Whats been growing in August

Ok- so its not the end of the month yet.... so technically this post should be 'what is growing in August', but I have chosen the past tense for a particular reason......Just when I was looking forward to some tasty Asian greens with oyster sauce and some wonderful sauteed cavolo nero.

No unfortunately its not a hoard of hungry caterpillars that have inflicted this damage on my poor garden....

 

Changing the subject.. choooks are wonderful creatures that supply fresh and bountiful eggs (when they aren't either broody or moulting and its not the middle of winter) and a copious supply of poop fertiliser packed full of chookie goodness and (normally) left conveniently for you to collect off the back door step. They also have an amazing brain and eyesight that is constantly alert and on the look out for the slightest opening to get into anywhere they know they are not allowed to be... house, vegetable garden etc. It amazes me how they can also hone in and charge straight for the tastiest plants and spot an unripe raspberry camouflaged amongst the leaves and not visible to all but the most observant eye.

Our chook proof fencing system consists of star pickets with hanging panels of flexible wire trellis hooked on. The panels are supposed to overlap and each panel has a garden stake wired to the bottom to allow it to hang straight down and stop the girls climbing under. The system allows the panels to be removed whenever access is needed to the garden beds and can be rearranged so that sections of the garden can be opened up for the girls to turn over when required. It works 95% of the time its just the 5% of the time that you have to worry about.... especially when they are left unattended for any amount of time and they manage to spy a gap between the panels they can squeeze through (which is obviously what must have happened the other day). I caught them at it again on Saturday morning.. and the rest is what can be seen above. The only positive about it all is that the renewed burst of energy and generally destructive behaviour has heralded the start of the spring lay. B has been busy producing for a little over week and judging by her pushiness S must be due to start any day.

Aside from the chook raid its not exactly been the most successful month to date. The potatoes I planted out in the lane in the autumn had started to wilt so I dug them up. I reckon I got well over a kilo of potatoes but they were mostly much smaller than I expected. The snow peas are also taking ages to transform flowers into fully grown peas. Here's waiting for spring!!

little potatoes