We've now been in this new house for two months - the time has just flown by! We've made two trips back to Melbourne, plus with work being rather busy the weeks kind of roll into months and suddenly it is almost November.
The chickens have well and truly settled in and without any issues. They are now laying 6 eggs a day, so I am having to think of creative ways to 'preserve' the eggs:
- Pavlova -uses 6 egg whites, but only lasts a day!
- Quiche - 3 eggs, but this recipe adds half a pint of cream, plus cheese.
- Baking - a dozen blueberry muffins used 3 eggs.
- Give-aways - a dozen eggs to a neighbour (traded for some greens for the chickens).
- Fresh Pasta - 7 eggs in total for two pounds of pasta.
The garden is also growing really well. The sandy soil in Western Australia used to really frustrate me, but after four years of working in solid clay the sand is so easy to work with! I'll have to mulch really well to retain moisture once summer really hits, but for now the plants are growing really well:
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| Kids Garden |
The kids garden has gone well, with the radishes almost finished, and a planting of carrots having just been sown to replace them. The snow peas up against the house have replaced an attempt at a row of sunflowers - birds and slugs ate those faster than they could grow! The cherry tomato is around two feet high, almost ready to fruit.
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| Carrots and onions |
The carrot and onion bed is a bit of an experiment of sorts. The oldest carrots are on the left, with a couple of rows of leeks next to them. This row of leeks has been topped up with some manure and mulch to help keep sunlight off. As I say, all experimental! There is then another small row of carrots, a later sowing to try to have them mature at a different time to the first planting. Then there's another row of green onions and leeks, then parsnips on the right.
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| Tomato and related plants |
The last garden bed in this section is for the tomatoes and related plants. On the right with stakes are some heirloom tomatoes, then some Roma tomatoes in the mulch alongside those tomatoes. There is a capsicum/pepper plant along the path, then some salad tomatoes on the left. Next to the parsnips is a row of chillis (way too many, but I'll make lots of chilli sauce for the year), and some eggplants. Note to parents: when you bury eggshells next to eggplants it reinforces to your kids that eggplants grow eggs!
It's only been two months, but we're already well on our way to a bumper harvest!
