November 2009: almost everything starts to grow!

We planted a couple of weeks earlier than suggested by the local gardening experts. That carries the risk of late frost damage, but we were lucky and all the plants are off to a really good start this year. We are still checking for the dreaded black spots though! Haven't found any yet. Fingers crossed!

Pumpkins like to take up a lot of room. The vines overrun neighbouring garden beds and turn smother other plants. This year we plant a dedicated pumpkin patch. This is the area next to the chook house where the layer hens live. Lukas the pig had a few months to give the ground a thorough going-over in autumn. Then we planted green manure and the layer hens had a feast for many weeks after the green manure matured. Then it was time for them to be locked out of this area again. Whatever remained from the green manure was slashed and dug back into the ground. Meanwhile all the clean-up from the chook house went onto a huge compost heap in the future pumpkin patch for a number of months. The composted manure and hay makes excellent raised beds for the pumpkin patch. The seedlings are planted in nests of enriched soil set into the raised beds. When the pumpkin season is over the animals will return to work through the area again. What will we plant here in twelve months time?

We had heard a lot about the benefits of Tagasaste, also called "tree lucerne". Tagasaste is supposed to have a multitude of benefits. It can be grown as a small tree or as a bush. Tagasaste is fast growing and provides food for the animals, firewood, and shelter from the sun and against wind. We didn't have a lot of success as yet. We had sown Tagasaste in late June and again two months later. The seedlings developed very well into miniature trees in the mini greenhouses on our window sills, but once they reached a height of a few centimetres they started to die back. Later in the greenhouse we transplanted another lot into pots and they grew better, but they died back too. Finally we planted them out in early November, but only three of them survive. We sowed the last seeds directly into the ground at that time too. Maybe it was too cold before? Maybe these last seeds will take really well?

A walk through the kitchen garden

Left: cabbages and salads are thriving this season, just as everything else!

Right: we never had such a splendid red cabbage before!

Left: peas growing on mesh supported by teepees. Snails are so much less of a problem this year! They still feast on the leaves of the young plants, but the peas grow fast this year and are soon tall enough to escape the snails.

Right: the hay bale potatoes are doing very well now. It's just such a different way of growing potatoes. We are used to planting in ditching so that we can fill them as the plants grow. We never had problems with green potatoes (poisonous). What will happen here? Will the new potatoes grow deep enough inside the bales so that the sun cannot reach them and make them turn green? We will find out!

A walk through the orchards

Summer is almost here, officially! Fruit have set on the trees, the blueberries and the red and the black currants look very promising. But the heavy winter rains have caused some damage and we have to check all the plants.

Left: rust on the leaves of raspberry plants. We spray with an organic mixture of limil and Kocide (Copper). This spray changes the ph level on the surface of the leaves and this should get rid of the fungus infection.

Left: the new leaves on the raspberry plants look healthy after spraying and the rust is much reduced.

Right: for two years the young raspberries did well in the berry orchard, but the wet winter was too much for many of them. Two thirds of the canes died. We cut them back to ground level. Maybe they will come up again? Just for this season we make use of the extra space in this netted orchard to plant tomatoes. The pigs love them! In autumn they have to go. What do we do then? Plant more canes and hope for drier winters.

Problems with our cherry trees: every year we have the same problem with the cherry trees in the large orchard. They develop leaf curl and many of the fruit turn brown at an early stage, shrivel up and drop. We tried a few things. We sprayed against leaf curl in regular intervals starting in June (organic sprays such as Bordeaux). We cut the affected tips off the branches. Wherever leaf curl sets in aphids follow. We sprayed Pyrethrum against the aphids. But it has happened every year now. Even though the trees have grown well enough, we have to think about ripping them out to plant new ones next winter.

The chooks and the ducks

Once our chicks and ducklings are old enough to leave the protection of a warm and secure cage they are housed in pens with access to free range areas and they have sun and rain to enjoy, grass to eat, dirt to bath in and lots of things to keep them occupied. After they are four weeks old they are transferred to an area such as this one..

Left and right: a flock of Salmon Faverolles, Leghorns, Minorcas, Welsummers and some Welsummer/Plymouth Rock crosses in the small orchard. They are about seven weeks old.

Below left and centre: our oldest youngsters at eleven weeks.

Below right: Mum and Dad (Welsummers)

Left and right: the Aylesbury ducks are now eight weeks old

Below: a broody Light Sussex hen "sitting" on ten eggs.