My productive garden...

When we bought our house, there was nothing on the section apart from grass.  We put up a fence to keep our dog in, and cut off the back of the section to make the fence smaller and more financially manageable.  I always had the intention of making it an orchard/kitchen garden - and even bought some books about such things. 

Well, we finally got some fruit trees planted and put in some raised beds.

This is the chicken enclosure.  We used the old fence that we had removed - put our chicken house inside it, and ended up putting mesh over the top to keep Houdini from escaping.

We have potatoes in the lower bed, kumara struggling along in the middle bed, and every thing else in the top bed - tomatos, capsicum, lettuce, beetroot, spring onions, perennial spinnach, sweetcorn, pumpkin, zuchini, and beans.  Check out "One Magic Metre" for planting schemes where you squeeze it all in!

Nothing to do with gardening - but aren't they cute?

I am enjoying the fact that everything is growing, even after the chicken invasion.  We are already tucking into the lettuce, and the tomatos, pumpkin, beans and zuchini all have flowers.  The corn have whatsits growing - what are they called?? - I feel like a little farmer.  We also have teeny tiny apples and peaches, and the mandarin, orange and lemonade all have little fruitlets (you know, the little green bit that looks like a wee fruit).  Will have to see how the summer progresses - we got through last years drought with moderate watering, so fingers crossed that everything survives this years summer.

I made a list of jobs to do before January's patchwork exhibition.  Last year we moved house which upset all my plans for finishing quilts, and really I'm not all that much better organised now that we've been here for over a year.  But, if I'm good and follow my list - I should have several things finished in time.  So far, I've tutu-ed around doing other things, so must keep on track!