Blimey, it's been a while

I've just realised how long it's been since I updated here. I've not really been near the garden for most of the summer, life seems to be taking over. Tareka has been dropping in a couple of times a month for weeding and sowing, and Liz drops the harvest round now and again.
We're now pretty much into Autumn here, so the weather is cooling off, and the apples are falling.

We got some chillies growing that seem to play russian roulette with your tongue, some are not hot in the slightest and some are painful! Here they are growing upside down (well we are in New Zealand!)

The piggies have reproduced! So Liz and Jason have some gorgeous piglets running around (not in the greenhouse fortunately, as they are now hemmed in by an electric fence). I'd love one, but we're not allowed a pig in town :(

Oh joy! A quantity of overgrown radishes!

They are as big as ping pong balls!

Here are some pictures of the garden and the NEW ORCHARD! None of the radishes I'm afraid.

Tareka has put up the bird netting as we've got our FIRST RASPBERRIES! Mapera spotted them soon after the pictures were taken, so they've gone now :)

Protection from raiding birds and babies:

Greenhouse in need of a hoe:

The new orchard!

New beginnings

Well the majority of the greenhouse is gone, so we are re-locating the permanent planting outside, but we still have a decent plot to put this years veggies in.
Tareka has been doing most of the work, bless him, as it's a little more difficult for me to help with a toddler and an infant to look after.
We've got potatoes, carrots, cauli, cabbage and broccoli in, as well as beans and tomatoes. Definitely not growing so many courgettes this year (I still have loads in the freezer from last year!), but we need a lot more carrots.

Berry patch!

Starting from the far end of the garden we have: Gooseberries, lime tree, redcurrants on the left, blackcurrants on the right, rhubarb then raspberries and hybridberries on the left and blackberries and hybridberries on the right.
Rasps and blackberries with a couple of hybridberries (like boysenberries)

Rhubarb!
Currants
Tahitian limes (yes, yellow limes)

Updates

Well, Tareka and Jason dismantled the collapsed bit of greenhouse, so we now only have 1 bay left in which to plant undercover, but we were thinking a lot of the stuff we want to grow will be fine outside, so we're not losing out on much. We've all been really busy with other things lately, and with new baby on the way it's looking likely that the garden will be taking a back seat for a while.

The berry garden back at our house is finally all in though. We have 3 gooseberry bushes, 2 redcurrant, 2 blackcurrant, 3 raspberry, 3 blackberry and 2 hybridberry (which are a bit like boysenberry). Tareka is constructing a frame for the bird netting now, so come summer we should have a decent crop and jam making will ensue!

Pictures of the berry patch to come.

Destruction!

We've had a night of high winds and rain over in the Land of the Long White Cloud, and it's done some serious damage to the plastic houses where we're growing the veg. One side of one of the bays has completely collapsed and is utterly knackered! T and J are planning to take it down on the next free weekend, but it looks like we're losing half the space we had planned for veggies! It was going to be the permenant bed area, so we may still be able to do that, just out in the open.

Here's a picture finally!

The menagerie

OK, so I finally got around to taking some pictures of the beasties at our mates' place where we're growing our garden. They have 3 kuni-kuni piglets who are a great form of waste-disposal and 3 chickens who don't seem to lay much! We're planning to get some sheep in too, and when the orchard is planted, the piggies will be able to run around in there and clean up for us!
Here's a few pics of the beasts and one of the garden, which is back to pretty much bare land now that we're in Winter once again.