Allotment Days

The April showers have certainly come in with April.  This weekend, the weather has been on and off showery and warm, perfect for the allotment!  Not so much for me, the more my hair gets wet and dries, and gets wet and dries, the more I start to look like Simba off The Lion King!

I went shopping this week to the garden centre I picked up a load of seeds and things, and before I got to the till did a quick Carol Voderman style add up, then swiftly went back and returned them to the places I got them from.  This happened about 3 times until I got to an amount of money that I could justify spending, but I came away with propogators, seeds, compost, a couple of tomato plants and a kitchen herb garden pack. I have this  'miniature allotment' on my windowsill in the kitchen that grows coriander, basil and oregano.

And though my main growing area is at the allotment I've decided to make a small herb garden in the front yard at home, so that mr husband has fresh herbs on hand for when he's cooking, plus the added bonus is that the yard will smell divine!

I've never been very good at growing Coriander it just wouldn't grow and then a Sikh Lady on the allotment told me her secret.  She and her husband always have loads of it on their plot and they kindly let me go and pick it as and when I need it, but she told me if you 'bash' the corianders seeds in a pestel and mortar first, just a rough bash to open the shell of the seed up then plant them, they grow - and indeed they do!!

Yesterday on the plot I decided to plant some onions.  So armed with manure, mini fork thingy, dibber and my fabulous wooden ruler that I found in grandads garage I set to work.  I got a '50 sets' of onions (5 varieties) , I still have no idea what this means, but on the packet it said plant onion in rows 1 inch deep 5 inches apart.  It also said something about plant all one variety in one row and all another in another row, thus suggesting by the end you would have 5 rows of different onions.  Great if all the onions weren't mixed together! I could tell apart red, white little, white shallot and I have no idea about the other two it'll be pot luck as to what comes out!

And another thing, I tell you what those chickens should be counting their lucky feathers that I don't eat meat, they nearly ended up in the pot.  No sooner had I planted the onions, they were digging them up!

Saturday evening I decided to plant the new seeds up in the propogators and I had the pleasure of MR B's company helping me.

He planted, Beetroots, spring onions, peas, broccoli, cauliflowers and some courgettes.

Today (being Sunday) we've had a seed swap on the allotment.  Our allotment community is so lovely, we have get togethers a few times a year, to maybe swap seeds or produce and sometimes we might have a bbq in the summer.  This was our first get together after the winter months, so it's nice to chat to everyone and swap ideas.

This one decided to come and join too - thankfully the other side of the fence (it hates me and relishes in chasing me!)

I took my remainder seeds that I wasn't going to be using anymore and put them in the pile.

And came away with a purple sprouting broccoli plant, some Kale seeds and some Fenugreek and Coriander seeds.  As well as some rhubarb off my own plot.

And finally this afternoon, after being out in the not so warm wet weather all morning I took the opportunity to cozy up with a brew and do some crocheting:

Happy Days!!

Bye for now & happy planting! xx

A Very Productive Weekend..

..which frankly would not have been as productive if I hadn't had the help of my wonderful family!! On Saturday Papa O and Tracy finished putting the new chicken pen for me, I'd like to say with me - but I actually didn't do much other than making brews and trying to straighten out the weather vane on the top of the shed with about 10 roofing nails!   For the record its now straight!

Saturday afternoon, Duck (AKA mum) helped me go get some new hens!! I drove over to Lucky Hens in Wigan for the first time with ducks direction (I have an aversion to Motorways, so the A roads it was!)

So here's Saturdays round up in Pictures:

The new Pen has added another 6x6x6 foot onto the existing chicken run.  There are now three seperate pens that have access pop holes that can either be open or closed depending if some hens need segregating.
Spot two of the newbies?  Im getting to them in a minute!

And here we have four new hens (now when you look at the picture, don't think they live in an old kitchen cupboard, because they dont!):

Here we have Flora, Freida, Frankie and Fern.  It's not their best picture, but they wouldn't stand still!  They are currently living out in the back in the secure walk in rabbit run, just until I can get their strength up a bit and then they will go down to the allotment.

This little lady below (Fern) is turning out to be a right character!  Last night I was having a little snooze on the couch (before the kids sleepover started - thats another story!) and I could here knocking.  I looked out the window and there she was knocking on the window to come in!! I have no idea how she'd got out the run!  After a good 5-10 minutes of chasing her around the decking I caught her and put her back in! 

As I said I got them from Lucky Hens in Wigan, you can find them here: Lucky Hens If you're thinking of getting hens, then honestly rescue hens are undoubtedly the way forward.  The difference that a free range home can make is unbelievable.  I'm going to blog more about Lucky Hens in this next week when I can get dedicate a full post to them and I'm going to add a link to their page on here.

Last night was finished off with a well deserved glass of wine (or three) and staying up until 2 to make sure the clocks changed.

And so to today,  I got up checked the girls, we had two eggs.  One a complete softie and the other a hard but thin shell, so I'll add shell to their diet to see if we can get those shells a bit harder.  I had intended to take all four to the allotment today for a mooch in their new pen, but  I couldn't catch two of them and rather than causing them any distress they stayed at home whilst two came with me.  So here are Fern and Flora in their new pen:

Babs, one of the other ex-batts that I got last year decided that she'd try and have a go at Fern through the bars, and failed not only miserably but quite warily.  I don't think she realised just what she'd taken on!

I also had the pleasure of Miss Boo's company today, a rarity in itself.  She happily enjoyed colouring in the shed:

As well as planting pumpkins (trying to explain to a defiant 7 year old that its a bit too early to plant out pumpkins was useless, so we planted two in the soil and brought two home in pots, if need be I'll have to replace the outdoor pumpkins with the potted ones):

And now, even though I'm overjoyed at all of the above, the main progress is coming up!  As you may know I've been in the process of trying to move the raised beds to be able to get a mower in between them.  I managed two beds in about three hours about 7 weeks ago and was on my walking stick for a good week after!

Anyway, today I had help from my wonderful, wonderful cousin Marc, who moved all the beds for me!! I'd love to tell you I helped but I'd be lying!  And so the beds are moved and re-filled ready for the new planting season:

I honestly couldnt have managed without him!!

So there we have it!  A jam packed, very sunny, very productive weekend.

bye for now xx