After a long, dry summer in Perth (8 months with no rain), winter has finally arrived. The gardens are looking refreshed (as are the weeds unfortunately!), and the rainwater tanks are looking much healthier.

The ‘pumpkin palace’ had provided plenty of zucchini, tomatoes, eggplant, rockmelon, green beans and of course pumpkin over the summer, and once we had harvested the last pumpkin, it was opened up to the chooks for the coming few months.

This rotation system is working well- the previous season’s pumpkin palace has been eaten down, fertilised and received lots of scraps, buried fish, carcasses etc so after a clean up it will be ready for the next round of planting.

We used to use a three way rotation, but find the two way pumpkin palace rotation we currently use works well. We manage to grow so many greens in the two aquaponics systems, we tend to use these two large beds for things like pumpkin and zucchini that take up lots of space!

Those beautiful dragon fruit flower buds got bigger and bigger every day!

It was so exciting, as we have never had flowers before. Just the one plant, had six gorgeous buds…….

……. with one opening one night and the other five a couple of nights later. Out we went with the head torch and paintbrush to assist with the pollination.

We were so excited, and so were the bees- they loved the flowers!

We were very hopeful that the pollination was successful, but unfortunately it wasn’t! The flowers fell off, and then the bit that should have been the fruit!

While that was so disappointing, we are looking forward to a winter that doesn’t mean we start from scratch yet again, followed by more flowering next summer!

Wow….. we have had dragon fruit plants for several years, but they have always struggled. We hoped the new place might suit them better, but the frost each year set them back so much it was like starting again each summer…including this summer.

But….. they are doing really after planting small cuttings in spring in raised (slightly) beds along with some berries (some beds have blackberries and others raspberries).

And FINALLY!! We have flower buds! First time ever!

Time will tell if it is too late in the season for them to form fruit, before the next frosts come, but fingers crossed! We are planning to protect them with hessian this year, so they aren’t as badly affected by the frost, plus they are closer to the house now so that may also reduce the impact.

Summer is here, and with it an abundance of growth (until it gets just too hot!).

We continue to get an abundance of green beans…. we have been canning them, giving them away, eating lots…!

The vegetable spaghetti/spaghetti squash has been growing very well also, vertically really is the way to go!

….and tomatoes, how could we forget the tomatoes…there are so many every day!!

Tonight’s dinner…will be….something with beans and tomatoes!!

Pumpkin palace is growing brilliantly with the warm weather! Although we had a run of days in the high thirties and even up to 41.3C one day, the garden has survived, despite an unfortunate set back with our bore pump deciding to give up. We went for one week with no watering at all, and the following week with limited water until we had the new pump installed. We had some losses during that time, but most of the veggies hung in there and bounced back with a few good soakings.

We have an abundance of beans, zucchini and daikon radish already, and the pumpkin, rockmelon and cucumbers are well on their way. In fact, for the first year we have decided to try growing zucchini vertically to save space, and so far it is working brilliantly!

The aquaponics has been mixed, with some things growing like crazy but others not surviving the onslaught of the slaters. Tomatoes, laksa leaf and galangal in particular are taking over!

It has taken us a while to get the berry beds set up the way we wanted them, but they are now going well also, with the raspberries in particular enjoying the location! We have started picking the odd berry, but soon there will be more ready to eat!

And finally, the quail roosters were dispatched and processed for the freezer- a very straightforward job compared to other animals. The place is a lot quieter now- they certainly made a lot of noise for such small birds!

The girls are laying away like crazy, so we are giving away quail eggs as well as pickling heaps to eat later.

All in all, a very productive end to spring!

Well, the quail really do grow quickly! It was no time at all when we realised the perfect brooder we had made for them simply wasn’t big enough! Fortunately the weather was warming so we were able to relocate them outside (but still with heat). This was much more hygienic for them and for us!

Because they were now in a larger area, it was also easier to keep up with the supply of food and water they needed. As the weather warmed up further, and they grew, we were able to use straw as the bedding and remove the heat sources. Now they are completely off heat and are well settled in.

The roosters are now crowing, though the females are not yet laying, and now we are getting ready for our first go at processing quail.

The adult quail, along with the hens, are laying so many eggs we have been pickling them as well as giving lots away to family and friends. Along with the lacto-fermented peas and the jars of sauerkraut always in the fridge, there isn’t a lot of room!

It has been fabulous to see so many orchids and wildflowers blooming on our property this year too- they just seem to have popped up randomly.

The incubation was a success! We had 15 of the 17 (after a late addition of 3 extra) eggs successfully hatch, and now, a week later they are eating and growing at quite a rate!

Day 15 was lockdown day, where the turning bits of the incubator were removed and gravel paper laid on the floor of the incubator. This is so they can get a good grip when they move around and reduce the possibility of splayed legs (which can happen if their feet slip around).

We also made sure the brooder was set up and ready, and ran the brooder plate to make sure everything worked. We used a deep tub, cut out a hole in the lid and replaced it with this mesh that could be opened and closed quickly and easily.

Day 18 we awoke to three hatched, and then throughout the day and into the evening, the others hatched except for two eggs! They were very noisily chirping around!

The next day, when they were dry and fluffy, we transferred them over to the brooder box. We felt they were a bit cold, so added a ceramic heat lamp which seemed to make them more comfortable for their first week. Now, just over a week later, they are eating and drinking huge amounts, and growing at a rate of knots!

Now we have to be so careful when we open the lid, as they jump straight up in the air!

Our quail are going very well, and after a slowing down of egg production over the coldest months, they are picking up again now.

Apparently their fertility reduces significantly as they get older, and because they don’t really get ‘clucky’ and sit on eggs, we decided to incubate some. Our goal is to produce some fresh breeding stock and hopefully some left overs to use as food- something we haven’t tried as yet!

We gently cleaned 14 eggs collected over the 3 or 4 days, and at the same time ran our incubator at the required 37.5 degrees celsius to be sure it was stable and working well.

Once we were sure it was all working well (first time using it since moving almost 3 years ago), we set the eggs inside.

While the Janoel 24 doesn’t have a specific quail egg holder, it’s movable parts have enabled us to incubate and hatch duck, turkey, chicken and guinea fowl eggs….and now quail eggs.

Fingers crossed!

It has been a busy month with the weather cooling down! One thing we had to do, which we never have before, is buy water! The tanks were very, very low, so over a period of a month we bought 45,000 litres to top up before the rains came.

The pumpkin palace has been thriving, with loads of pumpkin to harvest soon once they have dried out more, plus luffa and a few delicious honeydew melons!

One of the biggest jobs for this cooler period was planting out about 200 plants down the driveway. We noticed over summer that the ‘grass’ didn’t last well at all, despite being watered a few times, so we decided to plant some native bushy plants to eventually cover this area. Then it will look better all year round!

And finally, there has been more and more preserving! With plenty of beans, carrots, passionfruit, pumpkin, tomatoes, zucchini and cucumber, the water bath or pressure canner have been busy most weekends!