My vegie garden and backyard

oh no, I haven't tried that, I might have to thanks!

A few weeks ago I dug up a new patch of dirt and planted some vegie seedling, unfortunately these seedlings got attacked by something (I think snails and slugs) and they literally disappeared - it seemed that each morning something would be gone.

This is how the bed ended up - with only 6 corn plants left out of 11 and all my zucchini, capsicum and spring onion plants gone


So what I've done now with that space is leave the corn there that survived and planted a heap of sunflower seeds - lets see if they survive.

So with my seedlings no longer being there I decided that I needed to plant some more, so in Vegie bed #2 I planted some more. I was going to leave this bed empty but decided against that in the end. After 4 days they are all still there

More corn


Capsicum


Zucchini


Out of bed 2 I pulled out two self growing tomato seedlings and transplanted them to the area where I had planted all my tomato seedlings - some of my seedlings didn't quite take. I didn't put milk containers around these as I figured if they grow then they grow - unfortunately one of them has vanished - I expect dug up by the chooks but here is what I transplanted originally





I also bought a Lemonade lemon tree that I am going to espalier - it's bigger than I expect so my espalier frame that I was originally going to do needs to be bigger (the reo behind on wooden posts concreted in the ground) which will still involve wooden poles concreted into the ground but with wire or fishing line run between them for the support. It will be planted in the wine barrel once the structure is done. I pulled all the flowers and about 20 small budding lemons off the plant once I got home - I don't want any fruit on it until at least next year

Hi lisanne

Long time reader of your veggie thread, picked up fare few tricks and tips Thanks for posting your experience here.




I think similar thing might have happened to my zucchini seedlings I was suspecting on too thick mulch around it and burring the seedling due to wind. Then this has happened to my capsicum too...any idea how to prevent?

Slaters and cut worms could also be the culprits....you need to keep the mulch well away whilst the seedlings are young, tender & tasty!

Just pop a plastic cup with the bottom cut out to protect the seedlings. You can also use storm water pipe and milk containers with the bottom cut off. They make excellent mini green houses in winter with the lids on.

Thanks Fu will be trying exacly that

My cauliflowers all have white moth caterpillars in them

Yates success will sort them. Also pop a few white Yoghurt container lids about on stakes and egg shells on bamboo stakes about the veggie garden.Don't let the chooks see the eggs or they might get sad? Its a good visual deterrence for them. Might have some measurable effect on reducing the problem.

Thanks Fu. I do have heaps of eggshells on the bed but I think cos I planted them so closely that the moths probably couldn't see them - oops! hahahaha

Today I got my first egg from my chooks!!

My chooks are almost 21 weeks old now and should be laying eggs but they aren't, so around lunch time today I had a stern word to them to let them know that if they didn't start laying eggs soon that there would be trouble! They are still really cute and fun to watch so there wouldn't really be trouble but still, ya gotta threaten these things sometimes

This afternoon I heard one of them making a huge racket from out the back and then the other ones chimed in so I went to investigate. One of my chooks (Bessie - yes I can tell them apart now!!) was sitting in the laying box and had moved all the hay around but there wasn't an egg. I think I then freaked her out and she left the chook house and went around to the narrow side of the house. I figured I should probably leave her alone. She kept making a heap of noise and then she went quiet so I went to go check things out. As I turn the corner, the three chooks are all standing there and Bessie is kind of squatting and I was wondering if that meant an egg was coming, sure enough a few seconds later an egg appeared from all the feathers and rolled along the ground!! Amazing! Not only did I get my first egg from them but I saw it happen!



It was tiny!


I decided it had to be eaten so pan fried it


It was so small, this is the cooked egg on a bread and butter side plate. It tasted pretty good


Comparing the red comb of Bessie to Polly and Daisy I think it might be a bit longer before Polly and Daisy start laying but at least one of them has started. I also hope the eggs get bigger in size

About 3 weeks ago I cleared out 3 of the 4 vegie beds and they needed planting out. I had let the chooks into them for a bit to scratch around and so on and then 1.5 weeks ago I bought a heap of seedlings. Fortunately I only got around to planting them today. I say fortunately because of the big storms we had on Christmas day it meant that they didn't get destroyed!

