Our farm.

farm/färm/

Noun:

An area of land and its buildings used for growing crops and rearing animals, typically under the control of one owner or manager

Spring has well and truly arrived in our part of the world, bringing with it warmer weather, a thriving garden, and a bundle of baby ducks. The winter crops are nearing their end. I am in the process of harvesting the final few beetroot as their leaves are beginning to wilt in the warming sun. The snow peas have finished, the vines being pulled from the garden and piled onto the compost heap. The abundance of cauliflower all coming on at once has meant I have had to resort to pegging leaves together to protect the florets from the damaging sun light.

My seedlings are being dug into the soil, with five varieties of tomato now having been planted, and an abundance of lettuce varieties being sown. A selection of climbing beans have established themselves and their rapid growth is promising.

I am also considering building a second compost bin using an old plastic bin inverted with the bottom cut out of it - as shown to me by my local friend. I just need to find the correct plastic cutting tool. I have a decent pile of winter crop plant bits ready and waiting to be broken down into lovely dark compost!

Having built a much sturdier fence now around the 'second' veggie patch (paved area of the garden), I decided to buy a metal arch to frame the gate and to act as a support for a climbing bean crop. Either end of the arch sits in a pot of soil, and planted around the bases are some bean seedlings. Once they begin to really take off I may have to attach some chicken wire to the arch to give the beans some added support.

My dear friend Michelle visited over the weekend and she gave me a hand with a number of jobs in the yard.  First on the list was relocating the chicken coop (I will post some photos about that another day). We also put a wire fence around the strawberries in the bathtub as one of my chickens has been making a meal of anything I plant in there. She also helped me with some fencing - even learning how to hammer in a star picket! I now have three "paddocks" in the yard keeping our flocks in order.

~ They broke into the garlic plot! ~

Sam xox