Stretch's bit of dirt

stretchman · **Posted:** Tue May 11, 2010 12:19 pm

Well, time to stop lurking and show my garden. We are slowly getting set up to be as self sufficient as possible, but it is going slow due to my work and volunteer commitments. We have started getting crops off the trees this year and I hope to have the vegie patch productive by next spring.

Attachment:

File comment: My latest project is breeding meat chickens using Light Sussex hens and an Indian Game rooster. The brown chook here is an Indian Game hen. The ducks at the rear are Pekins and Muscovies, again kept for meat

P1010784.JPG [ 92.39 KiB | Viewed 6961 times ]

Attachment:

File comment: The vegie patch. OK, you may have to use your imagination for this one. We had a lovely patch in our first year here until our turkey experiment. I am getting this sorted for spring now.

P1010775.JPG [ 91.48 KiB | Viewed 6961 times ]

Attachment:

File comment: The chookpen/orchard. Since we built the pen around the trees they have boomed. The pen is simply (cheaply) built, pine logs with 6' chook wire. There is a hotwire around the bottom to discourage the foxes

P1010782.JPG [ 93.74 KiB | Viewed 6961 times ]

stretchman · **Posted:** Tue May 11, 2010 12:36 pm

Attachment:

File comment: Our first crop of Kalamata olive. Yep just the one!

P1010813.JPG [ 97.64 KiB | Viewed 6960 times ]

Attachment:

File comment: Cherry Tree. It has fruited after only 1 year in the ground, unfortunately we were away! It has two varieties grafted on it. Stella is one I think. Not sure of the other.

P1010792.JPG [ 95.4 KiB | Viewed 6960 times ]

Attachment:

File comment: The mystery fruit. This tree was here when we moved in and has done very little since. We know it is a citrus, but it hasn't even flowered in 2 years. Maybe this season?

P1010787.JPG [ 92.8 KiB | Viewed 6960 times ]

stretchman · **Posted:** Tue May 11, 2010 1:11 pm

Attachment:

File comment: More of the chooks, this time showing Token the Isa Brown as well. The wife has taken a shine to her so we will be keeping her (the chook not the wife. OK, AND the wife)

P1010817.JPG [ 92.53 KiB | Viewed 6959 times ]

Attachment:

File comment: Digging out an old plum tree root that was getting into the drains. It was a bit of a chore due to the water pipe on one side and a newly discovered PVC pipe on the other. I haven't worked out what the PVC pipe is yet and where it goes!

Now we have a spot to put an AP system in the future.

I have also taken Curnow's idea with the soakwells for growing spuds. I put 2 together for a larger bed.

And yes the wife has threatened me with violence if I show her face!

P10108031.JPG [ 98.2 KiB | Viewed 6959 times ]

Attachment:

File comment: Success!

The bread crates are just the ticket for putting over seeds or seedlings to stop chooks, dogs or kids from getting into them.

P1010805.JPG [ 93.9 KiB | Viewed 6959 times ]

pistolknight · **Posted:** Tue May 11, 2010 5:24 pm

A bit of work going on stretch, your mystery tree looks a little like my mandarin that also does sweet fa, my missus also threatens me with violence if I post her pic, but she doesn't read the forums :lol:

hope there wasn't to much fighting over the olive, and we also got cherries first time but birds seem to take them first, so cover coming, good to see you have a spot for the AP, I have just added the 3rd grow bed, added trout but had a disaster with those due I suspect to a dead yabbie, just clearing the water and will add more next week if Mr Bird gets over to bunbury, so you will have to pop over towards the end of the month when everything is happening

earthbound · **Posted:** Thu May 13, 2010 4:24 pm

Nice one Stretch. That stump looks like a real bugger to dig out, I hate digging tree stumps, 4 years working for the council in parks and gardens and you start to hate jobs like that pretty quickly.

Good to see your trees starting to produce, I have a mulberry tree in my old chook pen, planted it as a very small tree, now you can't see the chook pen, or the shed, or the apple tree. It's gone bananas...

Backyard Farming Forum
Bringing food production home