Today I finally planted them all in the garden and vegie beds

This bed, Vegie Bed 1, has snow peas at the back, celery, capsicum and lettuce at the front and basil planted in all the gaps. At the back of this bed is some reo that I have put into the ground for the snow peas to grow up (I love recycling)


In Vegie Bed 2, this was planted out at the start of December and has Corn up the back


Capsicum in the middle and a zucchini plant at the front. I also planted out some basil today in there. There were 3 zucchini plants in here but more on that later


In Vegie Bed 2 there are self sown tomatoes from last year popping up everywhere - this one is amongst the corn and I think I will leave it there to see what happens


This is down the side of vegie bed 2 and there are tomtoes popping up here too - I plan to leave most of them there also and grow them around the wire (thanks for the idea Wayne!)


Vegie Bed 3 has more corn up the back, more celery, basil and lettuce


I decided that having 3 zucchinis in vegie bed 2 was two too many so decided to relocate 2 of them. I don't know if they will survive or not but it was that or just pull them out and not try, here they are in their new location and I also planted a new zucchini with them


I put 2 Beefsteak tomatoes into pots and today I decided that I would plant them into the garden - here they are at the bottom/ front of the pic. These were grown from seed at the same time as the 2 at the back of the pic - they seemed to do better in the pot so I hope they continue to do ok now in the garden


I also planted some Butternut Pumpkin today. I am going to get them to grow up a trellis. This trellis is (I think) an old single bed frame that I got out of next doors rubbish cage when they were building. Did I mention I like recycling?


In front of the pumpkin I planted another two zucchini


I will mulch them all tomorrow and tomorrow I will be buying more seedlings for Vegie Bed 4 which is currently empty - I'm thinking some beans but unsure what else at this point

Poor Bessie she probably wondered what the hell was happening. LOL..

That's a good size egg for a first effort!

Cute little egg from a cute little hen!! LOL Just look at the yoke colour....can see she has had lots of greens in her diet!!

Congrats Mother Hen!!

I reckon she was!!


Oh good! I figure it's good that it wasn't a big one for the first time


They have the whole backyard to wander around and eat whatever they want except what's in my 4 vegie beds so there is lots of variety out there, plus I give them seeds too and food scraps

I mulched my vegies today and also the transplanted tomatoes - the chooks love scratching around in the mulch so I can't mulch the small seedlings when the chooks can get to them and they end up damaging the plant.

Off to buy more seedlings this afternoon. I went to get them this morning but they barely had any and said they had a delivery coming today

hahah what a cute story on the egg. fingers crossed they take bessies lead and stay producing always love reading this thread and looking at the pics. very inspiring

Thanks Miss Petepie - I love sharing with my H1 friends

Yesterday there was no egg but today I got two eggs! One this morning and one later in the day which I didn't find till about 7:30pm - both different sizes. This morning my chooks were making a huge noise before I let them out and then 20 mins later when I went to water the garden I found an egg on the pathway. Tonight when I again went to water, due to the heat, I found another one on the pathway. I think they are both from the same chook, Bessie, as the one this morning and the one this evening was in the same place as the first one two days ago. She tried to lay one yesterday, she was nesting in the laying box for over an hour and nothing happened, so I'm thinking she's 'made up for it' today. I hope the other 2 chooks lay in the laying box and not on the pathway! Although interestingly she scratches around in the straw in the laying box but then lays it somewhere else! Weird.

They appear to be totally different colours on screen Lisa-are they? I ask because each hen will have her own regular tint to her egg I believe-that's one way you can tell if there's soemthing wrong with them..shell irregularities!

Our three Isa's lay mid brown eggs, whereas Millie (the Wyandotte) lays a light coloured egg-when she's not moulting...she currently resembles a feather duster!

oh I don't know, I'll have to check!

Btw if a chook lays an egg after I've gone to work and it's a hot day and the eggs been in the sun all day then I spose I probably shouldn't eat it ??