I fell off my blog

(I pinched that from another blog I read today, which I thought was terrific.)

So we've just come back from a glorious few weeks in Europe (very hot summer coming up for them, I think! Sablet was like a little oven!) and winter has hit while we were gone and there's Things To Be Done in the garden, although the delicious Gardening Dave and our very kind neighbours looked after the place very well for us. This morning the garden was thick with frost which still hasn't quite burned off. The chickens appear to have gone significantly quiet egg-wise - two eggs a day since we arrived back, and Pauline said they were only laying three a day while we were gone, so one of them is shirking. I think it's the black one, because she's looking a bit headachy at the moment, so I'm going to treat them today to a rice-tuna-garlic thing with some cheese shredded in and see if that helps by infusing a little protein. I'll add some garlic, too, just for anti-everything properties.

The co-op is closed today, but tomorrow I'll hit them up for some tonic and new layer mush. For some reason these girls prefer their pellets as mush. I think they're spoiled, but what the heck.

The vegetable garden got eaten by something  while we were gone - the caulis looked like they had been doing well, but there's only bits of the new heads left. The brussels sprouts, ditto - but this will happen when you leave a place for six weeks, and anyway we were planning to put new earth in for Spring. So that won't be a problem.

That's it for the moment. Just trying to remember to use this again as a way of keeping tabs on what works and what doesn't, what needs to be done, and when.

Change of seasons

Jonathon dropped by yesterday and agreed that now is a good time to start prepping part of the kitchen garden for a change of seasons. So I'm going to clear another couple of beds out, condition them a bit and then mulch them with straw from the chicken coop to see them through the predicted heatwaves. After that, when the weather has turned, they can take cauliflower, broccoli and maybe some late parsnip.

The too-early tomatoes are coming on well, though not as well as they would have if I'd held off a few weeks. Early ones are coming in now, though - all heritage, and very pretty.

Must remember next year to wait till November - and to prop, tie and prune more effectively. Also, once this lot are finished, must use all the compost on the tomato bed, and mulch and let lie. 

Today is also strawberry day - got to remove the netting, weed, and replace the netting, but properly this time. Also prep that bed for the heritage carrot seeds I'm expecting today - though they can't go in till the heat has passed. 

Also, write.

Note to self: the eastern side of the kitchen garden is getting all the morning sun at the moment - the western side is very damp and only gets sun from 11:00 onwards

Or I could do you one of these...

We only feed them when Grandmother is coming over. She rather likes them.

Put in some mixed lettuce seedlings and silverbeet today. The birds ripped the net-bags from the berries along the fence and scoffed the lot, little beasts - so I'll put up some of the netting sheets to confound them. The magpies and the neighbour-children are working their way through the strawberries out in the front. The last of the caulis and broccoli will come out tomorrow -  not sure what to put in. I have no seedlings ready. Bad management!

Picking raspberries, fingerling beans, strawberries, broccolini, broccoli, spinach, beetroot, potatoes, kale, cauliflower, and the first of the yellow pear tomatoes.

Cauliflowers

shouldn't be planted straight after or in the same little bed as peas. I just discovered. Because brassicas don't benefit from too much nitrogen - they go silly and have lots of leaves. So - lesson learned.

Also - those early tomatoes were way too early and are all spindly and pathetic. Were all spindly and pathetic. I bit the bullet (I'm getting tough like that) and pulled them up, added some wood ash from the fire to the soil, fed it with comfrey tea and we'll try again soon. The later, post-Melbourne-Cup ones are coming along nicely. I left them alone.

We're all out of peas for the moment (some novellas are hopefully coming up soon) the broad beans are ready to pick, the kale is glorious, as are the strawberries. Also, the chooks got out the other day and unearthed some lovely potatoes. Oh, they did have fun!

Sown 12 tomatoes: four each of Hungarian Heart, Purple Russian, Big Rainbow and ??. I also took some cuttings of the Green Zebra and planted those direct.

Netted some of the thorn berries, since it appears those rotten little mynahs are getting into them. We're awash with raspberries - picking them every morning.

Food

We're currently (really - right now as I speak)  eating Jonathon's kipfler potatoes, my massey peas cooked in butter and Jonathon's green garlic with a little of the McKeith rosemary and salt that we bought in the Carmargue. A side of kale salad and radishes. Not too bad.

The pea thing is huge at the moment - I have the ones we're harvesting and two more plantings to follow. I probably planted too much chard, just enough spinach and there can always be more radishes.

The cauliflowers are just forming heads, also the broccoli. I transplanted the brandy wine and jaune flamee which are looking very healthy.  The weather is totally stupid. 37 degrees one day, 18 the next. There's no need to factor it into the planning - just plant everything all the time would be my advice.

Good morning!

Monday is (amongst other things) Water The Roses and Strawberries Day. As the summer comes on, I'll do that in the mornings, but while the tradies are working out there, leave it till after they've gone.

This is what the working part of the garden looks like right now. We have spinach, chard, kale, lettuce, beetroot, peas, early climbing beans, cabbage, cauliflower, potatoes (Jonathons - self-sown: I know it's too early!!! ) broccoli, broccolini, radishes, chillis, sweet chillis, garlic, (Jonathon put it in for us during the settlement phase and it's just about ready for harvest) carrots, pak choy, and the fruit trees - three apples, a prolific orange, a lemon that Jonathon's mother-in-law brought in Forbes. Oh, and the strawberries. And four kinds of thornless berries along the fence and two olive trees. And a nectarine.

And the chickens of course.

Except for Jonathon's work (the layout, the fruit and berries, the garlic, the soil, the compost - god, but we're lucky!) all this is in the very early stages - at the moment we're taking in oranges and leafy greens and that's all. (And the herbs from the herb pots - photos of herbs later.)

Bowral Weather

CURRENT CONDITIONS IN BOWRAL, NSW
Current Temp:13.6°C	Humidity: 84%	Pressure:1021.8hPa
Feels like: 12°C	Wind Speed: 18kp/h (Gusts: 30kp/h)
Dew Point: 10.9°C	Wind Direction: N/A

Current Observations @ 9/09/2013 8:00:00 AM

FORECASTS
Monday, September 09	10°C - 22°C		Fog then sunny
Tuesday, September 10	14°C - 21°C		Windy
Wednesday, September 11	7°C - 15°C		Mostly sunny
Thursday, September 12	5°C - 14°C		Mostly sunny