Veggie bed cleanup

Last chance to do a bit of work on the garden before the newest member of the family joins us.  Henny, Penny and Jenny are now 20 weeks and earning their keep cleaning up the old tomato bed.  Garlic and onions going in here next.

Tomato bed clean-up

Garden panorama update

Melon Baby

Thanks to Uncle Chris:

New members of the family

After a bit of a sad day when Ruby got too well acquainted with the previous inhabitants of the chicken coop, 3 new family members joined us:  Henny, Penny and Jenny (in order of descending size).  They're 14 weeks - apparently they'll start to lay around 20-22 weeks.

Henny, Penny and Jenny

Doug looking innocent

A new year

Some quick update photos - the backyard around Boxing Day 2012.  And Doug is growing fast - he's not quite as tall as Ruby but has mutant oversized ears and feet!

New deck furniture and vegies in!

The chook palace.

Big dog and little dog in the sun

The Black Douglas

Meet the newest member of the family - ok, he's not black but black whippets are really hard to find.  He is called Doug though - Doug the Dog - geddit?

Small dog meets large dog.

Gardens away

Some catch up shots now that we are back from Malaysian holidays and the landscaping has very nearly been finished in our absence.  The before shot (from the living room due to the neverending rain) ......

 and the after shots:

As you can see, there's instant lawn down and lots of mulch plus paths made from lilydale toppings.  It's a nice change to not wade through mud every time we go outside.  The garden beds are full of manure and compost and broad beans, peas and sugar snaps went in two weeks ago - they're just starting to come up now.  Also in are broccoli and pak choy.  The third bed is for onions, leeks and carrots, but a bit too early to plant the leeks and carrots just yet.  Onion seedlings are waiting to be planted.

Here's Ruby enjoying the mulch.  She's even figured out how to get into her kennel via the door flaps now.  She isn't really reconciled to being outside during the day as she's had quite a few days inside whilst building works are being finished.  One major inside job this week - installation of the (sun shade) roller blinds - still waiting on the fabric curtains though.

 The real chickens won't be quite this big.  It's turning out to be hard to get pullets at this time of year, so they haven't moved in just yet.

 The front yard sits around the new car turnaround area, which is just big enough to do a 3 point turn in.  Everything's rather tiny at the moment but hopefully come spring, there will be a bit of growth.  Finally had the water tank problems sorted out this past week - a crack in the inspection port meant that the line wasn't staying as charged.  But that's now fixed and the tanks are finally filling up - being used currently in the toilets and washing machine.  It's not like the garden needs the water.

At least the lawn's nice and small now - not much to mow.

Scorched earth policy

At the same time the building works have been finishing up, the landscaping has gotten underway.  Before we moved this was mainly cleaning up the front yard, which is looking considerably more bare than previously.  We're very glad we've got a full front fence at last, although we're STILL waiting for a letter box.  The back's been cleaned up a lot in the last week too - and the veggie beds started to be laid out.  Significant purchases last weekend include a new house for Ruby (she hasn't had too much use of it yet, as she's too scared of the landscapers to venture outside much) and a house for the yet-to-be-acquired chickens.