With the bloody hot summer behind us I thought it time to get out in the garden, though the neglect and chickens destroying ever thing made the work need seem over whelming.
BTW out of the 8 chicks that hatched 6 turned out to be roosters so now I have 8 roosters, hopefully Mr Fig Jam who is over your way ATM will take them off my hands soon. I'll keep one. Two young hens not laying yet but older two seem to be laying 2 eggs every 3 days which is more than expected for this breed, more than enough eggs for me and have given away 4 dozen in recent times.
Any way with so much garden work to do, this article that I saw more recently has changed my way of thinking.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-28/if-gardening-is-overwhelming-start-by-doing-one-thing-a-day/103644788You are obviously a better, more organised and experienced gardener than me. I have in the past tried to do too much at a time, but since reading that article I see it's better to aim to do one small job each day. The bonus is I am managing my back pain better and that having done that small job I often carry on and do another one of two small jobs.
So one of the jobs at the top of my list was to get a raised garden bed ready to plan garlic, to do that I had to get the chickens under control. So over a week or so bit by bit I sewed some netting over two larger raised garden beds
While doing that I also prepared the soil in the right had side garden bed with manure dynamic lifter and bentonite clay. I thing clay is what my soil needs lost of to hold nutrients and moisture. I planted the garlic a week ago, planted some French shallots yesterday even though much earlier than I normally would. Once they sprout I will lay down some blood and bone, dynamic lifter and much with pea straw. With confidence the chooks will not get in a destroy the lot.
Big raised garden bed on the left needs to be topped up with soil/compost/manure, that's next job on the list so I can get a winter crop in, just not sure what.
I got the 4 new raised garden beds to fill, I have started by filling the base with pruning's from fruit trees. Next I will add soil from the chook run along with their poo and eventually I'll bring in so Veg mix soil. Also need to make some PVC pipe frames for netting, Not sure I will have all 4 those planting this year, maybe one or two
Else where in the garden, Mandarin tree has about 3-4 dozen fruit on it, looks like they will be a good size as they are not yet going yellow and are bigger that neighbours mandarin's that are already going yellow. Bi hard to see in the photo
Gave the Mulberry tree a summer prune and it's giving me a second crop that is just stating to ripen, I read some where to do that and it has worked
Rock melon and water melons where a fail, got 1 each but both small. My bad for not preparing the soil better.
Feijoa has produced a couple of dozen fruit, mostly small but it's the first year it has fruited. Expect it will be better next year
Custard apple tree has it's first custard apple, tree is not that old and only about 1 meter high so happy with that. Hopefully the first of many
Disappoint one of my Dragon Fruit plants produced 4 flowers twice and no fruit set, quite sure it's a white flesh one so might replace it with a cutting from a red flesh plant that has produced fruit
LOL I sort of under estimated how much work and how long in would take to get this fruit and veg garden thing happening, but I am making progress
