Now that I have space and chickens, I thought I might try growing the traditional North American trio of maize, beans and squash. A handy website Renee’s Garden outlines a planting scheme for a ten foot square patch, so I doubled that to 6 m x 3 m rectangle. The bed is up by the chicken coop, on a bit of a slope and well drained, so rather than using mounds I have made level patches with some cut and fill. The three sisters legend says that maize, beans and…
Read MoreDay: 12 October 2014
Marans chicks; one week old!
Our ten marans chicks all made it to 7 days, albeit with a couple of near-tragedies. The hen has been marvellous, and it’s fascinating to watch them in action and how they respond to her cues. They are housed in a shed with a door we made to fit, with a small yard outside that I wired in and part-covered with old weed-cloth. I had all sorts of worries; that they wouldn’t be able to get over the threshold, or that they would get out through the chicken wire and…
Read MoreLast of the winter lettuce.
My first sowing of lettuce grew to be a rewarding first crop. From a couple of June sowings and a slow start, they did well through the dry, cool weather and provided more salad than we could use. I got three types for Winter sowing; Australian Yellow, Lollo Rosso, and Marvel of Four Seasons, all from Eden Seeds. The idea was to get a variety of shape and colour to mix in a salad, and it worked well, although I reckon you could mix any 3 different types from the catalogue and…
Read More