Well, after my first spring planting disaster, things seem to be moving along nicely, with only a few losses to, i suspect, heidi, our muscovy duck who spent a leisurely afternoon in the garden snacking on tender juvenile lettuce, tatsoi, some baby chinese cabbages and parsley.

After the initial barrage of spring storms, we’ve had the kind of sun that goes on forever, muggy, burns your nostrils when you breathe. There’s always a frisson of electricity in the air, but the storms don’t come. In this climate after such incredible rains, Wild Nature is rampant. The grass (except in my problem paddock, where I need to slash the weeds) is psychedelic and tall, with farmer’s friend waving in the air, parsley, coriander and dill bolting and seeding and making new homes for themselves everywhere - in the paths, along the garden edgings, my garden beds sprouting things I didn’t plant (and I’m ok with that, really… ).

We have our watering system, which needs some low tech mechanical invention (probably from Sarah!) in order to make the task less arduous (though I’m with you, Ali - lovin’ that farm-muscle… so satisfying to have a strong functional body that’s all farm-grown!) . The outdoor bath for humans is plumbed to the duck run, and to their bath, which they *love*, especially when we pull the plug and the water pours into their bath. They all run over and preen and flap and chatter under the fall of water. They spend alot of time in the bath so it’s pretty mucky by the time we get to it with our buckets and hand cart the lovely mucky liquid gold to the garden beds and to any ailing plants. If I manage to grow and produce anything this season it’s all thanks to duckwater, I feel!

 Duckwatering is the last task of the evening before the light gives way to night, after we’ve fed Maybe and the calves, fed Mamma and the chicks, George the patriarch and other unnamed of his flock. After we’ve fed the Top chooks and the ducks, including the aloof Xavier and Heidi, who are miffed that they have to live in with the Buff Orpingtons while Bonny the muscovy is sitting on eggs (little fluffy yellow muscovys soon!). I like the repetition of duckwatering. Filling the buckets, walking to the garden beds, watering the plants, doing my routine of checking growth and predator activity as I go, then back for more buckets.

 The continuous supply of duck water necessitates outdoor bathing, because without our bathwater, the ducks have no bathwater and subsequently no nutrient rich liquid to feed the plants. Outdoor bathing is not such a hardship I have to say! In a deep enamel tub set on an old cement block, twined all around with jasmine and set in the kitchen garden area, with an outlook of green and it’s a joy, in the morning or at night under the stars. Under a light fall of rain it’s still quite lovely.

The other outdoor bathing option is the banana grove shower, which runs off into the surounding plants, and is like showering in bits of rainbow if you get the light just right.

So I digress… I was going to post some progress pics of my gardens and the plants which will be food. While everything seems to be growing nicely, I still feel there needs to be a more dense planting. I love the intermingling of companionship in densely planted beds. While waiting at the hospital today for the whole of my life (why can’t humans go to the vet? Vets are so much nicer… and they pet you… i wouldn’t even mind sleeping in one of those cages…) I read many gardening magazines and was envious, inspired and felt somewhat inadequate as at the outrageously healthy looking vegie gardens, so beautiful, so ordered, so happily living together. I commit to spending the next wee while filling in all spare patches with all manner of plants… there is so much vertical and horizontal space that can be greened and I feel the excessive luxury of space and the knowledge that I could be so much more productive, especially when I see what people do in milk cartons and cinder blocks and other scavenged and makeshift beauties of gardens in small urban spaces…

Anyway, here are a few garden pics of things that are coming along, coming along… quality is crap, only have phone camera at the moment…

Xavier the muscovy duck in maybe’s drinking water - check the faux hawk 

cinnamon gingers in the foreground, lemon tree, more gingers and the bath set amongst it all… 

the corn is growing beautifully - pollination may be haphazard, but i’m optimistic…
There’s celery and onions seeding in the background, some tomatos and beets, the beets grow BIG round these parts…satisfying to grow…

rainbow chard making greens for salad, just a baby, but alive! 

The house is sleeping, breathing, the rats are out (i find them somehow comforting, their company is so lively!), little jimmy jack is snoring and there are frog noises clicking away in the dark - just letting me know they’re still alive, for which i am grateful.

Goodnight, farmfriends and freaks. Keep reading. Check in and watch my corn grow! (my, how could you resist an invitation like that?)

critter love Vxx