1.8.09

Garden notes August

The good old girls are laying pretty well. I only had to buy two dozen eggs this year to get me through their "going off the lay " or moulting period. I check the hen house about three times a day when I'm at home as the chooks get muddy feet at this time of the year and their eggs get dirty if left in the nest.The porous eggshell can absorb the dirt and muck so I like to collect them quickly. While I'm at it I walk around the garden checking out the early spring movement with warm eggs in my coat pocket, I can't wait to see some movement in the asparagus patch.
The red head likes helping with seed sowing
so we planted another lot of cress to put on the windowsill.

I'm doing quite a few sprouts as the garden only has leeks, lettuce, silver beet, hardy herbs and brassicas at the moment. My seed catalogue arrived though making me feel a little excited about the change of season.
There are still a flock of roosters in the glasshouse getting fat. My Dad has agreed to help me kill and pluck them within the next few weeks. I saw an idea in the New Zealand gardener magazine which sounds good for spring. That is to build a hot compost in the glasshouse to keep the spring seedlings warm. It sound worth a try I think as the seedlings in the sunroom are now threatening to take over.
Alot of pruning still to finish here, waiting for some clear weather. Must get out to the beach for some seaweed and past the horse paddock for a few bags of poo.
Roll on spring!

6 comments:

Corrine said...

ohh nice coloured eggs. We're getting quite a few every day now too, in fact we've gone from famine to feast, but it is lovely to have some to give away again. Everyone appreciates it. We still have two roosters that need to go, and that will leave us with two for the summer. I'm still waiting for my seed catalog, I tried the hot bed trick last year and it works very well, I actually built it on top of the compost heap, and covered it up with a glass window. I had very early salad greens but although I got the tomatoes off to a good start they didn't produce any earlier than the others. The main problem with a hot bed is that you need to have quite a large pile of manure to get it hot enough, and for the heat to last long enough. I have a link somewhere to making hot beds, I'll try to find it for you.

Jo's Place said...

I've just sorted through my seed packets and am getting all excited about planting some seeds. Spring is so close it's almost painful :)

Ange said...

New shoots on some trees and sun for most of the day - i don't want to get too excited, but it does feel like spring could happen anytime!!

Heart in the country said...

I love when the new seed catalogues come out, sitting and going through them planning what I'll be planting and growing.

Mystic Thistle said...

Very beautiful blog. I'm inspired.

Linda said...

I have an award for you at my blog RT.