After getting up, feeding and letting out the chickens and ducks then enjoying my breakfast, most days I then head to wherever the sheep are and give them a fresh paddock. They may have been sitting contentedly chewing their cud when I get there, but even before I finish moving the fences, they are up and eager to get going. 'Sheep, sheep, sheep' I usually call, however these days they know exactly whats going on without that, and are in the new space before I know it!
I'm still pulling tomatoes from the ageing vines that are good to go however, with the recent heavy rains, many have now split and will go straight to the chickens. Remembered the worm as well and they got a load of old greens, rotting tomatoes and some really old cucumbers. No waste here - these guys will turn that stuff into gold which I will use in potting mixes or as a fertiliser for pot plants or just the garden in general.
One thing I love about having a large garden is that many veggies grow large and old before you know it. These I turn into a nutritious veggie juice. I do add a little orange juice to sweeten the mix but I find it's a great way to still get value from these older veg. Worms then get to enjoy the pulp from the juicing process. Again everyone's a winner!!
Quick update on ferment experiment. My honey mead mix is starting to show signs of life while the coconut sugar one is not. I'll add a little kombucha to it to see if I can kick start things!!
To the untrained eye my kitchen garden probably looks like an overgrown mess. There is a lot of treasure growing in this space and it's the wildness that really supports it's amazing growth. The more plants there are the better feed are my soil organisms, who in turn then feed all the plants. The nutrient cycle at work. Sometimes I do have to tweek the balance of plants in favour of the more productive, but when I do, I cut at the base of the plants leaving the roots in to minimise soil disturbance and keep all those soil critters happy. It was tweeking time today. It's hard to convey in photos what really happened, but trust me, there is an improvement in the garden!
The chickens are continuing on clean up in the pumpkin patch with all the swiss chard stalks, leaves removed, looking so colourful in amongst the green. Decided it was time to clear the rest of the beans from the trellis and give the area a tidy up. Put to use my currently vacant greenhouse as a drying area for all the pods. The mice, who usually reside up the other end of the house where I keep chicken feed, will hopefully not discover this bounty hiding here!
With no shortage of composting materials at the moment I finished the day with adding a pile of stuff to the compost bin. Settled in to the evening with yet another bowl of tomato soup!