IT'S FINALLY HAPPENING | Building My Dream No Dig Vegetable Garden 

Chicken expert here! Lol Not really an expert but we’ve got 60 chickens here on our farm. :) But it’s not a chicken farm… it’s a flower farm! (We do sell eggs along with our flowers at the local farmers market) At any rate, it’s typically best not to mix different ages of chickens. Unless you’ve got a hen that’s gone broody and hatched her own eggs, there is a whole pecking order with chickens and you’d be best off picking three that are the same age. Hope that helps! I love to see all the wholesome, earth nourishing projects you’ve got going on. 🥰

I’m loving the vibe of your edits. Beautiful work darling :)

Chicken Gal here!! I would either do all chicks or get all already laying hens unless you have a broody hen it is unlikely she will raise them. They are an easy fun hobby animal but there is A LOT to learn about them. I would also recommend fully sanitizing that coop before bringing any chickens home. Having your flock of chickens die to diseases that may have been in that coop would be so sad. Also, having chicks is a lot of work in the beginning but so worth it bc they will love their people and come running to you. And they will be laying before you know it...it’s also so fun picking out which breeds you want if you have a local enough breeder 😊

Chickens are great, they have individual personalities and can live a long time. I so miss mine. They are great and breakfast bonuses 🍳 💕

All the trials and let downs you went through looking for a house, were worth it. Look what you ended up with. A property that already had the bones for everything you wanted, and now you're making the bones come to life again. And what beautiful life you are giving those bones. The gardens look beautiful, all the hard work is paying off. That Virgo in you is all you need to make your dreams come true, work it to the fullest😉. Wool-son is thriving and so cute, Lanka is such a cool dog. All while working hard every day, you're managing to keep the whole family ticking along happy and healthy 👍🏼. Can't wait for chickens to slot in. Lanka and Wool-son will have some new mates to adjust to. Well done so far, you're a winning team🏆🐕🐑👫+🐔👍🏼

I‘m with a lot of people who‘ve come before me saying they would advise getting chickens from the same age and go with already laying ones. I would personally go with three or four for the social dynamic. Love your videos Carrie!!! Been a fan for years! But I love seeing you live your best life in NZ and it is very inspiring. Much love from Switzerland 🇨🇭 🏔 🥰

We are running a chicken farm and rescue unwanted cockerels too. We also have ducks, geese and peacocks. We used to sell our eggs at the bottom of the lane with an honesty box, but when Covid struck we stopped. The garden is taking shape nicely Carrie and cant wait for it to start blooming.

I have 4 chickens. They're amazing and so friendly. We receive way too many eggs than what we can consume, so we're always giving them away!! They are quite low maintenance. I enjoy owning chickens. I would suggest buying pullets (teenagers) or already laying hens from a rescue, etc. The chicks will take many months to start laying (maybe 8 months?). My two newest chickens were from a local rescue and were already laying. Made the whole process so much easier. You can loose chicks from sickness, etc. It can be hard and so, so time consuming. BUT I still think raising them from chicks it worth it of course if you are patient :) I just took the easier route! Join a local "Backyard Chicken" Facebook group for advice. When one gets sick or seems off we send pictures and get input from others. Extremely helpful.

I can just imagine how fruitful the garden and fruit trees are going to be in yours and Alex's care ♥️

Carrie what a beautiful video with all the scenery and your garden

BEAUTIFUL! Carrie have you thought about adding a small table and 2 chairs so maybe you can have coffee or brunch in the garden?

Loving watching your house and garden makeovers. So much hard work. You two are doing a great job. It's all looking amazing. Woolson Is so cute. Love the way he follows you everywhere 🙂

Hard works pays off I love the look of your garden Carrie and Alex

Your content is so grounding. Whenever I finish your videos it always puts things into perspective to me. With other RU-vidrs sometimes I watch their videos and afterwards feel the need to go shopping, style my house a certain way, exercise more, etc. but I never feel that way with you and your husband! You are both such genuine, good people and you make me want to give back to the community and earth, get out into nature, cook nutritious food, and spend time with loved ones and animals. I adored your camper videos and now, the farm is such a dream and I’m just so grateful that you guys share this all with us! I think I’ll work in my yard today too :)

These videos are the ultimate in life goals! It's the kind of lifestyle I am working for and that I want to raise my daughter to enjoy having ❤

I think you might enjoy the Pukaha garden tour, if there are still tickets avaliable. Its a self guided wairarapa tour of private gardens! There are some amazing gardens in our region. Plus it's a fundraiser for Pukaha Mt Bruce outside of Masterton. I go every year with my garden buddy Judy. There are some pretty fab plants for sale, too!

