Chickens - At Last!

We’re finally going to collect the chickens, though not till next weekend, as this weekend I’ll need to give the old ferret house/run a clean out and scrub down as it has been vacant since we lost Stitch in July. I’ve decided that for now, and over the winter months, we will have the chickens in the run in our back yard, it’ll need a few adoptions making to it, for example a nest box installing and a perch inside the house and some sort of scratching pit for them outside as it is sited on concrete, but other than a good clean it’s good to go. When the summer months come, we’ll take them to the allotment and leave them there in the run that I’ll have finished building by then (hopefully!).

We are having 4 different hybrid varieties, a ‘Blue Haze’, a ‘Rhode Rock’, a ‘Columbine’ and a ‘Coral Nick’. One grey, one black, one ginger and one white, so we shouldn’t get them mixed up and will definitely (I’d hope) know who is who, and the good thing is that they’ll lay different coloured eggs, well 2 will lay brown eggs but the other two lay either a cream or a blue/green. Again this will help us in identifying who has layed, how many eggs and when. All are supposed to be hardy, docile and friendly, all excellent layers, and all are happy in a run or free range. With credentials like these, what can go wrong, lol.

Other plans for the weekend include digging up the remaining potatoes before the first frosts arrive, here in Middlesbrough they can come anytime from the middle of October, so the sooner the potatoes are up and stored the better. Clearing the sweetcorn, I’ve got a recipe for some chowder, so I’m going to utilise my crop and make some soup and freeze it. Also there will be more winter digging, you have to get it done whilst the weather permits. Oh and there’ll be holes needed to be dug for the fruit trees. So with a bit of luck, I’ll have the entire weekend to devote to my allotment chores, it’s all good fun.

Catch Up

Apologies for not posting anything lately, it’s been quite hectic and I’ve not managed to find the time to post a blog, but anyway here we are and here is what’s been happening. Plenty of weeding done but this has come to a halt as the weather is awful, downpours of heavy rain for the past four days so it’s very wet, but it saves watering those potatoes!

So all the potatoes are now in the ground, I even managed to get the ‘sample’ spuds in eventually, hopefully they will all grow to produce some lovely tasty potatoes. I’m wondering whether to empty out one of the containers growing the 1st earlies Rocket, still no flowers and still nothing to find whilst rummaging. I think I may have to bite the bullet and empty one to see what is going on if anything. The seaweed/comfrey trials have started; one row of Rudolph was planted on a bed of seaweed and rotted manure, earthed up and watered in with a seaweed drink. I then planted another row of Rudolph on a bed of comfrey leaves and rotted manure and this was watered in with a comfrey drink. Each row had the same amount of potatoes planted and each potato was roughly the same size. To date the seaweed potatoes are the first to start making an appearance, a couple of leaves are beginning to poke through the soil. You can see in the picture below, my 2nd earlies are coming along nicely, the bed in the background is where the early maincrop are planted, the row at the left of the picture is the seaweed potatoes and the row next to that on its right are the comfrey potatoes. There is a row of Blue Danube to the far right and also a mixed row of Blue Danube and Rudolph. I’ve planted up the late maincrop Golden wonder in the area where the wildlife patch will go, things were just getting too tight to have the final bed weeded for them and I’d dug the wildlife area over last summer so all I had to do was pull out the fresh weeds and plant the potatoes, and I thought that the manure would enrich the soil ready for when the flowers/pond can go in when they are pulled up in the autumn. I’ll not get round to planting out the wildlife flowers this year, well possibly in the autumn I can put in the pond and a few plants but I think the majority of the plants will be put in next spring.

The tomatoes are coming along nicely, quite a few are now potted up in 5 litre tubs, these will have one final move to 9 litre tubs when they are ready, I might plant some in the ground at the allotment, if the bottle house isn’t completed in time, if it is, I’ll put some in grow bags or a ring culture in there. My aubergine plant got scorched and wilted beyond recovery one very hot afternoon, so I’ve had to resort to buying a plant from the garden centre. The cucumber plants didn’t germinate so I’ve planted a couple more; these are just starting to peek through the compost. Chilli Peppers and Sweet Peppers are looking good also.

