My River Garden

the Chicken and the egg

probablynathan — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 00:29:35 +0000

Last weekend their were some chickens for sale in the local paper, keen to use my newly build chook run as some thing other than a unsightly garden feature I grabbed a borrowed old dog carrier pen and drove over the river to the chicken farm. I was a bit worried about getting chickens from a commercial farm as I don’t want to support the cage system however when we arrived I was reasonably happy with the situation. the farm reminded me a lot of the sorts of places I went camping as a scout. The chickens were housed in large barns with dirt floors plenty of room to run around and access to outside. not the ideal of chickens roaming over grassy hills and through lush woodland in the search of slugs, sunshine and sex, but it was a realistic setting and all the chooks that I saw looked happy and healthy.

we made the long drive home and the four girls sat happily in the cage on the back seat, although I did have to keep the windows down for the second half.

Unfortunately I arrived home to a bit of drama as the heavy rains had caused a small creek to start flowing throgh my garage. I quickly introduced the girls to there new home and got them settled with some layer pellets, kitchen scraps and water before I went to build a dam.

The next day I was surprised to find a egg on the floor of the chook house, they hadn’t used their nesting box I built but I had a egg and soon I had 2 more. So far we are getting 2-3 eggs every day and I have had to give some a way as I can’t eat them all. but I now have a few new eggy recopies mastered like chicken and cheese soufflé and spinach ham and onion quiche to accompany good old scrambled eggs.

Spring is almost here

probablynathan — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 01:22:27 +0000

there are only a few days left of winter now and despite snow caped mountains in the distance things are starting to happen here in the garden.

The days are longer and a little bit warmer the bees are very active in response to all the blossoms that have bloomed. The golden wattle has started to brown and most unexpectedly my raspberry canes have started to shoot up. I am yet to see any buds burst on my grapevine and the hop plant is yet to show itself above grounds. Last night I finished netting the top of the chook run and put straw down in their house now I just need some chooks.

Im back,

probablynathan — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 04:52:49 +0000

It has been a while since I updated this blog, Life is a roller-coaster.

basically Ihad a bit of RL drama, I quit my job because of some stuff that was happening there that didn’t sit right with me. Then I did a three month contract for someone and now I’m having some time off before starting a new job soon.

so to catch people up on what has been going on

The garden is developing, dug a new veg bed over the winter and gave it a good hit of mature pony poop and have just planted it out with dutch cream potatos. the other two beds recived a fair amount of leaf mulch and the spent grain from brewing. I have fixed up the old hen house and made a few adjustments to it and am fencing off and area for thew chics to run around in when I don’t want then in the garden and to keep them safe at night. If all goes well It will be populated by the end of the month. I have also planted a hop plant that I am hoping will give me a few brews worth of hops and planted out a grape vine that I have been growing in a pot for a few years that I will be able to turn into wine in the years to come.

The kitchen has also been a productive area as I have started curing, drying and smoking meats with great success as well as making a few bangers. Cheese it the next thing on the culinary agenda. I am planning on blogging more about the kitchen projects as well as the garden as that should keep my writing year round but mean I might change the name of the blog soon.

Lots more planed,

First Potato Harvest

probablynathan — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:00:07 +0000

Back when I dug our my first small vegetable patch I planted it with seeds of carrots, corn, beens and lettuce this left me with a small unproductive patch of dug earth with nothing planted in it so I decided to plant three potatoes from the pantry that had started to sprout. I have never grown potato before but I do have fond childhood memories of digging them up like little nuggets of gold buried in the earth (perhaps by some sort of potato Pirate?) Various people told me a range of different ways of how they grow potatoes the most common way using old car tyres and raising the soil as the plant grows although I have also been told that this is a bad as toxins from the tyres can leach into the soil and potatoes. A common farming practice seem to be to just pus up dirt around the plant so that is what I did. Today I notice that one plant was pretty well dead so I decided to dig it up. It truly is like digging up buried treasure but this treasure buried months ago has multiplied many times to give me a nice little collection of potatoes of various sizes. I bet Blackbeard wished his treasure could do that.

Marshmallow flower

probablynathan — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 04:00:03 +0000

Zucchini update

probablynathan — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 03:10:44 +0000

This morning’s walk around the veg patch reviled this stunning zucchini flower, hopefully the firts of many. I have been surprised with how fast these plants have developed. The 7 seedling I planted several weeks ago in a hastily dug garden bed with poor sandy soil are all doing superbly well accompanied by peas, rhubarb and most recently 3 squash seedlings.

Seed update

probablynathan — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 07:36:32 +0000

In the past two days the first little sprouts have begun to appear form the seeds that I planted last week. So far I have 7 Zucchini sprouts (above) and a bunch of tiny little Basil sprouts (below). I’m so excited every time I discover a new bit of green fight its way to the surface. Still no sign of the Squash, Nettle or Rhubarb but I eagerly an impatiently wait for their debut.

Strawberry Update

probablynathan — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 16:26:46 +0000

After the loss of the majority of my last strawberry seedlings a few weeks ago I decided to try again with seedlings this time taking a more cautious approach and planting them in 10 terracotta pots and placing them in a protected place by the house. So far they are looking strong and healthy and they look quite nice against the white of the house. I may still have buckets of strawberry’s yet.

First Thyme Flowers

probablynathan — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:39:04 +0000

Strawberries

probablynathan — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:02:47 +0000

I first tried to grow strawberries as a child when I was given some plants and a planter from my grandmother. I remember expecting to soon have buckets of berries all to my self but instead getting a pot full of dirt, sticks tand dried leaves. Last year I decided to try again so I found the old planter filled it with potting mix and some young strawberry pants this time they managed to survive despite the possums at our old house that ate everything young and green. Now at out new house the are doing quite well but have still not given me any fruit.

A few months ago I was at a local market and I brought 5 more established strawberry plants for 10 dollars which seemed a reasonable price to pay since garden stores sell them for twice that. These 5 plants have given not bucketfuls but 1 or 2 handfuls of berries and more importantly they have given me back the delight of picking and eating strawberry’s straight from the garden. So last week I went out and brought some strawberry seedlings and hurried home to plant them and once more childishly expected to soon have buckets of berries. Within 48 hours all but 2 seedlings had died I assume that the part of the garden I planted them was too hot and dry. The 2 that remain are still there but are only just hanging in, I water them daily in the hope they will manage to survive the big bad garden. I am not giving up on them yet.