Plants, baby chicks, Papa Sam and eggs

"Poo-berries"

Sam  and I have been busy in the garden, planting out some of the plants our kids bought, in the places we organised with them...  So, for our youngest boy, we now have his "poo-berries", being his Pajaro strawberries, planted in our old toilet in the front yard.  He hasn't seen them yet, but he'll be absolutely thrilled!

"Love heart" rose

Our eldest girl now has her rose pride of place by the front door, which has given our garden the beautiful red colour we've been noticing a severe lack of lately.  Some onion seedlings around it will hopefully provide our first response against aphids.  We're also trying to attract ladybugs with parsley, yarrow and coriander flowers nearby.

Our middle boy has his "Seascape" strawberries out in a couple of pots on the front porch, with some white Scabiosa belonging to his sisters.






His blueberry is planted out near the chooks, to hopefully give them some shelter next summer

And our eldest boy's kumquat is in the chook enclosure too.  It's already flowering, and looks like it should be fruiting nicely next season.  It seems such a waste to take the fruit off at the moment, but it will be a better, stronger tree for it.

So, the school fair happened on Friday, and I took along two big containers of seedlings, only to end up with two containers of different plants in return.  I now have 5 more raspberry canes for our back section, 3 apple mint, some lemon balm, a camellia and a few extra herbs.  So much for clearing out the greenhouse...

Our eldest daughter and I spent our evening transplanting some seedlings into bigger pots, so we now have a whole lot of small pots of strawflowers, statice and swan plants and some seed punnets of night scented stock and scabiosa "Starball".  I also added some brussel sprouts, cauliflower and romanesco broccoli to the mix (fractal food - awesome!).

My beloved tomato :)

Best plant in the greenhouse for the moment still has to go to the beautiful tomato plant (I think it's a money maker) given to me by a friend.  It's grown a couple of feet since she gave it to me, and still thriving (witness my pitiful attempt at cherry tomatoes in the window box to the left of the main greenhouse photo for comparison).






We are almost zucchini parents!  Yup, they're starting to colour up, and we should have 6 or 8 before the week is out.  And our beans in the front yard have produced their first tasty crop (another gift, from a different friend).

The Meyer lemon growing in our old toilet out the front (another gift from my tomato giving friend) was finally starting to get sick of the lack of space, so I've moved it in with the chooks as well.  Surrounded by beneficials, it should get along ok.  It's only small, so will hopefully take the transplant a little easier.

Our guinea pigs are still thriving, and getting used to lots and lots of cuddles.  They've been great for our middle son, too, who has Aspergers Syndrome.  It's helping him to learn some empathy and a little responsibility as well.

Papa Sam has had a hard week, working oncall, with his last night tonight, so finally managed to squeeze in some much-deserved rest and relaxation, making miniature scenery (so that he can kick my bum at Warhammer YET AGAIN!).  Will post updates as to how the scenery comes along...  But you gotta love those trees!

Our neighbours are adding to their brood of chooks and got some eggs for one of their girls to sit on, which have hatched (I believe they're Aracauna).  There's 6 gorgeous little chicks running around in their own separate enclosure now.  Here's hoping that at least 3 or 4 will be girls, as they're so very sweet!

And on a final note, I thought I'd put up a pic of the absolutely gorgeous eggs our own girls lay every day.  Sometime soon, I'll pop up a couple of favourite recipes, with pics, so you can see just how yellow the yolks are!

Fluffyfeet & Sammy's eggs at the top, with the 3 brown shaver eggs below

Take care,

Mama Fern