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October 2008 |
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The orchards
Left: the large orchard is now fully covered in bird mesh! One side can be opened so that bees have access. Right: apple trees in the small orchard. These trees were planted in June 2007, and many of them are already in flower this season. |
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The greenhouse
Left: the greenhouse is now set up for the growing season. Two tomato plants, 11 cucumber plants, melon (not sure if this will work!), lots of capsicum, eggplant and one chilli. The tomatoes will remain in the greenhouse over winter. The rest of the tomatoes are outside. The tomatoes and cucumbers will be trained on strings. Right: the first grapes
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The vegie garden
Left: Silke is planting corn, cucumbers, pumpkins, squash and zucchini which were grown from seeds in the greenhouse. Right: carrots and potatoes in rotation 2, corn, pumpkins etc. in rotation 3, tomatoes in rotation 4. |
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Extra garden beds
Left: every year there are more things to plant. But we have decided not to increase the size of the vegie garden again! We use temporary fencing to protect extra beds against the wallabies and plant eight kilos of Dutch Cream potatoes in two rows. Once they have been harvested, this potato patch will be returned to pasture and the fence removed. Next year we'll use a different part of the paddock for extra rows of potatoes. Right: the asparagus is doing very, very well!
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The kitchen garden
Left: Tassie purple garlic
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Traditional breeds of chicken |
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| Faverolles: they originated in France in the late 1800's and are hardy dual-purpose birds. They are well suited to cold climates and are quiet and non-aggressive. Faverolles are not common any more today. We hatched eight chicks from twelve eggs. A second lot of twelve eggs from a different bloodline did not hatch at all. |
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top: still in the incubator
top right: five days old left: twelve days old right: 16 days old |
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Welsumers: are a dual purpose breed that was developed in the
Netherlands at the beginning of the last century. We chose this breed because
they are excellent foragers and lay large brown eggs, about 150 per year.
Welsumers have become quite rare in Australia.
Right: two days old Far right: six days old |
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And the Barnevelders:
right: four weeks old far right: five weeks old. The Barnevelders have moved outside into a small shed. It's still quite cold in late October and we won't let them free-range as yet. Temperatures drop down to four degrees at night. An old rubbish bin with a lot of hay provides shelter for them. |
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More eggs in the incubator. This time it's a different bloodline of Welsumers and also Plymouth Rocks. | Plymouth Rocks: Plymouth Rocks are a dual purpose breed. They are large, hardy birds that make excellent mothers and are very placid and friendly. We don't plan to keep a line of Plymouth Rocks. We just want to have a few hens which we can cross with a Welsumer rooster so that we can get table birds. | |||||||||||||
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Chook tractors and another chook house |
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Left: Faverolles and Plymouth Rocks are known to become broody
easily. They make excellent mothers, which is much better than relying on
incubators! Our two new chook tractors are three metres long by one metre
wide and can house one or two broodies with their chicks.
Right: 200mm high sleepers are the base of our new three x three metre chook house where we will use a deep litter system on natural earth. The Welsumers will live here and can free-range from this shed. |
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The vegie garden at the end of October |
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Gardening Calender |
Orchards | Kitchen Garden | Vegie Garden | Tasmania- the dark side |
About us | Contact | Resources | Disclaimer |
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