Veges (sort of)

I'm sure you will all know of our enthusiasm for home grown veges.  So it was only a matter of time till we could install a vege patch here at Seven Springs.  You may recall mention of clay soils in an earlier post.  Well, combine that with stones and rocks and you will start to understand the considerable physical workload required to install a vege patch in virgin ground.

Not one to shirk a bit of hard work, Ian dutifully dug several test holes, and declared that digging by hand would be utterly ridiculous and injurious to us both (can't afford another neck operation you see).  So we looked into ripper and cultivator attachments for the tractor.  At approx $3,000 we decided against this option also.  Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be much of a second hand market for these things either.

So, reminiscent of our city lives and gardens, we have imported soil.  10cum of soil.  Ian's engineering brain has estimated that this will provide us with approximately 10 times the planting area that we had in Perth.  Seedlings of winter veg have been germinated in the shade house to start things off.

Here are a few before photos.  Oh, and did I mention the weeds?  We are off to Kyogle tomorrow to buy a brushcutter.  The city life whipper snipper is struggling.

At this stage we are creating beds under the shade structure.  Additional beds may be added to the level area next to the shade structure in the future.  No 'after' photos as yet.  Maybe in a week or so.

A couple of other updates:

• Each of the girls has had first hand contact with the electric fences.  Poor things.  It was bound to happen sooner or later.  They are fine, but very wary of any fences.
• Chooks have settled in well (2 weeks now) but only one of the seven is laying !!   Aahhh !!  We hope it is due to youth and that they will all start laying in the near future.
• The locals are restless.  These two were fighting right next to the driveway this morning.