Daydream thread... without the rose-tinted specs

lostinrates

Davesnave wrote: »

At first a laid hedge is low, but the new shoots should make 3' of growth in their first year. It doesn't need cutting for two years at least.

Hedge laying technic he's vary a bit.

There are really beautiful and incredibly difficult looking ones where you lay the hedge at a bout forty five degrees and sort of braid the top. The first time I saw that I was probably coming back to uk to school, or maybe going to my secondary school for the first time, the latter I think now I'm trying to think where I first saw it. As the hedge grows away this beautiful structure is lost, but the benefits are its stock proof (well, not pigs) immediately withoutadditional fencing. And its beautiful.


I haven't seen this king of laying work since I left college certainly.

Better_Days

Originally Posted by Davesnave
The problem is that there's no one supermarket that does everything well at a decent price. Lidl is good with some things, especially non-food offers, but weak in many areas. (But where else can you get 10 packets of veg/herb seeds for £2? :j) S'burys and Morrisons both have their strengths, but again, there's one or two things we like from each, which means I end up going to both!

I can do Lidl, Morrisons, Sainsburys and Mole Valley Farmers all in one round trip, but it's 60 miles. However, putting that in context; to do any one of them is 40miles or so. That's country living!

Little markets are great for jams, pickles, home made pies etc.

It's like that round here too, although not quite such a long round trip. Did get some lovely red onion chutney from the village hall market yesterday. Any experience of the Lidl seeds Dave, but for 29p a pack it's hard to go wrong.

Love the chalet shed CTC. We are thinking of moving our shed which is in totally the wrong place - have even found You Tube videos with instructions :cool:

Sunny today here although quite windy.

Electrician/Plumber came today to talk about kitchen/bathroom etc. Horrified by some of our plug sockets which have been badly damaged by PO, goodness knows how, so he is coming back next week to sort them out straight away which is good of him.

Mr BD went to the local emporium which sells just about everything (including single screws!) and treated himself to a wheelbarrow, not sure how we have managed for so long without one.......

lostinrates

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/at-the-cutting-hedge-of-conservation-1808987.html


This is more like the hedges I saw 'more recently ', with woven 'hurdle type' tops, but cannot find a picture like the guy who did it near my old school.......

Davesnave

lostinrates wrote: »

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/at-the-cutting-hedge-of-conservation-1808987.html


This is more like the hedges I saw 'more recently ', with woven 'hurdle type' tops, but cannot find a picture like the guy who did it near my old school.......

Showing CTC those fancy styles might put her off the idea! :rotfl:

I agree those skilfully laid hedges are wonderful, but anyone can do a basic job, so long as they follow a couple of rules, even if that also means using baler twine to hold things in place.

Once the basics have been achieved, the hedge won't know whether it's been laid artistically or not and it will respond.

Davesnave

Better_Days wrote: »

Any experience of the Lidl seeds Dave, but for 29p* a pack it's hard to go wrong.

Love the chalet shed CTC. We are thinking of moving our shed which is in totally the wrong place - have even found You Tube videos with instructions :cool:

*20p a pack if you buy five! :T

My Lidl sweet peppers came up inside 5 days, which beat the other varieties I sowed by about 4 days.

All the other seeds of theirs I've grown have been just fine, though occasionally the brief notes on the packet have words lost in translation.... For example, 'seedlings' on one packet were called 'germlings.' Dill is also "good with fish or quark"..... by which I think they mean 'cottage cheese.' :rotfl:

I agree, that shed is far too nice to store logs in. :cool:

Better_Days

Davesnave wrote: »

*20p a pack if you buy five! :T

My Lidl sweet peppers came up inside 5 days, which beat the other varieties I sowed by about 4 days.

All the other seeds of theirs I've grown have been just fine, though occasionally the brief notes on the packet have words lost in translation.... For example, 'seedlings' on one packet were called 'germlings.' Dill is also "good with fish or quark"..... by which I think they mean 'cottage cheese.' :rotfl:

I agree, that shed is far too nice to store logs in. :cool:

Ohh I must have got some for 20p a pack as I bought more than 5, just couldn't resist. Good to hear yours grew well. Just had a look at the instructions and for Parsley I've got 'The germination takes very long. Therefore add some raddish seeds so that the rows become visable earlier' For Chives 'If you wish to force it under glass let the bale freeze through previously'.

