By George, She’s Done It!!!!

Congratulations to Chestnut, she layed her very first egg today; and what a lovely colour it was, pastel blue. My worries are over; she is definitely a hen and is not destined for the boiling pot. Distinguishing who has laid is going to be very easy as they all lay different coloured eggs. Chestnut has blue eggs, Daisy has cream, Hazel’s are a light brown colour and Miss Pepperpot had dark brown egg with freckles on. Simple!

I had taken a day leave on Friday gone, it was a nice day, a bit on the chilly side but at least it was dry so I went to the plot to finish the job (moving bricks and pallets) I had started last weekend. I must say, now that it is all clear it makes that little area of the plot a lot bigger and a lot tidier. I have marked out two planting holes; this is where I will plant my apple trees. The soil is lovely there; it’ll need digging over a little but it is virtually free from weeds. I’d had a couple of small bags of manure stored there for over a year, these had split, resulting in the muck being spread about a bit and also there had been quite a few leaves which had fallen over winter in that spot so I think the ground is going to be quite nutritious for the young trees. I am hoping to get the apples in this weekend, ground and weather permitting.

On Saturday Pete, another plot holder in the community area and I, spent the morning deciding where we would be planting the orchard trees. One of the holes that Pete had dug was still full to the top with water, whilst most of the others had drained away, so we have decided not to plant a tree here, we are thinking of making the hole bigger and creating a pond, if the ground doesn’t drain very well, we may as well utilise it and make the pond and plant up some boggy loving plants.

Sunday the weather turned out to be awful, it had been forecast to be nice, so I only spent a couple of hours at the allotment. I tidied up some of the community area, getting rid of big stones, half bricks, debris and other bits of rubbish that tends to mount up. I also started to clear some of my raised beds which still had summer cabbages in which are not hardy enough to last through the winter and a few other crops that also should have been cleared before the winter set in.

Weather permitting, this weekend we are planting trees!!!