Backyard Poultry Forum

Andrew I'm envious of all these harvests!

Sue55 I searched the supermarkets and Vic market for red currants this year with no luck (I have a great salad recipe for using up Chrissy ham and turkey which needs red currants!!)

Rachel your garden is AMAZING! How it has grown!

I need to lift my game The chooks have unearthed most of the basil I planted and nibbled many of the other herbs... the raspberries have finished - the tomatoes never got a foothold for some reason...the gooseberries got fried in our heatwaves over Christmas/NY in Melbourne...

Perhaps now things weatherwise and workwise have evened out I can get back into the garden and sort it out with all these inspiring posts!

I've never been successful at growing parsnips. Every time - dismal failure.
A couple of seasons ago I threw the remains of a packet of seed into an empty corner. Parsnip seed is like carrot seed - right? Needs to be fresh to germinate. End of story. I forgot about it.

WRONG

A 6 x 1 metre row of strawberries has been taken over by parsnip triffids. 2 bathtubs of Iris are growing parsnips and the 40 x 40cm paver walk way which I so carefully laid on compacted recycled road base is sitting at odd angles because of the parsnips which germinated in the cracks.
Luckily, we have decided that we like parsnip mash - but one parsnip cooked tonight will serve the 2 of us for 2 meals.

Similar story with celeriac. Not much good at growing celery so I planted a punnet of celeriac. Warning - neglected celeriac goes ferral and chooks are not interested.

Any one got a good parsnip recipe?

haha made me laugh! i like parsnips oven roasted, or in soups mostly. Celeriac (which I quite liked on my first try) gave such bloating and farting that I have never tried it again!

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NellyG ........................

We have been very late this season.

After battling with the birds for the last few years, and netting smaller single garden bed areas, we made the decision to net the WHOLE vegie patch. The sparrows would nip off the growing shoots of pretty much any plant, and the black birds would dig stuff out looking for worms. So was very frustrating but not anymore.

Brocolli/cauli/cabbage are only about 15cm high, parsnip/carrot/radishes/beetroot are about 6-8cm high. Garlic is going gangbusters well the stuff I missed from last harvest is at any rate,




Ron

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"To the Core"

We did major work on the vege garden a few years ago. Caged the whole area. 'Fenced' along the bottom metre with the old gal sheets from the shed roof. Divided the area into 3 6x9 metre 'rooms with the 2 end ones terraced into 5 gardens - both lower ones, perennial bush berries and rhubarb and a rooster house. Paved paths (as I accumulate pavers) and each garden fenced with mesh for climbers and an old security door entrance. The roosters have controlled access to any garden via a tunnel along the fence and I rotate them between the 2 houses every few years. The centre open space has the Silkie house, an Almond and a Fig tree and at the ends enclosed beds of asparagus and artichokes. There are 2 old fridges on their backs (gal glad for aesthetics) One is a cold frame and the other growing water chestnuts. Another old bar fridge houses the irrigation timers (frost proof) A big paver on the top gives me a work surface. Drip line thru the lot as well as a hand basin. The Silkie area had been very compacted by the bobcat when we did the construction and because of the slope, was just washing away, so over the Autumn this year I terraced it, using some second hand metal speed bumps, and planted a lawn - hopefully it will survive the Silkies.
The whole construction was a huge job and looks a bit incongruous amidst the rest of the construction site/work in progress that we call home but is now wild bird proof, domestic bird proof, fox proof, rabbit proof, wombat proof and rat/mouse/snake resistant. It also has a resident turtle and a couple of Bluies who take care of the snails and help themselves to the strawberries.
Next big job is to do something similar with the orchard and house the ducks there and to replace the 16 year old temporary fence around the backyard with something permanent and not improvised and regularly patched. The original chook pens were supposedly temporary but now need some permanent fencing udates. I have a pile of temporary fence panels for that job (and will have more when we do the backyard fence) Definately don't need to join a gym or take up a hobby.

and I havn't finished pruning and the vege garden is full of weeds and lettuce and weeds and onions and weeds and broccoli and weeds and kale and weeds and cabbage and weeds and cauliflower and weeds and parsnip and weeds and broad beans and weeds and spinach and weeds and asparagus and weeds and artichokes and weeds and rhubarb and weeds and berries --------

And I don't care because today was a lovely day for weeding
And the chooks LOVE WEEDS.

Ours was a dismal failure last summer and we took on some other projects and forgot about it. After winter we have given it a revamp and promised ourselves to make a good go of it!
The plan is to plant another bed of slightly different veg in early March and then to expand the garden out with more beds from there.
All of the amazing photos of seen on here have given me a lot of motivation!

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We inherited a great garden when we brought our house we have more chilli's than we know what to do 3 huge pots of regular chilli plus 2 really hot one's more like trees than plants, a commercial blackberry, lime, kafea lime, tangello, mandarin and nashi pear we have put in banana's not sure how well they'll go in Vic a Mango and lemon tree. In the veggie patch tomato's (just finished) lettuce, leeks, cucumber, snow peas, spring onion, zucchine, capsicum, mint, rosemary, basil, strawberries and watermelon. We also discovered a grafted stone fruit tree which has up to three stone fruits waiting for one with peach, nectarine an blood plum to become available.

Sounds like you have a fantastic garden.

The chillis will freeze, and then you can put them into casseroles etc, as you need them. In ours, we've not got a lot at the moment. The last of the passionfruit are falling on the ground now, some Japanese turnips, beetroot, coriander, dill, chilli, capsicum- just a little of each. An odd zucchini.... The eggplant are flowering, but I don't think there's now enough time for fruit to form before we get the first frosts. Blackberries....

Finally picking chocos again YAY. Also I planted some seeds from what is called Mexican tomato, fruit grows inside a bag, weird, pretty yellow flowers, and boy did it go ape, took over. A whole patch, they taste a bit like tomato but with a slight chilli bite.

Finally proofed a good section against rabbits, ponies, geese, whatevers. And first planting was a dozen lovely asparagus crowns. Didn't expect movement til spring, but yesterday a few little spears pushed their way up, very exciting. Felt quite mean covering them with more compost as instructed. Lots of trays sprouting in the small glasshouse, ten year old Rosemary seeds are viable! Plus 10-12 yr old silverbeets, rainbow chard and kale. More of the 'usual' - cabbage, caulies, Brussel sprout, kale varieties. Asparagus peas, borage, broccoli - climate hard on vegies though so hope they will cope when planted out in the wide world.

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PC