chooks in the garden

One step closer to chooks in the garden! They’re being delivered on Thursday morning, which means I need to work out where they’re going to go to start the rotation. (and, perhaps, to deal with the fruit flies and slugs!)

I have some planned-out chook stations, which I think will need to be better considered once the coop is actually in the garden and I have the size and scope of it all. In a circumstance that slightly complicates things, I planted out one of the beds on the weekends, and the growing period is nearly upon us (from Saturday for 10 days). It’s also the bed that has the most slugs in it, thanks to the leaf litter that I dumped on it a week ago.

The plus side of parentals moving: they’re not going to need all the mulch they’ve been making for the last couple of years. And I am going to be quite shameless about co-opting it for my garden, thank you!

(Which means woodchips for the paths, I guess. Luckily there’s no shortage of those around the place...)

The fruit trees are being...interesting this year:
all the Nectarines: fruiting really heavily but also fruit fly invasions
all the Peaches: doing pretty well thank you
Apricots: NOPED RIGHT OUTTA HERE
Plums: WHAT ARE EVEN FRUIT
Cherries: *waves a couple of fruit lazily*
Avocados: Three are 'fruit, what fruit?' and one is "I'm givin' her all I can, Gardener!"
Apples: One is "wait, I'm supposed to do WHAT?" Two are "...Oh wait, you want fruit? Come back to us in a month..."
Citrus: "yeah, yeah, we have flowers, talk to us in autumn"
Fig: "you put me in the ground three months ago and you want WHAT?:
Established Passionfruit: "HAHA I'M WILD, I DON'T ACTUALLY FRUIT IN SPITE OF PUTTING OUT REAMS OF FLOWERS"
Still in tubes Passionfruit: "PUT US IN THE GROUND AND LET US GROOW, LET US GROOOOW CAN'T HOLD US DOWN ANYMOOOOORRREEE!"
Sultana Grapes: "Hey, I got leaves, don't ask for more this year!"
Red Seedless Grapes: *dead*

I do wish I'd gotten the chickens a few months earlier, though.