dear diary: 12th October

WEATHER & OBSERVATIONS:

After an exceedingly dry winter, we've had a few weeks of wet warmth and everything is growing, shooting, seeding, sprouting.

I planted a bunch of clover cover, and it seems to be actually sprouting where I planted it, once I covered it with a bit of pea straw and

I no longer have the time to dedicate to the garden in the volumes that I once did, now that I'm not working from home anymore. So A lot of stuff that needs to be done is going to be done on weekends only, although some watering will take place once I get home. Also have to learn to be careful about overdoing it. I accidentally did four hours in the garden today because I got involved in doing things and lost track of time!

Driveway corn is doing well, one died – got dug up by the chooks – but the others are growing well apace. I feel like they need more feeding, so I'll probably look at giving them a bit more chook poop direct.

Note: PATH VEGEPOD has the Musquee de Provence PUMPKIN.

CHOOKS:

Six chooks-a-laying means a lot of eggs. A lot of a lot of eggs. And even once we use them up, they're still laying! We've given eggs away to the neighbours all around, and I guess my church friends are up next.

Since the chooks have denuded all the spaces available to them, and only one set of neighbours brings their grass clippings over, I've been pulling the seedy grass weeds up and tossing them down for the chooks. They're also getting a fairly regular diet of mustard greens, along with any leafies that have holes in them. For the most part they seem pretty happy with this.

Kerry still seems to be the bottom ranking – at least, she's the one that everyone picks on when they're looking for someone to punish. She's the smallest and the most ragged, but when they hop up on the perches at night, she's usually tucked into the corner – “my corner – MINE!”

Gladys has a 'cough', which is as regular as a hiccup and sounds a bit like a honk. That said, she doesn't seem to be in pain, it's just a noise she makes – autonomic, rather than conscious.

Goong is back to laying, Hamyuu never stopped. Daofu hasn't shown any issues since we discovered the hernia and she's still laying. Carambah is fine but obviously doesn't lay since she got the implant. Siyao is fine, just has a lot of 'white' feathers, like she's gone prematurely grey.

They all seem happy.

COMPOST:

Got moved from centre bay to right bay, but didn't heat up, unfortunately. Very annoying. I made another pile in the centre bay and that one has almost gone to 'active' but not quite. I think it might need more chook poop to properly compost, so maybe next weekend, I might do a bit of adding and turning, and mix up the centre bay with more chook poop and then mix it into the right bay.

PREPARING:

Chook tractor is still on the APPLE-CREPE, chooks have quite thoroughly dug it up and cleaned it out. It might need some compost toppings before it's quite ready, though.

If I can get some woodchipping done sometime this week, then I can put that in the chook tractor. Otherwise it may end up being mostly pea straw to cover things over.

SEEDING/SPROUTING:

Trying to decide what next to plant. I feel like I should do at least a couple of brassicas and attempt a cabbage. Right now it's the peak time for planting.

DAHLIAS underneath the MANGO are sprouting.

Discovered a volunteer cucurbit near the driveway cornfield, which is pretty funny.

PLANTING OUT:

SIDE VEGEPOD
TOMATO – wasp peach, in a trio
CORN – silvermine, about a dozen of them
ZUCCHINI – black beauty
SWEET PEAS – (left to right) Matucana, Original, Beaujolais, Solstice Crimson

TRIANGLE
BEANS – snake beans to grow up wire grille sealing off the chicken frontage
SUNFLOWER – a solitary one that sprouted

LOUNGE BED/CHICKEN FRONTAGE
SWEET PEAS – remainders from planting out the side vegepod
SUNFLOWERS – (might be moonwalker and teddy bear, or else Van Gogh's Landscape and Giant Russian Organic)

PLUM-STONE
TOMATO - marmande
LETTUCE - Australian yellow leaf (one survived)
SPINACH - bloomsdale
BEANS (I think they're bush beans left over from elsewhere)

POTS
Two MELONs – one moon and stars, one unknown from someone in Thornleight – and the PUMPKIN – Galeaux d'Eysines – planted into pots and stuck back into the greenhouse, fed with chook manures
CAPSICUM – planted all into the black six-pod seedling, and feed with chook manure

DRIVEWAY CORN
Planted one more ZuCCHINI and a couple of CUCUMBERS in among them. We'll see how it goes.

HARVEST:

Still AVOCADOs, but the ALPINE STRAWBS are having a good go of it, and the

FEEDING:

Watered some beds with biologics,

NETTING:

I really need to net the donut peach and the cherry, even though the cherry doesn't have much on it this year.

THOUGHTS:

Steph came to visit the other week to get some avocado scions for grafting to one of her own rootstocks, and of course she got a tour. She commented that I had a lot growing, and that it was all doing well. At least, right now it is. Whether it continues to do well? That's another matter.

I do have a lot of things going on this year, and that's pretty deliberate; I'd like to settle into a rhythm of doing better at actually using what's in the garden, and gardening for what I'll use.

eg. Making a quiche out of eggs and the leafy greens from the garden last week. Eating avos. Working out how to turn spaces more productive.

I'd like to get some cabbages/broccoli in for winter. Somewhere with a bit of sun, but otherwise cool. Not sure where this mythical place might be...