Well done guys. So proud of you. ❤️❤️❤️Thanks for sharing, makes me home sick.🤗

Thank you Carrie for another laid-back, soothing video. 🥰 I always feel so grounded watching your content, it really helps melt away all the nonsensical stresses in life and really puts things into perspective. My husband and I bought into our 1st home in January in south-east Queensland, Australia after moving 15 hours from New South Wales (so G’day neighbour 👋🏼) so it’s nice to follow along as we also get into the swing of creating our own veggie gardens! Best of luck with it! I’m sure it will all look (and taste) delicious in the coming months 🌱

Lovely to see the progress you guys have made. Glad you got your seaweed. You are so right about the Coast it is just so breath taking! By way of a caution wearing a face mask when using potting mix is advisable. Two friends of ours nearly died of Legionnaires disease through using Potting mix with no masks!

I love your vlogs. they are so wholesome and full of life. Thank you Carrie for the beautiful content.

Kia ora Carrie! I am aware that there are many rescue operations which consistently are looking for homes for chickens from previously commercial farms! Thank you again for another beautiful video

The garden is beautiful. Can’t wait to see everything grow!

Carrie my Dad always went to the beach for Seaweed for his garden in the West coast of Ireland. He was a great gardener

Oh so inspiring to follow your journey with your garden, can´t wait to make my own garden one day 😍💚🙏

Crazy chicken lady here 🙋🏼‍♀️ I would get 3-5 pullets (young hens) to start with. At least 3 because as you know, death happens on farms. I would start with pullets this year so you can have eggs soon and then next Spring when one of them goes broody you could get some fertile eggs or some day old chicks to put under her. Unless a hen has gone broody and raised the babies from hatching or a few days old, they have to be kept separate because most chickens will kill baby chicks if they aren’t protected by a mumma. Another thing to think about is that you’ll likely become obsessed with chickens (which is what happened to me) and “chicken math” becomes a thing 😂 You’ll go out to just get 3 more chicks and come home with 10 because what’s a few extra? And in becoming obsessed you’ll learn more about all the options and may decide you want colourful egg layers so maybe have a look into colourful layers now so that you could get a mix in your first lot. If I had my time again I would get 1 breed that is a prolific layer like an Isa Brown which is a commercially bred chicken breed (think heirloom veggies vs. commercially bred veggies) or an Australorp if you wanted to stick to all Heritage (Heirloom) breeds, both of which will lay typical light brown/cream eggs. Then for the coloured egg layers I would go a Maran (chocolate brown egg), an Araucana or Cream Legbar (blue egg), and an Olive Egger/Easter Egger (green egg) which is a cross between a chocolate and a blue layer. And if you wanted to throw in a 5th for personality, a big fluffy Orpington 😍 They are the sweetest and their chunky butts are the cutest. A Heritage chicken breeder should have all/most of these breeds so you can get them all from the same place. I don’t know what it’s like in NZ at the moment but I’m in AUS and there has been a massive influx of people getting chickens so you may not have a huge amount of choice or you may have to get babies and keep them under heat, but look at a heat plate not a heat lamp for fire safety if you go this route. I could talk chickens all day but if you want to learn about colourful egg layers, check out @thefourteenacres on Instagram and Leslie is also on RU-vid.

A beautiful and fun, relax video, just how I like it. Thank you very much! Keep going and live this dream life.

I was stressing out about you losing your beautiful ring in the dirt…eeek…love your patch of New Zealand. I have around 50 chooks and ducks of all sizes, you will love them.

I need a before and after comparison! It looks amazing with the paths done!

Love love love how the veggie garden is turning out and that gorgeous cheerful colour for the chicken coop is going to be simply stunning … can’t wait to see the progress and looking forward to next weeks vlog … can’t wait.

The dog looks like the master in all it surveys

Must admit I’m pretty invested in your progress 🤣 I really should get out in my own garden. Just so love seeing how it’s all coming along and the footage this week of your little lake with that gorgeous willow and blossoming tree…I mean, so so dreamy! Lovely update, I’m so very here for the journey ❤️

I use command hooks, come in different weight varieties and for different rooms ie bathroom etc. I have hung up curtains rods on them as I have a metal cabin and they have been up for over a year. They are removable t you can get new sticky pads for them. I use them to hang up towels, jackets etc. If you have a $1,2,3 shop I bought an over the door hook with 6 hooks for $2 .

