Dear Diary: 24th June 2024

OBSERVATIONS:

GOLDEN PEACH has started flowering and showing green tips. (I sprayed it for leaf curl, should have done it earlier, probably should have held off now.)

TULIPS: I bought a big bag of tulips and kept them in the cool through to June. Then one morning I popped them in the freezer, intending to come back in an hour and plant them. They were there for a WHOLE DAY. Goodbye tulips! GRARGH. I seem to have zero luck with tulips and other bulbs, but I love them so much and just want some pretty spring bulbs, ARGH.

CHOOKS:

Tractor has been moved to AVO-SHED and the chooks are occasionally sitting in it.

Okay, the chook situation: at some point in May or June, we got two chooks from the postman. Literally, the postman. The 'Posties' had names, but we ended up renaming them Daofu and Haamyu (Tofu & Black Bean). They're down the lower end of the pecking order, and they haven't laid. We had them set up in the separate space for chooks for about four weeks, and then we started mingling them with Siyao, Goongbao, and Carambar.

It's always interesting watching chooks blend and mix. Goongbao is the prettiest and the top chook. Carambar is next, and then it seems like it's Haamyu, Siyao, and poor little white Daofu is at the bottom of the pecking order.

Well, sort of.

Because hard on the heels of getting Daofu and Haamyu, we also got two new chooks (new new chooks from a local girls school. They are collectively known as the “Lockdown Ladies” - Gladys (Berejeklian) and Kerry (Chant). I have no idea why we landed on those names, but we have and that is what they will be known as going forward. They have already started laying, which is a good sign. They're pretty happy digging everything up quite devotedly, and they have a voice and they're gonna use it!

Chooken Siyao is still with us, still holding on, still going about as strong as she's ever gone. Took her back to the vet, she got an ultrasound, the cyst had vanished. They think, however, it might have burst and caused general inflamation around the abdomen, which is why she's still not comfortable. We are giving her anti-inflammatory painkillers, and she seems to be doing okay.

Generally, the chooks are all doing about as well as one expects in the middle of winter. They seem pretty healthy, even if everyone but the Lockdown Ladies aren't laying, nor as active. (The Lockdown Ladies are pretty young – maybe a couple of years old.)

Today, I took away the old feeder that the Posties learned to feed from. They're still learning how to eat from the 'Grandfather feeder' – not to mention, we're running out of food! The remainder of the food in the bucket is mouldy and they shouldn't be eating it. Not quite sure what to do with it – compost, I guess?

Going to start them chooks on Vella food tomorrow: it's cheaper, and we'll see how much they like it.

On Sunday (Saturday?), sister and I cleared out the chook house of six months worth of cardboard and chips and poop. There are bags and there are buckets and I am hoping that there are no mites. I'm pretty sure I sprayed for mites a couple of months back, but I don't have a record of it anywhere, dammit!

COMPOST:

Would like to make some compost from the chook poop we cleared out, add with some chipped branches, and maybe some woodchips.

Am making leaf-mulch in the “display composter” between the APPLES and the DUAL STONE. Need more leaves.

PREPARING:

Lime Sulfate: Sprayed the TWO-STONE, the DUAL STONE and the Delicious/Dorset APPLE, then realised I wasn't supposed to spray that APPLE and quickly rinsed it off with water.
ETA: 25th: Sprayed the PLUM, STONE, CHERRY, and DONUT PEACH in the back (lightly). Also the PERSIMMON and a few of the leaves of the MULTI-CITRUS. Early morning, everything was still damp, may not have been the best choice. Sprayed the APRICOT in the front once the sun was out and the branches dry.

SEEDS:

Going to toss down some flower seeds along the fence bed: POPPIES, ECHINACEA, and some other stuff.

SWEET PEAS. Those need to go out ASAP.

PLANTING OUT:

Two ORIENTAL POPPY plants. Got to decide where they go and FAST.

FREESIA bulbs which look like they might have survived the freezer... Maybe?

HARVEST:

Occasional CHERRY TOMATOES from the small vegepods. Could (and should) probably try the CABBAGE in the CREPE-APRICOT (which is no longer a CREPE-APRICOT, but a CREPE-LYCHEE), and start harvesting leaves off the SILVERBEET and the other BRASSICAS. Also occasional PEAS which are growing in the dining room VEGEPOD

Still can pick some KALE, also CORIANDER.

Dug up a heap of SWEET POTATOES from under the mango. May need to dig some more out of there – they're pretty solid, and cutting back the space might give the mango a bit of space.

FEEDING:

Dug out the contents of two worm boxes, put them in another container (covered against rain), then rinsed out the worm boxes over the GARLIC bed.

PRUNING:

Gave the RASPBERRY patch a pretty good trim on the weekend. Also, a pretty severe one. Still have no quite worked out which are the autumn-ones and which are the spring-ones. Need to mulch that patch better, too.

Pruned the DUAL STONE, but very badly. Frankly, I'm surprised it survives, I've hacked it so many times. There's definitely some wounds that are bleeding gummosis, and I should really start looking at those.

In BACKYARD
Pruned: FOUR-APPLE
Still needs pruning: STONE (apricot branch). PLUM, DONUT PEACH.
Haven't decided on: CHERRY. I don't even know if this tree will produce anything in the coming years.
Need to decide on a time: AVOCADO. It keeps sprouting right as I think it's time to prune it!

THOUGHTS: Maybe put the new Lockdown Ladies in the ASPARAGUS beds and see how they go there. They're diggers, they might like that.

Need to think about how much space I need for the trees in the front bed. Might have to take the garden beds out, no matter how good and useful they are there!