12 month Grow your own planting plans

Yategirl

blottedcopybook wrote: »

We've decided to dig up our entire back garden save for a space for our chickens. We have 13 hens and we also raise meat birds so we'll keep runs for them and the rest of the garden will be producing for us.

please keep us all updated with your progress - it is fascinating to read/see how other people are getting on.

I have a small front and back garden - the front has been totally turned over to veg and from next year I will have some fruiting plants too. 2009 is a "start fresh" year for me - 2008 was a wipeout for the front garden as we had to do a complete renovation. My back garden has 3 raised beds plus greenhouse and lots of pots - I have had to leave space for the children to play :rolleyes: :rotfl: but plan to put another 1-2 beds in when they have grown up (I have a while to wait they are only 4 and 6!!!). I also have chickens for eggs - wish I had space for more and have meat birds as well.

Mum of 4 - a polytunnel is my dream! I am desperatley seeking an allotment or land or house with bigger garden so I can have one!!!!

Mab_2

Many thanks for sharing your planting plans.
Really inspiring me to get down to my allotment this wet Sunday Morning.

ruthiejane

What is everyone doing in their garden at the moment? I sowed some peas, sweet peas and cauliflowers in pots in my green house last weekend. I'm planning to put some broad beans in too this weekend.

RebekahR

I sowed in 6 cauliflowers about 2 weeks ago and some very late baby carrotts in August

RebekahR

Oh yea the frost got to my corgette which wasn't producing anything any way so that is so being dug up today and shoved in the council bag. (It has some white mould on the leaves too) So don't want to risk it in the compost. Other to that just wedding and cutting back and tidying up for my garden. A few wee bushes need planting out and some cyclamens.

Lotus-eater

Your courgette will be fine in the compost.

ruthiejane

Thanks Rebekah, I've a courgette that hasn't done anything all summer so that can come out too! I've some leeks in that I planted back in the spring, but I don't think they'll be ready until the spring. Also put some onions and garlic in a few weeks ago ready for the spring.

blottedcopybook

mum_of_4 wrote: »

How do you find raising meat birds. I was thinking about it but didn't know how you montor the feeding of the layers and the meat birds. Do yours live in differnt coups. My OH said he would dispatch them so I wouldn't have to do that job.

Just now the layers free range around the garden whilst the meat birds and turkeys are penned together because they're on the higher protein food. On the advice of my learned friend, I feed the meat birds and turkeys on turkey growers although I have recently been advised that this is too high protein for the chickens and they'll put on weight too quickly but mine are looking healthy and well proportioned when I compare them to the females. I'm raising faverolles, incidentally, because they're huge and very placid so there's no fear of being pecked to death when I approach the pen. I've also heard that Ixworths are a fantastic dual purpose breed.

I don't do the dispatching, gutting or preparation because I'm just too squeamish. We have a fair division of labour in this house - I deal with hatching, hubby deals with dispatching! I usually hatch faverolles starting in February, sell the females at 16-18 weeks as POL and raise the boys for the table.

I did start a thread earlier here about poultry keeping to get a kind of support and advice thing going on if you fancy joining in?

Yategirl wrote: »

please keep us all updated with your progress - it is fascinating to read/see how other people are getting on.

I promise I will. I had this dream of a garden where my kids played and I could sunbathe, but it's never really panned out like that! My ground is clay, so it gets waterlogged easily and that's remedied easily by planting trees and bushes but it's not so good for playing in so I'm moving my swing set into the front garden just as soon as I have a wall built to keep the local little animals away!

mum_of_4

Thanks blottedcopybook, i love finding out about other poeples chickens as I do with allotments and veg patches

blottedcopybook

For everyone who has been helped by mum of 4's planting plans, I discovered today that there's an award for post of the month and I have nominated her for that here. If some/any of you could pop over and agree that would be splendid