The Apricot / Peach / Lemon / Apple Blossoms are out!

Wow, what a week we had last week! Spent the majority of Saturday planting out our Heirloom Seeds and part of Sunday collecting the free mulch offered by our local council. It takes a VERY long time to collect enough free mulch to cover nearly 400m2 when all you have is a 6x4 box trailer and one Sunday afternoon a month in which to collect it. We should be done in another 6 months.

The highlight of last week for me though has been that the bare root fruit trees we planted over winter have all come out flowering already this spring. We were told by Justin at Thistlebrook (the place we bought them - you should have a look at his site, he really knows his stuff, and the articles he writes are well worth the read!) that it could be a few years before we see any flowers or fruit off them, but oddly, they are all flowering in this first season. Of course, they may not fruit yet, but I am suitably impressed with the flourish of flowers!

Our Peach tree (and the dying weeds I pulled out around it)

We have also been very pleased to see that our Lemon Tree is also covered in flowers and buds.  I stopped counting buds at 100 over the weekend. I'm in hope we might get some lemons also.

And lastly, the chicken pen has progressed somewhat also. Though I don't have any photos to show, it is now framed up, the access door is in and the roosting coop is for the most part sheeted. Now all that remains is to treat the timber, put in a few nesting boxes and perches, and cover the thing from head to toe in chicken wire - and of course fill it with chickens.

We would be very interested if you have any thoughts on breeds of chickens. Really, our goal is egg production and weed eating. We are not interested in the meat.  Have you had any experience with hens?  Would you have any suggestions on breeds to consider?