Archive for the ‘Energy Conservation’ Category

Winter garden update

Sunday, July 10th, 2011

A cool and wet winters afternoon seemed like a good time to do the rounds, take a few pics, and update happenings and maybe a few plans for the garden.

The latest construction of interest is the chicken watering system. A couple of buckets with drip feed into the next lower one and an overflow into a channel leading to the pear tree.
A fill-up of the top bucket drips through in about half a day. Providing a trickle feed of water which the chickens seem to like. The lower bucket is continually refreshed and stays clear, which the chickens also like.
I’m thinking of a way to add another bucket or two to make a cascading feature!

chicken water supply

chicken water feature!

On cold winter days the girls also like to shelter in their day roost, under the jasmine covered lean to.

chicken shelter

chicken day roost

I’ve also had thoughts of making the now mostly unused cubby house into a super chicken coop! The kids are outgrowing the cubby idea and perhaps the next flock of chickens will be housed here to keep them separate from the original flock. At least for a breaking in period.

chicken coop from cubby

cubby house or chicken coop?

This improvised cage was used recently to help an ailing chicken recooperate. She’s back with the others now.

chicken cage

improvised chicken cage

On the tree front, it’s past pruning time now. The fig is looking good for next year, while the pear tree appears brutally tortured, but always delivers a good crop! Some more fruit trees are planned, with the espalier rack waiting for the new plantings.

winter fig tree

fig in winter

pear pruning

tortuously pruned pear

espalier rack

espalier rack awaits new arrivals

Winter is a good time to split more timber for the 44 gallon drum wood fired pizza oven, and there’s plenty waiting here.

log splitting

logs await splitting

Amongst the bare and cold gloom however, the camelia’s provide lots of winter colour however.

winter camelia

camelia colour in winter

More to come…

Brian.