Very nice vegetable garden 😍😍 little lamb is so cute!!

Love watching your garden videos

Welcome home Bro. and Kia Ora to Carrie. Clearly, you're enjoying and Love God's Country !!:)

I don’t even have a garden but am I gonna watch? Yes ma’am! 🥰 I honestly look forward to all these videos.

Oh wow your garden is deliciously beautiful 😍 I don’t have green fingers but am inspired. And even better with the beautiful landscape in the background.

Carrie! You are amazing, just wanted to tell you!

At 10:27, "Last two hours whacking away"? lmao. Gotta appreciate the humour. Welcome to Aotearoa :D

Such a beautiful vegetable garden!

If you are wanting to raise your own flock from chicks there is a breeder in featherston who has gingernut ranger chicks hatching every week. We are picking up 5 on Thursday! So excited. You can find her on trademe. They do require heat till their feathers come in and won’t lay for about 18 weeks, but I think hand raising is so much fun and they are so friendly when grown.

You should see if there are any beekeepers locally who would like to put a hive at your place. I live in suburban Dunedin and have one in my backyard that I love

I absolutely love seeing you guys work on your little homestead!! I can tell how happy it is making you and that just warms my heart. Thanks for sharing this journey with us Carrie :)

I love it, I love all these new video's of you and Alex's !!! ( perhaps leave your rings in the house so you do not scratch them when gardening :D )

Personally I wouldn't bother with chicks :-) We always get Brown Shaver Pullets. They are egg laying machines! If you like eggs and do a lot of baking they are they ones to get.

Wow your vegge garden is coming along beautifully Carrie. Love it.

I also have no dig beds. The woodchip mulch is not good for vegie garden. Pea straw is the best. I don't know what you can get in NZ but we also use sugarcane mulch. You might need to protect your seedlings with covers until they establish. Upside down drink bottles work when you cut the bottom off. Great to see your progress. Agree with your shopping video Hokey Pokey ice cream is the best!

Loving the Woolsen updates!!!

Chuckled when Alex said he found an Abalone shell. In NZ we call it Paua

So happy to see you living your best life Carrie! I love the garden because you can always be learning and there are so many lessons we can apply from the garden to real life. Proud of you guys! Also I can't wait to see the finished chicken coup painted fresh and bright from your stories the other day!

The garden looks sooo nice, love it😍 well done!

Good luck with the Coriander/cilantro. I find that it almost always bolts really fast in NZ. You may want to consider planting in a cooler shaded spot to try and slow it down.

You guys are just beautiful.

Carrie, I love how you and Alex coordinate your vlogs so that you don't repeat the same events - but tell us that if they want to see what happened to go and see the other persons vlogs. I am not much of a garden person at all myself, but I do enjoy watching you and your enthusiasm for gardening. Especially because this is New Zealand - my home country, Even though I dont live there any more. Now about the vegemite. I'm guessing you dont like Vegemite or Marmite? Pretty much all Americans and people from Europe cannot stand the taste of vegemite or marmite!! They are an acquired taste. And if you were eating them as a child, as I did, and as Alex probably did when he visited his dads family, then he is OK with putting vegemite on hot buttery toast. Yummy. But I do miss eating vegemite on toast. I cannot get vegemite at all here in Canada where I now live. Something to do with yeast products not being imported across USA borders.

Beautiful! Awesome! Love you guys!! ❤️🌹🧡🌹❤️🌹

Looks bloody incredible guys, love ur videos. You should get some port wine magnolia and a few Daphne plants. The scent they throw is incredible. Gardening is life. Something I learned to love n I can't get enough of it haha

Yep welcome to New Zealand, the land of the most expensive fruit, veges and berrys !

you and alex are just amazing!

Garden videos are my absolute fav! So looking forward to watching this space evolve! We are in Marlborough just over the cook straight so will be cool to get ideas and see how it all goes. I am a very new but keen gardener so love any opportunity to learn 🌸 thank you for your wonderful videos 💜

I loved this video! Following your journey is so inspiring and gives me another thing to look forward to every week! I'm happy for you guys and I am in love with your love! Side note, my boyfriend and I are moving to Portugal in a month (we're so excited), so I'll apply a lot of your positivity and your attitude of feeling happiness about everything! PS: I would LOVE to have chickens too! They're awesome!

