Congratulations, Soy! Linda’s book will be on its way to you soon!
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I can’t believe how fast our garden is growing!
Here’s what the first bed looked like in late August…
…and here it is today. Over the past five weeks, we’ve harvested broccoli, a dozen lettuces, kale and several beetroots from this bed.
The cabbages haven’t been a great success – we planted them too close together, and possibly a little late. As a result, they’ve been making lots of leaves, but not forming a tight ball. They haven’t been going to waste though – the chickens absolutely adore them…
The broadbeans seem to be growing before our eyes at the moment! We can’t decide whether to eat them young as Linda suggests, or to wait until they’re a bit bigger and shell them..
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Bed number two was newly planted when these photos were taken just over a month ago…
…and it’s grown prolifically! In amongst the jungle of pea shoots, you can see kale, cabbage, broccoli, as well as carrots and lettuce. We’re following Linda Woodrow’s plan from her book, The Permaculture Home Garden, which very cleverly allocates part of the space in each bed to growing feed for the chickens…
The baby pea pods are forming. I’m very new to gardening, so I didn’t realise that each flower would turn into a pod. Now I’m excitedly counting the flowers to see how many peas and broadbeans we’re going to get…
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The dwarf peach and nectarine trees seem to be making lots of fruit, although it’s unlikely they’ll all develop…
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Garden bed number three has potatoes, capsicums, eggplants and tomatoes – this single cherry tomato plant has grown like a weed and is threatening to take over the whole bed…
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We have a blueberry plant growing in a pot, waiting for a permanent home, and somewhat surprisingly, given our temperate climate, it seems to be fruiting! Maybe it has something to do with all the bees who visit our backyard now…
In a patch of soil where the chicken dome was originally situated, a small crop of wheat is growing from the uneaten grain mix we were feeding to the girls…
Today’s harvest of sprouting broccoli will be eaten at dinner tonight, simply dunked in boiling water and dressed with a little butter and salt..
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I thought you might also enjoy seeing how the chickens are travelling..here’s Rosemary glaring at me for spying on her while she was laying…
…and Queenie, being very vocal and reminding the others that she’s the boss!
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If you live in Australia and would like to undertake a garden project like ours, we have one copy of Linda Woodrow’s book, The Permaculture Home Garden, to g!ve @way (the funny characters are an attempt to avoid the search bots – I want to g!ve the book to someone who actually reads our blog!).
I was buying a copy for our friend Ian the Chicken Whisperer, and couldn’t resist picking up an extra copy for you. Linda’s book is tailored for Australian gardens, and is full of brilliant and inspired ideas – you can dip into it for suggestions, or go all out and follow her plan completely as we have.
To εnter, please leave a comment (before 14th October) and tell us which state you live in and what your favourite vegetable is. And apologies to our international visitors, but we can only ship to Australian addresses this time!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 