Latest additions

Hard to see them in this first pic - but there are four little chickens in the cat boxes! The kids were so excited! Only little ones (about 6 or 8 weeks old).

Settling into their new home constructed from an old swing frame and an aviary.

Checking out the garden - they love running around the yard!

Another visitor to the garden - obviously not a chicken!!!

Vegie Garden Update

Just some quick pics to update you on the garden.....


One of the beds, almost over-run with vegies!
Some lovely (and yummy) lettuce ready to pick!

Celery - nearly ready to go!

Thanks for looking :)

Broad Bean Harvest

Here are some pics of the bean beans on the plants, and then...

Ready to be eaten.... yummo!!!

Kids has a ball shelling them - provided great afternoon entertainment!

Well the garden beds have progressed and the vegies are starting to look pretty good!

You can also see here the potato towers and the broad beans in the background...

Well here is the second installment of the raised garden bed installation!


Here you can see the compost going in on top of the lower layer of hay and some of our own homemade compost (we didn't have enough to fill the beds!)

One now topped up with more hay and one being filled with compost

My two little garden helpers having some fun!!

One all ready to go - as we are going to plant some seeds, the top layer of hay mulch has not yet been added.

Next post will show some progress in the growth (hopefully!!)

The New Raised Garden Beds

We decided that we would have a go at making our own corrugated iron raised garden beds. Our neighbour was able to source some colourbond at a good price so we went in together to build the beds.

Here you can see the other half cutting up the sheets with the angle grinder.

From two sheets of colourbond we each got two garden beds - here are ours.


The ends were riveted together.

Some protective paint was applied to the side that had been cut to help prevent rust.

The garden beds were then installed straight on top of the lawn.

Newspaper added.

First layer of straw - we actually brought a big round bale of meadow hay - at the bargain price of $40 as it would have cost a small fortune to buy enough small bales!!

Will show the next stage of the no dig fill in the next post - here is a picture of our potato towers which have also just been topped up with the hay.

Stay tuned for the next update.

Belated Garden Update

Well things have been progressing well in the garden since my last post - so will take a few posts to get things updated!

Here is a picture of a lizard who came to visit the vegie patch after the addition of the straw mulch.

Here is the view of the new garden bed at the beginning of May 2008 - as you can see plenty of growth and following are a couple of close-ups of some of the tomatoes.

Below is a picutre of the asparagus seedlings which have now been planted out into the front garden.

Plenty more to tell, so will add some more soon.

The start of the dream - mini version!!!

Thought I should post up a snap or two from the newly installed garden!

Keep watching for developments as it grows

Getting Closer....

Well, still not quite there! We have however made it Capel, but are yet to secure that dream piece of land, but the small piece we have aquired so far has recieved the first installment of vegies this week, so hopefully production on a mini scale willl start shortly.

We are still overwhelmed by the quality of the food, after suffering the old, tasteless version in Kal for so long, we have been somewhat overindulging to say the least.

Anyway we are actually going to look at a house on Monday, which is on an acre, so fingers crossed, river cottage here we come!