The climate/weather here seems very similar to Appalachia! I’m from Boone NC and this video feels like home 😌

The garden is looking Amazing! As far as chickens go you have two options, raise some chicks but they won't lay for 16 weeks or buy point of lays (16 week old pullets) which means you get eggs straight away. I have contacts in the area if you need. My kids call me Mrs Tegal as I am a crazy chicken lover. Currently have 35 hens 🤣🐔

What an amazing job you are doing there!! It is so lovely to see how Alexes male energy and your feminine energy come out and bring harmony to it all. You are turning that house into a lovely home. Proud of you both!!! 🥰

I really love your home and garden it seems like such a dream! I'm so looking forward to cooking videos when you can cook with what you grew 😍

Morning Carrie. Love hearing all your plans .😘🙏

This looks so good Carrie!!!!

Hi Carrie. I am just loving watching your journey and what you are creating. Just a question. What is the soundtrack for this video - I absolutely love it.

Waoh! The garden looks amazing. What a difference. Can’t wait to see it all grown withe veggies. Well done. Be safe!🤗😘🌼🇻🇪

Your garden is so beautiful great video

I'm loving the progress you've made so far.

I almost never leave a comment but every week this is the video I'm looking forward to the most, sometimes the only one. It leaves me inspired to make the most of my garden and my time, it reminds me what I'm working towards, it aligns with my heart and motivates me to make everything around my life align too, listening to my soul carefully, which is what you've done. Content of superficial, materialistic, hustle driven ideas leave us feel comparing us to others, unsatisfied, forgetting our mental health and looking for the next quick boost of gratification. This, on the contrary, is such a good energy to put out there in the world, which of course is a reflection of your own energy and beautiful and grounded spirit. Muchas gracias y mucho amor desde España

wow...the garden looks great....nice work

You guys are harden ninjas… so much fine so quickly… it looks amazing! 😍 I love watching your journey! 💕

Omg I loved it Carrie, I can't wait to see more! 🐥🐑🌱🦋

Brilliant job.guy's. Looks bloody fantastic!

You guys are so amazing to watch. I can't get over how much yourve done in the short time yourve been there as I've just finished watching the kitchen make over. So looking forward to your future videos.

I absolutely love how the lime path and beds turned out! So pretty!

Gorgeous makings of your garden Carrie 😀

In this current environment we are in, it’s been so refreshing and great to follow your journey as it’s been so therapeutic and good for my own well-being. I love nature and your garden is coming along so well and can’t wait to see all the veggies and flowers come to life. You will reap what you’ve sowed with so much love into your home and garden. I can just see you and Alex really enjoying the summer afternoon and evenings in your garden with Lanka, Woolston and the rest of your adopted animals. The cherry blossoms and the kowhai trees are looking so beautiful adding such gorgeous colourful contrast to your property. So heavenly and can’t wait for the next video…🔥🔥🔥❤️❤️❤️

Garden is looking fab, such a transformation. Well done!

So beautiful and super exciting! You guys are awesome. I love this for you! 👏

It looks great

the garden looks so great Carrie, so excited to see your homestead grow

Your garden area looks incredible!

Wow! What a fantastic garden transformation. You are both doing an amazing job. Loving your videos 💚

Looking Fabulous!😁❤

I'm waiting for you put a hammock up amongst this beauty i can see it coming :)

You've done such a lovely job of the garden beds and the lime pathways. What a beautiful space! Well done :)

That sure is a pretty piece of paradise you have there. Loving your vlogs.

Looking forward to this.

So love your garden makeover ,

I’d definitely recommend getting chickens of the same age. They won’t mix well if some are babies and some are older. ♥️💜 can’t believe how beautiful your guys new place is looking! Spring over there looks just incredible!!

Im so excited to see the Bathroom renovation and the Chickens :D I commented this on Alexs video but...I learn so much for you guys. we are currently in the process of setting up our vegie patch in our first home.

So flipping interesting and festive! Watching every detail of your veggie garden. 👁👁 Learning heaps. Can’t wait to start my own! 🥳

Your garden looks fabulous. Brought back many happy memories.😊

Stunning c'est trop beau bravoooo

I just never want the videos to end... Just so calming and beautiful and relaxing and everything positive. Love you guys😘😘

Great video.

Wow! Love love love how the veggie garden is turning out 🥰 really excited to see the end result 😁

Awesome your garden