October in Blue Fox Garden

I've been really out of the loop lately - my fault entirely, as I've been having so much fun writing web pages for Drought Smart Plants about xeric gardens, thyme, Sedum, Sempervivum, Jovibarba and many other interesting things. (Shameless plug!)

Here's a few things in the garden that had to be dealt with:

Seven remaining chicks are grown up! I've got three that are silky types, with fur-like feathers, and one like a miniature white leghorn, two mottled grey and black, and one black one with a fuzzy topknot. Very cute.

I always clean the pump and the filter from the pond, then reinstall it a little differently. Instead of flowing over the rocks and making a waterfall, I attach the end of the pipe to a long stick spanning the pond so it makes a burbling effect. This is to keep the ice from completely covering the pond and killing the fish by methane poisoning.


It's surprising how much colour there is in the fall garden. More subdued than that of the flowers in summer, but beautiful nonetheless.

Drought Smart Plants

I've been very busy lately - in fact, I have totally abandoned my garden in favour of my new baby - my new website baby. It's a steep learning curve, and I'm doing it all myself, from writing the pages, to uploading them, to editing the pictures to put on it. The most fun has been taking the pictures in my garden, and that's been the only time I've actually set foot in it! I promise to get back out there soon...as soon as I get more pages done. Check it out, see what you think. Leave me comments here if you have any suggestions (I'm sure there will be a few as it's still a newborn).
Drought Smart Plants is live!

Rock walls and other projects

I always feel at this time of year that I'm running in place - there's so much to do before winter arrives, and less than a week away is the first day of Autumn. I feel a great sense of satisfaction and relief in finishing the Eggporeum run, so that at least the chicks can get out for some sun. They seem to have grown in the four days that they've been allowed out - is that possible?

Here's the final result for this year on the rock wall - phew! I must have rocks in my head! I've planted many varieties of Sedum in the top of it and Sempervivum right into cavities in the rock wall itself, and the wheelbarrow has 20 types of Jovibarba in it. They're similar to Sempervivum, but the 'chicks' grow out of the top in most cases, and in others, the main rosette splits into several others.

Lots of harvesting still to do; this is the first year I actually have tomatoes ripening on the vine, and I'm so sick of summer squash that the chickens can have what's left. Time to think of planting more garlic, this will be the full crop of 60 cloves of Red Russian. I'd like to get more varieties so I can sell seed, but that's for future years. Still to do - get some firewood, clean up the greenhouse and stack all the flats and pots for storage, move all my succulent plants into their winter home in the back bedroom under lights...you get the idea.

Sedum for Green Roofs

Due to the incredible interest in green roofs around the world in general, and in my garden in particular, I've invested in a new garden solely devoted to some of my forty varieties of Sedum stock plants. On my website I sell cuttings and plugs of Sedum, among other things, and I felt that it was only going to get busier and the demand for Sedum grow. Here's what ended up happening - this is the 'before' picture...

I love building rock walls, as long as I don't have to haul my own rocks - luckily, we borrowed a machine which helped immensely...

Stock plants, labeled with old terracotta pot shards - I knew I'd find a use for them someday. The native soil is gravelly, with some larger rocks, so I just added some bagged steer manure to it as this is perfect for Sedum and other drought tolerant plants such as Sempervivum which are planted in the rock wall itself...

...and in a convenient coincidence, the labels match the lava rock mulch.

It's not quite finished yet, this is about one third of the full length of the driveway, but I've run out of rocks!

oh, to be a chicken in Blue Fox Garden!

My chicks are very lucky - not only do they get a palace to live in, they are fed like princesses/princes too. (Hoping the princesses outnumber the princes!) I'm training them to come to me when I tap in the food dish, and two of them are quite comfortable with my hand in there too, and when I scratch the food or dirt, they watch for goodies. Most of them I can pick up, or at least touch. That's so when I have to handle them for pest control or to move them, I can get them without them stressing out. It takes persistence, but it's better in the long run. Besides, it's fun! I spend ten minutes or so several times a day talking to them, getting them used to me being in there, and pretty quickly now they accept that without running to hide in a corner. I'm hopeful that next year, I can hatch out more babies using a mamma hen, not just an incubator, and she can teach them all the important stuff, such as what's good to eat, how to be a good chicken and so on. It's a steep learning curve for them.

It's lucky that they like squash - I have no idea what this is, it volunteered in the compost, and you know what happens to zucchini if you forget to check on them, so there's no lack of interesting things for them to eat. They also get pre-sprouted grain and alfalfa seeds, any kind of fruit chopped up, chick scratch which is corn and wheat chopped, and their hands down fave, compost refilled three times a day. They love catching the worms, they'll run around doing the sky-is-falling routine, with several others running after them, all cheeping. I laugh myself silly! They're very entertaining - can you tell I have too much time on my hands?

Disappointment and disaster...

I spent so much time debating which varieties of potatoes to grow, putting compost on the bed last fall and watering and diligently mulching, only to find that most of them had scab, I shrugged off the disappointment and the comment from HH that I could just go into town and buy potatoes after all. I dug them all up and made the one large bed into 5 small raised beds. Into these smaller beds after digging in bags of steer manure I've planted my fall garden of collards, spinach, several kinds of chinese greens, chard, carrots and parsnips (I omitted the steer manure from the carrot bed!). There should be enough time still to grow at least a bit of edible stuff. The chickens will love the organically grown (scabby) potatoes.

And on a brighter note, here's a plant that you don't see often. I thought I had killed it, but there it was, with a couple of smaller ones beside it, happy as clams. I think it's one of those plants that you have to just accept where it comes up, as it's got a long taproot and hates to be moved. I'm glad it's flowering this year, I'll just sprinkle the seeds randomly around the garden and see where it's content to grow. I've identified it as Eryngium variegatum, I'm not sure if it has another name, but it's related to Miss Wilmot's Ghost, Eryngium giganteum. This one only gets a couple of feet tall, which is a good thing.

The foliage behind it is Crambe cordifolia, another huge plant.

Temporary reprieve

Well, I'm glad that heat wave's over, now for a short break until the next one. We had temperatures of 34 degrees Celsius, although cooler overnight. That just wears you out! Nothing gets done except watering, which is pretty crucial. I have so much broccoli and cabbage...

..lots of summer squash to use...

and beans and tomatoes coming soon.

This is the best year ever for my garden, it's incredible to think that only a few years of composting everything that didn't move can make such a difference.

I'm very lucky to have great friends who cut their lawn and bag the clippings for me - everything gets lots of mulch and it's impressive how much moisture that conserves...

..and as the forecast is for some showers (oh, bliss!) I decided to dig the garlic so it can cure in the greenhouse.