9:30 am:

Thanks so much Sjoerd. (tell me, how do you pronounce your name? I've wondered....)
They really are terrific. Huge eggs, really tasty(no comparison to shop bought eggs!)and turning bugs & weeds into poop! and they dig the ground a bit too.
We used to get weeks of rain, pelting down all day. Now we're lucky if the showers last 20 minutes. Sigh...

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Sjoerd wrote on Fri Aug 20, 2010 10:28 am:

You pronounce my name likr this: Shoe-erd....but fast as if it were one syllable...and a little rolling of the 'r'.

That is a dramatic change with precipitation. Gad! That's not much at all now then! Tch!

Chickens. How I wish that out allotment rules allowed them. Even one would be enough for me.

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brombear wrote on Sat Aug 21, 2010 5:24 pm:

Hi debbie, I love the sound of your garden adventures and how good to hear the experiences of someone so close to me.YOur chooks sound like they are going great, i know, they get fussy sometimes, but yes, nothing like fresh greens for super rich yolks and strong shells. I don't have chickens yet, a few things to take care of first here but am very keen as I miss their feathery personalities ands uasefuleness int he garden. We do want to get them here, to fertilise and cultivate soils between crop rotations and with bug and pest control, and particularily in the part of an integrated approach in controlling fruit fly repdroductive cycle once our trees start producing. I want to get bantams too- in the rest of the yard I find large chooks just too destructive. Until I do get them, i will be keeping a close on your blog and living my chickens vicariously through you. Hope you find time to get out there now that spring has sprung!

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debbieteale wrote on Sun Aug 22, 2010 1:43 am:

Thanks Sjoerd, I'll remember that for the future. Language is so interesting. A couple of chooks in the allotment would be a great idea. In fact, when I get the photos out of the camera I'll have to post some of the large chook pen/fruit tree pen they have in at our community garden. They have bricks and rocks around the base of each tree to discourage them from digging the roots out, but then all the grubs and fallen fruit, and manure all the time.... what can I say. I envy them.
there's this guy everyone cals "Old Ken" from england, and he's there every morning for a couple of hours. He moved from England to be closer to his kids after his wife died, and as such has plenty of spare time. He's a lovely guy. Anyway, he tells me he's constantly amazed at what produce you can grow here. He's considered pretty much a caretaker at the Community Garden, along with a lady who spent so mjuch time getting the thing up and running. he and his son got the chook pen sorted. Lovely.

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debbieteale wrote on Sun Aug 22, 2010 1:48 am:

Hi Brombear. Lovelyt to hear from you. Perth's not such a long way from here, but we only seem to go there for flying one day visits for specialists, etc.
I had a look at your pics on Gardenstew. Lovely. You seem to live on a hillside, which must be great for drainage. We do have a problem with drainage here in busselton, as we live on such low lying ground. Not a hill for miles! I have twice tried to get fruit trees going, but the get so wet with our usual winters that the roots rot off. And as we get sort of warm summers, they dry out so much when you raise them above ground that they need a lot more water. We don't have much rainwater, and live out of town, so no scheme water at all. now i have a lemon tree and an orange in the front yard where I can perhaps bucket some onto them from the washing machine. You never know, Imight actually do it this year! It could happen...
I'll try to take some pics today, and post them tonight. Happy gardening.

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Sjoerd wrote on Sun Aug 22, 2010 11:33 pm:

What a nice answer from you DebbieT. That sounds like an interesting character, "Old Ken"...and I become more intrigued by the day with the community gardens there.

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