Guilding the garden.

[eco4560]

I can pretty much tell who it is that laid the egg by the sound of their call now. I was watching them one afternoon and two of the girls started having a go at each other. Misty - the dominant chook - walked up to them both and without making a sound or touching either of them - GAVE THEM THE LOOK.... You know the one that your mother used to use that made your soul freeze? The 2 girls immediately backed up into opposite corners of the run and stopped annoying each other!

[mischief]

I think we have a top girl who does this too but I havent had these ones long enough to recognise their individual calls.

After reading what Grahame said about older chooks behaviour to littlies, I decided to start intergrating them, so after I let the big girls out I went down and let the little ones out.
Quite often I get followed and today 4 of them came down with me including broody mum who didnt seem to be particularly enthusiastic about being reunited with her offspring.
I thought at the start that the chicks were going to get bailed up in their kennel cos 3 of the oldsters hopped in and started to eat the chicks scraps.

The chicks for some reason thought they were going to get fed by them but were quickly disabused of that idea.
They were definitely pecked on but not what I would call overly harshly and soon learnt that if a big girl came to investigate what it was that they had found, it was a good idea to just let her have it.
Because I dont know who killed the other chick, I hung around til the girls went back to the dome and the chicks looked alittle lost and were herded back to their kennel.
All in all it went surprisingly well and I will do this everyday, if I can til hopefully they will follow the big girls to the dome and hop in with them.

I'm pretty sure they are all hens.
I have been staring at the feathers that fall around their 'shoulders' and the ends of them look to be rounded whereas roosters 'shoulder' feathers are pointed or so I have been told.
The rooster we re-homed did have pointed feathers too.

Today, I visited my daughter.
Before I was allowed inside for a cuppa, I was shown their garden and the shallots and garlic they had just harvested.
Everything is looking very healthy and growing well except for the 2 peppers and a gherkin that are under the shade of a lovely PLUM tree.
I have, of course put in a request for a cutting of the plum tree when it dies back in winter so I can have a go at grafting.
My shallots are better than hers tho but her tomatoes are way ahead.

She took me shopping,I dont like shopping but she said I'd love it so off we went to this new place she found.

At the DUMP!!!
When we drove in I wondered what on earth I had started, but it wasnt bad at all (except for the smell of course).

They have a recycling drop off point, where people can drop off stuff they dont want that is too good to put over the dump face.
This then gets checked over, tidied up if needed and put into the shop where it is sold for very little.

I got 3 seedling trays that were in perfect condition and way sturdier than the ones I have and are stackable(($2 @),an old steamed pudding bowl complete with tight fitting lid just like the one I learnt to make puddings with when I was little($4) and 3 out door chairs for the porch($3 @).
I had been looking for steaming baskets which they had but I didnt get any cos I wasnt sure if they would fit my pot, but next time I go I will measure the pot so I know what size to look for.

Before we went back to her place we stopped off at a Chinese bulk foods place and got afew things there.
I seem to have lost my wok so I got another one which is bigger and has properly riveted sturdy handles so they wont fall off and some Tom Yum sauce paste, which is a hot and sour sauce base-yum.
I got this because I wasnt happy with our ginger- its just not gingery and my kim chi tasted bland when I checked it this morning.
I stirred a couple of tablespoons through it and it now tastes fantastic.
Just have to wait a couple more days before I can put it jars and pop it in the fridge/or start eating it.

[eco4560]

Well you must have done something right there mischief to have a daughter who will take you to the dump shop. Mine would rather spend her money at Smiggles at present.

[annette]

Oh yes love those dump recycle places! and those chinese shops, interesting things. My daughters are the same eco. Only time I got them close was when they were learning to drive. The deal was they got some of their driving lessons off mum by driving around saturday mornings taking me to garage sales. As soon as they got the licence that was the end of it. lol

[Grahame]

including broody mum who didnt seem to be particularly enthusiastic about being reunited with her offspring.

They are quick to forget them once they are old enough!

They were definitely pecked on but not what I would call overly harshly and soon learnt that if a big girl came to investigate what it was that they had found, it was a good idea to just let her have it.

That sounds like normal sorting out of the pecking order mischief. I think your approach will be perfect.

[mischief]

Since the beginning of summer, we have so many drizzly, rainy days that have been overcast and cold especially at night,that I got quite despondant about getting a decent crop this year.
I dont like being in the garden when its wet.
And wind, arhh.
My sunflowers blew over so they have been staked upright and are now starting to make some headway.
Seems silly to stake them but never mind.
I had to prune out the laterals on the tomatoes quite severely and that seems to have helped.
The beans are starting to hold the main tomato leaders up the sunflowers although there are afew that just want to run along the row.

One thing I noticed with the potatoes, was that the plants that were just put ontop of the soil and then mulched grew tubers really close together and you had to yank them to release them from their root, whereas the others came out of the soil easily- not sure why that was.
The chooks or wild birds kept scratching around and uncovering them so there were more of them that had green bits on them.
Still gorgeous tasting tho.

