Stunning Crisp Cox's Orange Pippin Apples

We have this gnarled, old apple tree, which I'd have to admit was a large selling point when we purchased our property. We think it is a beautiful old variety, the Cox's Orange Pippin. Very tart and very crisp when it is ripe and striped with red over the green. I've always loved the sensation of munching into the first first apple of the new season.
There's something so magical about this great providing tree, standing solidly on the land, changing with the seasons, getting even more beautiful with age, giving shade in Summer and many, many happy hours for Phoebe.
Aaron found an old ladder and has lashed it (gently, yet firmly!) to the Apple's trunk and Phoebe climbs up and hangs out up there in her kid-sized nook. The foot of our large apple is where we chose to site her sand and mud play area - much industry goes on underneath her shady boughs.
And the apples - so many - we've been almost teased by the apple tree this year - so many undersized/immature windfalls falling over the past several weeks - from a bumper crop. It could look like waste, there are so many - they carpet the ground in places - yet we collect them and crush them up for the girls in the Permaculture Chook Dome and send them off in buckets for the neighbouring pigs to feast on. And we've waited and waited patiently for our great old apple tree's apples to finally be ready...
Phoebe's beam says it all - first apples to eat! YUM!

Summer Growth Spurt

Maybe what I really need is a fish-eye lens and some photography knowledge to really show you what's happened over the past couple of months in the Permaculture Mandala Garden. These first two pics are from September this year...Spring...What I see now is an abundance of lush, green growth sprouting from every conceivable nook in our gardens, where once, one was able to navigate paths without even a thought as to finding them! the pic above and just below are from the same spot in the garden, although the Chook Dome is in a different position...Now there has been such vigour some plants are even lying down on the job - I imagine from their sheer effort!
We are so grateful for this bounty of life, food and wonderment!

Phoebe's Patch

Phoebe's interest in the garden is growing quickly...she is now as interested in growing vegetables as she is in her beloved pansies and poppies (incidentally, the names the new ducks have been given!). So now, as well as her pocket-handkerchief flower garden, she has Phoebe's Patch! This is one of the eleven circular beds in our Permaculture Mandala Garden, which will be visited by our chooks in their dome at the end of December, to do their 6-monthly weeding and fertilising stint. Right now we all decided it needed an end of Spring Spring Clean and spent several hours weeding and mulching - it was surprising how much was growing there. Phoebe is now rescuing anything and everything and fully experimenting with her own vegetable growing!

Slug Patrol

The chookies have had breakfast and a high-powered protein hit at that - and we haven't...yet!
I got very excited this morning as we did our regular Slug Patrol and counted up 39 slugs - that is our record here at Possum Bend.

Our method comes from a neat little book I was given at Christmas time - Trowel and Error: Over 700 Tips, Remedies and Shortcuts for the Gardener - I highly recommend it.

And it's simple.

When we eat oranges and grapefruit we cut the flesh out and leave the skins as 2 cups...or Slug Lures which we place around the garden upside down...and on wet nights (so that is most nights here) the slugs slither in underneath them, making them easy prey in the morning for us to find and dispose of them....and who gets them?

The chooks!

It's a win-win situation...we don't even mind their slimy feel anymore...mmmm.

Further Gardening Update on the 2nd Day of Spring!

The lush vegetation in the glasshouse is a nice crop of Brassicas and a very vigorous crop of celery. Earlier we were buying Awapuni Nurseries seedlings from Pak 'n Save and for $2.97 we were guaranteed at least 12 plants per bundle - well - we counted 30 celery seedlings that have all grown very well. We've done sharesies with the neighbours several times now on this basis. There is always MORE.
Outside the glasshouse is Phoebe's Patch and here you can see the rhubarb we have divided and replanted into her patch as well as the MANY small crowns she has potted up completely by herself. We counted 23 pots and they all look lovely and healthy. Great gardening Phoebe.
At last we are into our own seedling production.

The chook dome is in position number 7 (which represents 14 weeks - 2 x 7 - of gardening in the system) and the bed in the foreground is bed number 6, freshly planted with seedlings including the first tomatoes and capsicums, protected inside their plastic bottle cloches.

Pretty Eggs - thank you chookies!

So this is what we are getting - lovely semi-organic, cruetly-free freshest eggs with yolks a rich orange-yellow that stand pertly when broken...so good! We are particulary taken with the blue/green coloured eggs... we believe "Perky" is responsible for one of them and we are still doing the detective work to discover who lays the other one.













As you can see inside the girls' Chook Dome, there is an old lawn mower catcher, which is what the hens are laying their eggs in - it has a handle, is dark, cosy and weatherproof if faced away from the wind and it was FREE! (from the Dump!).
In the background of the photo, you can see a beautiful house truck, which we are taking care of for some friends who are busy wine-making in Oregon at the moment.

Meet our newest additions...

Phoebe is showing you the "Permaculture Chook Dome", proudly made by Aaron, which now houses one very happy rooster - Roger - and his harem of 12 girls!

The theory is that every 2 weeks they will have cleared, scratched over and fertilised a circular vegetable garden bed for us as well as given us some lovely organic eggs!

They sleep up in a timber lattice roost, suspended from the ceiling of the dome and will lay their precious eggs in a recycled lawn mower grass-catcher.

This photo shows our guy, Roger, strutting his stuff and the lovely ladies in black... they are mostly Orpington crosses, which makes them nicely docile.

Roger is quite distinguished having a Barnevelder for a father - he definitely stands tall.




Yesterday we became the owners of 3 lovely young female goats, caught by a local farmer from up in the hills...he gets $3 a kg for them at market, so we felt quite happy that these ones will get to see a bit more of life at Possum Bend in their sunny paddock, overlooking the river...

In her shelter you see Greta resting...

...peeping around the corner from her shelter is Gloria...

...and "you can't really see me in this long grass" is Ginger - the smallest of our three lawn-mowers.