In the garden this week

 All this spring rain has resulted in some lush greenness in the garden.  The potatoes are loving it.

 Our driveway garden is looking much more diverse than a row of Pittosporum trees now.  I've filled any gaps with tomatoes that came from the supermarket's bargain bin at 85c a punnet.  They were little seedlings not so long ago, now most of them have a few flowers.

Almost Spring

 Potatoes, back after frost damage

 Broccoli sprouts after the main crop has been harvested

 Buds are bursting (nectarine and grape vine)

 Raspberry canes- I lifted them this year and replanted them in two half wine barrels to contain them.

 Betty is laying her beautiful blue eggs again, we only had one from her about a week or two after she arrived at the start of May.  There was a traffic jam in the nesting box (lawn mower catcher) this morning.  For some reason they only lay in one of the two lawn mower catchers in the chook run, but after one of the plymouth rock's went broody, I thought it was time to persuade them to use the other one too.  Some fresh straw and a couple of wooden eggs from the kids toys, and voila, suddenly more enticing to lay eggs in.

 One cheeky chicken who always escapes

 One of two kiwi fruit vines from Ceres environment park's nursery.  We got two for the price of one as all bare rooted trees were 50% off.  You need a male and a female kiwi to get fruit.

The beginnings of Andrew's spring time project, a wood oven.  The concrete slab will be poured tomorrow, all going to plan.  Stay tuned...

Winter garden tour

We're trying strawberries in hanging bags this year, after not much success with them in the garden thus far.  Just have to remember to keep the water up to them!  They're the Alinta variety from Diggers.

 One of our 2 new hazelnut trees- we have a Cosford, and a Wanliss Pride next to each other, both from Diggers.

 Cherry Stella, a self fertile variety, looks like a stick at the moment.

 One of our 2 Avocado Rincon, that tolerate the cold well, and only grow to 3 metres tall.  So our driveway that used to be full of pittosporums, now has 2 avocado, an almond, 2 hazelnut, a cherry, a cox's orange pippin apple, and an apricot tree.  And there's room for one more up the end, when we get some more tree stumps out.

 Andrew's wheat crop

 Our bumper crop of yummy carrots

 Potatoes coming back after the frost knocked them back.

 Some very healthy broccoli heads- no grubs on them this year.  We had a visit from a blue wren and his little brown mate yesterday, in the broccoli patch.

And our 7 chooks having a feast on some broccoli leaves, thinned to let more light in.  One of our chooks (Louisa the little araucana) died on one of the frosty mornings about 3 weeks ago.  I don't think she was a healthy bird.  On a lighter note, I think today will be a five egg day, with both Plymouth rock's laying an egg (both chooks jammed into one lawn mower catcher!).  If so, it will be the first time we've had five eggs in one day.  Can't wait for the araucanas to start laying again.

Food swap

The girls and I attended our first food swap today, at Manifold Heights Primary School.  I took a big bag of lemons, and 2 dozen eggs.  I came away with a big piece of pizza, some chillies, a lemon/lime cross, a jar of jam, and some Jerusalem artichokes.  I'll plant the artichokes so we can grow some more.  I wasn't sure what to expect in the middle of winter, but I think we did allright, and got to meet some lovely like minded people.

A productive day

Evie's pants have been getting a bit short for her lately, she's grown 5cm or 2 inches since her birthday 4 months ago. So I whipped these denim pants up over the last couple of days.

From lemons...

...to lemon cordial