Our hens have started laying eggs over the past month and we're averaging around a dozen per week. Very exciting to have fresh eggs from chooks in your own backyard, I must admit I never expected them to start laying through winter.

We're going to build a small run in the backyard for them, they have been roaming freely in the yard in the afternoons. Needless to say they've been making a big mess in the gardens and plants are getting damaged.

I think it's also time to get a bigger coop for them and maybe a couple of more chooks as well. The Silver Laced Wyandottes look pretty good. Not too sure on their egg laying capacity though

As we are approaching spring it's time for me to get my chilli growing season under way.

This season I will be having a go at growing the following:

7 Pod
7 pod 'Jonah'
African Bird
Barrackpore
Bonda Ma Jaques
Bhut Jolokia
Cayenne
Chocolate Habanero
Dorset Naga
Douglah
Fatalli
Orange Habanero
Red Habanero
Trinidad Scorpion

Yesterday I put Dorset Naga and Trinidad Scorpion seeds into seed raising trays, they're now on the heat mat.

This year I'll be patient and not pot up too quick and hopefully not kill them with kindness.

It's been a long week since my last update.

Work has been keeping me rather busy and away from home so the garden has been left in the care of the 'chief cook'.

Aquaponics

Our IBC has been performing well we've been harvesting some bok choi and our lettuces and spinach are starting to fill out. Today we planted out some more bok choi and started making the frame for the blue barrels for our second system.

Our Dirt Garden

We harvested our sweet corn last week and cut it all into smaller pieces and blanched and froze it all.

Our newest raised bed was filled with soil from our old veggie beds, this gave us a surprise in the form of random tomato plants coming up everywhere.

In our other beds we have some seed potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, purple carrots, egg plant, onions, zucchinis and beans.

Native Bees

The bee hives have slowed down with the cooler weather, the second hive still has a lot of bee activity around it once it warms up.

Poultry

One of our Australorps had started laying a couple of weeks ago, it was shortlived though it has stopped laying once again.

Spring should see them all start to lay, at least I hope so.

Winter has certainly slowed things down for us, that has detered us though from planting some winter vegetables.

Aquaponics

Last week we planted some bok choi, chinese cabbage and spinach into our system. The week has seen them go a little bit yellow, I will have to add some chelated iron to my system.

I had made a solids lifiting overflow for my second system, just between you and me I've stuffed it up.

The overflow needs a 'tee' piece in it to break the venturi effect, I mistakenly thought it would be part of the sump pump. Never mind I'll just start over and this time I'll get it right.

Our Dirt Garden

After being inspired by a friends garden we've planted a heap for vegetables and herbs.

So now we have broccoli, cabbages, cauliflowers, chillies, eggplant, onions, sweet corn, tomatoes and zucchinnis growing.

I would like to plant more but we just don't have the room for anything else.

I've been using the Gardenate website for a little while now and find it great for helping me decide what to plant when.

The best part is they do a mobile app for your iPhone as well, this is one must have app for any iPhone owner who loves their gardening.

The Gardenate iPhone app puts their veggie gardening database in your pocket, localized to your climate zone.

It lists the best choices for what to plant in your garden right now. As well as a handy cal;culator on when your crop will be ready to harvest.

Well hopefully they'll be weekly updates

I've been travelling with work and haven't had the chance to check the yard first hand.

Aquaponics

My aquaponic tomatoes have been growing out really well, so well in fact that it looks like the fruit bats have got into them. So I'd had enough of my tomatoes going to ruin, needless to say they've all been harvested green. Now to cook them up and make some 'Mean Green'.

This has left my aquaponics bed a little empty, so today we got some bok choi, chinese cabbage and spinach to fill it all out.

The second system had been on hold whilst I've been away, so today we got all the piping and connections for the 'solids lifting overflow'. Next job is set this up in the 1000 litre fish tank.

Our Dirt Garden

Our dirt garden is going well with the sweet corn and onions powering on. The corn should be ready for harvesting in the next 3-4 weeks. Really looking forawrd to some home grown goodness.

Today we also picked up a couple of rosemary seedlings to put in the dirt somewhere in the yard.

Native Bees

The bee hives are still humming along so we must be doing something right. The second hive has well and truely surpassed the first hive I purchased. So much so that I've now added the 'super' to it all. This hive will need to be split in the spring I think.

Poultry

Not much happening here, they are eating food and are yet to start laying any eggs. I'm starting to think about getting a couple of broiler birds for the pot.

Some say he never blinks and that he roams around the woods at night foraging for wolves.
Some say he's wanted by the CIA and that he sleeps upside down, like a bat.
Some say that he appears on high value stamps in Sweden and that he can catch fish with his tongue.
Some say he is illegal in 17 US states and he blinks vertically.
Some say that his breath smells of magnesium and that his scared of bells.
Some say he naturally faces magnetic north and that all his legs are hydraulic.

Well I guess I needed that SQL database after all.