My two over-wintering cauliflowers have produced nice little curds, I’m waiting anxiously until I can pick these, there is a nice cauli and potato recipe in one of my magazines which I’m wanting to use them on along with some of my 1st earlies. Plenty of cabbages, broccoli (green and purple), cauli and sprouts ready to plant out, which I’ll do once this blasted, rain stops.

I’ve made some bean frames (see below) ready to have the Runner and French beans planted against, these are in the process of hardening off at the moment. I’m going to make a wigwam of canes for the Borlotti and Flangelot beans to climb. The Squash, Pumpkin and Courgette plants are putting on growth, these will need planting out shortly, and I’m going to plant some with the beans, some with the Sweetcorn and hopefully some on their own, the Sweetcorn is also hardening off ready to be planted out hopefully over the weekend, when the weather is forecasted to warm/dry up.

Caleb and I went on a course this weekend just gone - Beginners Guide to Chicken Keeping. It was really good; we got to learn about their habits, food, shelter etc. and we even went into a large coop/run and handled them. Caleb though they were brilliant, so now he can’t wait for the chickens to arrive, I’ll have to hurry up and get their coop and run built, job number 624, lol.

Rounding off with a picture for you, have you seen the size of the root on this thistle which I dug out the other day!

Glorious Glorious Glorious! - Oh and the Spuds are In!

Can you believe the weather we’ve had over the last few days, it has been glorious to say the least, not the kind of weather you want to be digging in, but needs must and digging is what I have done. Eventually I have planted the Rudolph, Blue Danube and Golden Wonder potatoes; I must say that it’s a weight of my shoulders that these are finally in the ground. I’ve got a couple of ‘sample’ potatoes (Pink Fir Apple, Markies, Nicola and Cara) which I will plant over the next couple of days and definitely by the weekend, I’m not overly worried about getting these in as they aren’t my main choices, just tasters really so I’ll put them in little areas of soil that have already been dug over and weeded but are ear-marked for flowers or other types but not where potatoes will be planted over the next couple of years so as not to risk spreading disease etc. It’s been 10 weeks since I planted the first tub of my 1st earlies so I had a little feel around in the compost, I can’t feel any potatoes yet so I’m a little worried, is disaster looming? There is plenty of foliage but no flowers so I may give it a couple more weeks before emptying out the first tub.

My tomatoes are fast outgrowing their 5 inch pots so I’ll be potting them on into slightly bigger pots shortly, I’m not sure if they will get into the bottle house this summer or not, but as they are varieties suitable for either outdoor or indoor growing I’ll not worry myself about it too much, same said for the cucumber, aubergine and chilli plants, some of which I can grow on in the ‘plastic’ and ‘walk-in’ greenhouses if I need to.

I’ve planted out some broad beans and lettuces, sown four varieties of carrots and have Turnip (Snowball & Purple Top), Kohl Rabi and seed onions ready for planting out. My French, Borlotti, Flangelot and Runner beans are all making appearances peeking though the compost in their 3 inch pots, they look lovely.

Having spent all Thursday, Friday, Saturday and most of Sunday (until the heavens opened) at the plot and having all that lovely weather I have been able to observe the position of the sun during the course of the day. Most of the plot gets the sun all of the day except where my shed is, which is what I’d hoped when I re-sited it in its corner, the only disappointing bit is the flower area I’m wanting to plant up in front of the shed sits in the shade most of the day also, getting the sun from around 3pm on the afternoon so I’ll have to find some shade loving plants to go there. The good news is the area where the wildlife section is going to go gets the sun for most of the day, shaded a little on the morning but in full sun for most of the time, so I’ll be able to plant lots of sun loving, bright coloured big nectar rich plants there. I’ll also have to build a shade ‘shelter’ for the chucks when their run has been built so they can hide from the sun when they want to as they will be housed in that area also.

