The final lot of duckings appeared at the house this morning with their mum. She knew to take them here for food - good mum. Then much to her disgust Lloyd and I caught all the babies and after a bit of exercise ( running around the garden like numpties) we got mum and they were reunited in the chicken house. You could argue that as I let my ducks free range I could just leave them for nature to take her course ~ I wish I could, but I can't. I would be out there every second counting babies and breaking my heart each time there was one less ( and there would be as there are hawks and evil pukekos around) This way I can relax. And mum duck probably forgives me, eventually.
She has 8. So out of the four lots of ducklings there have been three eights and a five. The original 2 that I kept, hoping they were girls... well I am now sure I got that one wrong! They look very manly. I kept one other from the next batch - I have no idea what it is but it looks girly for now. Lloyd and I may keep the rest and perhaps even make a meal of the boys... oh! My! It remains to be seen if I can actually go through with this.
She's saying "get away from my babies, you huge human, you!"
The other babies are the veggie babies!
This is a brandywine tomato flower. These are an old heritage tomato and regularly win "best tasting tomato". I've not grown them before, and have never seen a big flower like this on a tomato. They are a huge ugly beefie.
Courgette flower. I picked the first green courgette, only one, and a couple of small yellow ones this morning. The yellow ones ( Goldrush) seem to be much slower growing than the green one.
And last but by no means least ( I am really excited about these!) There are gem squashes on the plants. They are really teeny, and some little bug has taken a small nibble out of the first one, but obviously didn't like it very much so thankfully stopped! I planted three of these and they have suddenly sprung into life. There were a lot of male flowers, but finally, some squashes have appeared.
NIWA gave their long range forecast yesterday. Supposedly Northland is going to have a tropical summer - very hot, very humid and lengthy periods of time between rain but when it comes it will be of the tropical sort - like a months rain in a day. Anyone know how to protect veggies from this sort of rain?
I love, love, love your duck photos!!!! Especially the mum!
ReplyDeleteLiz
That mother duck photo is just wonderful. I don't know how you klick just at the right time, and not cut their heads off.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure that is what I would do.
Love the ducks! Rain, sun, humidity, that would make a good growing season I imagine? Maybe need to watch out for fungal problems on some plants though. We're having the same conditions right now.
ReplyDeleteAs winter is settling in here in U.S. it is so refreshing to see some summer photos of your garden. Keep them coming.
ReplyDeleteI love the photo of the mummy duck! What a great close-up shot!
ReplyDeleteHi Laura, Lovely Photos. I don't have anything growing in the ground this year so it is lovely to see what you guys are producing :)
ReplyDeletegreat duck pics, i struggle to get close ups of my ducks who are not very cooperative photo subjects, but you've inspired me to have another go. I've another batch of ducklings due any day now. I lost most of my last lot to the pukeko when I let them out finally - they were 3/4's grown, but the pukeko still attacked them. This lot will be in confinement for a while. Re catching ducks - I modified one of those fishing nets that you use to lift big fish out of the water by taking off the net and replacing with a bag stitched out of old shade cloth. It makes catching ducks so much easier.
ReplyDelete