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Sunday, March 25, 2012

In the Garden - March 2012

With lots of other things on the go right now, the garden has been a bit neglected. I keep losing the girls in the long grass, it's that bad! Fortunately though, the established plants are performing well, so we do still have some lovely things happening in the garden at the moment. Here's a peak.

We have a very established guava tree which was already large when we moved in 7 years ago. It fruits abundantly every year and is tall enough that the parrots help themselves to the fruit we can't reach, still leaving plenty behind. We're not huge guava fans here unfortunately, so don't eat much of the fruit (Poppet being the exception, I am continuously finding her munching away on a ripe guava that has fallen off the tree). Much of the fruit lands in the chicken run, so they get a great feast this time of year, and it provides a beautifully sweet smell to the garden, but I sometimes wish it had been a mulberry tree, or something we actually eat. But beggers can't be choosers and it is a lovely part of the garden.


Remember the baby pumpkin from last month? It's grown! It's just about ready to pick. I'm looking forward to cooking it with a roast one day this week.


Look who else has grown. The baby cochins are now around 11 weeks old and looking and sounding much less like chicks. Their combs and wattles are growing and their quiet little "cheeps" are turning into deeper "clucks". The chicken dynamics at our house have changed completely. The Isa Browns stopped laying the day the chicks arrived (even though they are separated). One keeps escaping her cage and bunking in with the babies, and having a go at both the other hens when they are together. I am sure she thinks she's their mum and she has to protect her babies. I hope they start laying again soon.


The girls and I planted some seeds a few weeks ago. Chicky really wanted to plant something, so I dug through my seed box to find something that was vaguely in season. Our dwarf bean, zucchini and cucumber seedlings are ready to transplant to the vege patch...


....and our carrot seedlings have sprouted as well.


We have two passionfruit vines. For those that have never grown passionfruit, the vines grow prolifically. You can almost SEE them grow. We planted two over a frame at the front of the shed to provide a bit of colour and shade. They have certainly done that, and a few months ago we got some beautiful fruit from one of the vines. I assumed the other vine just wasn't going to fruit this year, but in the last few weeks it has started flowering. Perhaps it's a different variety. Regardless, the flowers are amazing, and I can't wait for a second crop of passionfruit!


Not much else is happening in the garden at the moment, as we gear up to head off on a gypsy adventure soon. I'd love to hear what's happening in your garden this month.

4 comments:

  1. Hi Pam - Sarah here. If you have spare guavas- could I please grab some? I'm making fresh juice daily for breakfast and I'd welcome some variety to the ingredients! :) Passionfruits are going off along my fence, had 4 ripe ones in the last week with more on the vine. Just got a load of new soil in and have planted radish, lettuce, 2 types spinach and spring onions as well as the usual sprouts and watercress for salad :)

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    1. Of course Sarah, next time you're here, remember to grab some. You can raid all our left over produce while we're away too :)

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  2. Pam, your garden is looking much better than mine! I love the butternut pumpkin - has the vine taken up a lot of room? That's Pete's argument for not letting me plant one! And your chookies are so cute with their tiny combs!

    Our neighbour has a passionfruit vine growing over the fence. We got lots of flowers, but not a single fruit, and I have no idea why!

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    1. Hi Celia. The pumpkin vine has taken over a section of the garden (and path!). It actually grew through a milk crate before sprouting the pumpkin, so the crate is still sitting on the path because I didn't want to destroy the only pumpkin. I think passionfrui fruiting is very dependent on bees. I've heard of people having to hand pollinate the flowers if bees are scarce. They also LOVE the chook poo!

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