On a final note, we’ve been granted permission to plant an orchard on our little community bit, so that is something to look forward to, lots of fruit trees and we are also looking into having some beehives put there.

Rain Rain Go Away

....come back again when i'm on holiday in August so that i need not worry if my veggies are getting watered whilst i'm away, lol. Seriously though, when will this rain ease, my plot was flooded again after the heavy rain that came toward the back end of last week, luckly though it's only seems to be flooding in one area, though this will cause a problem shortly as this is where the bottle house and fruit area will be. It's not stopped raining for long either yesterday or today and it’s been really heavy at times, so probably more flooding at the allotment. Got a few bits done over the weekend, planted up the rest of the Rocket potatoes, I’ll be doing the Pentland Javelin during this week as and when. There’s no more space for them in the mini greenhouse so these will have to fair the weather. I started to weed the ‘Root’ patch; I’ll be planting some Sweetcorn - Mini Pop in the little area I got done. Try and get some more of that weeded over the weekend. My Comfrey plant is starting to grow again, the first cut will go in with the potatoes, and then I’ll start to make some Comfrey tea for the Tomatoes and Potatoes for when they need a feed later.

I’ve sown some more Leeks (Autumn Giant and Lyon), Cauliflower (AYR), Kohl Rabi, and various Lettuces. The carrots are finally starting to show under the little grow house on the 4ft x 4ft bed in the back yard. The parsnip seeds are now sprouting shoots; does this mean I can just plant them in the soil now?

I cleared away some of the area where the chicken coop and wildlife garden is going to go. I had some roof slates which I was going to use on Samson’s kennel but as I didn’t have enough I felted the roof, but lucky for me, when you lay them all together they measure 3ft x 4ft, just the right size of the chicken house (shed), so these are going to be a base for the shed to sit on, rather than it standing straight on top of the soil.

I’ve re-allocated the space down the side of the plot where the bottle house and fruit and flower beds are going to be. Hopefully if the weather gets better over the weekend I’ll be able to begin the digging for putting in the fencing posts which will be the start of the frame for the bottle house. I’m not sure if I’ll cement these posts in or just find some other way of securing them, just in case I decide to move the bottle house in the future.

We (Caleb & me) popped to Pets at Home over the weekend, and to my joy I discovered that they sell chicken bits n pieces. This will be a great benefit for us, somewhere local I’ll be able to buy food from etc. So anyway in anticipation of the little feathered friends joining us sometime soon, we bought a chicken feeder and water supply. I’m dead chuffed with them; it’s great what little things make us happy.

Oh yes, I’ve received a kind donation from a friend at work (well her father to be precise) two rhubarb plants, so I’ll have to decide where they will live. Probably somewhere within the fruit bits I think. Somebody told me that rhubarb leaves make a good fertilizer, does anybody know if this is true?

How Could I Forget - My Chickens!

Gosh, I don’t know how I’ve done it, but yesterday I forgot to mention the most important happening of the weekend - I’ve ordered 4 chickens. When I say I’ve ordered them, I’ve put in a request to a friend who has a small holding (1 acre) to rear me some chicks, she will look after them until they are at ‘point of lay’, which is roughly about 18 - 20 weeks old, and at which point I’ll have returned from my holiday and it’ll be all systems go, eggtastic!

Quick update on the sowing - I’ve started to pre-chit some parsnips, done the old wet paper towel trick; we’ll see how they get on. I also sowed 3 of each of the tomato varieties: Gardener Pearl, Roma, Red Cherry and an Italian big beefy one I can’t for the life of me think what it’s called now, I’ve put them in little peat pots so I don’t need to prick them out and pot on, I’ll just pop the peat pot into the next size up which will probably be a 3” pot and carry on from there. Did this with a couple of plants last year and it seemed to work out ok, so I’ll give it another go.

Had another look at my potato plans last night also, I was going to put the 2nd earlies into tubs as I’m doing with the 1st earlies, but again the seed potatoes seem to be multiplying, I don’t know where they are all coming from, but they will go in the ground as I haven’t enough of the potato tubs.

