Saturday, June 08, 2013

It's winter, pretty much...

So I thought I'd have a wander around the garden to see what's going on.
It's been wet recently, we've had some rather spectacular rainy days, so it's all a bit boggy out there!
As you can see the trees have turned! This is a Japanese Maple and every year it puts on an amazing display for us.



And it's camellia time of year. We have camellias round the deck of the house, white ones at the front and pink ones at the side. They are spectacular right now.

Next it was a wee wander round the veggie garden. It's a bit of a sorry sight right now. I decided not to do any winter planting in here at all, except for some Aldermans Peas which are the most amazing heritage pea, ever! These grow very well up here, even over winter.

The rest of the veggie garden beds are empty, fertilized and mostly under hay! The asparagus bed needs the ferns cut down now, and fed and covered, but even though these berries are poisonous, I think they look really pretty.

I purposely left a few sweetcorn plants for the birds to have something to eat when it got colder. It's amazing. They open the cobs themselves and just eat further down each day. Impossible to photograph them actually going it though, which is a real shame.

Next into the citrus orchard. This year our keffir lime if covered in limes, which is brilliant as they are totally amazing to cook with. And the smell is gorgeous.

Bananas! This year has been a spectacular year for them. I think they really enjoy the droughts. We'll let these get a bit bigger then take them off to ripen. We just ripen them on the deck.
 Here you can see how they form from the flower. What you can't see is how many bees are buzzing around the pollen!


Then I went into the greenhouse, where I am growing things over winter.  Since this is my first year of having the greenhouse it's all very experimental for now. As you can see the second I went in there the camera lens instantly fogged up because of the heat!

This, I am very excited about. I grew some tomatoes from seed a few weeks ago - I did a bit of research and found Sub Arctic Plenty, and Oregon Spring. I think these are my best hope of having winter tomatoes.  The plants are growing beautifully and if you look closely - through the fog - you can see wee flowers starting. It remains to be seen in I can actually ripen anything.

I've also planted some herbs that would normally die back in the herb garden over winter. Coriander and basil, we use these all the time.

And the chillies! They are still growing like wild triffids. I trimmed them back hugely a couple of weeks ago, and already there are lots of new leaves growing from the ends of the cut bits.

Here's some of the garden markers I made at pottery - just cos!

And the sudras - remember the rogue, self seeded chilli I found in the veggie garden and potted up and put in the greenhouse? Well, its growing up a storm. These are so pretty and really long. Lloyd assures me they have a lovely flavour.

Then I thought, I haven't taken any photos of the chickens recently...
My girls really do do us proud, in the 7 years I've had them we've never had to buy eggs, and this year they've almost paid for their own food too!
You haven't met Gerald yet! He's my white leghorn boy, he was one that hatched at the beginning of the year. He's very handsome. Still young though.

This is Beatrice, she's one of my Barnvelders. They're very pretty and lay really lovely dark brown eggs.

Here's some of the gang having some scratchy -  there's Barnvelders, NHRs, Barred Rocks, Araucanas, Leghorns, a Campine, Wyandottes, and some mixtermaxters!

This is Sparrow, shading herself, she's a cross between a NHR and a Leghorn
 
Here's Maude. She was my very first chicken and she's 7. See how grey she's getting. She's not laying right now as she's just coming out of a moult, but she still lays regularly. She's my best girl!

This is one of Gerald's sisters. She's Glinda ( the good witch!) Not laying yet, too young.

So there you have it! What's going on here.

I've been invited to take part in The Garden Share Collective. It's a monthly post and it should be very exciting! The next one will be on the first of July - I'm just getting you all ready!!

16 comments:

  1. It is all so wonderful.

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  2. Thanks for the tour of your patch, I am in love!!! And you grow BANANAS!!!! You like me love your feathered girls. We are down to one egg a day but they will get back on the lay soon I am sure. One day I am going to come down your driveway for a visit!!!

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    1. you want to know a secret,though, I don't like bananas!! I will make the odd cake though. But these bananas are pretty lovely. You would be so welcome to come down our driveway any day!

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  3. WOW amazing photographs Laura, your chickens look so happy & well cared for, I wish I was an animal at your place !!!!
    What a lovely idea to leave some corn for the birds, we have had a Boobook Owl in our garden for two weeks, he has moved on now but was so tame & winked at me when I was watering near by :). xx

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    1. my chickens are super spoiled. Poor things have a rather muddy area right now. I think it's time to give them a new hay carpet!! Shame your owl has moved on, that must have been so cool!!

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  4. It's all looking so good, and your chickens and gorgeous Gerald look really happy and healthy. A lovely selection of birds. Mine are a bit tatty at the moment a mixture of moulting and a rather randy cockerel!!

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    1. Mine were a bit tatty a wee while ago, it seemed that most of them were going through their moult. Gerald is still pretty young, so I don't think he even fancies any of them yet!!

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  5. The sights of Autumn always bring joy to my heart.

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    1. Spring is more my time of year! I love it when all the new buds and shoots appear.

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  6. Love your photos. Yours hens look healthy. I have an old cross silver Wyandotte rooster that's 9 1/2 years old and I think I'll have to put him down as his old legs aren't holding him up too well in this cold. I've been screwing up the courage to do this as he's been such a good carer of his girls in the past and doesn't have a mean bone in his body.
    Cheers, Robyn

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    1. 9 1/2! that's amazing. I don't envy you, but he's obviously had a pretty brilliant life. or make him a wee coat or something! xx

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  7. Stunning photos, those chooks look pretty darn healthy. I am looking at getting some English Sussex as they are bigger than most birds. We have a problem with hawks at our place, so bigger birds might not be so tempting.

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    1. thanks :) I've got a Light Sussex -I think that's the same thing - a big white bird with black feathers round their necks? Mine is called Geraldine - she's lovely and lays really large eggs.
      It's amazing we have a lot of hawks, but they show absolutely no interest in my chickens. Very lucky.

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  8. Wow. So much to see going on at your place! Those pottery plant markers are fantastic! What a cute idea and practical pottery project! I am also pretty amazed by the banana photos. Being far from banana growing country up here I'd never even imagined how it might look. Very cool. Trees with red leaves are a favorite around our house. Beautiful chickens!

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    1. I love those markers too - I've put them in the greenhouse.

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I love it when you leave me comments, it lets me know there are folk out there reading my ramblings! Thank you, I appreciate them loads and loads
Laura x