Does anyone keep a gardening diary on MSE?

LavenderBees

LavenderBees

LavenderBees

Slightly updated from this with this weekend's digging....but basically, this is where I am...

ETA - the cold frame has teeny tiny carrot seedlings germinating

Davesnave

LavenderBees wrote: »

Starting to think of having chickens next year....hmmmm...need to think carefully about this one, but I'm Sooooooooo tempted

Do give it thought. You haven't really the room to give chickens a great life IMO. There are plenty of cages with runs that will fit your site, but the chickens will reduce any grass you provide to bare mud in a very short time. True free-range birds need a minimum of 4m2 each, but even that is on the small side. They also ought to move to a new place each year to reduce the build-up of parasites in the ground.

Chickens kept on bare earth will need lots of dietary supplements in the form of greens and other stuff, such as fruit, but that should be feeding you! Without the extra forage, their eggs will taste like those you can buy in supermarkets, so what would be the point?

At this time of year, I sometimes have to resort to buying a few eggs, and even many accredited free range ones are pretty rubbish, taste wise. I find I'm paying £4 a dozen for proper good quality ones, but if I didn't have the space, that's what I'd do all the time.

Don't look on chickens as money saving. Those who say they are might fool themselves, but people can do that with anything if they don't factor-in all the costs, or do it very badly!

LavenderBees

Davesnave wrote: »

Do give it thought. You haven't really the room to give chickens a great life IMO. There are plenty of cages with runs that will fit your site, but the chickens will reduce any grass you provide to bare mud in a very short time. True free-range birds need a minimum of 4m2 each, but even that is on the small side. They also ought to move to a new place each year to reduce the build-up of parasites in the ground.

Chickens kept on bare earth will need lots of dietary supplements in the form of greens and other stuff, such as fruit, but that should be feeding you! Without the extra forage, their eggs will taste like those you can buy in supermarkets, so what would be the point?

At this time of year, I sometimes have to resort to buying a few eggs, and even many accredited free range ones are pretty rubbish, taste wise. I find I'm paying £4 a dozen for proper good quality ones, but if I didn't have the space, that's what I'd do all the time.

Don't look on chickens as money saving. Those who say they are might fool themselves, but people can do that with anything if they don't factor-in all the costs, or do it very badly!

Good points, well made, imho.These are also my concerns.

I am thinking carefully for exactly those reasons. I think I have come up with solutions for most, if not all of the points you raise. As you keep chickens, I value your advice!

Space - I'd want a maximum 3 chickens (previously battery hens, I hope). I'm sure I can provide them with a better life than they've had previously - plenty of good food, company and stimulation needed. They can't be free range (obviously) but I believe I can provide a good home for them.

I think I can design an indoor run (i.e. covered run) next to the hen house (for inclement weather & shade) and an outdoor run.

I am hoping that the outdoor run will be gated to allow them through if the weather was fine, with penty of perches and toys for them. This would also be filled with something like wood chips (I'm looking at the flytesoffancy website) to aid drainage, and also because they can be disinfected and hosed down.

The hen house will be the best designed that I can afford, again because I care about the birds' welfare, but also because I intend this to be a longer term thing.

I agree that moving the chickens could be an issue, but if I also get a moveable ark, then I'm hoping that as I clear ground in Summer/Autumn next year, the chicks can have "days out" on fresh ground and help keep the bugs and weeds down for me, to boot! As well, as letting me give their permanent quarters a bloomin good seeing to.

Although this is a money saving website, and I will save/reuse/etc, where possible, these chicks will want for nothing (except complete freedom).

I used to have 5 free range chickens, and I absolutely agree that this was perfect - they had woods and gardens to forage in, a greenhouse to shelter in, and trees/bushes to perch in, as well as my flower borders for dustbaths :eek:. They all trooped home, tired but happy at the end of each day. The eggs they produced were the most fantastic I've ever tasted.

Sadly, I can't give new chickens that kind of idyllic life, but I'm sure I can give them a happy healthy life, notwithstanding that. Just needs a lot of thought and planning. Every time I'm at the allotment, I add more space for them and less for the veges!

I also know that ex battery hens sometimes bring their own issues, so will need to be prepared for that, too, and again, a separate moveable ark will come in handy for any of these kinds of issues or poorly hens.

I'm very happy to receive feedback on my plans so far. It's good to be able to bounce ideas with an experienced chicken keeper.

Cheers!

LB xx

Suffolk_lass

Hi LB,
I just wondered how you are getting on with your Lottie and I wanted to update you on our veg garden progress.

DH has now built more raised beds and I have bought two tons of topsoil to get them going! It is from someone I've used before and it is clean and without nasty weed seeds. He also edged the strip bed that used to be civic hedging (small-leaved, like privet only smaller, dense habit and fast growing) - they are dead and burned and the bed needs a bit of enrichment and then the currents and gooseberries are moving. We also now have two new raised strawberry beds that are massive but I want to increase the number and I wanted them higher so they are about 30" high. One might become asparagas at some stage but strawberries is the current plan. I also bought some paving slabs to top up the overbuy pallette of slabs we bought from my friend and like you, they are going into paths - on top of a sand bed, membrane, then pavers and surrounded by gravel. I tell you what, the veg had better be good!

