Best broad beans ever

A great season for the broad beans this year:

Note sure if it was the extra compost, lots of seaweed solution or actually remembering to top them when the flowers had set this year... but we got about 800g of beans, and I reckon there's still about the same amount yet to be picked. Rose loves eating them raw, so probably there was more like 850g originally! Not sure what's going on with the second planting of peas this season - nothing seems to be germinating which is a pity as Rose loves eating them too.  Sugar snap peas are doing well, although a bit of blight is discolouring the leaves although it doesn't seem to affect the peas themselves so I've not done anything about it.  Beans are up but looking a bit chewed around the edges.  Again, unless it affects the beans themselves I probably won't bother doing anything about it.

Here's an update on all the beds.  Broadbeans as above plus a few cucumbers in the front part, onion and carrots bed doing quite well after a late start.  This year I accidentally killed off most of my onion seedlings after they got waterlogged, so I bought some shallots and red onion seedlings, well past their prime in a punnet.  They seem to be settling in ok though. Tomatoes and zucchini partially in as still waiting to harvest the garlic - also have eggplant seedlins to cram into this bed. The garlic looks pretty sad and thin, although a lot better than the pathetic crop from last year.  Not sure what the problem is - maybe they didn't get enough food to start them off. Chillies and capsicum seedlings are looking ok and will get planted out soon too into the root vegie bed, so everything will be really crowded.  I'd like to rest beds between seasons but never seem to get the chance! I built a mini greenhouse for my seedlings and cuttings, after one I saw on Gardening Australia, and it seems to working really well.  At least my correa and prosthanthera cuttings haven't died yet - not sure why I have such trouble with them as I thought being tough plants they should strike reasonably easily. I'll try to post something about that sometime.

The chickens are a happy little flock now that Caramel has been cured of being broody - a week in chicken prison (aka dog cage) seemed to do the trick.

Egg skelter

Here's my latest egg toy: the egg skelter.  No more stacking cartons in the fridge as the oldest eggs are always at the bottom, to be used next, while new ones go straight in at the top!  Brilliant! (Had to buy this straight from the manufacturer in Devon, England but still worth it in my opinion).

The Cosy Coupe Makeover, part II

Ok, started this ages ago, took quite a while to finish due to travel, lots of layers of paint, weather, toddler being much more active....

Step 3: Sand and paint (after constructing painting bay) - took 2 cans of pain to do 3(ish) coats

Step 4: Re-assemble

Step 5: Mask and spray on racing stripes (had to touch up the red again after doing the stripes due some spots of not very good masking)

Step 6: Re-assemble steering wheel, add new key and petrol cap (bought from Little Tikes supplier in Oz)

DONE!

Chocolate and caramel eggs

Not Easter yet, just the first egg from the new chooks.  Guess which one is from the young 'un?

Chocolate and Caramel

Meet the newest members of the family:

Chocolate and Carmel are gold laced Wyandotte bantams - so pretty!  About 7 months old.

Had to reinstate the old coop and fence off half the new run as a quarantine area. Lots of concerned clucking from Henny, Penny and Jenny.  I'm sure they'll all get used to one another eventually.

Garden update

Spring has sprung!

Chicken palace update

Here are some shots of the palace,  now with nice big back door for easy cleaning,  private nesting box (no more dirty eggs, yay!), and berry garden in the western side.

 

Chicken palace

The chickens have outgrown their old coop,  or rather it is starting to disintegrate so is time to find Henny, Penny and Jenny a new home.  Here's the before shot:

The new coop is modeled after a commercial design I spotted on the web but modified to fit our site and relatively cheap materials and easy building.

After moving the chooks temporarily to another part of the garden, first we did some site leveling:

Here's dad's new toy.  All fingers and limbs still intact!

At the end of day one the basic frame was done:

The rain was not helpful.  Uncle Chris supplied wire and plywood and much needed assistance.  But at the end of day two,  although not finished by any means,  the chickens were moved in!  This followed a bit of late night temporary works to get things habitable:

So here we are at the end of a very long weekend:

After their first night the chickens were very nervous and wouldn't come down the ladder, but eventually made it out on their own. And then of course the didn't know how to get back up again... The slippery ramp seems to scare the but I'm sure they'll get used to it eventually.

The Cosy Coupe Makeover

Here's the start of my Cosy coupe makeover for Rose.

Step 1: Get 2nd hand Cosy coupe on eBay

Step 2: Disassemble and wash all parts

Chickens earning their keep once more

The chickens got their barley crop yesterday and promptly completely ignored it. Today they decided they liked it enough to demolish most of it.... Just as well really,  they were in danger of being thought ungrateful. But they're laying again,  so all is forgiven.

Spoilt chickens

Growing barley for the chickens, day 2 after "planting"

Green 

shoots starting to appear on day 5

Well and truly sprouted by day 7

The dogs take over the nursery

Doug and Ruby luxuriate

The chickens are molting

There goes the egg supply til next spring

Doug chillin'

First tomatoes that the rats haven't eaten

Doug recovers from pneumonia

Doug sends his greetings to all of his followers. After a trip to the emergency vet on Monday with laboured breathing and a temperature, Doug returned home with a course of antibiotics for suspected pneumonia.  A day spent moping in his kennel led to a rapid recovery and we are glad to report he's nearly back to his old daggy self.

Onion harvest 2013

Onion cream gold

Two beds are better than one

Doug makes a friend

Doug the clog destroyer

This is the 2nd pair gone to the land of lost clogs

Doug needs more space

This is MY bed!

Doug's delivery from the park

Dougie the doormat