Mothers' Day

My present from the Geek (as requested) was one of these:
I am still getting my head around the instructions and around digital cameras generally, but I hope to bring you more pictures of my own garden soon!

Today we did manage to get some planting done, and the kids helped. With the aid of a mattock, we planted Freesia refracta albas and Tritonias, both light and dark blue, in the front lawn. Some sparaxis went in between my "Grandmere Jenny" rose and the Sedum "Autumn Joy".

In the vegetable patch, the boys helped me plant "Aquadulce" broad beans yesterday. Today I have planted seedlings of Brussels sprouts, lettuce, leeks and bok choy. I'm not expecting to eat a lot of lettuce as the weather grows colder: they are there more as sacrifical plants. I am hoping that the snails go for the lettuces rather than the sprouts. Brussels sprouts are planted 40cm apart and are slow growers. All that space around them is just weed-growing, snail-hiding space unless it's used for growing quick crops like bok choy, lettuces and radishes, so that's what I use it for. And I use snail bait at planting as well-- even with chooks in the garden, my losses are just too high if I don't.

The chook dome has been rotated to a new spot and the chooks re-caged in it. They are not impressed, but I am sure that tomorrow they will be busy removing the snails from the area and other enjoyable tasks.