It's started. I built my chook tractor out of PVC pipe in similar style to
this one:
http://photos.permaculture.org.au/ga...album=12&pos=8
except that mine has a 2m diameter and is for two chooks.

I moved the dome yesterday, to the delight of the girls. The area they had
been on the previous two weeks is lovely and fluffy with mulch -- I have been
throwing in the guinea pigs' bedding (mainly lawn clippings and piggie poos).
Alas, it is also completely dry, as we haven't had decent rain for a couple of
months. Showers are forecast for the next week, so that's something (we can
only water on Wednesdays and Sundays, between certain hours). Planted bok
choy, shallots, cabbage and kale, and spinach. Hope that the snail numbers
are down enough that the plants survive the night! (I believe they are; the
girls free-ranged most of summer.)

In the front garden, I planted five Coast Rosemary (Westringia fruticosa)
plants down my western side fence. The afternoon sun there in summer has
killed almost everything else I've tried -- apart from the one-year-old
'Moonlight' grevilleas that will now alternate with the Coast Rosemary. I am
hoping to eventually have a formal hedge of the grey, fine-leafed Coast
Rosemary, with the Moonlights (dark, large-scale fern-like leaves) coming up
through it. We'll see. It could look a bit Too Much, but OTOH I need tough
plants with some height to protect my house and front garden from all that
heat. Also planted out a deep blue semi-prostrate form of rosemary, two
salvias (an 'Iced lemon' and a 'Purple Rain') and a Sedum 'Autumn Joy'.

Unfortunately while I was out there, I realised that our Parramatta Wattle is
attacking our power and cable internet lines. I had read that they only grow
to five metres, so I planted it underneath the wires... will have to prune
off the offending branches asap.

Now to find homes for some new plants that my brother-in-law gave me, and all
the others that I bought recently, and to pot up the 'Cambridge Rival'
strawberries.

How are the rest of you going?

--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)

"Parenthood is like the modern stone washing process for denim jeans. You may
start out crisp, neat and tough, but you end up pale, limp and wrinkled."
Kerry Cue