See how they grow!

I realised today that I haven't shown you any updates of our dogs, chickens or garden in a LONG time!  So it's about time right?  ;-)

Here's Frankie (the black male) and Choccie (the brown female).  They're rather excitable little things and like to jump and dig, but they're also lovely companions who follow me around the yard when I'm outside, or just sit nearby or next to us on the couch in the evenings.  The Little Big Fella absolutely adores them!

And here are the chickens!  They're growing their feathers and their cute little personalities.  One of the Orpingtons (the black ones) even comes up to me for a pat when I'm in the chook yard on my own.  We're pretty certain that one of the Orpingtons is a rooster so we'll have to do something about that pretty soon.  The lady we bought them from says we can take him back and swap him but I'm not sure how that would work because when you add a single chicken to the flock they tend to get pecked to death :-(

And here's the garden!  We've moved all of the herbs from the pots into the ground and they are thriving!  As are the pumpkin and zucchini plants.  Probably has something to do with all the horse poo ;-D

Here are our little self-seeded basil plants.  We got a basil plant with our insta-garden but it was already going to seed.  So we planted it anyway, hoping that some of the seeds would take... and they have!  Yay!

And our first tomato is getting big and yummy!  We normally grow cherry tomatoes, so this will be a big change for us :-D

At the front of this photo and in front of tomato bushes at the back are our sugar loaf cabbages, with tarragon in between (goes GREAT with chicken or fish!).

In the front left corner is the oregano, which has grown about as much as it did in a year in the pot.  Next along, with the grey-ish foliage is watermelon (flowers, no fruit yet), and behind that the zucchini.  At the back, next to the wood panel, is the pumpkins and sticking out of them is the banana tree.

And look at these little babies!  We've been eating fresh zucchini for a week or two now and they're delicious!  

Just the other day the Big Fella called me over and showed me these - little baby mangoes on our mango tree!  And there's HEAPS of them!!!!  I'm SO excited and I'm hoping that at least some of them survive and become that delicious, juicy, smooth orange fruit!

Can you see all the little green buds among the dead flowers?  They're baby mangoes!!! 

So now you're up-to-date with all the growing things in our yard :-D