the daydream fund challenge thread

choille

Thanks for all your help - really excited now.

I really need to increase my Scot's Grey flock as well - coz I really like them & they are indiginous.

lostinrates

choille wrote: »

Thanks for all your help - really excited now.

I really need to increase my Scot's Grey flock as well - coz I really like them & they are indiginous.

I like mixed hatchings. Its easier to tell everyone apart. Only one this year has a name so far....Yeller, cos she's.....yellow. :obut its nice to be able to tell who is who with a reasonable chance of accuracy....those tiny chick faces are hard to see and differentiate sometimes:o

choille

Scot's Grey chicks are miniscule - like bumble bees but can be sexed from the off.

My Scot's Cockerel is called Caligula & he really must go as he's nasty now. Jock The !!!! was more canny. I call the new buff Orps Mr & Mrs Teddy.
I'm hopeless.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

been in and out of the garden today...done a bit, but loads and loads to do......

at the back of the house we have a concrete area, which to be honest, is a bit of a dead space ( basically used as a dumping ground...lol....) so i have cleared it all, and going to go to homebase tonight to buy some sort of wooden lattice type panels to put up on the walls....also buy some long planters... so in theory plant some runner beansor peas in them.... this space only gets the run in the morning, so hopefully they will do ok....( using my homebase vouchers that i had from american express cashback)

The other thread with those beautifull pics in how someone made fab use of a small back yard give me the boot up the butt that i needed to try and get the max amount of veg etc out of my garden this year...

To be honest i dread going shopping now.. for the last few months i have been sending hubby shopping, just for top ups or bits, but the last few weeks i have been shopping ....and have had a right eye opener..... and here was me shouting at hubby for spending too much money...:rotfl: bless he was only buying what i asked him too

lostinrates

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

this space only gets the run in the morning, so hopefully they will do ok....

this is my biggest challange here. Veg gardn is south facing with east and west light....thank good ness, but the garden bit of the garden is a new challange to me....essentially the back garden is a walled garden so all but the shortest south facing border will get some shade.

Rummer

I was really inspired by the link you posted to that thread CTC. It is just a huge undertaking and everytime I finish a job another dozen seem to spring from no where. That and the fact that the weather has no idea what it is doing! This morning lashing rain now dry and cold!

COOLTRIKERCHICK

Glad it was of use to you Rummer....

Just seen an advert on telly homebase has 20% off all gardening things this weekend, so going to have a nose tonight, show hubby what i want, and send him down on saturday:D

even though my american express homebase vouchers were in effect free money, i still want to get max value out of them....lol...

My first order didnt show up from T&M so they sent me out a duplicate order.... guess what the original order turned up today.... but it was too late to catch the postman's attention to send it back:rotfl:

I have another 2 x £20 tesco codes to use, so will prob buy some tomato plants etc...

ukmaggie45

lostinrates wrote: »

this is my biggest challange here. Veg gardn is south facing with east and west light....thank good ness, but the garden bit of the garden is a new challange to me....essentially the back garden is a walled garden so all but the shortest south facing border will get some shade.

Oh, there's loads of really lovely stuff you can grow in shade, though it will prob be mainly an ornamental garden. Here at home (not the House with the garden) we're in an end terrace facing more or less South, so our back yard faces north. The yard has been stuffed with plants over the years. We've used the corner that gets the most sun for tomatoes and runner beans. When the girls were tiny we grew flowers in that corner.

But we've got a bed along the darkest wall, and it's full of plants. (shaded from the West by about 8/9 ft wall) Bamboo is doing (a bit too) well over the last few years. We went for the ones with black stems as they are reputedly less invasive... If that's really the case I'm very glad we didn't go for other! :rotfl:

Campanula in the bit that gets a bit of sun, and a different one that is a bit straggly in the bits that are completely in shade. Variegated ivy too, but that's becoming invasive, so think we may try and get most of that out this year... If we have any time to garden here with finishing renovation at the House and trying to declutter and move and eventually try to sell!

Here's some pics of our back yard.

2006
2007
2008

And here's one looking down from the bathroom window in 2009.


Backyard 11 June 2009 by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

I don't think I took any photos of it last year as we were too busy gardening at the House.

Google "shade garden" to find loads of interesting planting ideas.

Do hope you'll put up some photos as your garden comes together!

lostinrates

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

Oh, there's loads of really lovely stuff you can grow in shade, though it will prob be mainly an ornamental garden. Here at home (not the House with the garden) we're in an end terrace facing more or less South, so our back yard faces north. The yard has been stuffed with plants over the years. We've used the corner that gets the most sun for tomatoes and runner beans. When the girls were tiny we grew flowers in that corner.

But we've got a bed along the darkest wall, and it's full of plants. (shaded from the West by about 8/9 ft wall) Bamboo is doing (a bit too) well over the last few years. We went for the ones with black stems as they are reputedly less invasive... If that's really the case I'm very glad we didn't go for other! :rotfl:

Campanula in the bit that gets a bit of sun, and a different one that is a bit straggly in the bits that are completely in shade. Variegated ivy too, but that's becoming invasive, so think we may try and get most of that out this year... If we have any time to garden here with finishing renovation at the House and trying to declutter and move and eventually try to sell!

Here's some pics of our back yard.

2006
2007
2008

And here's one looking down from the bathroom window in 2009.


Backyard 11 June 2009 by ukmaggie45, on Flickr

I don't think I took any photos of it last year as we were too busy gardening at the House.

Google "shade garden" to find loads of interesting planting ideas.

Do hope you'll put up some photos as your garden comes together!

Oh, that's so pretty! I love the brick! We hope, one day in the future, to replace the panel fence we had to put in urgently, with a tall brick wall. I really do have to start taking pics. I need to win a camera

alfie_1

hiya,
talking of losing chicks/chickens.... i came home late one evening [in the days when i "dolled" up!] when i lived in ****** to be met by a comotion coming from the chicken house... i had a paddock fenced and everything was within it [ chickens,ducks,rabbits,G.P's,goat,turkey, pr prairie dogs,aviaries etc] i stumbled blindly in heels!. only to find "something" disturbing my hen with her chicks. with my key torch i managed to see some dead chicks lying around and then saw a huge HEDGEHOG attacking the hen to get the chicks....but it was just killing them not eating them?? i had never heard of hedgehogs doing this and havnt since but some "old boys" told me "oh them bu**ers will av anything!!" i tried to push it away with a broom but the damn thing kept coming so i shoved it in a bucket and ditched it over the wall!! i lost 6 out of 10 chicks and the hen had gashes on her neck !