Progress with the Garden

A couple of months ago our garden was looking like this:

And now, voila!

So far we've harvested peas, lettuce and broccoli. The cauliflower and cabbages aren't far behind, and I'm looking forward to some carrots and corn in a couple of months too.

Apart from enthusiastic pumpkins and flattened onions, everything is going pretty well!

Garden Update

Our garden is doing pretty well, mainly thanks to Owen who spends a lot more time watering and weeding than I do! It'll still be a while before anything is ready to harvest, but at some stage over the next couple of months we should be enjoying homegrown tomatoes, onions, broccoli, cabbages, lettuce, cauliflower, peas, silver beet, potatoes, zucchini, pumpkins and corn.

We haven't had problems with slugs or caterpillars yet (planting nasturtiums in between the lines of vegetables has probably helped) but we have had a major battle with aphids. Since our vegetable garden is organic, I wouldn't let Owen use any chemicals (especially when they weren't even working on the roses!) and when the aphids started spreading to the vegetables I went in search of a natural solution which I found in this book from the library:

All Purpose Insecticide

1 litre water
3 chillies, chopped
1/2 onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed

Bring all ingredients to the boil then remove from heat. Cover and steep for two days, then strain into a spray bottle. Mix in some soapy water before spraying so the mixture adheres to the plants.


This was super effective and the aphid problem is now under control!

Our Little Farm

Tucked away in our backyard, in the corner behind the garage and hidden by a fence...

...is our little farm. Or the beginnings of one anyway! Owen and I (with some help from the chickens) spent a few hours this weekend preparing the garden for planting.

We were lucky when we first bought our house that there was a raised vegetable garden and a small chicken coop, so everything was ready for my urban homestead dreams! After an unfortunate incident last spring, I decided to let the chickens have the run of the garden instead of the back yard (the coop is too small to keep them in all the time). Of course they totally destroyed the garden, but this year we've blocked off all escape routes and have plans to extend the coop, so the chickens will be better contained and the garden will be safe!

I want an organic garden, so I've been reading up on companion planting and have made a plan which will hopefully keep all the plants happy:

Any tips or words of advice from some more experienced gardners? Any suggestions are most appreciated!

Adventures of a Pair of Urban Chickens

When we moved into our house one of the things I was most excited about was the chance to own some chickens. Our house already had a chicken coop left from the previous owners, and I wasted no time in buying two ex-battery hens (Maude & Mavis) who started laying straight away. I was very upset when Mavis met an untimely end thanks to our dog, but Owen fixed the escape route in the chicken run which meant I could get another chicken (Mabel) to keep Maude company.

Everything seemed to be going well. The chickens were laying a dozen eggs a week between them, the dog was behaving most of the time, and Maude only pecked Owen's toes becuase she thought they were edible. I was blissfully unaware of the double lives the chickens were leading.

The day after our wedding when we returned home it was to find an angry note on the front door. Apparently our chickens had been terrorising the neighbourhood and had traumatised the children from next door who were now too scared to go outside. We went over to apoligise to the neighbours and found out that Mabel had actually gone inside their house. I like to think that the incident went a little something like this (but with a chicken instead of a goose).