Seriously, for me, it's not so much the investment in getting it organised and set up, it is to take the pressure off us by making the maintenance overhead much less. As we get older we have less energy and we do still have loads of other garden to look after. We both work full time and have two hours commuting so it's about setting it up to be easier.

I was wondering if you had made any more of a decision on whether to keep chickens? We have concluded it isn't practical at the moment for us (and our plot has so many nettles from when it was a chicken farm it puts DH off) - he's the slash chop burn and cut man and I do the planting, tying, weeding, harvesting, planning spending and ordering about! I might investigate posting pics as I've taken some.

I hope it's going well for you
SL

LavenderBees

Hiya

My goodness, you sound like you've been full on with your preparations. Well done. That sounds like fab progress! :T

I've been very re-miss on the diary-front, not enough hours in the day, I'm afraid. BUT I have been keeping on top of old Lottie, and am quietly pleased with progress so far...though progress has slowed down of necessity for the winter, really.

Ok...what have I been doing? Well, all digging and weeding is completed for now :beer:. Apart from a couple of days of heavy frost earlier in November, it's been relatively mild, and generally sunny, with manageable amounts of rain, so a bloomin good growing Autumn, methinks!

The onions are growing so quickly, especially the red onions. I'm very happy with their progress, and to think I was worried they'd have drowned in the big storm a month or more back...the brown onions are not as well progressed but have started to show now, and one or two have put on such a growth spurt in the last week that they've caught up with the red onions :T. I'm assuming all this growth is good!?

One lot of garlic is also growing well, and the other seems to be asleep :cool:

The broccoli (purple and white) and cabbages are sprouting forth. Every weekend, I talk to them as I hera geordie accents are good for plant growth, and they put on another couple of inches by the time I see them again the following weekend.

I have sown some broad beans in pots in one of the cold frames, but these haven't germinated yet. I didn't read about soaking them until after I'd planted them. 3 weeks and counting...how long do they normally take to germinate? Anyone know?

The carrot seedlings in the other cold frame are sprouting little frilly leaves :jso appear to be doing well.

I had also sown out of date over wintering spring onions about a month ago in a covered container (covered to keep the worst of any rain off), and thought they would not germinate, they took so long, but this weekend, there are the tips of stalks peeking through the soil...I'm beaming sitting here typing about it, so you can imagine me clapping and whooping when I saw them on Saturday . Ah yes, it's the little things in life that matter, isn't it?

Apart from that, it's been a case of clearing leaves (and watching another tonne drop :mad:), and generally keeping on top of the lottie and my wee front garden, so they are both tidy. My compost bin is full to overflowing...

My path is not completed yet, as the ash trees are not yet felled, and no one knows when that will be (they've become dangerous rather than attacked by the fungal infection). I'll use the tree chippings to complete the path. Nevertheless, the path has been a fab cheap investment. One of my better ideas, I think.

I had garden centre vouchers burning a hole in my pocket this weekend, so I had a mooch to look for bargains, and acquired 9 cabbage plug plants for £1 (bargain I thought), and a rhubarb crown. I'll hopefully get these planted on Saturday, weather permitting. I'll have to dig up part of my green manured bed to make room for the extra cabbages, an impulse buy if ever there was one, but I couldn't resist the bargain

The "girls" are on hold here at the moment. I need to move the cold frame at the top of the lottie to make room for the hen house, and couldn't afford to get my handyman to do that this month as I had to use the money I'd put aside for that, to have emergency dental treatment instead :cool:.

I've also priced up what I think I need to get the set up right with quality equipment for these lucky girls, and fell off my own perch in shock :rotfl:so I've decided to finance and progress it fairly slowly next year, with a view to maybe being in a position to volunteer to take some ex battery hens next summer. Fingers crossed I can make that happen.

That's not necessarily a bad thing as it gives me a chance to get the allotment underway properly next spring.

Apart from that, I heroically restrained myself from buying fruit bushes again this weekend, as I'm not in a position to plant them yet... but, oh, how I want to. Luckily, my friend physically restrained me :rotfl:.

Oh, and I still haven't sourced any manure...though a number of people have offered, but not come through yet.

So, not bad...but champing at the bit for spring to arrive....I have outlined my planting plan, which I need to revise as a friend has sent me seeds to include, and I plan to revise the plan over the Christmas break..I'll post the plan here for any advice or comments when I'm done.

I suspect my lottie isn't going to be big enough...:rotfl:

LB xx

cinderfella

Interesting thread. For anyone planting carrots don't forget to plant Marigolds in between (not marigold gloves by the way). Keeps the carrot fly at bay.:j

LavenderBees

cinderfella wrote: »

Interesting thread. For anyone planting carrots don't forget to plant Marigolds in between (not marigold gloves by the way). Keeps the carrot fly at bay.:j

My overwintering ones are in a cold frame, so I think should be ok.

However, I have others ("exotic" purple skinned ones:rotfl:!) that I'll plant out into the open ground next spring, so many thanks for that tip. I did know that, but had forgotten! I have Marigold seeds in my seed tin...probably way out of date but I'll sow them when I sow the carrot seeds and see what happens.

I've just ordered another large tunnel cloche, using a voucher that became available today so keeping it cheaper, and hope that arrives before the weekend to protect my bargain cabbages. The other cabbages and broccoli seem to be thriving under their cloches, so that seems the way to go.

LB xx

cambourne7

i would also recommend that you have a look at allotments4all if your new to allotmenting nice friendly group