Sun & strawberries......

Welcome aboard to the new followers-I'm always so surprised  pleased when people see something here that appeals to them.

As alluded to in my last post, we have moved our strawberry beds-we have had two 1.2m x 1.2m raised beds along the southern boundary of our vegie garden (plus 1 other bed used last year for onions) and decided to move them & better utilise the space.

All three beds have been moved to the eastern side of the vegie garden and the middle bed has the Cambridge Rival variety, whereas the two outside bed will have the Aroma variety ( we have enough runners from one of the old beds to now create the new one as well).

The space that has been freed up will allow us to put in a 5th water tank plus a 3m x 3m garden shed..in the future when we can afford to!

We are coming to the end of our 3rd year of living here and we have worked out the best way of using our acre of land. Many of the plans will wait until we have either the time or money required to bring them to fruition...but that just means we will appreciate it even more when it happens!

We will add a compacted gravel path around the beds

Committee of Management keen to destroy transplanted strawberries assist.

Parsnips and potatoes.......

Overnight we have had an spectacular electrical storm-which provided some good soaking rain. It moistened the soil enough for me to harvest the remaining parsnips-and a couple of cheeky potatoes which had sprung up!

 

 

 

I also harvested another 1.5kg of strawberries- I think I may use this batch to try some microwave strawberry jam.

 

 

Telstra still doesn't have our telephone services up and running in the area-some businesses have managed to get their EFTPOS up and running and there are also some ATMs working.

 

Ah well......abck to the Dark Ages!

 

Sunshine and strawberries..........

It's a coolish late spring day here, with the sun shining and a lovely light breeze blowing.

The Christmas cake is baking in the oven, the washing is on the line and I have just harvested nearly a kilo of strawberries.

Life is good.

Perusing the property.....

Some updated photos of the productive area of our acre:

To the Eastern side of the vegie garden ( neighbours shed under construction in the background)

 

 

To the Northern side-this side is being allowed to lie fallow until next season. We have layered manure & straw-which will be turned over in 6 months or so. You can see the chicken coop-the chooks are allowed to freerange through the orchard during the day and are locked up at night.

 

 

I've netted the strawberry beds today- there is a lot of fruit and the birds are starting to show an interest!

 





We have a broody hen at the moment- Miss Millie is in a "fowl" mood! I'm not sure how many eggs are under her-there is at least one. I've decided to let her sit and see what eventuates!

 

Our rooster-Sir Bebe Le Pew!

 

Miss Betty doing some of her best posing!

 

As I was wandering around this morning I found this nest-and not far away from it this broken blue egg. Now I have no idea whether it was blown down during the storm last night or if the ravens have raided it and dropped it. I have sprayed it in case of mites etc and will find a home in our dining area for it I think.

 

 

 

Much manure.......

It's been a busy week! The baby shower went well. One of the most poignant moments was when our daughter's friend had arranged for us all to write letters to the baby. These were kept private and handed to the Mum-to-Be, to be read at her leisure. In 21 years they will be displayed at baby's 21st birthday-what a lovely momento! To say nothing of the thriftiness!

In addition, over the weekend we ordered 6m3 of topsoil for the garden-it was duly delivered and moved via wheelbarrow by His Lordship and two helpers!

The soil is being used for raised strawbery beds ( mixed with our heavy clay soil, horse manure and partially composted straw-thanks to our hens!) and in garden beds across the front of the house. We bought the basic topsoil because the "enriched" soil cost nearly double the price-which would have cost us nearly $180 more! We have access to horse manure for $1/bag- and will only need 20 or 30 bags to toss on top before mulching....it's worthwhile taking a moment to research what you can access locally for your garden to save money.

I have ordered a self-pollinating almond tree and strawberry plants to replace the ones which baked in the clay soil over our unusually dry Summer. The Strawberry plants are Cambridge Rival-a small yet exceptionally intense flavoured strawberry with a short summer picking season; and Aromas...a more modern type which provides large berries over a longer season. We have the garden ready to go as soon as the plants arrive.

Berry nice!

Over the past few days I've realised how much fruit we are already starting to produce! We have apples, apricots,nectarines,plums,quinces, mulberries and lemons forming on their respective trees-not bad for 18months in the ground!

This morning I wandered through the berry beds and picked a couple of handfuls of raspberries,blueberries and strawberries to have on our muesli for breakfast-this is the life I had always yearned for!