OBSERVATIONS:
At least one BROCCOLI is ready! Maybe two! Going to have to cook it and eat it this weekend! Whee!
I've never really managed decent BRASSICAs before, so this is very exciting. Hopefully it tastes as good as it looks!
Even better is that they're not all growing at once. The two that are ready grew over the last couple of weeks, and are now full-sized. Another couple look like they're going to grow over the coming weeks to full-size. There are CAULIFLOWERs that are building those 'cover' leaves. And the KALE is going great guns.
KALE is harder to sell to my sister, but I rather like making kale chips from them - they're pretty tasty and crunch and excellent.
PURPLE PODDED PEAS are growing in the backyard, and doing okay as they climb the CHERRY TREE.
GARLIC has all taken off in their various spaces.
CHOOKS:
Haamyu is going okay, no more vet visits. They want to do more tests and more investigations. But we've spent way too much on her, and B1 really doesn't like saying 'no' to these nice people at the (nearby, expensive) vet who do everything in their power not to have to terminate the chicken. So, basically, the next time she flags, it'll be the chop, and the parentals have offered to assist.
That'll be interesting. I do want to learn how to do it, because I think it should be a part of responsible chicken keeping. That's a whole other discussion to be had, and I've put it off for the last five years since the first time one of our chickens started flagging. She gets extra nutrients because she can't seem to process them, but when those no longer help, it'll be the end for her.
Kerry (well, all the girls) have scaly leg mites. We treated the entire flock, but Kerry has them badly enough that she needed some painkillers, and she and Gladys get extra treatments at night because their situation is so bad. And Kerry is running out of feathers because the others are just picking on her something ferocious.
The only chicken in our current flock who hasn't needed any vet attention at all is Goongbao, possibly because she goes broody several times a year and doesn't lay. That presents its own set of inconveniences, but at least it's manageable and not expensive.
Otherwise, eggs have dropped down to just about one every couple of days (Gladys). Unfortunately, we no longer have our extra eggs from the last month: one of our cats, Smokey, jumped up on the bench and upset the egg carton...
COMPOST:
Making leaf mulch from collected leaves. Take a couple of black boxes out with me when I'm going places, scrape up the leaves and pop them in the composting box.
PREPARING:
The HAYBALE is being watered every couple of days with a liquid fertiliser or worm wee. Still not 100% on what's going in there...
SEEDING:
No seeds being planted right now, might have to sow the next round of BRASSICAS. I wonder if it's an okay season for the heirloom BRASSICAS. (I wonder if the heirloom aspect is why the previous BRASSICAS got aphids and this round doesn't)
PLANTING OUT:
Still have a punnet of BRASSICAS (not sure which ones now) and...a couple of other punnets (I think one is CHINESE CABBAGE) to go – there's also a very badly-eaten punnet of what might be another CHINESE CABBAGE.
COFFEE seedlings
LYCHEE seedlings
HARVEST:
Otherwise, the ORANGES are going nice and bright. A couple came off when I tugged them from the tree, I'm not sure what's happening there, though, because they don't smell ripe. The
KUMQUATS are once again producing a nice small crop of about thirty fruits. Something to munch through the day is the theory.
AVOCADOs are going okay, the ones that get picked don't amount to much right now. I'm not sure what season they are. All seasons? Any seasons? I was taught that you could pick them and ripen them inside, but they seem to be rotting or going brown by the time they're soft enough to open.
I picked a SINGLE TOMATO at the start of this week. The last one from those plants, which have been there for a couple of years, just steadily producing tomatoes, battling caterpillars and slater bugs. (The slater bugs were on the verge of eating the tomato - they'd gotten the little stem-leaves, and all rolled off once I picked the thing. Greedy buggers! They've got the entire plant to eat and have been munching away on it for months.) But these tomatoes have been very faithfully producing ever since January 2024, when I got back from going away. I planted them in the spring of 2023, so a good 18 months of tomatoes, although not very frequently eaten. My bad.
LOOFAHS are still too heavy to harvest. I think I'm going to harvest them once they're a bit yellow, so there's less rot on the membrane.
The two metal beds I planted out (ESPALIER-TRIANGLE? I don't know what to call the bed) before I went to Melbourne have solidly bedded down: ONIONS, SPRING ONIONS, GARLIC, BEETROOT, BRASSICAS (probably BROCCOLI, I can't remember) - actually, go check the post CROP: BRASSICAS Timing because that's got the details needed.
I also harvested the BANANAS and chopped down the stalk. The bunch are sitting in the laundry cupboard. I should set up a hook that will enable them to be hung, so they don't ripen quite so fast...
PRUNING:
I keep on saying I need to do some pruning, but I really really do.
THOUGHTS:
I think this weekend, I might try to lay out the LOUNGE ROOM BED. It'll be the GRAPE, KUMQUAT, PASSIONFRUIT, HOPS also ROSELLA and BLUEBERRIES maybe COFFEE bushes... Wait, what happened to my COFFEE seedlings... *runs outside to check* Oh, they're fine.
Whew!
Things to remember: GRAPE, PASSIONFRUIT, and HOPS are vines. HOPS will spread. ROSELLA and BLUEBERRIES are bushes that can be trimmed. COFFEE is less trimmable.
Maybe the BLUEBERRIES could go up under the APPLES?
KUMQUAT is citrus and will have shallow roots, while GRAPE can go deep.
