Planning to .........

Well I have planted some seeds now but I still want to plant more. The problem that I seem to have is I seem to have great ideas when I am in the middle of something, or just don't have time to write it down (or do write it down then loose what I wrote it down on) so I thought I would jot down a list of things I want to plant (and do) which I can come back to and say "ah yes that was what I was going to do with that"

OK here goes:

• Plant some Pigeon Pea between the fence and the chook yard (maybe interspaced with some Tagasaste if I can get hold of some seeds), hopefully this will end up being a perennial rather than just a summer growing annual, and grow into a nice bushy tree which will provide shade for the chooks in summer and also can be used as fodder for them and be cut for mulch, and will also do the soil good, being a legume.

• Get the "Chook Patch" up and going. The plan is for this to be a smallish bed (2m x 1m , behind the BBQ) which is by the door of the chook cage, and I can just grab a few things here and there from the bed when the scraps are getting low, and feed it to the chooks. Things like Silverbeet, lucerne, clover, parsley, garlic, mint, grain crops.

• Set up a "Cockatiel Patch". I have been giving the cockatiels millet sprays, but now that they know what they are they are only lasting a couple of hours before they are completely stripped, so I want to grow some of my own, a) because I don't want to buy it all the time, and b) so that I can know that there isn't any chemicals used on it. This will probably be a handful of bird seed thrown around (and covered to stop the wild birds from eating it before it grows). I also want to grow some greens for them, things like silverbeet, kale (is supposed to be really good for them) herbs like mint, parsley. I could combine this with the Chook Patch but I sort of want to keep it separate and have it purely for "Cockatiel Safe" food.

• Plant living mulches under the fruit trees and have them growing well by the time summer comes. I have lucerne, red clover, woolly pod vetch, which I had thought about sowing in a bit of a mix, but I'm not too sure about woolly pod vetch as a living mulch crop, might have to grow some and see how it grows, oh and nasturtiums, I did plant some last year but they didn't transplant well so this year I think straight into the ground.

• Sow some "good bug" plants in amongst the veggies, I'll have to go through my seed collection and see what I have bit I am sure I have some marigolds and cosmos, and I know I have some alyssum, red clover and lucerne