Chicken/Wildlife Area

After missing out on the chicks last week I’ve been reading more and more about the chicken side of things and I’m really determined now to getting some. I’ve found an article in one of the magazines that I get each month ‘HomeFarmer’, it gave an overview of how to build a ‘henservatory’, which I think is a brilliant idea. It’s a very simple enclosed lean-to extension that goes on the side of a chicken hut (shed). Instead of shutting the birds away at night, the pop-hole can safely be left open, so that the birds can wander in and out at will, as still be safe from predators. This will be really useful for me as by the time I’ve finished work in the winter it’s already dark, so I could pop over to fill food and water up on a morning and not have to worry about needing to get back to put them away for the night.

I’ve been to the plot and measured the wildlife area, I thought that this would be a nice place to site the ‘henservatory’, it measures 14ft long by 10ft at one end tapering to 8ft at the other end. I’ve drawn (attempted to scale 2cm per ft) the area. In it I’ve tried to plan where I think things would be sited, the little star shapes are wildlife friendly flowers and the small circular shapes will be stepping stone so we can easily go from one side to the other without needing to step on the mud. When i've figured out how to upload a word document i'll try to attach it for you to see.

It’s forecast to be dry all weekend, so I’m planning to have TWO yes you read right, TWO full days at the plot. Samson won’t know what’s hit him. Caleb is at his dad’s this weekend so I’ve won’t have to find things to entertain him, so it’ll be lots of hard graft and no interruptions, well that’s the plan.

We've Missed the Chicks

Over the last couple of days I've been reading up about keeping the chicks and had just started to think about how I was going to make a coup for them, when I recieved a phone call to say that they had all been allocated homes. I'm rather disappointed now, just when we decided we'd say yes to having the chicks. Not to worry, it was obviously ment to be that we'd not get them and at least that gives me more time to think about the implications of having the birds and where the coup will go etc. Also having to fit in building the coup amongst all the other pressing jobs that need doing, it was probably one headache too many at this moment in time, but we will get some when the time is right.

Nothing much more to report on, a couple of peas are starting to poke their heads through the compost, i've transferred the onions out into the plastic greenhouse during the days, i'll bring them in on a night to give them a little extra protection at least for a week I would think. Over the weekend I sprinkled the 4x4 bed in the yard with a slow release food mix and it's been covered with the grow house for a couple of weeks now, so i'll sow some carrots in that little area over the weekend.

It's forcast to be quite nice so i'm definately going to spend some time at the allotment this weekend, its been fairly dry all week so far so hopefully the plot will have dried up a bit.

A Great Weekend - Shovelling Shit

Wasn’t it lovely over the weekend, well lovely compared to the previous goodness knows how many weekends gone by. On Saturday I managed to build a walk-in plastic greenhouse a bargain at £19.99 from B&M; do you have one of those shops anywhere near you? There brilliant and so cheap. So I’ve built that and put in my Broad Beans, I’d potted them on into bigger pots, getting them accustomed to the outside world ready for when I plant them up at the plot. I sowed some Toms, Chilli and Sweet Peppers and Tomatillos (just 2 of each variety - 4 varieties of toms and 2 of each of the sweet and chilli peppers) just to see how they get going. I sowed some marigolds, and nasturtiums for the beneficial planting area.

On Sunday the weather was not as good as Saturday, but I went over the allotment, it was still rather flooded after the rain on Friday, just as it was starting to dry out we had continuous rain all Friday which meant the plot was re-flooded in parts. A delivery of horse muck had been dumped so I spent an hour shovelling shit, it was WONDERFUL!!!

On Sunday evening my Mother telephoned me to ask if I knew anyone who was interested in some chicks. Her partners’ son’s daughter’s school had incubated some eggs and they had hatched. I’m pondering taking a couple on, they’d be ready in a couple of weeks; I’ll keep you informed as to what I decide. Wouldn’t that be nice though a couple of little chicks?