I discovered that if I boiled a big pot one night and the next thickly sliced them and shallow fried til crispy then stirred through some Tom Yum sauce that had alittle water added, that they were absolutely divine.
Crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle with just that hint of hot and sour.

Things are growing slowly this year.
I was worried that we wouldnt get any sweet corn, but had a sneaky look at afew of them and they do have kernals even though it rained and was so windy.

The soy beans are look like they are doing well.
The normal beans are only just flowering now.

We harvested the rogue potatoes growing along the fenceline for Xmas dinner and they werent too bad but the first lot I planted were disappointing.
Of the two rows that were planted in trenches, one row gave 700-800g each and the other 800-1kg each which was the same as the row that I where I just put the tuber ontop of the ground and then mulched.
Next year I will have to grow french marigolds here as those nauseating little white worms were all over the tubers and had migrated to the ginger plant.
Not something you want to see just before dinner.
Its these same bugs that wreaked the cannellini beans there last year.
I thought they would be long gone but they werent.

I think the seed we got was infected with them.
That and the pigeon peas which were completely eaten by them before they even got to sprout.
Cant see our supplier admitting to that, but its alittle obvious when you have three different types of beans sown in the same tray of individual pots and the others were not affected at all.

I've given up on the okra and the melons this year, its been too cold and they are just not moving, nor are the jicama or luffas.
The only way I can see these doing well here is to get that greenhouse built and I will probably have to do it myself....typical bloody tradesmen, home is always last.
Actually I think even the choko vines are having a hard time too.

The thornless boysenberry has nasty thorns, so that is getting pulled out,fortunately my brother was given one that Is thornless and he has alittle one he's going to pot up for me.

The Galeau d'eyesine pumpkins we have growing on the roadside garden have gone crazy and have so many pumpkins on them I am impressed.
To start with, the little bobbles were growing yellow before they had flowered and my heat sank cos with other sorts that meant that they were going to fall off, but No, they didnt and the first lot are really big.
Im still not sure I've got the right seed because they were supposed to be pink pumpkins with peanut sized warts all over them...just have to wait and see.
There are a couple of monsters there though.

The oil seed pumpkin I planted under the apple tree definietly should have been put in earlier and so far they have only made one pumpkin between the three of them.
Not all bad though cos at least I have fresh seed for next year and one will produce alot of seed, so we will still get to eat some.

The strawberries and black raspberries have finished, the red raspberry is still flowering and has afew nice bunches of fruit coming along.
The chooks seem to like the black currants and the two I got tasted quite strange.
Its the first time I have ever eaten these and Im not sure if I like them or not, they are different-florally.

I thought I had lost the chicks this week.
I forgot to shut the door to their kennel and on my saturday got up late and could nt find them anywhere.
3 hours later I found one behind the garage and that afternoon, I was sitting on the park bench at the back of the garden wondering how ai was going to tell hubby that I had lost our chicks, when I heard a familiar sound coming from over the hedge.
They were in the back neighbours place.
I have no idea how they got there but after grabbing a bowl of wheat I got over the hedge, got them to come feed right by my feet, caught them and toss them back where they belonged.

Their intergration is going slowly.
I had to lock houdini in a rabbit cage because she was attacking them.
Not sure if it was because she had gone broody and I had put them in the dome with her.
She was in solitary for 3 days with just water and no access to the nest box and seems to have been cured.

[mischief]

I just raced out to close the chicks kennel only to find they werent in there,damn so I went off to close up the dome ....but I cant, cos the chicks are roosting on the top of the door and top edge of the dome.
And I thought they couldnt fly!!!

I had the big girls locked in all day today because it seemed that the chicks were afraid of them and let them out for abit tonight.
Obviously they are willing to be near them now which is great.
I've got to get them to see that they would really like to be in the dome rather than on it.

I climbed the 'trellis' next to the nectarine tree today to pick all the fruit off.
That was a bit of a drama with mum saying 'now dont you fall, I cant pick you up' so of course I fell over the other side landing on my arse, stuck,feet sticking up, most undignified.
The choko vine and pumpkin growing on hubbys side broke my fall but I wound up between the trellis and the old trunk of a peach tree that hadnt rotted down yet.
While I was stuck, I took the opportunity to tug on the vines to see if the baby hazelnuts were still there .
They are completely covered in vine except for a leaf or two and seem to be hanging in there.

Its alittle early to be picking the nectarines and they are not all ripe but this is the first time we have had any harvest from this tree>
I noticed today that they were starting to get the dreaded brown rot, so they have to come inside for a wash in my cheese making sterilising solution.
I'm hoping that will stave off the rot til they can ripen alittle more then I will bottle them.

I didnt think we were going to get any eggplants but have been hand pollinating them anyway.. now I have 3 on one plant so far so which is great.