My Dill doesn't recommend quark but it does say 'In folk medicine Dill has a calming and anti-spasmodic effect.'

Very disappointed not to have any 'germlings' :rotfl:

COOLTRIKERCHICK

I Don't know if there was some sort of canopy over that boiler thing... maybe I will fond out more, when we clear a bit more around it..


Its butted up to a small stone wall, which is now covered earth, and shrubs/trees ( its just behind the trees I posted a pic of) might try and partically clear it on the garden side, to see what state the stone wall is in,


I know the shed is too nice to store wood, BUT at the moment We really do need to get our act together and store as much wood as we can.. as we had already bought the shed... and it was doing nothing... it might as well be doing something, than nothing..lol... the outside Ty bach's ( toilets we have one each side of the house) will be used to store wood too, plus we are going to try and salvage the roofing sheets of the brick building and particially do the roof, so more wood can be stored in there too





We are now keeping smaller branches, as I personally think the prices due to demand of wood, and those sawdust by bricks you can buy in home bargains etc will go up in price due to the demand..Plus its the type of think I can cut into size with the loppers, while hubby is chainsawing and splitting the bigger stuff

Rummer

I was hoping to grow: dill, fennel, parsley, tarragon and a few other herbs I dont have, are they easy to grow from seeds or would plants be better?

phoebe1989seb

Better_Days wrote: »

Happy to help. I love my ex-batts, have found them to be friendly and good layers (unlike my friend who bought some POL hens last August which are yet to 'deliver' she has started 'operation lay' to no effect so far.......). The last lot of ex-batts that I had laid all through winter, albeit at a reduced rate. They were very friendly and loved to sit and roost on your lap on a sunny afternoon. The current flock are a little more nervous but are coming round.

On the downside ex-batts may come with few feathers so husbandry is especially important and if you get them other than in the summer then they really need to be kept in a shed or the like till they feather up a bit.

Three of my hens have fluffy knickers now but one is still rather bald so I have sprayed her with some anti-peck spray. She is the bossiest of the little flock, so I think before we had her she had got into the habit of plucking her own feathers.

Funnily enough I was reading the BHWT newsletter http://bhwt.org.uk/newsletters/issue-7/index.html today and they were saying that they have just re-homed the 400,000th hen, Daisy May - astonishing achievement - all those hens would have otherwise been slaughtered. Not sure how far you have looked into it but you do have to wait until the BHWT has a re-homing day in your area, but it is easy to arrange collection http://www.bhwt.org.uk/cms/re-home-some-hens/

I have found it very rewarding to watch hens change from standing around looking shell shocked to exhibiting natural behaviours, often in a very short space of time. If we had more space I would probably also have an Araucana or two for the fab blue eggs and maybe Buff Orpingtons and Ixworths as they are so handsome. Depends really if you want hens for looks, friendliness, meat or eggs. Ex batts are a great combination of friendliness and eggs.

Whatever breed you decide, hens are great fun to watch - and if you provide treats like sweetcorn, mealworms and grape slices, they will come rushing over towards you whenever they hear your voice.

Hope the floor goes well, it sounds like it will be lovely when it is done.

Thanks so much for the link and extremely helpful info BD - I really appreciate you taking the time to advise me on this

I'll have a proper look through it later.....apologies but I've not been around over the last couple of days as my dad had a stroke on Saturday, which on top of his Vascular Dementia is not the best news

Love to all Daydreamers x

Rummer

phoebe1989seb wrote: »

Thanks so much for the link and extremely helpful info BD - I really appreciate you taking the time to advise me on this

I'll have a proper look through it later.....apologies but I've not been around over the last couple of days as my dad had a stroke on Saturday, which on top of his Vascular Dementia is not the best news

Love to all Daydreamers x

Phoebe so sorry to hear about your dad, I am thinking of you all x