Spring in the patch

I was made redundant a few weeks ago and so that has meant more time in the garden, which I'm really enjoying.  And now that we are in the dry season, its a good thing too, as the patch needs plenty of water.  Our soil is on the clay side of things and when it dries out, its not pretty.  But if you keep the water up to it, its beautiful.  So I've just come back up to the house after doing just that.  And here's how it looks

This bed is full of chard which is mostly to feed the girls with.  They get into a full on cat fight when you throw half a dozen leaves it - its really quite unbecoming girls. I've planted some new seedlings to keep the production up and thankfully they've taken quite well.  Below is the next crop of onions (if you look carefully). I cleared out the old basil that was there, mulched it up and then put the seedlings in.  If you strain your eyes, you can see two lines of green on the left side of the bed, or you may have to trust me on that.  You should be able to see the lettuce that's now growing happily in the shade of the eggplant and the celery.

Here is one of my husband's favourite - mustard greens. We were given some from a friend's garden, transplanted it and hoped for the best. I think it seems happy - what do you think?

I find it too bitter, but Shaun and the chooks think its fabulous. The next bed has been a feast of spring onions and rocket but its time to let what's left go to seed.

I love borage and its gorgeous blue flowers.  It also seems irresistible to the the native blue banded native bee (which looks a lot like a bumble bee with blue stripes on its butt).  This one died right back, as it does, but had thankfully self seeded and came back again over winter.  The girls have also developed a taste for it and the side closest to them has had quite a haircut of late.

Patch number two seems to have liked its recent compost, newspaper and lucerne beauty treatment.  With some regular watering, the new zucchini seedlings and the patty pan seedlings are taking off

And I've planted more chard and kale (some for us and some for the chooks) which is also settling in nicely

And lastly, I'm not sure if I've shown you a pic of our new rooster Ned.  He's doing a sterling job and the girls seem to love him.  And he's only tried to mount me once (I was bending over digging up some ginger at frisky time to be fair)