Things are starting to look up, we have flowers on the cape gooseberries, another flush of strawberries,tiny peppers and even two of the melons are flowering with lovely little fluffballs.
The calabash has set a fruit and I can see more coming along,so at least seed for next year.
The funky french pumpkin IS a funky french pumpkin and the monsters are starting to get that burnished orangey pink look to them and the odd pinprick of baby warts, haha.
I thought I'd pulled out the salsify- it looks like a narrow leaf plantain, but I found 4 so all is not lost.

The pearl drop onions have been collected after I saw that they were leaning over, most of them were quite small even for pearl drops but a good handful were a decent size.
These are in the porch to dry out, along with the purple onions I picked up yesterday.
I'm going to keep the big ones to replant next year so they set seed.
The purple ones, I'll replant too but to grow abit bigger.
The white onions havent formed bulbs and look like luscious leeks so we'll have to wait and see how they turn out.

I've been dipping into the large jar of pickled eggs I did last week, they have been sitting on the bench so I could keep an eye on them.
When I found that the jar was loose and so hadnt sealed, I snuck some to munch on-wonderful.
This lot were done in a sweet vinegar with the elephant garlic,some whole all spice and a bay leaf, so a delicate flavour that doesnt overpower the eggs.
The ones I pickled today have some chilli included for when we want abit of spark, that jar has sealed but i'll still keep it on the bench to make sure they were cooked enough and dont start fizzing like they did last year.

I just had to eat a carrot, tiny as they are but yum so carroty.

Which brings me to the subject of Asparagus.
I was re reading how to plant them for when that time comes and was amused to read that you should not eat the spears for the first few years.
Having never grown asparagus before, the reason for this made alot of sense, but when you actually look at the size of the spear-why would you even consider doing that?
They are only 2-4 mm in diametre at the most and dont even look worth bothering with.

One of the Copenhagan cabbages is enormous and ready to be cut.
I'm not going to though cos one the things on our to do list, is to get a cabbage to set seed.
I have no idea how long it will take though and am not too sure if there is anything that can be done to speed it up so the seed set and mature before the frosts arrive.
I know thats still afew months away, but I would have expected it to make a start on that by now rather than keep on getting bigger.

[mischief]

I have managed to upset yet another neighbour.
One of the chooks got frightened when the little puppy who now lives to the left of me came to visit.
It wound up flapping up onto the woodshed roof and over to the neighbours to the right (and front).

I did go over straight away to chase it back but he was already angry by the time I got there.
I really dont understand why he was so angry,it hadnt done any damage and there is no garden To damage or scratch amock in, but he was even after I tried to explain how it came to be there.

Sometimes people are just plain stupid,this guy has no garden in his yard, just a couple of zen rock type features and a scalped lawn.
I think I have more reason to be upset when puppy comes over because he upsets the girls and makes them skittish- he doesnt actually chase them although I do think he may have been the culprit with the last missing chick, but that would have been by accident than him going into actual hunting mode.


Puppies mum and dad were out so after walking him around the yard trying to get him and the chooks used to each other-and Axle, our tomcat so he wouldnt beat the puppy up anymore,I popped him in the now defunct chick kennel.
Not much later on I noticed that the door was open and puppy was gone so I figured he'd been rescued.


The other day, puppies dad came over to tell us that one of our pumpkins was trying to hitchhike to Taupo.
We went out to have a look and one of them had fallen off and rolled down into the gutter.
Its not a mature pumpkin but still weighs in at 5 kgs, so its inside now and hopefully will dry out and still be good to eat.
Pumpkins obviously like growing here, the plants are doing so well.
I feel like I should be cutting the really big ones off already so there will be more nutrients for the ones coming up,there are 3 that are enormous.

I think next year I will plant out the other french type we got out there.
It has leaves that completely cover the whole area and will be better at acting as a ground cover to smother the grass that grows there as we as the other weeds.
That one is the Musee de Provence and I snuck it on hubbies side to deal with His weeds.
Its growing so thickly that I cant actually see if has even started to grow pumpkins yet, but it does look pretty.

The nectarines did not ripen before the brown rot ruined them- didnt take long which is disappointing.

I have a nasty feeling that I need to wear my glasses more often.
The chicks seem to be facing off against each other with hackles raised....baby roosters?
I really did think they were hens.
The larger one has beautiful markings on its wing feathers and is much more developed than the smaller one....sigh
Maybe it just sibling rivalry.

[annette]

Hey mischief once had a not so nice neighbour myself. He had a dirt garden. sheesh. I saw a program the other day and the guy was a chook expert. He said if you can't tell the roosters from the hens this is what you do. Get a comb and put it under the feathers. If the feathers have rounded edges, odds are they are hens. If the feathers are more pointy they are more likely to be roosters. Haven't tried it myself but worth a go I reckon.

[mischief]

I had been staring at their feathers and thought that they were rounded, but I hadnt been able to catch them to really get a good look....
I think I might have been wrong and will either have to catch them to see or wait for them to start crowing.

Actually the neighbour is usually really good, that might have been cos I had been giving them surpluses, which I havent had so much of this summer and it hasnt helped sending interlopers instead.