Spring's here...

And it has done so much for us here!

Summer's definitely around the corner and I am not ready for it...

I took lots of photos this morning for your viewing.

On the news of chooks, we only got 2 lil chicks, hatched from 25 eggs under 2 broodies - looks like their diet may not be so good that the hatchability is low. Something to look at over the next month I think. Photo coming when they've stopped being shy!

Now to the gardens:

Found this gorgeous lil green frog hiding on a leaf of Trevatt Apricot tree.


I've been eyeing on this lovely Gulfbeauty Plum tree for last few weeks, watching the plums formed and grow into red plums. This morning they're ready to be picked! Will give the verdict on the taste later.


Turned into red from green and feels abit soft. It comes off so easily when I pulled. Glad the birds haven't got to them before me! Only 3 plums - which is abit too much for this newly planted fruit tree but I wanna see how it goes with growing out here. A success then - more plum trees coming next year, me thinks! heh...

Three plums waiting to be tasted by family tonite. I know my girl will want to try, so does my lil fruitboy so it may be a hard decision on who else gonna taste it, apart from me, of course!

Anyway, here's the portable greenhouse with a number of pots awaiting for the seeds to sprout. So far the flower seeds sprouted first (in the foreground). The rest are: Cape Gooseberry, Rockmelon, watermelon and one more I cannot remember!

This self-seeded parsley plant flowered and got heaps of ladybirds on it. Yesterday I counted 12! This morning I could only find 8... We have heaps of ladybirds everywhere here lately - which is quite good.

I bought 4 grapes in pots from a local nursery because I want to test which will grow well here. So far one grapevine got fruits growing in the pot! They will go in the trellis area when we've removed the Jasmine plants from it. That spot will be a lovely and cool once the trellis is covered with all the fruiting climbers - cannot wait as I've got a hammock ready to be hooked up there! heh... (of course I will always make time to sway in the hammock relaxing and dreaming what to do next once I've kicked the kids off it!).

I've decided to try an experiment called group planting with a rough lemon tree and it seems it is so successful! I've never seen this tree looked so healthy and full of fruits. The plant in orange circle is a large parsley plant and the grapevine in yellow circle. There is also several flowers and vegies growing next to them, so probably with extra waterings helped alot too.

Strolled down the front garden, I noted there's so many small brown mushrooms sprouted everywhere (due to rains of course), all interesting. No idea what they are.

In the fruit grove, I planted a couple of watermelon seedlings, and only one survived. It would provide a lovely ground cover for some of the area.

Here's another plum growing on another plum tree. Only one plum though, this is called Gulfruby. So looks like we'll wait a few more weeks before we'd get to taste this one.

I noticed there's two clusters of flowers growing on the cider apple tree "Yarlington Mill" but only 3 did fruited. I will need to check when is the harvesting time for this apple. They're only a bit bigger than a golf ball.

Comfrey flowers so gorgeous! They're also growing like mad out here too. Will subdivide to grow more next winter I think. They're great for stopping grass from coming close and provide high potassium, much more than the chook poo!

I saw this beautiful pink rose and could not resist taking a photo of it!

Back in the trellis area at the back, I've got two zucchini seedlings growing well. Both are flowering - love how it opens at morning and close in the evening!

I am happy that I've got a female AND a male kiwifruits growing! I've also got two small ones planted recently growing slowly, but the two established ones, I was not sure. Those flowers tell me which is which. Another thing I've learnt about kiwifruits is that we should not have cut off the branches that are a year old as fruits grows from the second year branches!! So this crop will yield less than I expect but next one will be much more - I hope so!

This is the male kiwifruit flower...

And this is the female kiwifruit flower. Gorgeous, aren't they?

That's all, folks!

I will do more next week when I get a chance. Enjoy the weather, everyone!

Cheers till later!