10 posts tagged “garden”
05:16 @goldie84 mac but I do have a funny accent
09:31 Grass is growing on our naturestrip, yay!
airme.us/z401f
09:34 @goldie84 uppon thinking about it, I pretty much always call it maccas...
12:37 Baking this morning airme.us/z402e
18:22 airme.us/z4040
23:08 @goldie84 ouch!
Our veggie garden is actually growing!! Probably mostly due to the fact that D and I put up chicken wire to protect it from the chickens, who would like to take a bite at anything (mostly the corn, which was more that frustrating!!).
Despite the fact that most veggie gardens need full sun, ours is dealing with too much, despite the fact it is in half sun half shade. Darn hole in the ozone layer!!! Plus I'm sure the 30 degree plus days aren't helping too much either...
Anyway, the lettuce and beans are doing the best. We have had a few casualties, but that is to be expected...
thought i'd write a quick update on the farm garden.
The chickens are still going strong, still two eggs a day, every day. They now look like real chickens, before they were skinnier and more juvenile, now they have grown into their bodies. I still laugh every time I look at them. Because, y'know, they are chickens.
There has been this mystery bird flying around at dusk. D thinks its a wattlebird. I think its a female satin bowerbird (the males of the species attract the female by scavenging blue things and creating a bower out of them. Supposedly quite advanced for a bird).
However the other day I found it. dead. It had flown into the window, and although usually most birds recover, this one seemed to have broken its neck. Very sad. Even seeing it up close there is still debate over what species it is. We buried it in the compost heap that isn't composting... more on that later.
The next day another bird like it was flying around, obviously looking for its companion, which made us even sadder. Now the identification debate still continues. If it was a wattlebird then it could have been its partner. If it was a bowerbird then it must be its sister or something, because the males are dark blue (whereas the females have brown backs and mottled yellow and grey brests).
D and I fenced off an area of the garden on tuesday and got to work planting seedlings to start the veggie patch. Other attempts failed, as something was eating them / digging them up / it just wasn't working.
So far its going well. We have cucumber, beans, cos, spinach, celery and I also planted some seeds, however i'm not sure if they will grow or not yet.
D also bought me a blueberry plant. I couldn't plant it until we bought special soil, as blueberries like a different ph. We bought some azalea mix, and planted it in a large pot the other day, however the blueberry seems to have died, which sucks. Something else is growing in its place though, will have to see how it turns out, although it is probably just a weed.
We have been taking the layers and layers of jasmine off the side fence. A few weeks ago I could hear something russling around in there, and upon further inspection we came to the conclusion we had bush rats in there.
So what do i do? I start ripping all the jasmine down, in hope they will migrate somewhere else. Instead I make them a more comfy home in our compost heap, which has layers and layers of dead jasmine. Nothing is breaking down, just compacting. I'm thinking of trying to break it down today, but i'm not sure how i'm going to do that.
After sending the chickens to bed at dusk last night, I sat down at their coop and watched. Watched the 'rats' come out of the compost. But instead they are mice. Very small and grey. Very very cautious, any sudden move and they run back to safety. I watched them get into the coop. Probably to eat the chickens food. I tried to put a branch up against the coop, but they still worked out how to get inside. Again, we are having trouble identifying the mystery species. I think they are too small and too uniform in colour to be a normal house mouse, but I will have to do more research.
So, things are happening and growing, which is nice. Hopefully summer will allow our veggie patch to thrive, and someway we can work out what to do with this mice situation. soon.
Sometimes even I am amazed at my wit...
We seemed to have moved into noisy miner territory. And since its spring, baby miners can be heard squarking. No problem, I enjoy the native wildlife, and if a squarking baby bird is the worst noise in the neighbourhood, then i'm more than happy.
The other morning i witnessed noisy miners circling and making lots of noises around a kookaburra. now, i thought this was pretty mean. The kookaburra almost barked back in response, which i thought was an interesting tactic, and something i'd never really heard before.
Obviously, with a nest close by, the noisy miners were protecting their chicks from these large predators, by mobbing the birds until they went away. Amazingly it worked, which is why i'd definately believe we are in noisy miner territory here.
My balcony garden is about to come to an end, as we are going to move in two weeks and they will get planted into the ground (yay).
So far I have to say I havn't really received much produce from it. Lettuce and nasturtium leaves have been handy, but we really havn't gotten that much from them. The baby beets have just popped up and we will have to eat some soon. The broad beans have gotten chocolate spot and have been taken over by the ants. Aphids have popped up on the Romanesco and the Beets. Not that I'm discouraged. I just havn't been able to grow any protective plants - ones that attract beneficial bugs like lacewings and ladybeetles. Now I have tansy and Queen Annes lace seeds, so hopefully they will help in my fight against bugs...
