The title of this blog reminds me of Alice in wonderland when the queen yelled at alice "Off with her head" Well i can't quite relate the story that i am about to tell to alice in wonderland by any means... it is not such quite a happy ending at all!
It all started with one of our "girls" (Our chooks) continually eating either her own egg or one of the other eggs the chooks have been laying. It had been going on for about a month or so and we did read up on what should be done to correct this problem......! I was out on saturday at the Lifestyle Markets with my tea stall and when i came home i was promptly informed by bevan we now only had 7 chooks! I instantly thought that maybe abby (our dog) had eaten one (Mind you that would of being a feat for her to do!) or something else dramatic had happened. He then calmly told me he chopped it's head off! I was a little aghast at the initial statement that he presented me with and i was quick to ask "WHY"? In short he had gone to let the chooks out for there daily roam around the yard and spied one of the chickens looking a little shifty in the laying box. Upon closer inspection he noticed one of the eggs cracked and eaten. He followed the chook out and picked it up and sure enough the chook had yolk all over it's face... so without further ado he walked around the shed and picked up the axe and "OFF WITH HER HEAD"! Needless to say when i got home and found this out i was a little aghast but in the end thought it was the best thing to do. It was one of our re-claimed chooks from the chook farm and probably wasn't laying any eggs anyway! So bye bye chooky!

Kitchen Garden area - before

Kitchen Garden - half finished.

Herbs ready to plant out.

On a happy note we have made some headway on our kitchen herb garden as you can see on the above photo's! Still a bit of work to do on it yet but it's great to see it take some shape and get a bit of an idea of how it's going to look. We have yet to put a winding brick path through the middle of it (idea of it below) as we are waiting on finding some rustic old bricks to lay but the design is there ready to do! I have had a lot of fun creating this little kitchen garden and hope that it thrives! We have layed a pipe under where the plants are placed which has had holes drilled into it. The water from the washing machine will go through this pipe helping to keep the plants watered and also saving water at the same time! (Note on photo above - lower left)

Idea of brick path!

Bevan did most of the hard work laying the foundation of this garden by getting rid of a lot of old bushes and plants! I will give him credit also for the inital idea of the kitchen garden, i just added my touches to it! Bevan also created the cute wooden seat below by cutting a log in half and seating it upon another set of smaller logs which have been cut into to keep the seat stable.

Bevan's rustic wooden seat.


Lettuce's in the kitchen garden - protected from the chooks!

Bevan has also been busy in the top corner of the yard getting his potato and corn patch ready for planting! Another tree succumbed to his chainsaw in the process but this one needed to go as it was a Privet tree which is a noxtious weed. We will be planting out sweet corn and two types of potatoes in this section of the yard and also larger vines such as pumpking vines in this part so we can let them go without interfering in anything else!

Privet tree cut down ready to be cleared.

Bevan digging rows for the potato and corn

Spring has hit the garden and everything is coming to life which is exciting to see. The vegie patch is taking off in leaps and bounds. Roses that i have planted out are shooting , strawberry plants are flowering, stone fruit tree's are budding and flowers are popping up everywhere! LOVE IT - only down side is since we've had that bit of rain the weeds have gone crazy!