Loco Lindsay and a late race....

A massive day in the garden today. The rain yesterday meant the ground was still damp and conditions were ideal to do some serious weeding. I managed to weed 2 large beds and half of the parterre vegie patch. The chickens were the beneficiaries of  all the extra 'greens' Well, all the chickens that is, except for Lindsay.
It appears, she has gone loco again... and by that I mean, she's broody. How do I know? Well, she spent the whole day in the laying box, until I physically removed her late in the afternoon, at which time, she pecked me ferociously. I basically had to dump her on the ground away from the box so I could bring in the eggs Britney and Paris had laid. Once she's removed, it's like she comes to her senses somewhat, and realises she hasn't eaten or drunk all day and spends about 6 minutes stuffing her beak before returning to her post.
Bummer. I realise it was about this time last year that she started this crazy business for the first time and it took about 10 weeks for her to recover. And that was after trying every old home remedy in the book to try to 'shock' her out of her broody state. It's going to be another long lead up to Christmas in the hen house, it seems.

'Loco Lindsay' - broody and sitting on the other chickens eggs.

It was great weather for being outside today, not too hot and not too cold and it meant I had time to notice all the wonderful things that have been developing in the garden, despite the lack of rain. My dwarf mango seems to have quite a few fruit forming this year - only its second year to fruit.  I've been trying to tip the shower and kitchen water on it, so the baby fruit won't drop off. But today the fruit almost looked bigger, and the tree happier, after yesterday's showers.

Baby mangoes forming.

A sweet pea flower, where the  purple beans used to be.

There are some beautiful little flowers around the yard now too. The chives are flowering their pretty purple and this little sweet pea managed to survive the chronic lack of water. 

Also to my delight, and complying with my grand plan, a whole lot of cosmos are coming up. You might remember I had them growing between the broad beans in the parterre garden a few months ago. I let the flower heads dry and hoped they would drop their seeds so I would have a never ending cycle of beautiful flowers, without ever buying seeds again! I'm pleased to see it looks like this is going to be the case. You can also see a lebanese eggplant growing well now that its competition (the broad beans) have finished. 

Volunteer cosmos coming up and a lebanese eggplant. 

I planted a few other seeds in the parterre garden, to compliment the existing vegies. I put in a few zucchini seeds, grabbed a handful of sweet basil seeds drying on a plant and dumped them along the edge of another bed, and sowed a few different varieties of lettuce seeds too. I always do really well with cos, and I have to admit it is one of my favourite tasting lettuces too.

I planted sweet basil seeds along the border of this bed next to the very late parsnip

Peanuts are up and growing well. Some are even flowering.

Something I love about growing plants are all the wonderful surprises and constant experimenting that occurs. Behind my silverbeet in this patch, are some parsnip plants. They seem to be growing really well, even though I think it is much too late for growing parsnips in Brisbane. I wonder if they will form a root at all? I'm interested to find out what will happen, so I'll leave them growing. At the very least, the chickens will get the leaves at the top! 

Between the silverbeet and the parsnips, quite a few peanut plants have emerged. Last season, I left my harvest too late, and after the water logging January rains, the nuts were starting to go mouldy. I will have to make sure I pull them up this year prior to our really consistently wet weather. You can see the cute little yellow flowers on some of the plants already.

Along the fence surrounding the vegie parterre, are a few espaliered fruit trees. My espaliered peach is probably about 4 years old now, and this year it looks like the fruit is a decent size!! Very exciting. No doubt this has been helped by the neighbours removing a massive poinciana tree, which would have been competing for water and nutrients. I really need to keep an eye out for fruit fly too. Growing up in Victoria, I'm not really that familiar with fruit fly, but I think I may need to buy some organic traps....or get Googling, at the very least. 

Real sized peaches on my espaliered tree!

It is nearly time to head inside for dinner. Just as I am surveying the garden, admiring the day's achievements and I start thinking how things will be looking great again after the rain.... 

My deco path around the parterre doubles as a race track.

I hear galloping. Rhythmic, loud, hooves. (Actually, it was paws.) I look up. Special K appears on the path, pounding out full zoomies, and circumnavigating the parterre garden like a  race track!! 

Damn it!  He leaves big paw prints, disrupting  my newly weeded pathway. 

I sigh. Oh well, I guess it is the Caufield Cup today, after all!!