Grow your own dinner 2014

Dizzy_Ditzy

Zafiro I am :rotfl: at the image of you crawling through the mud :rotfl:

I live in Bristol, so a bit far from the south coast really I was looking at an old playhouse, which would have been perfect. But it was a bit too perfect really, too well put together.

I've added a note of very strong roof fencing to my list of demands though :cool:

Happygreen

Zafiro, oh, the mud...I am sinking ankle-deep each time I am going out the back door!I'm waiting for the same happening to me,lol....

Savemoney, imagine cleaning out the duck house in pouring rain - horse pooh is no hardship compared to that! But all pooh is magic in the end, well worth the pain

I put some of my own Broad Beans in pots and hung them from the tunnel metal beam. Maybe there the mices won't eat them!

zafiro1984

Just checking in to see if anything is happening?

Still just picking the carrots, finished the sweetcorn but I haven't cleared that bed yet - too soggy underfoot. Leeks are looking good and the kale is still growing quite well. This is the worst part of the year, damp, soggy, foggy, just miserable - no sun = no fun.

Fortunately no more activity on the fox/hen problem. Queen of Cheap:- I agree in that you need a strong roof if you have a run for your hens but it made me smile at the thought of roofing my enclosure - it's over three acres, fenced to 8'high, trenched 18" into the ground, double gated and electrified - and even then I have to be very vigilant to keep the foxes out, they are not called 'cunning' for nothing.

Jazee

Hello everyone. I appreciate it is a much quieter time in the garden now with all the frosts but I had to come on to say that I got the first of my home made compost the other day and I am just chuffed at the quality. Have put it where I'm intending to plant shallots in a couple of weeks.

And I'm considering whether to dig a new plot 5'x5' but can't quite decide.

Happygreen

Hi Jazee!
Congrats on your first compost! I would go for it with the new plot, it will fill in no time come spring

It has been very stormy here indeed and I am hovering (lol). I should go out and put the garlic in NOW, did up the last potatoes and harvest the last chards and kale of the season. I just can't quite get myself to go out there for anything other than looking after the ducks and hens...

Jazee

Thanks for the advice HappyGreen, I think I will go with the plot but it won't be today as I'm not feeling 100%. I have planted garlic and it seems to be doing ok, we've had some frosts so hopefully they will grow properly. Forty though - what am I going to do with forty lots of garlic, I have visions of it hanging all over the house to keep vampires away!

CAFCGirl

Whats everyone doing in the gardens/plots at the moment?
I've been utterly rubbish since the summer and issues with the puppy and I want to try and get organised and be more year round with it, as opposed to for 3 months over the summer.

All my beds, plastic greenhouse thing are empty. Well bar the horrendous amount of cat poop as they see my trough planter as a giant littler box and not I do seems to deter them!

Happygreen

CAFCGirl wrote: »

Whats everyone doing in the gardens/plots at the moment?

I'm preparing the compost for 2016, lol. Shoveling bird poop :rotfl:

zafiro1984

Hi All,
More activity on here than I imagined.

I never have any luck with planting this time of year so I tend to leave everything until the Spring. The wind the other night broke some planes of glass in the greenhouse - irksome :mad: My DH has not had time to put up my new solar tunnel but I mustn't complain as he's trying to tile the kitchen floor. He promised me he'd have it ready for Christmas but somehow I don't think it will happen.

Happygreen: Have your hens gone off lay? - mine are not laying at all well at the moment, I've put it down to the wind and wet, also their lighting doesn't come on in the morning until 6am so they have at least 12 hrs of darkness at the moment, so I suppose I shouldn't complain too much.

Turkeys went off last Monday, I get them back next Monday. I took them myself to the SH and I was very impressed with their handling of my birds and the cleanliness of the place. It wasn't cheap to have them processed but I'm glad I went down that route. I had a phone call the next day - all had passed the meat inspection and they said they were a really good batch of birds, the lightest dressed out at 16lb and the heaviest at 24.5lb. On one hand I'm sad to see them go but on the other hand I know I tried my best to make sure their welfare was well catered for. I raised them for myself and family - not for sale, but if they taste good I'll have more next year and sell some of them.

I have had some raspberry canes delivered so I must put them in pots before they die on me, also someone bought us a bare rooted rose climber - must do the same with that, and find somewhere for it to go where the deer can't get at it - as they love roses as I love chocolate.

Still picking carrots, leeks and the sprouting broccoli will be ready soon, apart from that not much doing here

Wishing everyone a happy Christmas and looking forward to a more productive next year,

Happygreen

zafiro1984 wrote: »

Hi All,
More activity on here than I imagined.


Happygreen: Have your hens gone off lay? - mine are not laying at all well at the moment, I've put it down to the wind and wet, also their lighting doesn't come on in the morning until 6am so they have at least 12 hrs of darkness at the moment, so I suppose I shouldn't complain too much.

Most of them had a fairly early molt and I've been getting 1 or 2 eggs every second day from 5 girls - better than none! 2 girls decided to throw their feathers at the worst time (1 during the very first days of heavy frost , she sadly didn't make it through . The second has just started, I hope she'll manage to keep herself warm enough. She is the cockerel's favourite, he's trying to keep the bad winds off her, bless.

I harvested some kale yesterday, 2 very small onions and one rogue potato, lol.
The lettuces in the tunnel are looking fab, I'm impressed with my forward thinking there :rotfl:

I hope all of you will have a lovely Christmas, Solstice or whatever else you might be celebrating and a fabulous 2015!