The great rain that we've had recently, coupled with some hot sunny days, means that the garden is thriving. Both mandalas are really taking shape, and the garden probably looks better than it ever has.
We managed to get plenty of our own produce into the xmas dinner. I went out on Christmas Day morning to dig up potatoes and harvest zucchinis. We also had our own eggs, onions, herbs (parsley, sage, rosemary, thyme and chives), a few little tomatoes, and loads of berries. The berries, which are planted as a 'living fence' around the first mandala, have taken a couple of years to get established. Unfortunately, during that time they've lost their labels. We've been able to identify raspberries, boysenberries, cape gooseberries, red currants and black currants, but there are several other plants I can't identify. I think I planted silvanberries, a thornless blackberry, jostaberries (pronounced 'yostaberries') and loganberries. However, some of the plants died, and I can't work out the identity of most of those that survived.
I'm going to have to take some cuttings into the farmer's market (where I bought some of the plants) and see if one of the plant sellers can tell me what they are. We did this with the herbs and it was very successful - thanks to the herb seller at the markets we now know what we're growing in the edge guild around both mandalas.
Here is a photo of two of our latest brood of chicks (three survived from this clutch and we have another chook sitting on eight eggs that are due to hatch on New Year's day):
Click on photo to enlarge image
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